Last week I started my summer
internship with Baseball America in Durham, North Carolina. While the majority of my work for BA will be
conducted within the confines of their main office, there are a number of minor
league teams within two or three hours. Earlier this week the site posted an article
that I wrote about the Chicago White Sox’s recent first round pick, Courtney
Hawkins, which you can read here
(if you are a BA subscriber). If you are
not a BA subscriber, the basic gist of the piece is that while Hawkins is “struggling”,
the 18-year old is still getting adjusted to the rigors of professional
baseball and has the raw ingredients for a special major-league player.
I was able to see Hawkins and a
number of other notable and rather unremarkable young players last week, as I
attended three games between the Burlington Royals and the Bristol White Sox of
the Rookie-level Appalachian League, and one game between the Delmarva
Shorebirds and the Hickory Crawdads of the Low-A South Atlantic League.
Today I’ll
include some of my notes and thoughts on various Burlington Royals, but
tomorrow or the next few days I will write about some players from Bristol,
Delmarva, and Hickory.
Burlington
features a number of impressive players for such a low level of the minor
leagues. The first and most well-known
is center fielder Bubba Starling, a first-round pick in 2011 who is a
tremendous athlete. Listed at 6-foot-4
and 180 pounds, Starling signed for around $5 million, spurning the Nebraska Cornhuskers
football team for a chance to play professional baseball. He is extremely athletic and the body absolutely
looks the part. He has the frame to add
some more muscle mass as he grows older, but he definitely looks like he
belongs when he steps on the field. Even
though I only saw three games, it was apparent that Starling is still raw, but
the tools are there. His swing has some
holes in it and I think that he will struggle with quality breaking balls all
the way up the ladder, but he generates bat speed and showed the ability to
work the opposite field, as he smashed a low and away fastball (that was
probably a ball) into the right-CF gap for a triple. His arm and speed are both solid-average to
plus tools, and scouts project plus-power onto his bat.
Burlington’s second baseman for the
series was Kenny Diekroeger, a 21-year-old 4th round pick in this
past month’s draft from Stanford University.
You can read more about Diekroeger’s path to the big leagues from one of
my fellow BA interns, John Sandberg, here. Diekroeger has a solid build and good body
and is listed at 6’2, 190, which seemed accurate when looking in person. He moved over to shortstop for one game in
the series, but he definitely profiles better at second base. He is athletic and made a very nice play on a
high chopper to his left that required an accurate, quick release. While I only saw him make a few plays in the
field, I’d say that he profiles as an average defensive second baseman. Like most prospects, Diekroeger’s future will
rely on his ability to hit. While at
Stanford he struggled to make a consistent impact, and his production actually
decreased each season. While his numbers
have been solid thus far and he performed well in the series, I was not sold on
his potential. A couple of his hits were
jam-shots and bleeders that found open space and I really believe that anything
above average velocity will give Diekroeger trouble. Given his age, I’d expect Diekroeger to move
up to Low-A, if not High-A to start off 2013.
As he climbs the ladder we will truly see what kind of bat Diekroeger
brings to the table.
Many of the other Royals were
solid players, but lack the pedigree or notoriety of Starling and
Diekroeger. In the above referenced
piece about Diekroger, is a short blog post on Terrance Gore, a diminutive
20-year-old outfielder with blazing speed.
He has a 30 (maybe 20) grade arm and will probably be reduced to a
corner outfield spot (unless they are willing to take the defensive hit), which
greatly reduces his value. He has been
rumored to be clocked at an astounding 3.8 seconds to first base from the
right-side which grades out higher than “80” or elite, but I clocked him at a
4.03 while a scout I sat with had him a 3.95 on another occasion. Regardless, Gore’s speed makes him an
interesting prospect to keep an eye on.
I really liked a pair of left-handed starters that the Royals threw out,
Patrick Conroy and Colin Rodgers, but because I was focused on Hawkins, Gore,
and the other top guys (for my piece for Baseball America) I was not able to
get as much detail as I’d like.
Regardless, here are some of my skeleton notes for the more
under-the-radar Burlington guys:
·
LHP Patrick Conroy (6’4, 218), 20 years old, 1st
season out of J.C. (Marin CC in Cali), 32nd round pick
o
86-89 FB
o
84-85 cutter
o
75-77 curve
o
Pitchability guy—still needs to polish some of
his secondary command, but overall strong control
·
SS Humberto Arteaga (R/R, 6’1, 160), 18 year old
out of Caracas
o
Listed as best fielder in Royal’s farm system by
Baseball America, but I did not see it at all during the series
§
Made a couple of errors on routine plays, also
did not appear to get to balls in the hole that I thought he had a shot for
§
Didn’t appear to be playing hard, running hard
down the line
o
Good frame, body—can add mass down the road,
needs to
o
F-8
o
5-3
o
1b (2-2 count; made nice adjustment—after
missing slider earlier, went back up middle for hit)
·
RHP Jake Junis (6’3, 210), 29th round
out of Illinois HS in 2012
o
87-90 FB
o
78-81 CH
·
LHP Daniel Stumpf (6’2, 200), San Jacinto
College, 21 years old, 9th round pick in 2012
o
Good CH
o
Late life, burst on FB
·
LHP Colin Rodgers (6’0, 180), 3rd
round pick in 2012 out of LA HS, 18 years old
o
86-88 FB
o
82-83 SL/CT (scout said created good angle with arm
action)
o
72-75 CRV
o
74-75 CH
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