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By Jason Comack  July 24, 2009, at 6:44 pm  Am I missing something here? Why is Kyle Drabek an “untouchable prospect.” Don’t get me wrong I believe you build a successful baseball team from within. But I also believe that in recent years teams have become too overprotective of their prospects. Last year the Yankees were hesitant to trade Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain (with good reason) but also were hard pressed to give up Alan Horne and Ian Kennedy. Where are those guys now? Kennedy and Horne probably wouldn’t crack the list of top 20 Yankee prospects right now. Especially with pitchers so much can happen between now and the majors. Putting a lot of stock into a pitching prospect is akin to buying a lotto ticket. No matter how good they are.
This brings me back to my original point. When did Kyle Drabek become the second coming? Don’t get me wrong Drabek is a very good pitching prospect but he’s not an elite prospect. Chris Tillman, Madison Bumgarner and Brian Matsuz is where I would begin and end the “untouchable” pitching prospect list. These guys all have the raw stuff of ace strikeout pitchers and the stats to back it up. Drabek falls somewhere in the next group of pitching prospects with Jarrod Parker, Neftali Feliz and Wade Davis. Even then I’m not sure he’s any better than any of those guys.
The truth is Drabek is a 22 year old right hander who Kevin Goldstein says in an ideal world is a “right handed Scott Kazmir.” However on the negative side he’s small (6 foot) and has already had Tommy John surgery. His numbers at AA are very good but not overwhelming. 3.12 ERA, 7.3 K/9, 2.3/1 K/BB and a 1.23 WHIP. Don’t get me wrong, solid solid numbers but compare them to the other elite prospects.
Tillman – 2.70 ERA, 10.03 K/9, 4/1 KBB, 1.15 WHIP (by the way he just turned 21 and is a AAA)
Bumgarner – 1.56 ERA, 7.5 K/9, 2.6 K/BB, .99 WHIP (by the way he’s 19 and in AA)
Matusz – 1.88 ERA, 10 K/9, 5.5/1 K/BB, .87 WHIP (by the way he just turned 22 and is in AA)
Don’t get me wrong Drabek might be a great starter in this league but to pass up the opportunity to get Roy Halladay for a season and a half when you already have a team as good as the Phillies do is insane.
By Anthony De Franco July 24, 2009, at 6:00 pm Jeremy Piven is awesome. Entourage is awesome mainly because of his role as Ari Gold. Add him to a cast that includes Ken Jeong, Ed Helms, and Craig Robinson and other various new school comedy stars, and I’m completely sold. Check out the trailer.
By Anthony De Franco July 24, 2009, at 4:00 pm I don’t know if anyone else followed this thing, but MMA forefather Kimo Leopoldo was thought to be dead a few days ago. He was missing, and some blogger caught win of him being deceased. Hell, even TMZ picked it up, and “confirmed it.”
There’s only one problem: He’s still alive. Now, he wants revenge by fighting the man that started the rumors.
What do you expect from a guy who claims that he “beat” Royce Gracie when Gracie couldn’t come out for his second round match after defeating Kimo in the first round at UFC 3? What do expect from a guy who did this:
On February 16, 2009, it was reported that Leopoldo was arrested in Tustin, CA on charges of possession of a controlled substance. Leopoldo was standing by his car, wearing sandals, playing with a yo-yo, and donning a Long Beach, CA Police department jumpsuit which included a stitched-on badge that can only be worn by sworn officers. The cotton jumpsuit was designed for officers in the 1990s to wear in the event of major disaster response, such as a massive earthquake. Upon arrest he was found to be in possession of marijuana.
Where did he even get the jumpsuit?
By Anthony De Franco July 24, 2009, at 2:40 pm In the most recent trade deadline deal, The Oakland Athletics traded LF Matt Holliday to the Cardinals for 3 minor leaguers: 3B Brett Wallace, OF Shane Peterson, and RHP Clayton Mortenson.
This is a bit odd because I was sure that A’s GM Billy Beane was going to hang on to Holliday. He had reportedly coveted the two draft picks that he was going to get for letting his left fielder become a free agent at the end of the season. However, he was bowled over by a package from Tony LaRussa and his young player-hating self.
A ton of people a have given Holliday crap this season because he hasn’t hit as well as he did in Coors Field. Therefore, everyone became an expert an said that he was a creation of Coors and wrote him off as an average player. However, what they failed to notice is that after his absolutely brutal start, he’s been a solid power hitter (. The only stat of his that has really declined is his slugging percentage, and I have a hunch that it will jump back up now that he’s no longer playing in a cavernous park like Oakland anymore.
The key to the whole deal is Wallace. While being an absolutely atrocious defender at 3rd base, He is a beast as a hitter. Fangraphs posted an article where he is compared to “Kevin Youkilis before he found his power stroke.” That means about 20 home runs each year with a huge on base. Not to mention that fact that Pablo Sandoval has given hope to fat guys everywhere who want to play third base.
In addition to that, They gave up their 12th best prospect according to ScoutingBook.com in pitcher Clayton Mortensen. Mortensen is a ground ball specialist, with high groundball rates. Shane Peterson was also involved in the trade, but is less of important piece.
At the end of the day, I really love this trade for the A’s, but the Cards get to roll out a 3-4 of Pujols and Holliday this year.
By Anthony De Franco July 24, 2009, at 2:00 pm Here at 3SS, we love trades. Hell, Jason makes fantasy trades in his sleep. True story. Sent me Milton Bradley, Aaron Harang, and Jason Bartlett in his sleep.
With the MLB trade deadline coming, We’ll be breaking down just about every trade that’s going to be happening. The first one of consequence is my favorite National League team, the Colorado Rockies trading Single-A pitcher Corey Graham to the Cleveland Indians for reliever Rafael Betancourt.
Betancourt was one of the key pieces of the Indians run two years ago. Remember when he, alongside Joe Borowski and Rafael Perez formed one of the most devastating bullpens in the league? Yea, not so much since then. This season, he’s got an ERA of 3.52, with a WHIP of 1.30. Most importantly, he’s got a groundball rate of about 30%. That means that 70% of his batted balls are going to be victims of the thin air of Denver. That worries me.
Graham isn’t even one of Colorado’s top ten prospects, so the price wasn’t all that high. This season at A+ Modesto, he’s got an ERA 3.14 and a WHIP of 1.36. He’s 23 already, meaning that’s his age is a little advanced for the level he’s at. I doubt that Graham has too much MLB potential.
This was a trade in which Betancourt no longer had any use being on the Indians, and the Rockies were willing to give up something for him.
By Anthony De Franco July 24, 2009, at 12:00 pm A couple of days ago, Jason caught wind of top Rockies pitching prospect Jhoulys Chacin being pulled from his start after only one inning. He surmised that it might have something to do with a potential trade for a starting pitcher. Not quite. Here’s the news story via Purple Row.
According to Troy Renck and Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post, Rockies top pitching prospect Jhoulys Chacin has been promoted from AA Tulsa to the Rockies to fill in the Rockies’ ailing bullpen.
While not expressly linked, the move may very well be in reaction the announcement yesterday that reliever Manuel Corpas, will be undergoing arthroscopic elbow surgery to remove bone chips from his elbow.
Chacin, who was posting a 3.14 ERA in 18 starts, is expected to be a future starting pitcher for Colorado, and has developed major-league command of a sinker and changeup to the point where the front office deemed him ready to hit the Majors. His solid work in AA combined with his strong showing in Spring Training made him a prime candidate for making the jump to Coors.
In 106 2/3 innings pitching this season, Chacin is sporting a 54% GB% as well as a 2.21 K/BB ratio.
This isn’t exactly a new theory; See Yankees, New York. Both Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes have been used in the bullpen despite having futures as high level starting pitchers.
The one thing that I do think is very interesting is that the Rockies and their fans seem to have taken to ground ball percentage as a way to evaluate what a pitcher’s success in Coors Field will be. It’s not rocket science, as balls that don’t get hit in the air can’t fly out of the park. However, it’s another example of advanced stats being used to make the world a better place.
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