Innholdsfortegnelse for 1-26 AL WEST TOP 10s/SPRING TRAINING GUIDE i Baseball America

Casey Close has made a bigger name off the field than he did on it. He annually is recognized among the top sports agents in the business, often plying his trade with little fanfare. Perhaps that is why Close declined, through a representative, to be interviewed for this story. “When you are the player, you are the star and those are the people who should have their name pushed out in front,” Close said in a 2011 interview with the Ann Arbor (Mich.) News. “I never felt, as an individual agent whose job it is to promote the welfare and benefits of the person you’re representing, I never felt (becoming a commodity) was my job. I’ve always been more comfortable letting your work or your talent speak for themselves.” Since…

1. FORREST WHITLEY, RHP BORN: Sept. 15, 1997. B-T: R-R. HT.: 6-7. WT.: 240. DRAFTED: HS—San Antonio, 2016 (1st round). SIGNED BY: Noel Gonzales. TRACK RECORD: As a tall, thick-bodied righthander, Whitley was considered one of the better prep prospects in the 2016 draft class. But during his senior season, he wowed scouts after he melted away 20-30 pounds, turning himself into a more athletic pitcher with still-excellent stuff. By the end of his senior year, he was touching 97 mph and breaking off 90 mph sliders. In his first full pro season in 2017, Whitley dominated three levels and became just the fifth high school first-round pick to pitch at Double-A in his first full season this century. The previous four were Chad Billingsley, Zack Greinke, Clayton Kershaw and…

1. KYLE LEWIS, OF BORN: July 13, 1995. B-T: R-R. HT.: 6-4. WT.: 210. DRAFTED: Mercer, 2016 (1st round). SIGNED BY: John Wiedenbauer. TRACK RECORD: Lewis’ first full pro season in 2017 was trying. The 2016 BA College Player of the Year played just 49 games as he came back from a serious knee injury, with multiple stops and starts. Drafted 11th overall and signed for $3,286,700 in 2016, Lewis tore his anterior cruciate ligament and medial and lateral meniscuses in his right knee a month into his career at short-season Everett in a grisly home plate collision. He spent the next 12 months rehabbing and finally returned to game action at high Class A Modesto in June 2017, only to bang his knee into the center field wall in…

@BaseballAmerica @BaseballAmerica BaseballAmericaMag ReadBA PROSPECT HANDBOOK IS NEARLY HERE The 2018 Prospect Handbook begins shipping in early February. If you order from BA, you get a supplement with one more prospect report for each team. Here’s what others are saying about the book: “Information drives all of our decisions today, and the Prospect Handbook has so much to offer. We use this book to complement our scouts’ information. In the event we miss a player, we can use it as a resource to supplement information we may be lacking.” —JOHN MOZELIAK PRESIDENT OF BASEBALL OPERATIONS ST. LOUIS CARDINALS Order today at BaseballAmerica.com/prospecthandbook/ S PRESTON ART + DESIGNS CONTEST WINNER S. Preston is a nationally recognized sports artist known for his minimalist designs of baseball mascots and college and major league…

1. SHOHEI OHTANI, RHP/DH BORN: July 5, 1994. B-T: L-R. HT.: 6-3. WT.: 189. SIGNED: Japan, 2017. TRACK RECORD: No player since Bryce Harper has matched the mixture of hype and expectation as Ohtani. With a fastball clocked as high as 102 mph and a demonstrated ability to hit home runs 500 feet in the Japanese majors, he became the most sought-after free agent of the 2017 offseason. Ohtani’s star progressively grew in Japan and reached its high point in 2016, when he went 10-4, 1.86 with 174 strikeouts and 45 walks in 140 innings and, while serving as DH on days he wasn’t pitching, hitting .322 with 22 home runs and a 1.004 OPS. A right ankle injury limited him to just five starts in 2017 and he had…

1. WILLIE CALHOUN, OF/2B BORN: Nov. 4, 1994. B-T: L-R. HT.: 5-8. WT.: 195. DRAFTED: Yavapai (Ariz) JC, 2015 (4th round). SIGNED BY: Dustin Yount (Dodgers). TRACK RECORD: The Rays drafted Calhoun in the 17th round of the 2013 draft, but he opted to go to college instead. He played his freshman year at Arizona, then went to the Cape Cod League that summer. He returned to campus in the fall, but after being dismissed for academic reasons, Calhoun transferred to Yavapai (Ariz.) JC in 2015 and led all junior college hitters with 31 home runs. After the season, Calhoun signed with the Dodgers for $347,500 as a fourthround pick and immediately showed his bat would translate to pro ball. In 2017, Calhoun was continuing to rake at Triple-A when…

JERRY KINDALL, a major league second baseman with the Cubs, Indians and Twins from 1956-65 and head baseball coach for the University of Arizona from 1973-96, died Dec. 24 in Tucson. He was 82. Kindall played in 742 major league games across nine seasons before eventually taking over the Arizona baseball program in 1973. A member of the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame, he led the Wildcats to three College World Series championships during his 23 years at Arizona. Kindall, who also won a CWS as a player at Minnesota in 1956, was the first person ever to win the CWS as both a player and coach. WAYNE NORTON, a well-respected international scout with the Mariners who also was a minor league outfielder with the Yankees and Athletics…

Over the past five years, the Astros have consistently had the best farm system in the American League West. Now the World Series champions are also clearly the class of the division in the big leagues. Bad news for Houston’s rivals: The Astros still have a young core of big league stars and a solid farm system. But with the Angels acquiring Shohei Ohtani and the Mariners trading for big league assets, the AL West is a division where almost every team is going for it. ORGANIZATION TALENT RANKINGS Last Three Years HOUSTON ASTROS NOTABLE GRADUATIONS: 1B Yuli Gurriel (8) and OF Derek Fisher (9). TRENDING:▾ The next wave of talent looks promising but is unproven at higher levels. LOS ANGELES ANGELS NOTABLE GRADUATIONS:Trade pickup RHP Parker Bridwell (21 for…

1. A.J. PUK, LHP BORN: April 25, 1995. B-T: L-L. HT.: 6-7. WT.: 220. DRAFTED: Florida, 2016 (1st round). SIGNED BY: Trevor Schaffer. TRACK RECORD: Puk, a native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, struck out 251 hitters in 194 innings in his three seasons at Florida. As a junior, opponents batted .191 against him. All that prompted the Athletics to take him with the sixth overall pick in 2016 and sign him for $4.07 million after he had ranked as the No. 1 prospect on the BA500 predraft ranking. Puk blossomed in 2017. In a combined 125 innings at high Class A Stockton and Double-A Midland, he racked up 184 punchouts and led all minor league starters with 13.2 strikeouts per nine innings. He gave up just three homers in those…

A year ago, the Jacksonville Suns made one of the biggest splashes of the offseason by changing their name to the Jumbo Shrimp. Unlike most other rebrands, which involved fan votes conducted months in advance and elaborate social media campaigns teasing the results, Jacksonville’s move came without any notification. A year later, on the first full day of the Winter Meetings, the Tampa Yankees shook up the minor league world by announcing they had turned back the clock and rebranded themselves as the Tampa Tarpons. While the name was new to some, and came with a slew of new merchandise for fans to purchase just as the holiday shopping spree was ramping up, it represented a return to the team’s past identity. The team played as the Tarpons from 1957…