Innholdsfortegnelse for May 4, 2018 i Baseball America

If anyone should be allowed to play the baseball game of “What if?” it is Ty Griffin, who in 1988 was a much-decorated, switch-hitting second baseman coming out of Georgia Tech when the Cubs made him the ninth overall pick in the draft. Unfortunately for Griffin, the Cubs were all set at his position with Ryne Sandberg at the midway point of his Hall of Fame career. In selecting Griffin, the Cubs believed he had enough power to make the move to third base, so much so that they passed over selecting the best third baseman available in the draft. With the next pick, the White Sox selected Oklahoma State’s Robin Ventura, who would play 16 seasons in the major leagues with the White Sox, Mets, Yankees and Dodgers. Griffin’s…

How do football fans determine which is the best NFL stadium? The answer seems to be: put a big screen above the field, put a bar at field level and pack the house with other bells and whistles But even with all that, one football stadium is nearly indistinguishable from another. The best basketball or hockey arena is almost always determined by the arena’s history much more than its architecture. But baseball is different, and everyone has an opinion about their favorite ballpark. While the bases must be 90 feet apart and the mound 60 feet, six inches from home plate, the design of a ballpark plays a much larger factor in the game than it does in any other major U.S. sport. For instance, the Green Monster plays a…

Throughout the season, Baseball America will present position rankings of the best college players in the 2018 draft class. Here, we focus on lefthanders. The position is strong at the top with several lefties pushing to be first-round picks. But the position’s depth has been lessened by injuries. Preseason All-Americans Steven Gingery (Texas Tech) and Tyler Holton (Florida State) were injured on Opening Weekend and required Tommy John surgery. UCLA’s Justin Hooper is also out for the year and Louisiana-Lafayette’s Hogan Harris missed a month with an oblique injury. While this list is based on draft status, players who are out for the season were not considered. 1. SHANE McCLANAHAN, SOUTH FLORIDA: A late growth spurt dramatically raised McClanahan’s prospect profile his senior year of high school. He missed the…

HAVE A QUESTION? @jjcoop36 askba@baseballamerica.com Q What causes some high-upside players on the international side to slip through the cracks and sign at 18 years old or older? CHRISTOPHER BIRD, @CHRISTO91665395 A Generally, players from the Dominican Republic or Venezuela who get passed over as 16-year-olds and then sign later are players who developed later than some of their peers. Understandably, projecting players who are still in the middle of their teenage years can be a very difficult scouting assignment. Some of the top 14-and 15-year-olds (the age at which teams usually work out deals with top international prospects) fail to add the strength or weight that scouts expect. Others may hit a growth spurt that either aids or hurts their development. At the same time, a number of skinny,…

The Baseball America team of major league correspondents and columnists spend countless days at major league ballparks all across the country each year. So who better to dish on which ballparks are best and what elevates them above the field? Many correspondents gravitated toward the undisputed classics—Fenway Park, Wrigley Field and Dodger Stadium—because of the pull of history. Those parks have hosted a combined 27 World Series and have played home to more than a dozen Hall of Famers. Therefore, we didn’t think it fair to compare them with newer parks with much shorter histories. We delve into the classics at BaseballAmerica.com. 1. AT&T PARK, SAN FRANCISCO OPENED: 2000 SCOUTING REPORT: Two-thirds of respondents chose the Giants’ home field as the best in the business. That practically counts as a…

Catch a Brewers’ Class A game this year and you may wonder if the club’s hitters are some of the unluckiest players around. Player after player will step to the plate with a batting helmet that sports a C-flap—an additional bit of protection that stretches to cover a hitter’s cheek and jawbone. Normally, hitters wear the C-flap after they’ve returned from a serious facial injury. The extra protection helps ensure that the player doesn’t suffer a follow-up But the Brewers’ hitters haven’t been hit by an epidemic of beanballs. They are wearing them as a preventative measure. This year, the Brewers have strongly suggested to all of their minor league position players that they wear the C-flap. For all Brewers hitters at the Rookie, short-season or Class A level, it…

@BaseballAmerica @BaseballAmerica BaseballAmericaMag ReadBA 30 DAYS OF DRAFT BaseballAmerica.com will publish draft-themed content for the 30 days leading up to the 2018 draft. Mark you calendars for May 4! ▪ The BA500 Pre-Draft Ranking ▪ Mock Drafts ▪ State Lists ▪ Position Rankings ▪ From The Archives THE COMPLETE PICTURE If you’re not visiting Baseball America.com, then you’re missing a lot of great BA content. Here are the most widely read Web-only pieces for the month of April: ▪ College Projected Field Of 64 ▪ 2018 Mock Draft, Version 1 ▪ Breakout Prospects At Every Position ▪ College Baseball Top 25 Rankings ▪ Minor League Transactions team entries powered by more caps than ever! MORE CAPS = MORE COMPETITION This year’s Logomania contest is bigger and badder than ever. 64…

The college baseball fan’s attention largely focused on the game on the field, which is almost completely unlike the family-friendly atmosphere of the minor leagues, where on-field action is almost secondary to promotions, mascots and concessions. However, athletic directors know that drawing new fans is just as important as pleasing old ones. “I think the investment that athletic departments are making with facilities, and all the coaches and head coaches salaries, and the way teams travel tells me—and a lot of other coaches across the country—that (interest in college) baseball is at an all-time high,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. “When you have a nice ballpark, fans like the experience. New ballparks bring new fans.” 1. BAUM STADIUM, ARKANSAS Opened in 1996, Baum remains one of the crown jewels…

Plenty of newer minor league ballparks garner acclaim from fans, broadcasters and scouts, but these five older facilities rank among the gems of the minor leagues. NAT BAILEY STADIUM, VANCOUVER (NORTHWEST) OPENED: 1951 One scout calls the Canadians’ home “a gorgeous park in a major league-caliber city. Legends of the past, like Babe Ruth, have played there, making it a vacation-worthy destination for baseball.” McCORMICK STADIUM, ASHEVILLE (SOUTH ATLANTIC) OPENED: 1924 Tucked into the hillside in the western part of North Carolina, this field draws raves for its dimensions and the surrounding area. In the words of another scout: “It’s a tremendous spot for microbrew lovers, hikers and anyone preferring an overall laid-back style. There’s a kicker too. The combination of altitude and stadium configurations guarantee a high-octane affair.” GRAINGER…

@TRACYRINGOLSBY Before Charlie Blackmon entered his senior year at Georgia Tech in 2008, he was a little-used lefthanded reliever. But then Blackmon’s baseball journey took a strange turn. He disembarked for Grand Prairie, Texas, to play in a college summer league, but there was only one problem: his left arm bothered him. So when he showed up, he told manager Rusty Greer, the former Rangers outfielder, that he was an outfielder. The first chapter in a strange tale of Charlie Blackmon’s emergence as a big league all-star was being written. “I was coming back from bone spurs and was super inconsistent,” Blackmon remembered. “I wasn’t very good. But I wanted to play baseball. I hit a little bit in junior college (he spent two years at Young Harris JC in…

Florida, the defending national champion and top-ranked team in the preseason, has lived up to expectations and remained No. 1 in the country as the season progressed into the second half. The Gators were 29-6, sat atop the Southeastern Conference standings, and led the nation in wins. Behind Florida, however, the Top 25 looks much different than it did entering the season. North Carolina State (No. 2), East Carolina (No. 8) and Duke (No. 10) all entered the top 10 after being unranked in the preseason. Stanford, not Oregon State, looked to be the team to beat in the Pacific-12 Conference, N.C. State raced to the top of the Atlantic Coast Conference, and Oklahoma rushed out of the gates in the Big 12 Conference. Georgia, which hasn’t made the NCAA…

MATT McLAIN GAINS DRAFT HELIUM While the Boras Classic South was an early-April attraction for scouts in the Los Angeles area, more than a dozen left the tournament and headed to Beckman High in Irvine, Calif., to check out shortstop Matt McLain, who had been the talk of Southern California for several weeks. McLain and Beckman faced Corona Del Mar High, which has an interesting draft prospect in its own right in power-speed outfielder Preston Hartsell. Corona Del Mar walked away with a 1-0 victory, but McLain showed off a strong defensive foundation, plus speed and a plate approach that hints at better things to come. Before the game got rolling, Beckman took a standard infield-outfield session in which McLain—who is 5-foot-10, 175 pounds and ranks No. 178 on the…

EDWIN “ED” CHARLES, a third baseman who played for the Kansas City Athletics and Mets from 1962-69, died March 15 in Queens, N.Y. He was 84. During his eight-year major league career, Charles hit .263/.330/.397 with 86 home runs and 86 stolen bases in 1,005 games. As a rookie in 1962, Charles set career highs in batting average (.288), slugging percentage (.454), home runs (17) and stolen bases (20). ROGER CORYELL, a longtime amateur scout for the Rangers and the organization’s Scout of the Year in 2014, died on April 5. He was 70. Before joining the Rangers in 2009, Coryell was previously the head coach at Eastern Michigan, where he was a two-time Mid-American Conference coach of the year. ANDRE DEROUEN JR., a redshirt freshman on the Galveston (Texas)…