Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2019 i Baseball America

@BaseballAmerica @BaseballAmerica BaseballAmericaMag ReadBA INTERNATIONAL INCIDENT The Nationals’ Juan Soto posted an Instagram story to his account when he received the May issue of Baseball America, which featured him and fellow Dominican outfielder Victor Robles on the cover. BASEBALL HOLIDAY When the Blue Jays called up Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to make his big league debut on April 26 it was an international holiday for prospect watchers everywhere. WHEN YOU READ BA … BA readers have known about Vladimir Guerrero Jr. for years. We first featured him on our cover in 2017. Since then, he’s been our cover subject six times in total, on everything from the magazine to our Prospect Handbook. NEVER TOO EARLY Ben Badler brings you unparalleled international amateur prospect coverage, both for 2019 and beyond. @ben.badler YOU…

BASEBALL FACTORY’S CHIEF BASEBALL OFFICER Ask most high-level baseball people to boil the game down to its main elements and they will tell you it is made up of hitting, pitching, defense and baserunning. Running the bases takes effort, the dedication to hustle and run hard at all times. It’s about your team more than your own stats, because a majority of the positive things a baserunner does will not show up in a box score. Those things include getting a great jump and advancing on a ball in the dirt, going first to third because you know where the outfielders are playing and taking an extra base when the defense gets lackadaisical. These are all things that help your team win that do not show up in your individual…

Prospects surprise us each season, for better and worse. In this installment we will focus on the “better” and highlight pop-up prospects you need to place on your dynasty radar. Add one of these surging early-season prospect performers to your farm system and you could be buying low on future major league value or possibly trade value. Prospects are presented in all-star team format, with a representative from each position and weighted toward minor league performance in April. SAM HUFF, C RANGERS While Huff opened the season by repeating the low Class A South Atlantic League, the 2016 seventh-rounder out of high school opened eyes with his power and arm strength. He hit .325 and clobbered 13 home runs in April. The only thing holding him back could be a…

When Brandon Drury hit a walkoff home run to give the Blue Jays the win in Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s major league debut, it was a well-timed reminder that he should not be forgotten. Drury, after all, lost his spot as Toronto’s starting third baseman when the Blue Jays called up Guerrero from Triple-A. He has since bounced around in a utility role, making starts at second base, third base and right field. As if to declare he intends to be more than just the answer to a trivia question—“Name the player Vladimir Guerrero Jr. replaced”—the 26-year-old followed his walkoff blast with a game-tying, three-run home run in the bottom of the 11th inning two days later. “I think my bat needs to be in the line-up every day,” Drury said…

The Brewers’ front office staff dined on Danish rolls and consumed coffee in the early morning hours of Monday, June 3, 1985, gathering in a conference room at the Milwaukee’s luxurious Pfister Hotel. The Brewers held the first pick in the draft. So not long after sun rise, general manager Harry Dalton joined a conference call with the commissioner’s office in New York. Dalton then relayed the Brewers’ pick to commissioner Peter Ueberroth, who in turn announced it to the other 25 GMs. Unlike many draft-day gatherings over the years, there was little anxiety within the group that included Dalton, scouting director Ray Poitevint, executives Dan Duquette, Walter Shannon, Walter Youse and scouting supervisors Nelson Burbrink and Roland LeBlanc. The Brewers had decided a week earlier that B.J. Surhoff, an…

Even after the 2019 season began, the biggest stories were happening off the field. A spate of contract extensions, after a very soft free agent market, dominated the headlines. Chris Sale and Jacob deGrom agreed to stay in Boston and New York. Matt Carpenter worked out a deal with the Cardinals to stay off the market. Earlier in the spring, superstars Mike Trout, Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt signed extensions for more than a combined $800 million. The 2019-20 and 2020-21 free agent markets were weakened considerably by these agreements. Those deals carried the biggest price tags, but they were not the biggest stories. No, what we saw was teams growing ever more aggressive about locking up players who are four, five, even seven years from being able to pick…

When it comes to the draft, the only certainty is uncertainty. Rarely is the best player in a draft class the player who is drafted No. 1 overall. Yet the best player in each draft class is almost always a first-round pick, especially in recent times as major league scouting departments have become more sophisticated and more accurate. To celebrate those first-round success stories, we present the top 10 most talented first rounds since 1981, the year Baseball America was first published and ranking draft prospects. NO. 1 1985 First Round 497 WAR No first round in draft history even approaches this class in terms of career value. For a more detailed look, see Page 66. First Pick: B.J. Surhoff, C, Brewers First-Round Standouts: OF Barry Bonds, 1B Rafael Palmeiro,…

J.J. COOPER @JJCOOP36 This is a good year to be drafting at the top of the draft. Just don’t pick a pitcher. The position players at the top of this year’s draft class, both high school and college, compare favorably with past draft classes. Oregon State catcher Adley Rutschman is a premium No. 1 draft prospect, and he is joined by other college hitters with track record and a number of interesting prep bats. Shift over to the pitching class and you struggle to come close to the same comparisons. The college class doesn’t have a pitcher who is a clear top-five pick. Nick Lodolo (Texas Christian), Alex Manoah (West Virginia), Zack Thompson (Kentucky), Jackson Rutledge (San Jacinto JC) and George Kirby (Elon) are all solid pitching prospects, but they…

International League president Randy Mobley has a regular routine when he’s working at the league office. At the end of the day, he heads to the gym, puts in his headphones and listens to an IL game’s radio broadcast. And in the first month of the season, he noticed a pattern. On a regular basis, a play-by-play announcer would start calling a fly out and midway through the call, the broadcaster’s voice would shift to another register. “I’m hearing more announcer calls that start out as flyball calls that turn into home run calls,” Mobley said. For the first time this season, Triple-A games are played with the major league ball rather than the standard minor league balls of the past. Many expected that Triple-A would see a surge in…

College juniors look forward to two things as the season approaches the finish line: postseason baseball—hopefully ending with a trip to Omaha—and hearing their names called in the draft. Vanderbilt outfielder JJ Bleday will have those lifelong dreams realized in 2019. Bleday grew up in Pennsylvania before his family moved to Panama City, Fla., when he was a sophomore in high school. He prepped for two years at Mosley High in nearby Lynn Haven. But for the past three years he has called Vanderbilt’s Hawkins Field and a spot in the Commodores’ lineup home. Bleday has been a starter since the day he arrived on campus. As a freshman in 2017 he hit .256 with two home runs, 22 RBIs and 23 runs in 51 games. He missed 22 games…

For teams with a top 12 overall pick in the 2005 draft, the deck was stacked heavily in their favor. The D-backs drafted Justin Upton with the first pick. Alex Gordon went next to the Royals. The Mariners whiffed on Jeff Clement at No. 3, but Ryan Zimmerman, Ryan Braun, Ricky Romero, Troy Tulowitzki, Andrew McCutchen and Jay Bruce all went in the top dozen picks. In all, 75 percent of the top 12 players in the 2005 draft developed into all-stars. There isn’t an international draft. The proliferation of high-profile foreign signings and million-dollar bonuses doesn’t have deep enough history to run a comparable analysis on the international side. But even considering only recent years, the 2015 international signing class is shaping up to be exceptional. The top two…

is BA’s For the Love of the Game Selection Partner NIKO DOMINGUEZ, 15 SANTA MARIA, CA: Niko loves baseball, but it’s the lessons and messages off the field from coaches that has had the most impact. He wanted to make a difference in school, at home and on the reservation with his Native American community, so he joined the AHO committee, a group of young people ages 12 to 25 trained in suicide and drug prevention awareness. Niko has stood up to help his community, friends and fellow ballplayers by saying no to drugs. TRISTA MARCUM, 14 WILLIAMSON, WV: An eighth grader at Williamson Middle School, Trista has thrown four no-hitters and two perfect games, one against Williamson’s county rival. She is looking to help bring her school its first-ever…

34 The average number of players who produced at least 5 WAR in each draft class from 1981 to 2011. The highest total is 47 players in 2006. The low is 24 players in 1983. 4 The number of drafts since 1981 in which the No. 1 overall pick was clearly the best player in his class. In chronological order those players are Ken Griffey Jr. (1987), Chipper Jones (1990), Alex Rodriguez (1993) and Joe Mauer (2001). David Price, the No. 1 overall pick in 2007, has a case for best player in his class. He trails Giancarlo Stanton and Josh Donaldson by a small WAR margin. 3 The number of drafts since 2000 in which the player with the highest WAR total in the class was drafted after the…

TRACY RINGOLSBY @TRACYRINGOLSBY When Aaron Judge came out of high school, he was a big-time college recruit as a tight end. The list of schools that offered him a full ride in football included UCLA, Stanford and Notre Dame. He wasn’t interested. There were more than a couple of schools that came calling, hoping to entice the 6-foot-7 Judge into playing college basketball. And while he averaged 18.2 points per game for Linden (Calif.) High, he declined. The recruiters may have thought of him as having a future on the gridiron or the hardwood, but not Judge. He was a baseball player at heart, and he wasn’t about to give up the dream at the age of 18. So when Fresno State came calling, Judge was happy to answer. He…

BEST HITTER High School 1. Riley Greene 2. Corbin Carroll 3. Brett Baty College 1. Andrew Vaughn 2. Adley Rutschman 3. JJ Bleday “He has preternatural feel for the strike zone, tremendous power, looseness and a complete offensive profile overall.”—A scout on California first baseman Andrew Vaughn BEST POWER High School 1. Rece Hinds 2. Brett Baty 3. Bobby Witt Jr. College 1. Andrew Vaughn 2. Hunter Bishop 3. Kody Hoese “Biggest raw juice in the draft. Nobody can hit a ball as far as this kid.”—A scout on Florida high school third baseman Rece Hinds BEST SPEED High School 1. James Beard 2. Dasan Brown 3. CJ Abrams College 1. Greg Jones 2. Gabe Holt 3. Jake Mangum “80 run tool. The best run tool I’ve ever seen live.…

If it were up to Minor League Baseball president Pat O’Conner, you wouldn’t be able to bet on minor league games at all. If he got half his wish, gambling on minor league games would be limited to moneyline wagers only; that is, only bets tied to the end result of a game. But as more states contemplate the legalization of sports betting and Major League Baseball embraces the prop bet as a new means of fan engagement, O’Conner is facing reality. “Sports book gambling is going to be part of the future,” he said. “We are not trying to kill the concept. We are just trying to protect our business. And proposition betting is very, very complicated for us.” A prop bet is an in-game wager made on the…

Hunter Bishop was never going to have an easy decision. As a talented baseball and football player at Serra High in San Mateo, Calif., Bishop had options. He was a sought-after baseball recruit and played at the 2015 Under Armour All-American Game at Wrigley Field. But he was also garnering looks in football, particularly after moving from quarterback to wide receiver as a senior. Bishop’s older brother Braden played baseball at Washington and had been drafted by the Mariners in the third round earlier that year. Hunter decided to follow in Braden’s footsteps—sort of. He chose football, committing in December of his senior year to Washington as a preferred walk-on. For most college baseball coaches around the country, that was the signal to take Bishop off their boards—another premium athlete…

LEODY TAVERAS, OF RANGERS Taveras ranked as the No. 3 international prospect in the 2015 class, played in the Futures Game last year and shines defensively in center field. How much offensive impact Taveras will deliver is still in question as he repeats the high Class A Carolina League. MIGUEL AMAYA, C CUBS The top 2015 prospect from Panama, Amaya joined Taveras at the Futures Game last year and ranks as the Cubs’ No. 2 prospect in part because of his impressive all-fields power. LUCIUS FOX, SS RAYS Aside from Cuban players, Fox signed the biggest deal of the 2015 class, landing a $6 million bonus from the Giants as the No. 4 international prospect. Traded to the Rays the next year in the Matt Moore deal, Fox shows promising…

Force3 Pro Gear’s Defender Mask first appeared in Major League Baseball on Braves catcher Tyler Flowers in 2016. Now the Defender Mask is worn by more than 20 major league starting catchers, making it the most popular mask in MLB. “Having it worn at the highest level is what counts,” said Force3 founder and former professional umpire Jason Klein. “It has got to be the best and it speaks volumes to the fact that we have two players under contract and over 20 players wearing it. The team, the agent or the players are buying it—it is not something we supply.” Along with Flowers, Yasmani Grandal, now with the Brewers, serves as one of the two leading athletes for Force3, which offers both a hockey-style—high school ages on down require…

RICHARD “DICK” BING, a reliever who pitched in the Ohio State League for the New York Giants organization in 1945, died April 29 in Canton, Ohio. He was 90. BRIAN BOCK, a minor league catcher who played in the Orioles organization from 2003-07, died April 22 in Bakersfield, Calif. He was 37. The Orioles drafted Bock in the 14th round in 2003 out of the University of Hawaii. FOY BOYD, a righthander who pitched in the Kentucky-Illinois-Tennessee League, Western Association and Western League for the White Sox organization in 1954, died April 16 in Midland, Texas. He was 87. Boyd was also a member of the University of Houston baseball team that qualified for the 1953 College World Series. JOSEPH “JOE” CAMPISE JR., a second baseman and catcher who played…