Another Look At The Minor Leagues

A while back, I posted about the guys at each minor league level.

Well, I have decided that I am going to take another look at each Minor League team and evaluate the guys to look out for.

I am going to start with the Triple A team, the Las Vegas 51's

Roster

Pitchers:
Jeremy Accardo
Jonah Bayliss
TJ Beam
Bryan Bullington
Brian Burres
Fabio Castro
Brett Cecil
Wade Miller (on DL)
Brad Mills
Bill Murphy
David Purcey
Davis Romero
Brian Wolfe

Catchers:
Luis Hurtado
Matt Liuzza
Kyle Phillips (also plays 3B)
JP Arencibia (on DL, I think)

Infielders:
3B Scott Campbell (on DL)
2B Howie Clark
2B/SS Jon Diaz
1B Brett Harper
3B Kevin Howard
1B Randy Ruiz
SS Angel Sanchez

Outfielders:
Russ Adams (on DL)
Buck Coates
Jason Lane
Aaron Matthews
Travis Snider (on DL)

Currently, the AAA offensive stand-outs are:

Kyle Phillips .353/.421/.491/.912 in 116 AB. Very impressive from a non-prospect at a young age. I'm beginning to think there is something here with this kid.

Buck Coates .326/.382/.445/.826 in 227 AB. More power than I expected out of Coates, but most of it is doubles, which is reasonable to expect with his line-drive ability and speed. Is still kind of young and I think could help a lot more than McDonald on the Jays bench. Has 17 SB as well.

Howie Clark .308/.358/.396/.755 in 159 AB. Pretty much what I would except out of Clark in AAA. Could be a useful bench guy for the Jays, given his experience and versitility.

Randy Ruiz .302/.378/.511/.899 in 225 AB. Why the Jays signed Millar in the off-season when they had a better option in Ruiz is still a mystery to me. I still have hope that Ruiz will come up at some point and help the Big Club.


The prospects on the AAA team:

JP Arencibia .236/.296/.447/.744 in 199 AB. Has shown the power we all love, and his on base skills still kind of stink, but they are actually improving over last season's almost non exsistant walking. Is currently injured.

Scott Campbell .229/.327/.281/.609 in 96 AB. Has shown almost no power at all, which makes me think that he will end up a Joe Inglett type, who slaps the ball around and hits around .300 with a few doubles/triples mixed in. He is currently injured.

Travis Snider .258/.325/.290/.614 in 31 AB. Is currently side-lined with a back issue, so his stats are pretty meaningless in a tiny AAA sample size.


The good pitching:

Fabio Castro, acquired last season for Matt Stairs, has been fantastic. First dominating AA, now doing the same in AAA. In 8 starts with Vegas, he has a 2.15 ERA and a 1.07 WHIP.

Besides some good, but not great, relief pitching (Accardo, Bayliss, Bullington, Wolfe) the pitching has been pretty lame.

The Prospects:

Brad Mills. I know wins-losses are a terrible judge. I know that. But, Mills is 1-7, and has not shown any kind of consistancy. His 4.22 ERA is not terrible, and he is striking out almost 1 per inning. I expected more out of Mills.

Brett Cecil. Cecil was decent before the call-up, where he was pretty excellent, save for his Boston start. In AAA, he has a 5.91 ERA and a 1.54 WHIP. The rest of his numbers are pretty generic and decent. I expected much more out of Cecil.


Tomorrow, I will look at the New Hampshire Fisher Cats in AA.