It actually was snowing here in Iowa for a few minutes. Snow! That’s just not right. Another sign of the season is Dan Syzmborski’s ZiPS projections are out. I’m sure someone at VEB will be covering the projections for the big club, here we’ll run down some of the minor leaguers projections. I’m sure most of you know by now these aren’t to be taken as gospel, and I’m not here to argue their merit. If you don’t care for them, come back another day. Some thoughts after the jump-

• Steve Hill, 2009 starting catcher. While that would be highly entertaining, we all know it’ll never happen. I’m hoping the plan is to allow him to catch more given the dearth of catching prospects in the system after Anderson, but so far he’s only played 25 games behind the plate, and is mostly DHing in the AFL.
• Speaking of catchers, Anderson and Molina sure cancel each other out, don’t they? Neither project to be anything wonderful at the plate next year, apparently ZiPS isn’t a believer in Yadiers step forward this past season. I still think the plan has to be moving him no matter what we’ve read.
• Speaking of look alikes, Allen Craig and David Freese both project to be averagish players at the hot corner. Like Yadi and Bryan, Freese has the superior glove but the slightly inferior bat. Slightly. Craig could prove to be serviceable as a corner OF, and I was a little surprised that ZiPS likes him better than Joe Mather.
• Not that we didn’t already know this, but the farm is pretty pathetic with prospects up the middle. Jarrett Hoffpauir, Tyler Greene, Brendan Ryan and Brian Barden (if you can call the latter two prospects) all project to be below average to poor at their position. Greene is currently killing it in the Arizona Fall League, so maybe there’s some hope.
• Oh, that Colby Rasmus guy. ZiPS pegs him for a .237/.314/.401 line, with double digits in homers and steals and very good defense. For a 22 year old, I think I would be happy with that sort of production. Now what Dan needs to work on is how to factor in LaRussa induced drama in the projections. Ankiel is blocking him.
• Twice blocked is Jon Jay, whose ZiPS line is .265/.315/.375. Seems a little low for me…What a crowded OF we have.
• I’m happy to see Jess Todd the Destroyer projects to be Jess Todd the Good Back of the Rotation Starter. I’d be happy with a 4.75 ERA, but look at that Braden Looper like K rate.
• P.J. Walters with a 4.90 ERA is surprising, considering his FIP in AAA was 5.04.
• What isn’t surprising is that Mitch Boggs, Tyler Herron and Blake Hawksworth all project to be better than the pitching dregs that is Joel Pineiro.
• I think Perez should be a good better than that projection. Motte-Mac-Kinney looks to make a pretty nice homegrown mix of middle relief.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 27th, 2008 at 12:04 am and is filed under Projections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.