Comments on: Springfield Visit: July 24-26

By: BaylorDan

BaylorDan — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:22:40 +0000

Baseball America thinks Kozma is the Texas League’s best shortstop. Maybe some of y’all are not the talent evaluators that you think.

By: azruavatar

azruavatar — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 02:36:11 +0000

I saw Freeman right before he hit the DL and Matt Baker indicated that he was already having some elbow owies. I may have just caught him at a bad time.

By: Shanky

Shanky — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:18:53 +0000

You would think somebody, somewhere, in our system could re-tool Kozma’s swing. He did hit a 380-foot HR the other night, so it’s in him somewhere. As a prospect he reminds me of someone like Tripp Cromer, without the power. Ouch.

By: VolsnCards5

VolsnCards5 — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 15:48:00 +0000

i hope you are wrong about sam freeman azru, i had high hope for him…its is worrisome that he never hit 90 on the gun though, i thought he was throwing harder than that last year….could he still be injured?

if kozma hasn’t changed his swing by now, it’s not happening…he really needs to take up the molina approach to hitting, go oppo all the time…his speed will help his average a bit, and if he can become a plus defender(which i think is still possible), then he is a valuable player at SS, even with no power

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 05:09:47 +0000

About Blake King he hasn’t giving up a HR but that may be a skill of his hes got a really high GB rate. Ive read he comes right over the top and that vertical plane the ball goes on could really contribute to the ground balls. I don’t think its a fluke he has such a low HR rate.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 04:39:22 +0000

Probably because the column width on the editor isn’t the same as on the full site. I get that same thing all the time on Movable Type over at the RFT (our column width in the editor is ~600, and the finished column is at 510, I believe), and it’s a giant pain in the hindquarters to fix.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 04:37:28 +0000

I was planning on doing a smackdown of Jones and Henley a while back, but Az beat me to it. I’m still trying to find time to do one on Descalso and Luna.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 04:36:27 +0000

I’ve seen Hooker once, and he was very impressive. I was a huge fan of Zawacki when he was drafted, and I still like him, but his results have been underwhelming to this point.

Kopp I loooooove; I’ve seen him twice, and both times came away with the impression if he could just stay healthy long enough to get in a groove he would shoot up through the system. Major league stuff for sure.

Ferrara I haven’t seen in person unfortunately. I’m hoping to get to Johnson City before their season ends and maybe see him, but it doesn’t look real promising schedule wise, to be honest.

And as for Blake King, his stat line is impressive, but only in a Steve Dalkowski sort of way. His FIP is unnaturally low by dint of him having yet to allow a homer this year, which just isn’t sustainable. Sure, he strikes out a ton of guys, but his control is, if anything, even worse than Samuel’s, and hasn’t improved at all. I just don’t see King ever figuring his control out.

By: chuck

chuck — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 03:55:24 +0000

Nice write-up. It’s nice to get some pictures and thoughts to go along with the players every so often. Thanks for the good work AZ

By: RobertoRydeWagner

RobertoRydeWagner — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 02:16:45 +0000

Kozma should have spent this year at Palm Beach. A 2nd year at AA, he will look better. He’s just a SS and will never be a power hitter. The Cards knew that when they signed him.