The Gulf Coast League is a loosely knit group of teams that play in Florida in what amounts to basically a scrimmage-like atmosphere. We do not even cover the league in the DFRs, but that does not mean we should ignore it completely, especially with a glut of recent draftees making their debuts down there. Let’s highlight a few of the players since they have played about 20 games so far.
(stats from milb.com on 7/20/11)
Big names:
Lance Jeffries (10th round pick – 2011) – 20 games, 53 Abs, .391 OBP and .730 OPS. 7 BB/ 22 Ks
Kenny Peoples-Walls (3rd round pick – 2011) – only 6 games, 19 ABs, .358 OPS
Dutch Deol (17th round pick – 2011) – 9 games, 29 ABs, .267 OPS
All three guys are young players just out of high school who are getting used to playing professional ball. I take absolutely nothing from these stats. All three should be back in short season ball next year, probably Johnson City.
Sam Tuivailala (3rd round pick – 2010) – 19 games, .602 OPS
I’m a little more worried about Tuivailala due to the fact that he is repeating the GCL, rather than the numbers. He is still young at still 18, but after last year at GCL, I was hoping that he would be moved up with the rest of his class. However, he is not out of sync for his age, but I would hope he would own a league after repeating it.
Michael Knox (41st round pick – 2011) – 18 games, .797 OPS
Knox is putting up good stats in the GCL and he should since at 21, he’s old for the league.
Adam Ehrlich (6th round pick – 2011) – 13 games, .788 OPS
Ehrlich as a HS draftee is starting his career well in the GCL. He has especially good numbers for a catcher.
Good Numbers:
Victor Encarnacion – 16 games, .967 OPS, slashing 325/417/550
After 2 years in the Dominican Summer League, Encarnacion is tearing up the GCL as a 21 year old DH.
Willy Paulino – 11 games, 14 IP, 16 Ks, 3 BBs and 3.21 ERA
Paulino is a right-handed reliever and so far has acquitted himself nicely in his first US league after two years in the DSL. He turns 21 today. Happy Birthday Willy! Don’t go too crazy tonight.
Arturo Toribio – 3 games, 16 IP, 16 Ks, 3 BBs and 1.69 ERA
Toribio just turned 20 this year, and has pitched well as a starter. His ERA is helped by a lot of his runs allowed being of the unearned variety, but there is no denying the K/BB ratio, which he had in the DSL with a 41/14 K/BB ratio last year in 41 innings.
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ehrlich seems like a name to watch. it’s also good to see some hopeful signs of good transfers from the DSL. we seem to have a high attrition rate among guys making that jump.
After years of traditionally drafting higher floor but lower ceiling college players, it is refreshing to see guys like Ehrlich. The Latin pipeline hasn’t given us a lot of numbers at higher levels, but if C Matias/Martinez continues to rise, the attrition seems more tolerable.
If the guys coming from the DSL are already 21,21,20 they are already old for GCL, which does not seem to bode well for their prospect status. I guess it depends on how the DSL compares to college. I assume from the fact that college players like Wong can go right into QC and perform well and these players are starting off in the GCL that the DSL is a lower level than college. It also seems like the great prospects are signing out of Latin America at 16. So I’m assuming that getting three players in the GCL at these ages is not too impressive.
Cards have signed a lot higher percentage of 18, 19, 20 y.o. Latin guys the last few years. As a result they are going to be older when they get to the states. the downside to that is they will be a little older when they get here, the upside is that they should spend less time in the lower minors. Right now we probably have 6-8 Latin guys who have 5-6 years in the system and aren’t past PB. We have 3-4 that are still in short season ball.
Luis Perez, a 19 y.o. catcher with an .846 OPS, probably has as much organizational buzz as anyone in the GCL.
A pitcher that would be easy to overlook would be Cole Brand. He has a 5.27 ERA but his FIP is under 2.0. His WHIP is 1.17 and he has 14 K’s with just 2 BB. It is second year in the GCL but he had a 2.46 FIP there last year.
I keep hoping that they sign draftee C Aramis Garcia. He could be a good one, but may not be signable.
If he signs, it will be close to the deadline. MLB doesn’t approve well over slot deals until closr to the 8-15 deadline in an attempt to dissuade teams from going over slot to sign players.
It’s a silly practice that doesn’t do anything to deter teams, and really, only hurts the players.
Any FR reader who gets a chance should try to go to a GCL game sometime. I’ve played church-league softball games that are a bigger deal, it’s such a bizarre baseball experience. Including myself, I counted four people in the stands who weren’t clearly scouts or pitchers charting.
Where do they play down there?