In case you missed it …
- The sports editor for The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, David Williams, pens an editorial about Autozone Park, which has been in and out of financial trouble ever since being built. For those of you who haven’t been there, it is an absolutely stunning park with excellent amenities. Simply fantastic. At one point, the St. Louis Cardinals were rumored to be interested in buying the facility before some of the more grisly debt facts came to life. I’d be shocked to see the AAA affiliate move away from the park inside of 5 years. Just doesn’t make any sense to me.
- Steve Batterson of the QC Times catches up with Robert Stock on his transition to pitching.
- Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch checks in on the minor leaguers who jumped Palm Beach directly to Springfield this season.
- Kevin Goldstein lists the top pair of teams to see in each league. Springfield checks in for the Texas League.
- John Sickels makes a lofty ETA prediction for Kolten Wong following his hot start.
- Wong’s hot start also earns him a spot on Baseball America’s Prospect Hot Sheet.
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Autozone is one of the best ballparks in pro ball, not just the minors. One of my favorite places to see a game that doesnt involve a lot of chainlink fence and gravel parking lots.
Haven’t been to AutoZone but your comment about the chainlink fence and gravel lots gets me to thinking.
Not sure if you know, but I coach high school baseball. For 2 years, I was out in the Chicago suburbs in the DuPage Valley Conference. Some pretty nice fields out there (and some not so nice). But you really got spoiled on the amenities.
Anyway, now I’m coaching at a charter school in chicago that plays in the chicago public league. Our field, as are most fields, is in a park. It’s not part of the school but taken care of by the city of chicago. I have to say, there are some parks that are kept pretty nice. Some others? Not so much. Actually, of all the non-school fields we’ve played on, ours is probably the best we’ve played on. But we don’t rely on the park district to take care of it. We drag and chalk it ourselves. We mow the grass. And before the season started, our head coach paid for a company to come put new dirt on the field. We edged the infield grass (not all fields have grass infields). We take care of it.
Now, two fields that really surprised me. We played at Harlan and their field, which is right next to the school but in a chicago park, was kind of cruddy. And this for a team that regularly wins city championships. You’d expect better.
Also, we played at Bogan which is also in a park which is located directly next to the high school Their field is a softball field. All dirt infield. No mound. The worst we’ve been on.
Oh, and most fields don’t have outfield fences so it’s hit it as far as you can and RUN!!!!!!!
Nevertheless, this has given me a ton of perspective on what kids play on. Out in the suburbs we had our fair share of bad infield lips and awkward mounds, but coaching in the Chicago public league makes those fields seem like some of the nicest fields in the majors.
The thing about Sickels’ ETA for Wong is that he says “if current trends hold”. Does he mean if Wong keeps hitting .450/.550/.750? Because he probably would be in the majors soon if he did that. I wonder if current trends is also a reference to Greene’s current line.
I think all Sickels meant was “if he keeps hitting well”. Any time you pick an ETA for a prospect you make certain assumptions. With Wong I imagine the assumption is that he keeps hitting well against older, more experienced competition. Considering Wong has hit well every stop of his career (including college and the Cape Cod league) I’d say this is a decent assumption. I’d love to see him play his way onto the Opening Day roster next year
Goold explaining the pitch counts was good. I have been trying to figure out how they are coming up with them. While the formula was not clear, it explains why they pulled Rosie with 78 pitches once and 83 the other. They have been very careful with him – I figured there was some explanation.
Wong is just a stud…..Memphis in a month or so and STL next season. I see no reason why that projection doesn’t hold absent something unforeseen.
If Wong makes Memphis this season, then the AAA infield will be Cox, Jackson, Wong and the Masher. Wow.
“When” Wong makes Memphis this season………Wow……..sorry, can’t help beating the dead horse, but has a dead horse ever been this exciting? :) Memphis could use a little bump anyway!
Of course, Cox is as bad as Wong is good right now, hopefully they rub off on each other.
Oh god… *facepalm*
Well played haha
Another very interesting thing at Baseball Prospectus, in addition to Goldstein’s column on teams in each league, is that they now have a — FREE — feature where one can view key statistics for players on both their top 101 prospects lists, and the top-11 lists for each team. Link here for future Redbirds: http://www.baseballprospectus.com/prospects/stats/top_11/index.php?year=2012&org=sln
This is a very nice feature, and I appreciate that they made it free (or so they say) rather than part of their subscription service. It’ll be helpful in keeping pace with long-term trends, even as we continue to get daily reports here.
That’s a neat feature; I had no idea that was there. Thanks for posting it!
I have a gut feeling that Hector Hernandez will turn into a very good MLB SP. I have never seen him pitch and don’t have much reason for my feeling. Anyone that has more knowledge of him agree or disagree?