The Angels released Taijuan Walker. That was quick.
The Phillies are designating right-hander Bryse Wilson for assignment. Jack Leiter is on the 15 day IL with a right ankle posterior impingement. The Marlins placed catcher/first baseman Liam Hicks on the IL with a lower back strain.
How about those eight bags swiped in one game by the Cespedes kid down in the DSL? Exciting. And man… Raudi is hot again. I know the “fourth outfielder” label has been applied, but he’ll be a 20/40 guy this year if the org keeps him in AA. His development arc keeps accelerating. Could be an impact regular in the bigs.
and Hayden Alvarez has been amazing the past 2 months.
Wouldn’t it be amazing if Denzer Guzman became our Adrian Beltre? What he’s flashing with the bat & the glove can make one dream a little.
Donavon Walton may not be long for the majors and this level of productivity won’t be sustained, it’s still nice to see a .300+ hitter in action.
Guzman, Walton & Siri are all contributing in significant ways.
If Guzman was our number 7 prospect – our farm is not as bad as they have them listed. That kid looks like a WAR contributing Major Leaguer to me.
Every outlet had Walbert Urena outside the top 10 too. The real rebuild starts with those 2, and I suppose Neto.
Schanuel and O’Hoppe aren’t good enough to be counted on for the future. Soriano, Detmers, and Adell should all be moved this deadline but Arte seems keen to keep them because he’s a shortsighted “businessman”
I’m skeptical about Schanuel and O’hoppe, but Schanuel’s bat-to-ball is pretty good – if he can learn to match it with his size. Do I expect it? Not at all – but there’s hope. Speaking of hope, O’Hoppeless can not be depended on as a backstop. It’s too important unless you hit like Piazza. He doesn’t hit like Piazza.
Some of the prospect rankings out there haven’t been updated in a while. Look at prospect grades and think of them as tiers of players more than absolutes. Keep in mind that MLB Pipeline only updates their boards two or three times a year, and Fangraphs only once – with a post draft update if you’re lucky.
On my own list, Guzman was top four entering the season, and had made it to #1 by end of May. The improvement in underlying contact metrics were predictive to me. I rate guys like Flores, Alvarez and Raudi higher than some of the stale rankings do.
But most analysts didn’t see Urena coming…at least not this fast. And to be fair, his minor league control and command was not great, his slider came and went (and is still inconsistent), and he was more of Silent-C GB specialist that looked like a future leverage reliever. There’s still likely some regression coming, btw. But what we’ve seen in the early season is still a long tail outcome, mostly to his credit.
There is the proof. We released Taijuan Walker, the tank is clearly on.
