Biweekly Rookie Ball Report

AZL Angels, 6 wins and 1 loss (second half)

Rolando Gomez, SS –(43 AB’s) .395/.509/.581 with 2 Dbls, 3 Trpls, and 17 runs scored

Gomez raked his way through July – his line for the month was .321/.431/.560.  He’s already 20, so he needed a season like this to stand out in rookie ball.  Tightening his defense will be crucial – he’s made 11 errors in just 26 games for a .909 fielding percentage. 

Randal Grichuk, OF – (55 AB’s) .382/.424/.655 with 4 Dbls, 4 Trpls, 1 HR, , and 21 RBI’s

I think what's most impressive about the stats above is the fact that Grichuk is still just 17; he won’t get his draft card until a week from Thursday. He clearly can hit, but the strikeouts remain a concern, as he’s whiffed in a full quarter of his plate appearances this year.  That isn’t terrible, but it does flag what we’ll need to watch for in the coming years.

Jon Bachanov – 1 W, 5 IP, 2 hits, 0 ER, 9 K/1 BB

Yes! Our 2007 top pick was on the mound and whiffing hitters for over a month. The Halos had begun to stretch him out – his last appearance was a dominant 3 inning relief stint on July 25^th where he struck out 6 and secured an AZL Angels victory – but he hasn’t pitched in over a week, so something might be wrong again.

Baudilio "Badass" Lopez – (3 starts) 1 W, 19.2 IP, 21 hits 1.83 ERA, 15 K/1 BB

Not bad for an 18 year old figuring out stateside life and pro ball.  His K-rate is down from last year’s DSL campaign, but so are the walks.  It remains to be seen whether he can get his hits allowed under 1 per inning.

John Rickard, C – (16 AB’s) .313/.389/.563 with 1 Dbl, 1 HR, and 7 RBI’s

The Halos drafted Rickard out of the perennially good Bishop Gorman High School program in Las Vegas last year.  Like Gomez, the bat looks very good, but the glove is going to need some polish:  he’s erased only 1 basestealer out of 12 in 9 games and has allowed 4 passed balls.  Scioscia’ll fix him.

Orem Owlz, 20 wins and 18  losses

Dillon Baird, 1b – (42 AB’s) .405/.468/.690 with 7 Dbls, 1 HR, and 9 RBI’s

Baird hit .422/.465/.625 for July, and tonight’s effort pushed his season BA back over .400.  He also hit his second homerun tonight, which is a good thing because he’ll need to show some more power if he’s going to make a run at topping Lopez’ insane 193 OPS+ last season.  Baird’s currently at 177.

Richard Cates, OF – (56 AB’s) .392/.456/.569 with 3 Dbls, 3 Trpls, 11 runs and 14 RBI.

Cates has been nails in the two spot, getting more at bats than just about any other Owlz player since Rife was promoted in mid July.  The 21^st round draftee has shown the ability to hit for average, patience, and gap power as a table setter.

Terrell Alliman, rf – (30 AB’s) .333/.394/.600 with 5 Dbls and 1 HR

Alliman continues to be a doubles machine.  He’s spent most of his season in right field, but played 3 games in center this week, where his bat – which packs lots of gap power, but may not develop homerun pop – profiles better.  He’s known for being a tremendous athlete, so hopefully he sticks up the middle. 

David Carpenter, rhrp – (4 appearances) 1 W, 7.2 IP, 0 hits, 0 ERA, 7 K/1 BB

Carpenter blew a lead tonight, but was nails for the past two weeks. The Owlz starting pitching really tailed off this July after its strong start, so Carpenter’s ability to enter a game and toss up to three strong innings in middle relief helped the Owlz win at least one more game than they would have otherwise.

Carlos Ramirez, C – (30 AB’s) .400/.538/.500 with 3 Dbls and 9 BB’s

I had the chance to watch Ramirez hit on milb tv last week, and was impressed: he strung together one polished at-bat after another, out--dueling each pitcher and walking nearly every other appearance.  The average and patience are nice, of course, but hopefully Ramirez will begin to flash some of the power that he had this season at ASU, where he whacked 18 homeruns.

DSL Angels, 24 wins and 27 losses

Eswarlin Jiminez – (3 starts) 2 W’s, 19 IP, 15 hits, 1.90 ER, 10 K/3 BB

Yancarlos Santiago – (3 starts) 11 IP, 9 hits, 3.27 ER, 7 K/4 BB

Where did all of this left handed pitching come from? The Halos went from being thin on southpaws systemwide to being stacked, from Reckling in AA to the 17-year-old Eswarlin and 18-year-old Yancarlos in the DSL.

Waskal Adames, cf – (14 AB’s) .357/.438/.647 with 1 DBL, 1 HR and 2 SB’s

Adames is getting long in the tooth for the DSL, but he packs the most consistent bat on the team. Hopefully he gets a shot stateside next spring.