another big game for carlos and connor in AA

burndoggy · August 5th, 2004, 08:03 PM

http://milb.sportsnetwork.com/merge/...x?GAMEID=16226

AZZenny · August 5th, 2004, 09:47 PM

Wish I knew what happened to Jaime D'Antona - all I've heard is 'right biceps,' but he was rested for a week and then put on the DL a couple weeks ago. If it's biceps tendinitis, that can take awhile to clear up and is easy to re-aggravate trying too soon. He was also a really powerful hitter in Lancaster, #3 draftee behind Conor and Carlos last year, and part of the 'Three Amigos' - Conor, Carlos, Jaime - but he had trouble adjusting to Double-A, probably in part due to the arm problem developing. Neb Brown was a very good-looking infielder moved over from Lancaster, too, until he snapped his ankle and out for the year.

BTW- brand new Finley-trade farmhand Billy Murphy pitches his first game for El Paso Friday night. You can listen on-line, 5 PM our time, I believe.

Selfishly sort of hoping if they called Terrero and DeVore up from Tucson that Conor and Carlos would get moved up to the Sidewinders - El Paso is a really long, boring trip; Tucson I could get to games a couple times a week. But Oh Well - only approximately 55 days till AZ Fall League.

burndoggy · August 6th, 2004, 12:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AZZenny

Wish I knew what happened to Jaime D'Antona - all I've heard is 'right biceps,' but he was rested for a week and then put on the DL a couple weeks ago. If it's biceps tendinitis, that can take awhile to clear up and is easy to re-aggravate trying too soon. He was also a really powerful hitter in Lancaster, #3 draftee behind Conor and Carlos last year, and part of the 'Three Amigos' - Conor, Carlos, Jaime - but he had trouble adjusting to Double-A, probably in part due to the arm problem developing. Neb Brown was a very good-looking infielder moved over from Lancaster, too, until he snapped his ankle and out for the year.

BTW- brand new Finley-trade farmhand Billy Murphy pitches his first game for El Paso Friday night. You can listen on-line, 5 PM our time, I believe.

Selfishly sort of hoping if they called Terrero and DeVore up from Tucson that Conor and Carlos would get moved up to the Sidewinders - El Paso is a really long, boring trip; Tucson I could get to games a couple times a week. But Oh Well - only approximately 55 days till AZ Fall League.

thanks for the info on murphy

mark1 · August 6th, 2004, 02:22 AM

The Dbacks won't resign Bautista, so Quentin could be our starting rightfielder next year. Alot of guys have gone from AA to the bigs. I don't see the Dbacks resigning Finley in the offseason. They need to use that money to sign a free agent pitcher. Terrero should start in center next year.

azzenny

Did Nippert have Tommy John surgery?

AZZenny · August 6th, 2004, 07:21 AM

I can't find anything on Nippert except he was DL'ed with 'R elbow' in very late June and not back yet. Nothing on the BA or Minor League BB sites, either. When minor league guys get injured in El Paso, they seem to vanish - their radio guys almost never mention them. Like Sergio Santos roughed up a shoulder in a play, and I only learned what happened by listening to the Lancaster Jethawk's announcer a couple nights later talking about Adam Haley being called up to El Paso to fill in - probably a mild subluxation, Santos expected to rehab for 3-4 weeks.

btw - anybody notice Pedrique said with Alomar gone now the competition for next year's second base is between Andy Green and Scott Hairston? I like Green, he's like Counsell in a lot of ways, but this was an unexpected comment - Tommy Jones said once that he's easy to sort of overlook, and yet at the end of every season, there he is, with numbers and skills that require you to take notice. Hairston looks sort of bewildered lately.

nathan · August 6th, 2004, 08:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mark1

Did Nippert have Tommy John surgery?

Yes.

http://www.newsandsentinel.com/sport...06_Swisher.asp

az240zz · August 6th, 2004, 09:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AZZenny

btw - anybody notice Pedrique said with Alomar gone now the competition for next year's second base is between Andy Green and Scott Hairston? I like Green, he's like Counsell in a lot of ways, but this was an unexpected comment - Tommy Jones said once that he's easy to sort of overlook, and yet at the end of every season, there he is, with numbers and skills that require you to take notice. Hairston looks sort of bewildered lately.

I think Hairston has looked bewildered for quite some time. IHe may be the future second baseman but if this is his best he doesn't belong at this level.

az240z

Mulli · August 6th, 2004, 09:26 AM

The title of this thread made me think that carlos boozer had a big game, and someone named connor had joined a 12th Step Program.

coyoteshockeyfan · August 6th, 2004, 09:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nm132

Yes.

http://www.newsandsentinel.com/sport...06_Swisher.asp

Ugh, amazing how our two best pitching prospects have been put out of commission this year, this franchise cant seem to catch a break lately.

On a side note, anybody know of any good sites for prospect/minor league news besides minorleagebaseball.com and baseballamerica.com?

AZZenny · August 7th, 2004, 05:20 PM

Carlos Quentin is on record pace! Got hit by a pitch again - that's 37 times this season. They just said three more to tie the all-time Minor League record. 26 more games left; he's been HBP 10 times in the 130 AB since he came to Double-A. Should break the record pretty easily. :notworthy

burndoggy · August 7th, 2004, 08:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AZZenny

Carlos Quentin is on record pace! Got hit by a pitch again - that's 37 times this season. They just said three more to tie the all-time Minor League record. 26 more games left; he's been HBP 10 times in the 130 AB since he came to Double-A. Should break the record pretty easily. :notworthy

thats an amazing stat. when i saw him in lancaster he got plunked, no glares no bat pointing,takes it like a man and runs down to first.

NJYAJ09 · August 8th, 2004, 10:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AZZenny

Carlos Quentin is on record pace! Got hit by a pitch again - that's 37 times this season. They just said three more to tie the all-time Minor League record. 26 more games left; he's been HBP 10 times in the 130 AB since he came to Double-A. Should break the record pretty easily. :notworthy

How do you get all this information about the Minors? You are pretty tuned into this stuff.

One question- Who will have the better ML career, Jackson or Quentin?

AZZenny · August 8th, 2004, 11:26 AM

I LOVE our minors - most evenings if I'm not at BOB I listen to one or more of our minor league games online - lately Diablos, but was Lancaster for the first half. I was very impressed with Jackson and Quentin right from draft day 2003, so I follow them most closely this year; also keep an eye on Josh Kroeger (ARM!), Lance Cormier, and Matt Chico this year. Last season I kept track of Chad Tracy, Terrero, Bruney, and Capuano.

El Paso games usually start at 5 -5:30 our time, Lancaster and Tucson around 7-7:15, so I may hear some of all three teams; their announcers have tidbits of information you would never get otherwise - which I try to pass along here. Read all our teams' box scores/game logs the next day; Devour Baseball America online, scan MinorLeagueBaseball. com. Read Sports Weekly. I took a day off work to follow the June draft live after studying college and HS prospects for a month or so before hand; I listened to most ASU games and read about U of A games; I go to AZ Fall League games and the next year follow guys who catch my eye. Drove to El Paso just to see the two studs live.

Hopeless, aren't I?

I love the game of baseball, and I enjoy the sheer enthusiasm of the minor leaguers; IMO we have generally been drafting extremely well and we have real prospects worth watching.

Been debating the Conor vs. Carlos thing myself. Too soon to tell, I think - Carlos is fearless, has a quick, dynamo bat and hits for power and average. He loves pitchers challenging his weak spots so he can figure out how to eliminate them. Conor has absolutely incredible plate discipline and control of the strike zone, has solid contact and if his doubles mature into more power, I put my money slightly on him. He's had two mini-slumps (3-4 games) where he tries too hard for power and gets frustrated. Neither is especially fast, and both have plenty-adequate gloves and arms but nothing real stellar.

They are the cream of the crop, but we probably have 12-14 extremely good-looking position prospects and half a dozen or so fine pitching prospects; just not much at Triple-A.

NJYAJ09 · August 8th, 2004, 11:35 AM

Thats awesome! I'm starting to get interested in the minors after some of my friends from my club team a few years ago made some A/AA teams. Do you know who Brian Barden is? his father and my father are like best friends. I think he got moved up to AAA this year, I was wondering how he was doing. I wish I could go see some minor league games, going to Firebirds games when I was younger was so awesome.

Another who do you like better question: Dustin Nippert, Matt Chico, or Mike Gosling?

Koyie Hill, Craig Ansman, or Chris Snyder?

Its fun to debate about who you like better. I would take Jackson, Gosling, and Hill.

{EDIT- When are we going to get a minor league team in Flagstaff? my grandma would probably be a season ticket holder, and it would be pretty cool to go up there and see some minor league games there}

AZZenny · August 8th, 2004, 03:39 PM

Doubt Flag will get a Minor League Team - as long as we have Tucson.

Yes, I know who Brian Barden is - he did make it to Triple-A, hitting around .285 - he needs to work on being patient, he has 5 Ks per Walk. He looked pretty good the few times I've seen him play in the past, but he's not one of our top 10 or 15 guys.

Not Gosling. He's not growing up very well, extremely unreliable even after recovering from surgery - Gallery of the Overrated, thus far. I gather that's been a problem with Stanford pitchers for some reason, across the board. Let's see how Nippert recovers from TJ surgery - he is generally listed as one of our top 5 prospects and he looked absolutely great when I saw him in AZFL. Haven't seen enough of Chico to know for sure, but at 21, he has time to mature, and I've liked what he's done so far.

Koyie Hill has been rated one of the top 10 catching prospects in the minors this year, Snyder was around #11 or 12, after having a slow start. Snyder has better numbers and better plate discipline but that's at Double-A, and we have real hitter's parks. He really struggled in AZ Fall League, but he got hurt. Hill is not that good at throwing guys out - he was around 25% in Triple-A, pretty weak, actually, and Snyder is probably better defensively. Ansman is a slugger, but not a great catcher - he might do better at first base. Put it this way - as someone said - if Ansman was really good, why was Brito called here instead of him? I'm not quite sure why the team is so enamored with Hill, other than he is a real hustling, aggressive player, but let's see what he does the rest of the season up here and how his defense works out.

AZFL roster to be announced in the next week-10 days - Yes indeedy - Conor, Carlos, Smoke Williams, almost for sure; probably Matt Chico, maybe Jason Bulger, possibly Snyder again since he was injured last year partway into the season - we can send 6 guys, and there are certain rules about who is eligible - mainly top Double-A and Triple-A, the rare super single-A guy. Usually they pick guys who they want to test against the best or who are being fast-tracked and they would like to expose to new coaches and greater pressure.

CAN'T WAIT!!!!