Friday, February 3, 2012

Down on the Farm: #37 Chuckie Jones

#37 Charles "Chuckie" Jones, OF. 6'3", 235 lbs. BD: 7/28/1992. B-R, T-R.

Short Season: .218/.322/.315

Chuckie Jones was drafted out of HS in the 7'th round of the 2010 draft. He signed right away and put up good numbers in rookie ball: .279/.360/.461. Naturally, there was a lot of anticipation from Giants prospect watchers going into the 2011 season and he even made some top 10 and 20 Giants prospect lists. He got a late start on the season due to oblique injuries suffered in spring training and was then in and out of the lineup with more injuries. He never really got untracked and put up disappointing numbers. He continued to show good walk rates as well as frightful K rates. Staying healthy will be his first challenge in 2012. If he can do that out of the gate, I would expect to see him in Augusta where he will still be relatively young for the level. He then needs to start making some contact to give himself a chance to put up some numbers. Chuckie is an excellent athlete who still has a high ceiling, and he is young enough that last year should not be a serious setback if he stays healthy and works hard on improving his game.

18 comments:

  1. Chuckie just got hit by a barrage of injuries and will have a better season this year. It seemed that he got hurt and tried to adjust his game around his injuries and that is never a good idea. I wonder if he takes a lot of 3rd stikes or if he doesn't adjust his approach at the plate with 2 strikes. I understand why you have him so low on your list because he had an aweful season, but he has a lot of upside potential and I wouldn't be surprised to see him move up big time on your next list. Lastly, I expected him to start last year in Augusta and hope that he ends up there this spring.

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  2. Chuckie won't be 20 til midseason. Just like RafRod, needs some time. Hope he gets healthy this year.

    BP top 11 Giants is up. I just noticed one thing about our ranked lefty starters, silly coincidence - all drafted in the 6th round 3 out of the last 4 years. BP has Surkamp 7th, Kickham 9th and Osich 10th. I am very impatient to know what the Giants have planned for Osich.

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    1. Agreed, both Jones and RafRod are still very young, they can still make the majors in 5 years and still be considered a decent prospect. And as Shandler's books notes, once a player exhibits a skill, they keep it, it is just a matter of them repeating it at higher levels via development.

      Still, they both need to start showing more at higher levels.

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    2. Weird, this comment just disappeared...

      Thanks, appears to be free this year for some reason: http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=15963

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    3. Also:

      Yeah, really looking forward to seeing what we got with Osich, his skill set looked great for a lefty before injury, hopefully he can make up the money he lost in bonus by rising fast and getting to the majors faster with the Giants.

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    4. You can watch the ninth inning of his UCLA no-hit on youtube. He's a solid dude - 225-235 on 6'3. It seemed more arm fatigue coming back from TJ than any other injury, but its sort of murky at this point. I have high hopes he's the steal of the entire draft. And coupled with Blackburn as another steal, that might catapult this draft way up. Can baseball start already?

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    5. I know! Right?

      And DrB's daily does really helps fuel my hunger for the 2012 season to start. I expect good things to come from this season, barring another catastrophic injury season, as you can never plan for them.

      I expect all the Sabean Naysayers to eat crow again for another season, as their predictions of dire for the Giants are now on a three season losing streak (though I would say at least four because they thought the Giants were going to lose 100 games in 2008 and I thought, and admittedly was barely right, that they would be closer to .500).

      And every new prospect who rises up unexpectedly, whether Sandoval, Romo, Belt, Surkamp, DuVall, all these great 30's prospects who seem to have such great skills and performances and yet are low for one good reason or another, where these fans think the Giants don't know how to best develop them and yet it was the Giants who picked them up in the first place, just shows how little we really know about prospect development relative to the Giants.

      Not that we can't have opinions and such, and can point out their mistakes (because nobody's perfect), but a lot of people act like they were the ones who personally discovered this great prospect and were the only one to know that, when it is the Giants scouts and training/coaching staff who are coaxing their potential out of them.

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    6. Talking about BP, anyone else surprised that Panik is only 3 stars? I don't think he's the best thing since sliced bread, but I thought he showed a lot last season. Maybe it's because he's now considered a future 2B? Still, SS at 2B, should be pretty good defense, plus he looks like a very capable #2 hitter, gap to gap power, OBP guy.

      Any other surprises? Only had time to peruse and consider his ranking. Maybe how high Crick is, I think higher than I have seen elsewhere.

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    7. Talking about BP, I did a quick glance at the other years they put up. 2008 edition: MadBum was a 3 star, so Panik might have some good company. Along with Alderson, Fairley, Noonan and Schierholtz. 4 star? Keppinger trade bait Henry Sosa. Lowly 2 stars? Some guy named Sandoval. And white knight John Bowker. 5-star? AV baby!

      2009: BP corrected, MadBum was a 5 star, along with Posey and AV. Alderson was 4 star, our 3-stars were RafRod, Conor G, Noonan, Ishi, Sosa and Romo. 2-star? Kieschnick.

      2010: 5-star again MadBum and Posey, we know how that turned out. I hads a sads for our 4-star Wheeler, 3-stars were Runzler, Adrianza, Neal, Joseph, Kieschnick, RafRod and Frankie Pegs. 2-star the much maligned Chris D.

      I love looking at the old reports. Its a very good snapshot of what was going on, what was expected. Sandoval and Belt came out of nowhere almost. Our blue chip pitchers did their thing. And now the Giants are focusing on filling in with a proven college bat stratagum.

      My surprises? Well, Hector Sanchez was way too low for me, I think he's making the 25. I'm a bit surprised they are still that up on Culberson. I agree with you about Panik, but I think that's a little residual hangover of the expectations of him draft day. I love that Galindo has that much attention. Is Kickham getting overrated due to his leftiness? We basically have Gary Brown and a bunch of undefinable potential. Kind of like we have our pitching staff and a bunch of questions for the big club. Lots of "lets see how this plays out" for Los Gigantes.

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    8. BP on AV, 2009: "Villalona's ceiling is through the roof, beginning with his raw power, which rates as a pure 80 on the 20-80 scouting scale. He doesn't need to take a massive hack to drive the ball out of any part of the park, and his hand-eye coordination should lead to high batting averages down the road. He made continuous improvements during the year, raising his OPS by nearly 100 points after the All-Star break."

      Their timetable conclusion: "After being the youngest player in the Sally League last year, Villalona likely will be the youngest in his new one, as he moves up to join what should be an absolutely loaded squad in the California League."

      Kind of funny to think there's an outside chance, 3 years later of him eventually joining SJ again on an absolutely loaded squad AGAIN. AV and Osich are the 2 jokers in the Giants deck. Through the roof potential and maybe just nothing happening at all. That thought makes me even MORE impatient for spring training to start.

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    9. So in addition to my silly observation about our 6th round lefties, I can also come to the conclusion that being a 4-star rated prospect from BP on the Giants gets you traded with a quickness! 2008 Sosa 2009 Alderson 2010 Wheeler. No 4-stars this year, see OGC, its actually a jinx advantage.

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  3. Heads up - Julian at Giants Nirvana put down a great interview with Bochy/Sabean, check it. 20 minute audio. Sabean gave some very interesting answers, including some on defensive metrics, lefties and how they see the future middle of the order...

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    1. Gotta say that's the best interview of Brian Sabean I've ever heard. Julian asked excellent questions and Sabes responded with serious, thoughtful answers.

      Bum's interview was nice.

      I think Huff maybe intimidated Julian a bit and he could have framed his questions a bit better, but it was definitely an awkward situation although not quite as bad as I expected going into the video.

      I look forward to more of Julian's interviews as he rolls them out.

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    2. I agree on the Huff piece. I think he was coming off a interview that didn't go well, and Julian dived in with some questions that have been gone over already as well. I thought it wasn't nearly as awkward as expected. Huff can be a charming guy, I think he got his thong in a twist about something before.

      After more digging its a combo interview with Crazy Crabbers, Bay Area Sports Guy. BASG has video, although the audio is just fine in my opinion. Don't know who asked which question, I think its very cool for the Giants to open it up to bloggers, the questions asked were things I want to know about. Grant on MCC was invited and he declined to keep his outsider status (his words).

      Liked the MadBum interview a lot. Very mellow humble guy.

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    3. The Huff was not awkward to me, just more strained, perhaps as noted, maybe Huff just got off a bad one.

      The way I interpreted it was that this was Huffs umpteenth interview where he is asked about his failures, and particularly his conditioning. It is my interpretation, across all the interviews this off season on Huff, that he is maybe upset that Bochy brought up conditioning as a root cause for his bad season when he felt he was just as diligent as before. So he probably was tired of defending himself, leading to the strained interview.

      I also think it goes both ways. As DrB noted, I think Julian was perhaps intimidated, perhaps nervous, knowing that he was going to ask tough questions, that is what I noticed in his voice. And if I were Huff, I do not think I would be very happy getting upbraided by guys who are in high school or barely out.

      Too bad I was not invited, I would have loved and cherished the opportunity. I would have also asked MadBum about his slow starts and what he thinks is the cause, and what he thinks is his reason for such great success. I would also want to touch on his great WS start,delve into his feelings.

      I would also have started each interview thanking them for the WS win. That might have put Huff more at ease. Also, acknowledging that he had a great 2010, and he did, so what does he feel he needs to do in 2012 to get back there.

      I will have to check out Sabean when time.

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    4. And yeah, Madbum, he is like that in every interview, just love the guy. Julian had a great question there on whether he would sign long term extension. I have been meaning to write a post on the odds of jkeeping each pitcher, and Madbum I pegged as a tough one, his wife and family are all out on the east there, I do not see how we can keep him beyond our control years, though he is so young, maybe one or two before he goes, but that would mean getting him signed before his arbs, I think.

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    5. Fortunately, the GIants have time to draft/sign and develop some replacement pitchers by the time MadBum is ready for FA, which is probably not the case with Tim and Cainer.

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    6. Yes, definitely, we have control of Bumgarner to 2016 at minimum and I'm hoping for a long-term deal covering his arb years plus options on free agency year or two. Money does talk.

      But the Giants probably will have to shell the extra dough to get it done because Madison was not happy with the salary he got his contract renewed for last season. Though I think he was being a bit unreasonable, asking for Posey money, still, they could have given him more than they did, I think, given how well he did in the playoffs.

      But he seemed open to getting a long deal in the interview Julian got, so that's a start. The Giants just need to follow through.

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