#42 Shawn Payne, OF. 6'1", 190 lbs. BD: 7/13/1989. B-R, T-R.
Short Season: .306/.431/.394, 21 SB, 6 CS, 29 BB, 32 K in 160 AB.
Payne was drafted in round 35 of the 2011 draft out of Georgia Southern which happens to be the same school RHP Chris Beck and OF Victor Roache attend, 2 players who figure to be first round picks in the 2012 draft. But, back to Shawn Payne. He put up a line of .314/.432/.504 6 3B, 6 HR, 33 SB, 3 CS, 38 BB, 13 HBP, 60 K's in 242 AB in college. He signed right away and got in a full summer of short season ball showing exceptional plate discipline and speed to steal a lot of bases. I would think he has a chance to jump over low A ball and be the starting CF for San Jose in 2012. Whether at low A or high A, if these kinds of numbers hold up, he will be moving way up next year's list. He seems to have just enough power to keep pitchers honest so he should be able to maintain his fine OBP going forward. He's a major sleeper.
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Love Shawn Payne. Can't wait to see what happens next. Also love those Georgia Southern guys, but it'd be best to not get hopes up on that front, they will be long gone by the 20th pick.
ReplyDeleteWow, it is just amazing seeing all these prospects, low in ranking, but showing good skills that would have ranked them highly in Giants rankings of the past.
ReplyDeleteYeah, looking forward to seeing how Shawn does in a full season league, they might start him in Augusta since that is near home for him, to start with, then push him to SJ once he is comfortable, they have done that in the past.
Who are the other potential CF for Augusta and SJ, that might have a bearing on where Shawn ends up.
I'm thinking Jesus Galindo is the CF in Augusta next year with Payne assigned to San Jose.
DeleteI think that sounds about accurate. I think Payne had a solid enough year to make the jump up to SJ next year. Furthermore, considering his older status as a prospect, and with the position vacant in SJ, I think Payne is the best option.
DeleteDefinitely interested to see how he will progress as a prospect. Obviously not a lot of power, and short-season stats are hard to judge, but I really like the tools Payne brings to the table. 33 stolen bases on 36 attempts is nothing to shrug about, and his 0.63 BB/K ratio was excellent as well. I definitely can see him being a much better Darren Ford, though Ford did break into pro ball a lot earlier than Payne. Still, the tool sets are similar, and I think Payne's approach is better earlier on in his career than Ford's.
Damn. The Rangers just took down your sleeper grab Conor Jackson DrB. Big time boo. Knowing that club's luck with castoffs he'll go crazy this year.
ReplyDeleteAnd on that Conor G note, Sickels posted an interesting retrospective about elite "A" rated prospects on his site from 03-06 aka the dark days of the Gints drafting...
ReplyDeleteHere are the ones who have less than 6 WAR so far in their MLB Career:
Hee Seep Choi, Jeff Clement, Joel Guzman, Scott Hairston, Jeremy Hermida, Conor Jackson, Casey Kotchman, Jason Kubel, Andy Marte, Jeff Mathis, Dallas McPherson, Lastings Milledge, Chris Nelson, Jeremy Reed, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Ian Stewart, Jason Stokes, Brandon Wood, and Delmon Young
As excited as we are about Gary Brown, its just too early to know. Lots of blue chippers flame out. Just makes the Giants drafting run of 06-08 that much more amazing. So far.
Shank...please add to that "So far", one WS!
DeleteAnd I want more... than... one WS!
DeleteOne good thing I noticed on that list you put here, is that none of them were really speed guys. Most were known for their power. And, of course, Brown's plus is his speed.
DeleteBut yeah, hard to tell with Brown, he wasn't really that dominant in San Jose over a full season, though I saw somewhere recently that other than his really poor month, his OBJ was over .400 every other month. Still, lots of good prospects have done well in Advanced A, only to flame out in AA or AAA. I was hoping that Brown would have a good AFL, that would give me more confidence in his future, but that didn't happen.
Still, I think he's going to be able to do it. I like the way he adjusts his hitting to fit his skill set relative to the league. I like the way he takes a lot of HBP, that speaks of a hunger to get on base, no matter what. I like that his speed is so good that he's as fast to first as the fastest LHB, which implies that when running, either on basepaths or in OF, he's even faster than the fastest LHB. I like that he works on OBP as well as SLG, it just shows that he understands the offense of baseball, and strives to be a complete offensive lead-off hitter.
And he has a very good attitude that I've seen in every interview with him. He's quietly confident but also a bit of a self-deprecating joker, that will help him get through the tough patches well. Reminded me of Will Clark's confidence, only that The Thrill was a polar opposite in brashness and loudness to Brown. I've been rooting for him since the first interview I saw of him, looks like a good kid, makes you want to root extra for him.
I think the Giants will be winning more than one WS, particularly if we can get Lincecum and Cain signed long-term. I don't think that a dynasty like the Yankees had in the late 1990's is out of the question (and the common link between these two dynasties is that those Yankee teams were led by players acquired while Sabean was in charge of their draft and scouting: Jeter, Bernie Williams, Posada, Pettitte, Mariano Rivera).
DeleteFor I've been saying for a number of years now that the Giants will be the Team of the 2010's decade. And 2010 started that off really nicely, better than I would have hoped for, but given the crapshoot that is the playoffs, I felt that the Giants were capable of making multiple trips to the big show with the players we have in hand the past few years, so it wasn't a total surprise either. I felt that we should be able to 1) win a World Series at least once if not multiple, while 2) making multiple trips to the World Series.
After winning that first one, though plus the good drafts since, I think that multiple championships is now very likely, barring catastrophic injury to a star player, as long as the Giants owners work hard to keep the core players around long-term.
I view this time as critical to making the Giants the Team of the 2010's. Ownership needs to pony up and keep these players around for the rest of the decade. We have to take that risk. Sign up everyone long-term, Lincecum, Cain, Posey, Bumgarner, to go with Sandoval. Probably will have to sign Wilson to a 2-3 year extension as well, because there is really nobody ready to step up in the 2012-3 timeframe, though Hembree could be close by then. I think him being a top set-up guy would prepare him to take over for Wilson when that extension ends.
If we can keep this core set of players around, plus continue to develop players like Brown, Panik, Hembree, Surkamp, Susac, Crick, Joseph, Oropesa, Osich, plus a few surprises from the 20-30 rank range for DrB's list, this should be some golden era, better than the 1960's, and up there with McGraw's teams that made multiple trips to the World Series over a short period of time.
I don't know, OGC. The late 60's taught me to never get too confident about winning a pennant, let alone a championship. I am convinced that over the course of the 60's, the Giants were the best team in baseball, but in each separate year, there was always one team that was a bit better. Crazy things happened. In 1967, Mike McCormick won the Cy Young, but Juan Marichal had his only down year out of 8. Another year, Willie Mac broke his wrist and missed a huge chunk of the season. Then in 2010, after 45 years of waiting, a team I didn't think had it in them to do anything but contend for a playoff spot took it all the way.
DeleteI will say what I have said many times: The Giants are as well positioned for the future as any team in baseball. I'll just leave it at that an not predict anything more specific than that.
I'm watching MLB network tonight, just saw a clip of Maury Wills. Three rings with the Doyers. Can anybody name another hitter on the 60s Doyers? Seriously? Its the Aces and Maury Wills. They never even retired his number.
DeleteThat's one thing to think about. I get all impatient to draft a big hitter, but in this new era of baseball, defense and speed is much more important, and having a bunch of solid role players over a big star. I'm definitely guilty of wanting more hitting, not to the level of most, but it'd be nice. But it might not be necessary.
Gary Brown could very well be our Maury Wills. And I'm a gigantic fan, I'm just trying to keep my jets cool a bit. Agree 100% with your read on his interviews. Chip on his shoulder, cool, fast as hell, can hit field and throw. I love that guy.
I agree DrB, you position the team as best as possible, and hope for the best. I think something like what the Bums put together in the 60s is definitely possible. Even the Yankee dynasty OGC references had some mad luck, beginning with a kid grabbing a ball for a HR for example. You can strive to get there, and then its up to the players and the Baseball Gods. Still, I agree that with this type of core they are looking good. And the more I think about the Aces and the way ticket prices are going, there will be a dog fight to retain them. Its one thing for interwebz fans to get on the Front Office, its quite another to have some of the most popular players ever walk. Sabean's reassurance the money is there for both, and the fact the ownership is so marketing sensitive makes me confident they are just haggling it out politely.
DeleteOh, and from the horses mouth, Baer confirmed at fanfest the stadium debt is paid off in 2017. Did not elaborate, but I have a feeling this is in direct answer to fans fears of Timmy and Cain leaving. Posey and MadBum are FAs after 2016. There you go.
DeleteShankbone,
DeleteThat is nice to hear about the stadium debt but the question is whether that money will go to player payroll or their rainy day fund. Forbes reported that the Debt/Value ratio is 21% which includes all of the stadium debt. I am really interested on how big of a number the stadium debt is and how much would be considered to put into player payroll. I guess we will just have to wait and see.
Roger,
DeleteGreat point. I'd add the ticket prices are pretty out of control. I have second hand sources that state the Giants are after all the corporate dollars, don't really care about pricing out individual fans - the original PSL folks - and its all about companies and ticket brokers. Whenever the demand is high, ticket brokers are a big time source of action. Second hand source is my buddies assistant's fiance, who works for the Giants. Never talked to the guy myself.
I go back and forth with the RDF guys. They have a right to make money. They also need to be very aware of the golden geese. The big ticket FAs this offseason had some warts, I'm not mad about that. But a couple more tweeks could have put the Giants in a better pre-season position possibly. Like Campanari states, there is always the mid-season moves, which are a Sabean specialty for sure. The 3MM attendance figure, and the fact they are so marketing obsessed makes me pretty optimistic about our Aces being re-signed. The hard core fan backlash would be huge, but what they would fear is the casual fan drop off.
I think I read somewhere that the yearly mortgage on the stadium is $20 M.
DeleteThat's about the cost of 1 top end free agent.
DeleteFrom articles I've read before, $20M is the mortgage. It is ending sooner than I had thought, I thought it was 2019, so two years earlier is good, means more money to spend.
DeleteTommy Davis and Frank Howard were two pretty good offensive players for the Dodgers during the 60's, if I got my history right.
Predicting is hard, so many variables, that's why I went with Team of the Decade, as that covers a lot of similar ground to the 60's Giants, when I first talked about that.
But after all my research into how pitching wins, I feel much more comfortable saying that the Giants should win at least another WS during this run, and could possibly have a dynasty type of period like the Yankees.
I was also thinking of Brown as our Wills, that is why I really wanted to hold onto him and not Wheeler. Plus, I liked what he was doing more in terms of performance.
Personally, I would have traded Brown just because I'm not convinced that he is head and shoulders better than other CF prospects like Peguero, Galindo, Payne, whereas Wheels was, by far, the Giants best pitching prospect and you can never have too much pitching. Water under the bridge though. The Giants were still in first place at the time of the trade and had to go for it. I'll just have to trust that the Giants know what they are doing with pitchers and pitching prospects and will replace Wheeler by the time they need another SP graduate in the rotation.
DeleteTommy Davis and Frank Howard both had their last good season in 1963. Neither was a significant part of the pennant winning 1965 and 1966 squads which won almost exclusively with pitching: Koufax, Drysdale, Osteen with Perrenoski and Phil Regan in the bullpen.
DeleteOGC and I are definitely wearing the rose tinted goggles on GB. We'll see how it turns out - I agree on the hold instead of Wheeler. My gut when the trade was going down and twitter was wacking out was 'please not Brown' - when it was both I was going crazy, and then Wheeler was a big gut check, but I was OK with it. Mainly because of our rep with pitching.
DeleteThe Doyers also had Roseboro who put up nice consistent numbers, although nothing spectacular. But Snider and Hodges had faded, it really was all about those pitchers during the 60s run.
Did we dodge a bullet with Coletti striking out on Fielder? I don't like it long term but he could have shifted the balance a fair amount in the next 3 years.
Also, Trader Billie gets a big time vote of confidence. I think the Gints blogosphere would explode if the RDF crew threw that offer out on Sabean.
Thanks DrB, my memory of the Dodgers of the 60's is purely reading, I was too young and not into baseball yet to experience that.
DeleteI'm convinced that Brown is above the others more than Wheeler was the best pitching prospect. After two seasons, Wheeler wasn't doing much of anything and was still in Advanced A. Brown was the top hitter in the Big West conference over an 7-8 year period where he even outhit Evan Longoria and Kurt Suzuki.
Not that I thought he would outhit Longoria in the majors, but with his speed and instincts that I read about, he only need to be an average hitter in order for us to get a lot of value out of his defense, and really, I thought of him as a Wills type, Maury wasn't that great a hitter, but he was a great base stealer.
And from what I saw in his college stats, I saw a confident hitter who worked at developing his hitting skills, uncowed by how relatively poorly he hit early in college, but who realized that he needs to get on-base to use his speed, so he took as many HBP as pitchers would give him, took walks when he didn't hit well enough, took less walks when he could hit, plus hit for power when he could. I saw a complete hitter, at least in attitude.
The key question was whether he had the talent to bring it to the pros. And by the time of the Wheeler trade, while he wasn't outright dominant, he was still pretty darn good, and closer to the majors and his potential than Wheeler at that time.
Wheeler at that time could not figure out Advanced A and looking like a candidate for repeating in 2012. At that rate, even one level a season, AA 2013, AAA 2014, majors 2015, that put him four years away from the majors at the time of the trade, and most prospects who are any good should be showing signs of making the majors within four years, and they had already drafted by that point, thought that one of the nice crop of pitchers we got might reach the majors by 2015.
And the more I read about Osich, the more I think he could be that guy, and maybe even before Wheeler make it to the majors, if the Giants can get him healthy.
He did great for the Mets, but I looked up the stats for that league and that was a pitcher's league, and in a pitcher's park. I think he'll get promoted to AA and be exposed for what he hasn't learned yet and bounce back to Advanced A.
And that last paragraph was about Wheeler, not Osich, that's what I get for jumping around in my writing.
DeleteI think its good to give bonus points for awards. When a guy dominates a league like Brown did, its a good sign.
DeleteI'm looking at draft guys, one name who doesn't have too much hype yet but has the hardware is this Alex Bregman guy - he seems like a scrapper without a true position, but he has some serious intangibles. If the organization is serious about getting high iq high floor guys they should look at him. There's some vids on youtube, he's crushing the ball. Some are with alum bats, but he has a nice swing. USA baseball player of the year award has some serious alums - Strasburg, Zimmerman, Street - it used to tie straight into the golden spikes award, and we know all about our battery of golden spikes. Don't know what it would cost to get him in the first, maybe his bonus demands are out of control, but I'd like the G's to go for somebody like this, take a shot.
Well, I don't want this to degenerate into "tastes great vs less filling", but I guess I'm biased toward Wheeler by the absolutely dominating performance I saw from him against Lake Elsinore. That was the single most dominating pitching performance out of all the Cal League games I've seen(admittedly not that many, but it includes LIncecum, Cain and Merkin Valdez). Plus, I absolutely disagree that Wheeler was a candidate to repeat A+. No way, no how!
DeleteMike Newman, the scouting guy over on Fangraphs called Wheeler one of the 5 best pitching prospects he's ever scouted. Nothing I saw in Lake Elsinore would dispute that assessment at all.
Wheels may have a lower floor than Gary Brown with the possibility of injuries and all, but I am convinced his ceiling is way higher.
I'm with Dr. B on this one. I think Wheeler has a much higher ceiling than Brown, and though I like Brown a lot, I was pretty bummed to lose Wheeler. In terms of not being dominant against Advanced A competition, I don't know if I agree with that. Was he as good as his St. Lucie numbers for the Mets? No, but he was pitching in a hitter's league, against competition that was two years older than him, and he is recently graduated from high school, and he still managed to strike out more than 10 guys per nine innings and allow under eight hits per nine innings as well. Yes, the walks were an issue (4.8 per nine), but it wasn't egregious by any means (still posted over a 2.0 K/BB ratio). I have seen Wheeler and Brown in person, and Wheeler just looked dominant on the mound. He struck out 10 in five innings and I just think with that strikeout ability, there is so much potential.
DeleteI agree that I don't want to get into that either, DrB. I understand bias, I have rooted for Ishikawa since I saw him blast a mammoth homer at Municipal Stadium.
DeleteI also agree that Wheeler has a much higher ceiling than Brown, he has tools which can't be taught, so I understand why he's held in high regard.
I just disagree about the time table as to when that would happen. I understand the Cal League is a hitters league. Yet, we had pitchers like Pucetas and others who absolutely dominated there, as shown by their strikeouts, plus had a great ERA (Pucetas was most spectacular player one season for that) who got exposed when they reached the higher minors.
To me, Kevin, 10 K/9 in Advanced A is not that special. And at 21 YO last season, that's when the best prospects start making hay in Advanced A, else they start falling behind the other top prospects. 3.99 ERA is again good for the league, but, to me, players who are special need to do special things in the league, relative to age. 2.1 is nice for an average starter, not special. Yes, these are nice numbers but not special numbers.
His talent is special, no doubt. But there has been so many pitchers with special talent which they just could never corral into usable control. And if he is struggling (relatively) against Advanced A hitters, sure, he might be promoted to AA in 2012, but that don't mean that he's going to do well there either.
And I understand the knocks on Brown. He wasn't THAT dominant or special in Advanced A. He just showed a lot more, to me, in Advanced A than Wheeler, such that I prefer the guy closer to making the majors and who handles three things we really need: leadoff, SB ability, and great CF defense.
I hope this discussion does not come off as a knock on Brown. I think he has a high probability of having a good MLB career. I would estimate his ceiling as a borderline All-Star for several years. I just think Wheeler's ceiling is much higher. I know it's hard to project a #1 starter for any prospect, but that is what I believe Wheeler's ceiling is. Of course there is considerable risk that he won't make that ceiling but the potential is there. On the other hand, Brown will likely not be a true 5 tool CF because he is limited in power.
DeleteAs for the comp to Kevin Pucetas, that is apples and oranges. That is why scouting is essential in addition to statistical analysis. Age vs level, physical size, FB velocity, visible dominance, you name it, their stats may have been similar but when you add in the scouting report, there is just no comparison. Wheels comes out on top by a mile and a half.
Sorry, I was not trying to compare Pucetas talent with Wheeler. Agreed, apples to oranges.
DeleteMy point there was that Kevin was pointing to stats which he felt reflected well on Wheeler in the Cal League. I was pointing out that other pitchers had good numbers in the league too and yet did not turn out well. He had a 3.78 K/BB. His strikeouts wasn't as good as I remember, making him a poor example, ultimately.
But if you go back in time for the Cal League and look at guys who had high K/9 and control problems, you see a lot of prospects who didn't make it. So it is no slam dunk that Wheeler will necessarily make it.
I think we are all in agreement about both Brown's and Wheeler's potentials. I did not interpret the discussion as a knock on Brown, just a comparison of potentials.
The major difference is that you appear to favor potential over proximity to the majors (correct me if I am wrong, but you mention his ceiling a number of times), while I favor the fact that Brown solves a number of positional roles that we need, and, I believe, will do it well plus is very close to matriculating, though his potential is nowhere that of Wheeler. To boot, I think he has power, just not HR power, but gap to gap, that is part of his game that he tries to bring when he approaches the plate.
I agree that Wheeler could be a #1 starter. I've mentioned it before when extolling my excitement over having him: he has a good fastball, high velocity, he strikes out a lot of batters, and he generates a lot of groundballs. That's like King Felix.
But, for me, if Sabean and gang are giving up on Wheeler, that plus the fact that he was not killing it in Advanced A, even though he is already 21 YO, means to me that he is still many years away from making the majors. So I guess that is one difference for me, I am relying on Sabean's sterling record so far in determining who to keep and who to trade, but I was not happy about Wheeler's performance in 2011, after a poor performance which I forgave because of his injury in 2010, so that plus Sabean's willingness to trade Wheeler was enough for me.
But even before that, I was not happy about Wheeler's progress in Advanced A while very happy about Brown's nice start. Wheeler was already just not doing it for me. I just thought that at best, he might reach his #1 potential in 4-6 years, and it could be worse, easily, as a lot of things could derail a prospect before he reaches the majors, particularly one with control problems in Advanced A, where most batters probably can't even handle his fastballs and just let them go, and he still walks them.
For example, Homer Bailey has a similar profile and career progression, maybe better, but he struck out a lot in the low minors, had control problems as well though not like Wheeler, made AAA at age 21, and the prospect hounds have been waiting for him to break out to his potential. He is 26 YO for the 2012 season and still haven't figured it out, his young phenom status is pretty much gone.
I guess the part I don't get is why you weren't happy with Wheeler's progress in the Cal League. Personally, I thought he was doing fantastically well in the Cal League. I also disagree with the 4-6 year projection for Wheeler's graduation to MLB. Granted the Giants were in a position to take it more slowly with him than with some of their preceding phenoms, but based solely on Wheeler's Cal League performance, I think he was in line to pitch a full season at AA in 2012 where I think he will do very well, then move up to AAA where he would likely be ready, at worst, for a September callup in 2013 and contend for a rotation slot in 2014 which happens to be the first year the Giants are likely to not have one, Barry Zito, on the roster and two years before MadBum would be a FA.
DeleteI also think it's a huge mistake to fall back on the assumption that if Sabean let him go, he must not be as good as we thought. Sabean and Tidrow have a good track record but they are not infallible. I fully expect Zack Wheeler to be an ace starter for the Mets for a long time. I still would have done the trade for Beltran given the circumstances, I just would have preferred to give up Brown than Wheels.
Well, that's the faith you have from seeing him in action. I get that.
DeleteI can only rely on what the numbers say, and his numbers are not impressive enough to make me think that he'll be a #1 starter in the time table you laid out for him here. He might eventually get there, but I expect a Homer Bailey or even Randy Johnson sputtering start to his career. That's what I see as 4-6 years taking to happen, he might make the majors earlier, but I don't think that, based on his numbers, he's going to reach his potential in that short a time.
His numbers suggest to me that he is still struggling to get batters out in Advanced A, not dominating enough to strike out an extraordinary rate plus not enough control to not walk a lot of lowly Advanced A hitters.
I debated whether to put out the Sabean thing out there. I wasn't happy with Wheeler's progress and the trade just kind of confirmed my thoughts. Nobody's infallible, but their rule about trades is that nobody on their keeper list is traded, so at minimum, Sabean and gang do not think that Wheeler is a keeper. They may not be perfect, but I would bet on that.
Still, his numbers were not impressive to me in the Cal League. I understand your visceral attachment to him because of what you saw. I really liked Shawn Estes when I saw him throw a 1 or 2 hitter in a game. I mentioned the Ishikawa homer. But I didn't see Wheeler.
I only have his stats and they don't scream out to me that he is that good right now, and it's only Advanced A. A #1 starter, and that is the level I was expecting him to be, would not be merely good, and his numbers were good, he should be dominating. His walk rate would only go up with each level given where he was developmentally in San Jose, and it was pretty bad in A+.
Again, not that he won't eventually reach #1 starter status, I just don't feel that he will in the short time table you laid out for him, at minimum, it will take a while longer than that, I believe. And I guess I need that clarification from you, are you talking he'll be like Matt Cain arriving in the majors in 2014 or are you only talking that he can take a spot?
I'm saying he's not going to figure it out right away, kind of like Dirty or the Unit. That pushes it out to at least 2015-2016, which is many years after he is drafted and after when we need to replace our top pitchers, if they do bolt as many fear.
I challenge you to produce any evidence that Sabes has any such "rule" about trades. Yes, I know about the track record, but Sabes himself said this was a unique situation and trading Wheeler had nothing to do with what they thought of him as a prospect and he expects Wheeler to do very well with the Mets. He did say that the Giants preferred to keep Brown. I happen to think they traded the wrong guy even though I expect Brown to be the CF of the future and a good one. We'll see how it turns out.
DeleteSabes has indicated that part of the reason for trading Wheeler over Brown is that Tidrow is confident the Giants have enough power arms in the organization that at least 1 or 2 will emerge to replace Wheeler.
DeleteFor some reason, I get this mental picture of that conversation between Tidrow and Sabes going something like this:
BS: Hey Tids! You know, we have to trade either Zach Wheeler or Gary Brown to get Beltran and well, you know, we have to start showing we can produce hitters sometime. Do we have enough pitching down there to trade Wheels?
DT: Are you kidding, Sabes? We have arms up the wazzoo! I mean, who do you think you're talking to here, Sabes? We can find pitchers anywhere? Have you already forgotten about Ryan Vogelsong? Any time you need a pitcher, Sabes, just give the word and I'll find one for you.
BS: OK, Tids. I feel better already. Man, I hate do give up Wheels, but you're my man Tids. I know you won't let me down on this one.
Out-of-left-field question for any of you knowledgeables here: What level of play is the Venezuelan league? I've been looking back over some of the earlier prospect postings and the ensuing discussions and was wondering about the relative quality that Hector Sanchez raked against this fall. I'd assume there are plenty of wash-outs, but is it comparable to the AFL? Better? Are there legit ML pitchers that go there to get seasoned?
ReplyDeleteI'm just looking to get a feel for these side leagues and what kind of competition our minor leaguers are getting out there.
VWL tends to favor hitters. Pablo Sandoval and Jesus Guzman have put up crazy numbers there in the past. Of course, Sandoval and Guzman are both darn good hitters. I'd say AFL is a pretty good comp. The DWL, on the other hand, is a pretty extreme pitcher's league which makes Peguero and Belts performances there very encouraging.
Delete