Nick Noonan, IF. DOB: 5/4/1989. 6'1", 170 lbs. B-L, T-R.
AAA: .296/.347/.416, 9 HR, 7 SB.
Nick Noonan had a solid season at the plate for Fresno while playing multiple positions, including SS. The position flexibility opens up multiple paths to the major leagues, if nothing else, as a reserve/utility player. Seems to me the Hairstons have had long careers and made a lot of money using this game plan.
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Does he have the arm to play 3B? While he obviously doesn't profile as a real SS, he has played there, so having that availability in a pinch is helpful... I almost like Noonan's situation because he doesn't have a ton of outside pressure to perform, as he's not considered a top-flight prospect. He's still only 24 years old, let him marinate in AAA another year and a half, and give him some opps during the spring to see if he can hold his own with real pitching.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't mind seeing him develop into a 500k version of Fontenot or Theriot.
His best fit as a fulltime player is probably 2B, but it looks like he can play other positions well enough to be a utility guy. I think Fonty/Riot comps are not too far off.
DeleteI still love Noonan as a prospect. He's been too young for his league for much of his career, which will damp down the performances of any prospect who is not a top prospect. Only top prospects can hope to do well in a league when they are younger than the league. What has been unfair to him, I think, is that he came in with Utley comparisons (except for power, which of course was a key factor in why Utley is Utley), and that hyped him up in many people's eyes, I think.
ReplyDeletehe's still only 24 for the 2013 season, which is still young for AAA, but he did OK in the league in 2012. I still hope to see the low K, high walk, high BA guy I saw at the end of his SJ season eventually as he matures and catches up in age to the leagues, and be the high OBP guy he looked like back then, with some pop. His path, the way I see it, is making the majors as a backup, showing off what he can do over time, and then earning a chance to win a spot.
I don't recall him ever having much of an arm, making 2B his main hope for a starting position, but if he can be acceptable at SS, he should be able to handle 3B as a utility guy. I think that he and Panik will be matriculating around the same time and will battle for the 2B starting position by 2014-15 period, which of course, means they will be challenging Scutaro. Don't know who will win out, Panik and Noonan seem to be similar types of players: baseball smart, OK enough for SS, but 2B more ideal, high BA, OBP hitters with enough pop, little SB/speed. He needs to show more and soon, if he hopes to get 2B before Panik, who has a huge lead over him, prospect-wise right now, so he could end up being a utility guy for us before getting thrown into a trade elsewhere and getting a chance there.
Noonan, however, used to steal a lot, and I don't know what happened to that, he went from a lot to a little, just like that, with no notice of injury that I can recall. If he can resurrect that, it could give him an edge, but after so many years, it looks doubtful that he can ever return to that. I think he will need to outhit Panik, and that requires a big jump in 2013, similar to his jump in 2012.
I seem to recall that Noonan lost the better part of one season due to injury. I don't think it was one big injury but a lot of little ones. Sometimes those can take a bigger toll. We'll see. Agree it is still too soon to give up on him. I agree his likeliest path to the majors is as a utility guy at first.
DeleteThought someone should mention D-backs Upton trade: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20130124&content_id=41138374&vkey=perspectives&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb
ReplyDeleteHave to think that they shot themselves in the foot by not making a deal before. Really? That's all the Braves have to give up for a top player like that? Unless, as BtB notes, there is something the D-backs know that nobody else knows. But a good player like that should have brought them at least two good pitching prospects PLUS Prado. Instead, they got a bundle of Top 13 prospects (but 6-13, all huge question marks). Plus Randall Delgado appears to have missed part of the season due to injury, he only got into 25 starts in the season, that's roughly 6-8 weeks of starts. He wasn't even that good in the majors so far, though he shows promise. For Upton, they should have gotten at least two top prospects for him, Prado or no Prado, particularly since he's so old already and under one year of control.
So that is good for the Giants, D-backs is probably better in 2013 due to the trade because they just have too many staring OF, but worse off long term, you can't give up talent like that without getting good talent back, they just got a bunch of lottery tickets, even Delgado, who was not that great in the majors, or AAA for that matter. There is the strong possibility that they essentially traded Upton for Prado and an innings eater.
Screwed up, this is the link to their prospects: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20130124&content_id=41136436&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb
DeleteAgree the D'Backs did not get enough for Upton. I like Prado, but there is a vast difference in ceiling between Upton and Prado. Not sure what the D'Backs are doing down there. Just about a year ago, it looked like they were building something really awesome. Right now, it looks like a huge mess.
DeleteOur long national nightmare is over. I have no idea what Towers is doing, but one thing I've been looking at is the Alderson/Towers relationship in SD, and the drafts they had together. There were some stock up the picks drafts that don't look so hot. Now the Mets are trying for an exemption from losing a draft pick to go sign Michael Bourn as well, as they finished 10th and got bumped by the Pirates/Appel fiasco. Mets fans are grumbling big time about the first two Alderson drafts, that aroused my curiousity on Alderson's ability to grab talent.
DeleteGM is only as good as his draft is run.
DeleteSabean, being a scout, knows if what his scouts are saying is B.S. or not more often than Alderson, who was brought in from the outside into baseball. Alderson needs to rely on the advice of his scouts to a greater degree. Plus, his great A's years were built from losing all those other seasons, which gave them great picks. And even if he has developed this over the years, you can't change the existing scouting structure in one or two off-seasons, it takes time, look at how bad Sabean's drafts were until Tidrow came on.
As badly as the Mets have done in recent seasons, he got the 13th pick overall then the 12th pick overall, neither of which are very likely to develop into a good player. Mets fans probably won't get a good grasp of how good or bad he really is, for them, until after five drafts (2011-2015) and then after another 3-5 years, to see how they turn out.
Of course, Nimmo and Cecchini don't look like a good start. But at around 20% odds of finding a good player with picks in that range, assuming that is the right odds, that means 80% chance of failure and together 64% chance that both fails, 32% chance that one of them becomes good, and 4% that both are good.
Nimmo, being only 19 in a league of average 21 YO, actually did pretty well there, he was among the top 19 YO in OBP and OPS. Even SLG. Poor contact rate, but he's much younger than competition there, so I rather focus on his above average batting line despite that disadvantage. His OPS was over 100 points better than average despite being so much younger. He also flashed some power, over 40% XBH%, as he catches up in physical maturity, those doubles will start turning into homers. He actually looks like a nice prospect on the move up. I would keep an eye on him.
According to an MLB article, Prado is looking for $10M per year, probably 3-4 years I would think. That seems high to me for him, what do you all think?
DeleteI like Prado. He doesn't hit for a lot of power but he plays all over and has consistently put up pretty good #s. I'd say 10MM at 3-4 years sounds good. Apparently the D-backs are locking him up quick, and he was essential to the trade.
DeleteLooking at 2014 FA, we'll potentially have Timmy, Zito ($18MM Option/7MM buyout baby!), Javy Lopez and Pence. The guys that stood out as interesting are Prado, David Murphy, Carlos Gomez if he continues his power surge, and Shin-Shoo Choo. Of note: the much maligned Jeff Francoeur is a FA, he might be a cheap trade target in July if we need a plug in. Relatively cheap. Flawed? Oh yeah. But good defense, good arm and can hit the ball out. Didn't look hard at the pitchers. Josh Johnson might make it to FA, Matt Garza, Dan Haren. Timmy will have some competition.