Explains the slow start for Marte in A+ ball. Also maybe we should look at some of the Pitchers in A and wider if maybe they are there a bit too early.GL_Storm wrote: ↑Wed Jul 20, 2022 2:08 amA few interesting bits from a Baseball America podcast I just finished listening to. The overall subject was their midseason top 100 update.
1) Evaluators right now aren't too enthusiastic about the top players on the Top 100 list. This doesn't come just from BA but I've heard the same from Baseball Prospectus, which did their mid-season update recently as well. It seems to be sort of a cyclic thing, and this is just the down part of the cycle where a lot of the top guys have graduated off the list and the real up and coming guys are still too low in the minors.
2) The quality of pitching in Single-A (i.e. low-A) is pretty terrible right now across all three leagues. It's very uncommon to find pitchers at this level with 3 or even 2 pitches that they have any sort of command over, other than soft-tossing control artists. So it's sort of a binary situation where the hitter is facing some guy with great stuff but no command or has below average pitch quality with much better command. This is directly related to the elimination of the short-season class A level, which in previous years would be used as an additional level to help with that pitch development.
For us, I think this has some relevance in terms of tempering our enthusiasm for Harry Ford and Edwin Arroyo. Not that we shouldn't be happy about how well they're doing, but maybe just keep in mind that the jump to the next level may be the hard one. It also makes me wonder if some of the up and comers like Gonzalez, Montes, and the other Arroyo will be wasting their time at Modesto. Just food for thought.
3) Kyle Glaser gave a Noelvi update, saying that he seems to have turned it around, which bears with our own observations here. He also said that his criticism earlier in the year came at least in part from Mariners insiders. He then cited an issue with Noelvi as sort of going through stages where he's unprepared and not really ready to play, which then shows in his performance, and then something clicks or whatever and he gets his shit together and things start going well again and he'll have a good month or two. This makes me wonder about the coaching aspect of the minor leagues, though of course the player has responsibility as well. But I wonder if playing at AA, with players that have made it to that level, would help with driving in the importance of preparation for each game.
Montes should go straight to A ball next year. No ACL for him. Gonzales should get promoted now to let him hit in A ball so he can go to Everett next season. Arroyo and Ford should be promoted, Marte as well.
