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Celebrate good times, c’mon!

Matt Wieters, C, Orioles (Triple-A Norfolk)
Tuesday’s stats: 4-for-4, 2B, 4 RBI, BB
With the announcement that Wieters will be in the big leagues on Friday, the top prospect in baseball decided to go out in style with his first four-hit game of the year. For all of the questions as to what’s wrong with Weiters, the guy is hitting .305/.387/.504, which just shows how crazy the hype has gotten. With Wieters in the big leagues later this week and Price hitting the majors, the fun question now is who’s the best prospect still in the minors? I’ll take Madison Bumgarner.
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This is just getting ridiculous

Josh Vitters, 3B, Cubs (Low-A Peoria)
Tuesday’s stats: 2-for-4, HR (11), 2 R, RBI, BB

With last week’s streak of four straight games with three hits and a home runs out of the way, Vitters now is on another role with home runs in four of his last five games. Adding up his last ten contests, one gets a 19-for-43 run with three doubles and eight bombs. I’m just out of words of praise here as it’s one of the hottest streaks in recent memory.

Tough day at the office

Andrew Brackman, RHP, Yankees (Low-A Charleston)
Tuesday’s stats: 3.1 IP, 1 H, 3 R, 10 BB, 1 K

When pitchers are off a bit, they tend to have command troubles. When that pitcher is six-foot-ten, it can equal nightmares, as the 2007 first-round pick not only walked ten of the 19 batters he faced, he also uncorked five wild pitches. How he gave up just three runs involves a lot of smoke and mirrors and his teammates rallied in the middle innings for a 9-4 win.
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He seems to really miss his brother

Jordan Danks, OF, White Sox (Double-A Birmingham)
Tuesday’s stats: 3-for-4, HR (2), 2 R, RBI, BB, CS
After getting through the Carolina League in about a month, Danks is now showing little trouble getting the job done at the upper levels, going 14-for-26 with five walks in his last seven games to raise his Southern League averages to .391/.473/.531. With that kind of production, people stop wonder about why his six-foot-four, 210 pound frame doesn’t generate more power, and start wondering about how quickly he can get to the big leagues.

Anything but nepotism

Alex Avila, C, Tigers (Double-A Erie)
Tuesday’s stats: 3-for-4, RBI, K
Not an eyebrow was raised with the Tigers selected Avila in the fifth round of last year’s draft. Despite being the son of assistant general manager Al Avila, his son was one of the more solid college catchers on the board. Now 9-for-19 in his last five games and batting .292/.368/.475 overall at Double-A in his first full year, Avila’s once-maligned defense has been even more impressive, as he’s committed just one error on the season while gunning down 22 of 48 attempted base stealers.

Sleeper alert

Dusty Coleman, SS, Athletics (Low-A Kane County)

Tuesday’s stats: 1-for-4, HR (7), 2 R, 2 RBI, BB

The A’s certainly had their most aggressive draft in 2008, which included giving Coleman a $675,000 bonus as a draft-eligible sophomore in the 28th round. Rangy and athletic, Coleman has been a surprising source of power for the Cougars this year, slugging .561 thanks to 27 of his 48 hits going for extra-bases while showing off a strong arm from the left side of the infield.

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alskor
5/27
So, in your opinion, Andrew Brackman should not be considered a top 100 prospect, right?
SirVLCIV
5/27
Huh? Where would you read anything like that in his post?
alskor
5/27
Just wanted him to weigh in. The guy is kind of a train wreck (Kevin previously described him as having "more red flags than a Chinese army parade") and has shown pretty uninspiring results against younger competition so far this year... but he still gets a ton of hype and has laughably been on the BA top 100 two years running. He still has a lot of fanboys for some reason and I was hoping KG would weigh in with the industry consensus on this guy.
kgoldstein
5/27
He wasn't in my top 100 coming into the year, nor was he even close to being considered.
stevedorsch
5/27
Can we wrap Wieters in bubble wrap and lock him in his hotel room until Friday? How about a police escort up 95?
ehunke
5/27
When do you see Hanson getting the call?
phnath
5/27
Kevin - any plans to talk about Carlos Gonzalez? He hasn't had that single "wow" game but batting .342 w/a 1.103 OPS and much improved BB/K rate sure looks like he's turned a corner.
jnewfry
5/27
He was in yesterday's list...
Ophidian
5/27
It's in Colorado Springs, you have to discount the numbers somewhat...
Ophidian
5/27
Kevin, any commentary on the Fernando Martinez callup or Travis Snider demotion?
lnodolf
5/27
Josh Vitters in low A, Jason Heyward in high A,Why all the hype if they are so low on the food chain, lets see what they do in AAA first...
kgoldstein
5/27
So I'm supposed to ignore 80% of the minors? I think digging for the gems there is what the readers want as opposed to the latter.
fantasy
5/28
without question.
gwguest
5/27
It's not hype, it's facts.
funkland
5/28
Speaking of toolsy late round bonus guys for the A's - where's Rashun Dixon? I'd figured him to be at Kane County last year after doing so well in the AZ League.
rscully
5/28
Not to lessen Vitters's achievement by association, but didn't a late-career Cal Pickering have a crazy streak like that maybe four years ago? (Seriously, I'm not making any point about Vitters at all, just wondering about the last streak like this.)
lvxlibertas
5/28
Dusty Coleman's production is even more impressive considering that it's coming in the Midwest League. Ultimately, what's his ceiling with the bat?