Notice: Trying to get property 'display_name' of non-object in /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-seo/src/generators/schema/article.php on line 52
keyboard_arrow_uptop

The minor league playoffs are a fleeting thing. People don’t tend to remember who wins, the statistics aren’t easy to find, and they’re just quickly forgotten as we move onto the Arizona Fall League and next year. Before we totally wipe the slate clean, here are the ten performances from the minor leagues’ postseasons worth noting.


Bobby Borchering, 3B, Diamondbacks (Short-Season Missoula)

Seen by many as the top pure high school hitter in this year’s draft, Borchering’s .241 batting average in 22 regular-season games for the Ospreys could be written off as a small-sample size, rustiness due to the long time off due to his contract negotiations, or any number of factors. The impressive thing is that, of his 21 hits, 11 went for extra bases, and that power continued to show up in the Pioneer League playoffs, as the 18-year-old went 9-for-28, but with just two singles, as he belted four doubles, a triple, a pair of home runs to drive in 10 runs in just six games. His swing-at-everything approach needs to get tightened up, but the bat is pretty special.


Chris Carter, 1B, Athletics (Triple-A Sacramento)

Carter certainly finished the season with a bang. Your minor league leader in total bases for each of the past two years, Carter hit .424/.525/.800 during the month of August for Double-A Midland, and then slugged four home runs in 13 Triple-A games to finish the regular season. He was even better in the playoffs, adding four more bombs in seven games. His sudden ability to hit for average definitely seems to have some basis in reality, as scouts saw a better approach, fewer bad swings, and a sharp decline in him swinging on top of pitches. Is he the 2010 Opening Day first baseman in Oakland? It just might happen.


Travis D’Arnaud, C, Phillies (Low-A Lakewood)

Entering the year as the fourth-best prospect in the system, I certainly was higher on D’Arnaud than most observers, and that high ranking looked foolish as he barely kept his average above the Mendoza line for much of the first half of the year. I was buoyed somewhat this summer by a conversation with a scout who said, “I have no idea how a guy that good is hitting only .200.” Happily for all concerned, everything turned around after the All-Star break, as D’Arnaud hit .302/.366/.473 during the second half of the year, and that continued through the playoffs, as the 20-year-old backstop went 9-for-23 (.391) with four doubles. My point is that, despite a final season line of .255/.319/.419, I don’t think his stock is down much, if at all.


Jaime Garcia, LHP, Cardinals (Triple-A Memphis)

After years of elbow issues, Garcia finally had a Tommy John procedure at the end of the 2008 season, but he’s seemingly back, and now better than ever. While it seems like he’s been around forever, he’s only 23, and after returning late in the year and making nine regular-season starts across three levels, Garcia was downright dominant in the Pacific Coast League playoffs, firing 12 innings without allowing an earned run while giving up only four hits. He struck out 13, had a ground-ball ratio of nearly 3-to-1, and his unique sinker/curve combination looks as sharp as ever. He’ll get a legitimate look next spring, and he could be a big contributor at the big-league level by the time next summer arrives.


Jeremy Hellickson, RHP, Rays (Triple-A Durham)

Hellickson finished the year as one of the hottest pitchers in the game, striking out 41 over 27 innings in his last four starts while limiting batters to just ten hits. That success continued in the playoffs; while Hellickson made only two starts for the eventual International League champs, he struck out 18 more in 12 1/3 innings. Three of the eight hits he gave up were home runs, and he does have a tendency to elevate his pitches at times, but everything else in his scouting reports say he’s nearly big-league ready.


Austin Jackson, OF, Yankees (Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre)

Jackson had a good postseason, reaching base 14 times in seven games, and while that might not be exactly worthy of this list, I just wanted to make a point here. For some reason, 2009 became the year to start dismissing Jackson as a prospect, and I just don’t understand why. His power dipped to just four home runs, but while moving up to Triple-A he raised his batting average 15 points as part of a .300/.354/.405 overall line, while all of his other ratios remained solid and his scouting report look pretty much like last year’s version. Maybe it was the expectation that he’d be in the big leagues this year, but the emergence of Brett Gardner had more to do with Jackson staying in the minors than how well Jackson has played.


David Lough, OF, Royals (Double-A Northwest Arkansas)

Lough is such a mixed bag as a prospect. Clearly the breakout hitter in the Royals’ system this year, he hit .325/.370/.496 across two levels with 14 home runs and 19 stolen bases; he’s also arguably the best athlete in the organization. At the same time, his small-college background leaves him as a player who turns 24 in January with only 61 games of experience in the upper levels, and an impatient approach (24 walks in 458 at-bats this year) that concerns onlookers. The total package is eerily similar to that of David DeJesus, and while that’s hardly a world beater, it’s not a bad thing either.


Logan Morrison, 1B, Marlins (Double-A Jacksonville)

Morrison was reduced to half of a season by a wrist injury, but he remained an on-base machine upon his return, including a .277/.411/.442 line for the Suns. In seven playoffs games, he had a .515 on-base percentage by going 9-for-25 with eight walks, but there’s still an open question about his power potential. The wrist injury certainly didn’t help, and he hit plenty of home runs in last year’s Arizona Fall League, but at the same time, he has just 21 home runs in his last 212 minor league games. Are the crazy-good on-base skills enough to compensate for it? Not if he’s a first base-only type (which he is), and that’s why I have a hard time putting him in that elite-level category.


Tyson Ross, RHP, Athletics (Double-A Midland)

Can I start picking guys for 2010 breakouts? If so, let me throw a few chips down on Ross. A second-round pick in 2008 out of the University of California, Ross is a bit of a conundrum on a scouting level, as he’s a long-bodied, powerful righty with a very good sinker/slider combination, but he’s also a guy with questionable mechanics, and thus questionable command and control. The A’s made some changes with him following a promotion to Double-A late in the season, and he responded by delivering shutout performances in three of his last four starts with a huge ground-ball ratio of nearly 3 to 1. That ratio shot up to 3.5-to-1 in a pair of playoff stars, while he began to miss bats as well, recording 19 whiffs in 12 1/3 innings. All systems could be go for a 2010 takeoff.


Carlos Santana, C, Indians (Double-A Akron)

Santana was the easy choice for Eastern League MVP this year, as he hit .290/.413/.530 in 130 games, and he followed that by pacing the eventual league champs with three home runs in seven post-season games while reaching base 14 times. The only question at this point is when he arrives in the big leagues. Lou Marson is Cleveland’s likely big-league starter to begin the 2010 season, but one way or another that doesn’t seem like it will last long.

Thank you for reading

This is a free article. If you enjoyed it, consider subscribing to Baseball Prospectus. Subscriptions support ongoing public baseball research and analysis in an increasingly proprietary environment.

Subscribe now
You need to be logged in to comment. Login or Subscribe
faithdies
9/22
No Trevor May!? He MURDERED the competition.
kgoldstein
9/22
May certainly earned consideration, tossing 11 shutout innings with five hits, five walks and 11 strikeouts. Scouts have been very impressed with him, and he's definitely a Top 11 guy.
faithdies
9/22
That sounded harsher than I meant it too, haha.
irablum
9/22
Thanks for the article. Are you going to be doing one on the Baseball World Cup as well? (Dying to hear some Smoak Smack)

kgoldstein
9/22
You probably don't want to hear from me there then. Don't get me wrong, it's great that Smoak is absolutely KILLING it (14-for-35 with nine home runs), but how many of those came off of legitimate pitching? The team is hitting .311/.390/.650 AS A TEAM, scoring 8.6 runs a game. Sure beats the heck out of him having no home runs, but the performances here aren't very telling of . . . well, anything.
antoine6
9/22
KG: I know you seem to be down on Anthony Gose more than others (and taking nothing away from D'Arnaud and May, who are probably better overall prospects), but did he get consideration here too?
kgoldstein
9/22
Am I more down on him than most? I like a lot of things about Gose, he just doesn't come without a fair number of concerns.
antoine6
9/22
Maybe I was being unfair to you--I remember you quoting a scout saying he didn't believe Gose was as good as people might think (an 18-year old hitting around .270 with 70 SBs in full-season ball). Obviously, that's the scout's opinion, not yours.

I guess we will get your full take on him in the Top 11--I would think he's certainly in that group, right?
faithdies
9/22
Phew...Tough to make the new Phillies top ten at this point...but the sleepers will be fun.

Singleton, Valle, May, Santana...
wonkothesane1
9/22
Nobody from the Fort Wayne Tin Caps. I guess you already touched on Simon Castro a couple of times. Has Vince Belnome ever made it here?
dcarroll
9/22
How good a comp would Nick Johnson be for Logan Morrison? Lot of walks, so-so power, even an injury...
kgoldstein
9/23
I think he's a better athlete, and I'm hardly ready to call him injury prone or anything.
jarjets89
9/22
WIll Bobby Borchering get realistic top 100 consideration?
kgoldstein
9/23
Consideration? Absolutely.
jarjets89
9/23
great, thanks.
jarjets89
9/22
Did anyone realize how many of the kids in the LLWS favorite player was Jaime Garcia? there was more then a few who said that, how did he get this attention
JoshC77
9/23
Was it a LL team from the Memphis area? If so, that would explain it.

I remember a few years ago when a bunch of kids from an Iowa team in the LLWS named Hee Seop Choi as their favorite player.
tonipeluso
9/22
Kevin I'm assuming you'll be covering the Arizona Fall League, but what about the other Winter Leagues? Like the Mexican or Carribean when they start up in October. And if you are not covering, can you point me in the right direction where there is good coverage? I read somewhere Carter is going to the Mexican Pacific League to play winter ball, I'd like to see how he fares. But for the life of me I can't any roster's for the MPL.
JKiersky
9/22
If my memory serves me right (it's a 35 on the 20-80 scale), Kevin does the AFL and the Top 11 stuff while another cat does the Caribbean (can't remember his name) and Central America stuff. There will be coverage on BP.com I'm almost certain.
kgoldstein
9/23
There will be coverage.
Meddler1
9/22
Re: Jackson

How many 130 strikeout, single digit homer guys succeed in the majors?
alskor
10/08
Ive heard some positive things about Jackson's swing... but having seen it a few times now (months apart) it seems like an awfully long/slow stroke.
jtrichey
9/23
Kevin, I've been eager to hear anything you might have to say about Angel Villalona.
kgoldstein
9/23
I'm not sure what I can say. Obviously he's facing a serious charge right now, and even if he is found innocent, just the time involved is probably going to have SOME effect on his development. Just too much we don't know.
jtrichey
9/23
And now I am also eager to see what you have to say about Wagner Mateo.
hotstatrat
9/23
Looking at Jackson statistically, he doesn't seem to have progressed the last two years. That's why his stock is falling. The numbers show that the only reason Jackson raised his batting average this year is because he was much luckier with hitting balls where they aint. His BABiP was a whopping .390.