What Cole Hamels accomplished in his first 13 trips to the mound as a professional ballplayer is simply astounding.
Starts Innings Hits Home Runs Walks Strikeouts ERA
13 74 2/3 32 0 25 115 0.84
He faced 268 batters and retired all but 60 of them. No less than 43% of the plate appearances by opposing hitters ended with the umpire yelling strike three. His rate of 13.86 strikeouts-per-nine-innings is a remarkable 95% above the league average and the best of any full-season starter in the game. There’s no question that Hamels earned his promotion to the Florida State League.
The Florida Marlins have been in the news quite a bit lately. Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera have arrived in Miami with great fanfare, with Willis’ performance being one of the reasons the Marlins can still consider themselves in the playoff hunt. More recently, Florida parted with three prospects, including former number one overall pick Adrian Gonzalez, to acquire Ugueth Urbina. The Marlins were willing to part with Gonzalez because of the presence of Jason Stokes, also a first baseman whom the Marlins view in a more positive light. However, one name who has been kept out of the spotlight is Jeremy Hermida, who just may be the Marlins best hitting prospect, and one of the more unheralded young players in the game.
The Cleveland Indians farm system received a large amount of recognition during the past year. Cleveland’s pool of developing talent went from barren to overflowing with a few wise trades, compensation draft picks for free agent losses, and emerging prospects all coinciding last summer. Their major league roster contains 11 rookies, and an influx of talent like that will almost certainly result in a depleted minor league stable. The Indians’ young talent base doesn’t end in Cleveland, however…
This Sunday at 5:30 p.m. EST, Major League Baseball will present the fifth annual showcase of the premier minor league talents in the game. It receives an ESPN2 time slot usually reserved for reruns of the 1976 World Strongest Man competition and gets about the same amount of national attention, but you’d be hard pressed to find a better place to watch talent assemble. There are eight major league All-Stars this year who have participated in one of the four Futures Game contests, and that number will only rise as improving players like Lance Berkman, Joel Pineiro, and Brett Myers find their way to the big stage in the coming years. However, since the game doesn’t receive much in the way of promotion (shocking, I know), people still ask questions. So, here are some answers.
Welcome to the first installment of Top 10 Prospects, Baseball Prospectus’ weekly look at the 10 best prospects currently active in the minor leagues. Every week, David Cameron will look at those prospects who display the best combination of long-term potential, current performance, historical performance, and minimal risk. He’ll also include a weekly list of Honorable Mentions, and Rising and Falling prospects. Dig in to find out who made the list.
Despite a nearly universal bias against them, short pitchers have found a willing taker in Houston. David Cameron reports on the Astros’ stable of diminutive pitchers and the success teams can have by ignoring an old truism, in this edition of Prospecting.
David Cameron kicks off his weekly look at the minor leagues with a player profile of White Sox prospect Jeremy Reed.
This week, Baseball Prospectus 2003 will be released to bookstores nationwide. To celebrate the release of the book, we’re announcing our Top 40 Prospects here at the Web site.
Part two of our look at the top 40 prospects.