Wednesday Pebble Report:
by Rox Girl on May 21, 2008 10:51 AM MDT
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PrintLuckily only two games on the slate last night, making the Pebble Report easy to do this morning. My most recent farm report post compared the different fortunes in 2008 of the Rockies two top pitching prospects heading into the season, Franklin Morales and Greg Reynolds.
Colorado Springs: W 3-2
The two hottest bats in the PCL heading into this contest were left handed sluggers Seth Smith and Ian Stewart. For the first time in two weeks, neither of them did much of note, but luckily a third left-handed slugger was there to pick up the slack. Joe Koshansky, therefore, gets the props this morning for his three hit, two RBI night that led the Sox to a close victory over Kirk Saarloos and Sacramento. Respect should go to Saarloos, who held Stewart and Smith to a zero for seven night with just one walk, but some respect should also be given to Glendon Rusch, who in his system debut for the Sky Sox allowed just two hits in five innings and struck out five.
Asheville: W 10-2
Sheng An Kuo gave up ten hits in his eight innings, but he did pitch eight innings. He walked none, struck out six and got a quality start for the fourth time in his last five appearances. The offense was obviously there to back him, including two hits each for Darin Holcomb and Jeff Cunningham. Cunningham homered and doubled and drove in four. Jhoulys Chacin is having another terrific start right now in a day game, but the Tourists are currently down two to one in the eighth inning.
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Question
Casey Weathers has a 1.53 ERA and a 1.02 WHIP after 17.1 IP. When is he going to be ready for a call-up (and I don’t mean to Colo. Springs)?
Put another way, is Weathers a better pitcher right now than Arias or Newman?
There is a bright side to the '08 season.
Barry Bonds & Roger Clemens are out of baseball.
I wouldn't expect him until August at the earliest. Possibly a September only call-up
He’s probably pretty close to being ready to be an effective MLB reliever right now, but I think the Rockies won’t promote him to big leagues early if they don’t have too. I think in this case it will come down to a financial decision of when they want to start his service clock. Definitely not right now, when he’d likely become a super-two arbitration eligible player. He’s got enough command issues that the team has an easy non-financial justification for holding him back, but as is the case with Ian Stewart, money’s probably a much larger issue than the team is letting on.
Chacin and Asheville
just wrapped up another W. He is pitching at an extremely high level right now, going 8 w/ 10 K’s, 3 BB’s and 3 hits. Does anyone see him movng early to Modesto or will he finish in Asheville?
Also Stewart drew a walk and stole a base to get in position to score the 1st run last night, so he wasn’t completely shut down. He seems to be running a little more lately, that would be a nice addition to his game.
Stew's a pretty smart baserunner.
It’s not really an addition to his game so much as an occasional bonus.
As for Chacin, the Rockies never promote young players at the A level midseason, especially pitchers. The last one I can remember was Ubaldo Jimenez, and they promoted him in time for exactly one start at Visalia in 2003. That said, I don’t recall a starter this dominant at Asheville this early, and Chacin seems like a very possible exception right now. I wouldn’t count on it, but if anybody in the system were to do it, he’s the guy.
I do not see
how the Rocks do not move up Chacin to Modesto. Modesto’s 5 starters are like between 2=7 and 4-3. Chacin is 7-1 and is actually dominating at the level he is at.
Those records say a lot more about how pathetic Modesto's offense has been
Than it does about how their starters have done. But you’re point that Chacin would likely outperform most, if not all, of the Nuts starters probably remains true.
i agree with you
Rox on the offense also, but I also know that Chacin has been arguably the MOST consistent pitcher in the organization in his last 2 years. Maybe it is because of his level of play or maybe, just maybe, the Rocks have something really good brewing here. Personally, I’d just as soon find out sooner than the 4 years they probably have planned for him lol.
I actually did some research for a change ...
and came up with these birthdays:
Weathers – 6/10/85
Clay Buchholz (late ‘07 callup) – 8/14/84
Justin Masterson (called up for 1 excellent game yesterday by Boston) – 3/85
Joba the Yankee (mid-’07 callup) – 9/23/85 (so Weathers is 3 mos. older than Joba).
Age-wise, there should be no impediment to calling Weathers up. And a major justification for drafting college players instead of high schoolers is supposedly less need for minor-league seasoning.
The “super-two” status is a factor, though.
But if this season doesn’t get turned around pretty soon, there’s really no reason not to bring Weathers up after the AllStar break. He can learn things pitching meaningless games in Denver as well as he can in Tulsa or Colo. Springs. And we don’t exactly need to find out what Victor Zambrano can do.
And … somewhat off subject … while I was researching & checking Weathers’ excellent 1.02 WHIP (my favorite stat for relievers), I was surprised to see he doesn’t have the lowest WHIP on the Drillers’ staff. An Aussie reliever named Adam Bright has these stats: 2-1, 1.16 ERA, 20 K’s in 23.1 IP, 0.90 WHIP. Pretty impressive. He’s about a year older than Weathers. Is he a real prospect, or are these just early season numbers that are likely to change?
There is a bright side to the '08 season.
Barry Bonds & Roger Clemens are out of baseball.
Bright's our best LOOGY on the farm
Now that Newman’s in Denver. He’s got more upside than Josh, with better stuff, but hasn’t had the same sort of dominance in his K rate and has had some command trouble in the past. Whereas Newman’s got that tricky changeup, Bright can actually throw it past hitters on occasion.
He’s a prospect, but as a low ceiling relief pitcher he won’t get as much attention.
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