With the big club faltering, what else are we going to talk about but the future?
Anyway, a couple of days ago Denverbearsfan brought up the always gray ethical dilemma of when the team is this bad, do you secretly hope the team loses in order to secure the best possible upside player at next year's draft? I never responded there, but I will now.
No, but I do sometimes secretly hope we lose more than the fourth worst team as that is looking like the most likely cut line for top tier talent next year. As of right now, Andrew Miller and Ian Kennedy are a little bit ahead of Daniel Bard and Dallas Buck (based on what they've shown over the summer as much as last year) as far as college pitching, and Kyle Drabek seems a bit ahead of the high school pack. As far as position talent, there isn't a Justin Upton or Alex Gordon who screams "top pick" at the moment, but who knows, a lot can change between now and what looks to be the end of June next year. Anyway, I still feel that as long as we have one of the top three picks, we'll be able to get a fairly polished potential top of the rotation starter, which is something we always need.
Anyway, if you want a rundown of the minors, Rockiesbiggestfan gave a brief one last night in yesterday's Pebble Report comments.
Justin Hampson goes against Mike Thompson in Portland this afternoon. Hamp's been solid the last couple of outings, let's see if he can keep it up. Also today, Zach Parker pitches for Tulsa, and Aaron Marsden for Modesto. By the way, if you're wondering why Dreamy-eyed Marc Kaiser was skipped, it was "due to slight stiffness in his throwing shoulder" and he'll be back Wednesday, but merits monitoring. Plus, from the same Notes column, apparently the Monforts and Keli McGregor were in Modesto last night and today.
No game in Asheville today, but there's a good article by Tyler Norris Goode in the Citizen Times featuring assistant director of player personnel, Mark Gustafson's views of not only Asheville's current crop, but a hint of who will be on the squad next year. From the article:
It should be a good day for short season prospect watching as it's Zach Simons' turn for Tri-City and I think Aneury Rodriguez's for Casper (somebody correct me if I'm wrong on that).
Sorry, that preamble turned out a lot longer than I thought it would. I'll shut up and let you guys comment now.