MLB Prospect Watch

Prospect Potent Potables - 6/26

I know us baseball fans cringe at sharing time during our season with soccer (must be something about all those youth soccer leagues stealing kids away from little league), but it's tough to argue with a good reason to head to a bar on a Saturday afternoon and cheer for your country.

• Mike Stanton is struggling in the majors thus far (as should have been initially expected) and has been dropped from 7th to 8th in the Marlins batting order, according to Joe Frisaro of MLB.com.
• The Red Sox have sent OF Josh Reddick back to the minors, reports Alden Gonzales of MLB.com.  The team needed another pitcher and was forced to demote Reddick to create a roster spot.
• Andrew Brackman was promoted to Double-A, reports Josh Norris of The Trentonian, and made his first start on Friday, pitching well but getting the loss.  Despite his ugly numbers from the Florida State League, Brackman had been pitching better of late and was showing more of the consistency the Yankees had been looking for from their former first-round draft pick.
• Brian McTaggart of MLB.com has a couple of Astros' updates for us, including Jason Castro's continued hard work on the defensive end of his game despite being in the majors, and the team's signing of 2nd round pick, RHP Vincent Velasquez.
• Jesse Biddle's professional career got started under the Florida heat on Friday afternoon, as the Phillies' first-round pick from this year threw 3 no-hit innings in the Gulf Coast League, reports Scott Purks of the Philadelphia Daily News.
• Carlos Santana left Friday's game early with pain in his thumb, but x-rays were negative, reports Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com.
• The Capital Avenue Club takes a look at the Braves' most noteworthy prospects currently on their GCL team, including their top selection in this year's draft (#35 overall), high school SS Matt Lipka, who is off to a 3-for-20 start to his professional career.
• Mark Trumbo still needs to show he can make more consistent contact before the Angels will believe he's ready for the majors, but as Martin Renzhofer of the Salt Lake Tribune notes, it's his tantalizing power that makes him the prospect he is.

Indians Promote Carlos Santana

The Indians have finally made the long-awaited move of promoting top prospect Carlos Santana to the major leagues, reports Enrique Rojas of ESPN Deportes.  Jeff Sullivan of SBNation has his take on the move, as does ESPN's Rob Neyer.

Santana should provide a jolt to the Indians' offense and a ideally a boost in the clubhouse as well.  The top catching prospect in baseball, Santana was hitting .316/.447/.597 with 13 home runs in Triple-A at the time of his promotion.

He is expected to join the team tonight in Washington and will likely be behind the plate.

Notable Prospect Performances - 6/9

Thank you, Stephen Strasburg, for reminding us again how much fun baseball can be.  You should probably, however, apologize to Mike Stanton for completely overshadowing his 3-hit debut.

In other action...

• It was a big night for Indians' prospects, as Carlos Santana hit his 12 home run of the season and Lonnie Chisenhall homered for Double-A Akron in support of Alex White, who gave up only one hit over six innings, but walked five.
• Brandon Erbe had another rough outing, reports Dean Jones, Jr. of the Baltimore Sun, but there's some good offensive news for the O's from the game, as Brandon Snyder and Josh Bell each had two hits and an RBI.
• Mike Minor has been racking up major strikeout numbers, but he's also had a couple of clunkers tossed in, like the 7 ER's he gave up Tuesday night.
• Yesterday made back-to-back 3-hit nights for Desmond Jennings.  When he gets hot, look out.
• There were some impressive strikeout totals recorded in places other than Washington on Tuesday night, including those by Dan Hudson, who punched out 10 over 7 IP, Brody Colvin who K'd 8 in 7 IP, and Chad James, who set down 9 batters in 5 innings of work.

Notable Prospect Performances - 5/26

• Neil Walker made his 2010 major league debut on Tuesday at third base of all positions.  The hot corner has been Walker's primary position for the past 3 seasons but he played only one game there this season before his promotion.  But, as Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports, the plan is still to get Walker as many at-bats as possible and the Pirates will likely move him all over the field in order to do so.
• Jake Arrieta threw another gem, allowing one run over 7 IP, reports Dean Jones, Jr. of the Baltimore Sun.  For what it's worth, the Orioles just moved David Hernandez to the bullpen and will need to fill his spot.  Just sayin...
• Kyle Gibson maintained his dominance through another start, racking up another 7 inning complete game.  Gibson hasn't missed a beat since his promotion to Double-A and is now 3-0, continuing to make teams reconsider their stance on drafting pitchers with arm injuries and rewarding the Twins for their faith.
• It's only a matter of time before Carlos Santana is in Cleveland, and he supported his case with another multi-hit game and his 10th homer of the season.  Here's hoping the Indians' announcers somehow work a "Not at the table, Carlos" into their home run calls.
• Kirk Nieuwenhuis continues to quietly put together a nice season, adding to it a 3-hit performance with a home run on Tuesday night.  The only knock on Nieuwenhuis to this point is his lack of plate discipline (46-to-9 K/BB rate), though his walk rate was twice that last year so he's not a lost cause.  He'll still need to improve that rate now that he's at the higher levels of the minors before the Mets can truly consider him in the majors.
• The decision to keep Jonathan Singleton in extended spring training looks like a wise one by the Phillies, as the power-hitting 1B prospect has put on a hitting display since joining Lakewood and continued the show with a 4-hit game and a home run on Tuesday.  Singleton is now hitting .432 with 4 home runs in 13 games.
• Randall Delgado was dominant, putting his K-BB ratio at 5.66-to-1 on the season.
• Michael Bowden was not, taking 91 pitches to get through 4 1/3 IP, but actually managed to lower his ERA to 5.83.
• Jake Odorizzi continues to miss bats, as he struck out 7 in as many innings en route to his 3rd win of the season for the Brewers' Midwest League affiliate, the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers.

Prospect Hot Sheet - 5/21

Baseball America is out with their weekly hot sheet, and we have a new leader in the clubhouse...

• Madison Bumgarner
• Reymond Fuentes
• Nick Franklin
• Steven Hensley
• Joe Gardner
• Kyle Gibson
• Hak-Ju Lee
• Jordan Lyles
• Fabio Martinez
• Mike Minor
• Mike Moustakas
• Jorge Reyes
• Kyle Russell
• Carlos Santana
• Stephen Strasburg
• Eric Surkamp
• Julio Teheran
• Dayan Viciedo
• Arodys Vizcaino
• Travis Wood

Bring up the rear with poor weeks were Todd Frazier, Martin Perez, Matt Moore, and Ryan Jackson.