MLB Prospect Watch

Nationals Acquire Gio Gonzalez for Four Prospects

The Washington Nationals pulled the trigger on a trade for left-handed pitcher Gio Gonzalez, sending prospects Derek Norris, Brad Peacock, A.J. Cole, and Tom Milone to the Oakland A's in return.  Norris, Peacock and Cole were all listed in Baseball America's Top-10 Nationals prospects.

Norris likely has the highest ceiling of the four prospects, but the Nationals have significant organizational depth at catcher, and could afford to make a deal.  Despite batting just .210 last season, he still demonstrated strong plate discipline and solid power.  Matt Eddy of Baseball America has a complete scouting report on all four prospects, while Bernie Pleskoff of MLB.com says both teams fulfilled their goals.

Keith Law of ESPN.com has his own breakdown of the trade, and believes the A's got both quality and quantity in this deal.  On the other hand, Marc Hulet of FanGraphs.com wonders where the rest of the return is for the A's.

I happen to side with Hulet on this one.  While the A's got good depth, the Nationals didn't give up anything they can't live without, or replace in their next draft.  They didn't have to part with Bryce Harper (not that they would have), and while Cole has a high ceiling, he's got quite a way to go to get to the majors.  Peacock has turned himself into a nice prospect, but his ceiling isn't any higher than what Gonzalez is right now.  Norris should be a nice player, but the Nationals are one of the few teams that had the depth to part with a power-hitting young catcher.

The Nationals unloaded some of their minor league depth, but did so in order to improve their major league pitching depth.  While the trade is by no means lopsided, I don't think the Nationals will regret anything they've lost.

40-man Roster Additions

40-man rosters were set this weekend in preperation for the upcoming Rule V draft.  The players listed below are now protected by their organizations and can't be selected.  This is not the complete list, but rather the list of notable prospects.  Teams with no players listed still protected players, just not any notable prospects.

 

Baltimore - Oliver Drake

Boston - Will Middlebrooks, Drake Britton, Che-Hsuan Lin

New York (AL) - D.J. Mitchell, Corban Joseph

Tampa Bay - Alex Colome, WIlking Rodriguez, Steven Vogt

Toronto - Travis d'Arnaud

 

Chicago (AL) - Charlie Leesman

Cleveland - 

Detroit - Casey Crosby

Kansas City - 

Minnesota - Oswaldo Arcia, Carlos Gutierrez, David Bromberg

 

Los Angeles (A) - Fabio Martinez, Jean Segura

Oakland - 

Seattle - Francisco Martinez, Carlos Triunfel, Chih-Hsien Chiang

Texas - Martin Perez, Neil Ramirez

 

Atlanta - J.J. Hoover

Miami - Dan Jennings

New York (N) - Robert Carson, Jeurys Familia, Wilmer Flores, Juan Lagares, Cesar Puello, Reese Havens, Kirk Nieuwenhuis

Philadelphia - Phillippe Aumont, Tyson Gillies, Sebastian Valle

Washington - Tyler Moore, Eury Perez, Derek Norris

 

Chicago (N) - Junior Lake, Josh Vitters, Matt Szczur

Cincinnati - Didi Gregorius, Kyle Lotzkar

Houston - Paul Clemens

Milwaukee - Caleb Gindl, Zealous Wheeler

Pittsburgh - Starling Marte, Rudy Owens

St. Louis - 

 

Arizona - 

Colorado - Christian Friedrich

Los Angeles (N) - Mike Antonini, Chris Withrow

San Diego - Rymer Liriano

San Francisco - Angel Villalona, Charlie Culberson

 

 

Arizona Fall League Rosters Announced

The rosters for the 2011 Arizona Fall League season were announced yesterday, and as usual, the rosters included a plethora of big name prospects.  Below are the prospects you need to know, broken down by team:

Mesa Solar Sox

Cubs - Trey McNutt, Chris Carpenter

Orioles - Chorye Spoone, Joe Mahoney, Xavier Avery

Twins - Aaron Hicks

Pirates - Robbie Grossman

 

Peoria Javelinas

Padres - Jedd Gyorko, James Darnell

Brewers - Jed Bradley, Cody Scarpetta, Kentrail Davis, Logan Schafer

Cardinals - Oscar Taveras

Mariners - Danny Hultzen, Nick Franklin, Chih-Hsien Chiang

Mets - Reese Havens, Jefry Marte

 

Phoenix Desert Dogs

Indians - T.J. McFarland

Reds - Brad Boxberger, Yasmani Grandal

Blue Jays - Adeiny Hechavarria, Anthony Gose

A's - Michael Choice, Grant Green

Yankees - Corban Joseph, David Phelps

 

Salt River Rafters

Dodgers - Jake Lemmerman

Diamondbacks - Eric Smith, Ryan Wheeler

Tigers - Casey Crosby

Astros - Jay Austin

Rockies - Nolan Arenado, Tim Wheeler

 

Scottsdale Scorpions

Angels - Mike Trout, Hank Conger

Phillies - Tyson Gillies, B.J. Rosenberg

Red Sox - Brock Huntzinger, Will Middlebrooks

Nationals - Sammy Solis, Derek Norris, Bryce Harper

Giants - Brandon Crawford

 

Surprise Saguaros

Royals - Nathan Adcock, Wil Myers, Jeremy Jeffress, Christian Colon

Braves - Erik Cordier, Sean Gilmartin, J.J Hoover, Christian Bethancourt, Phil Gosslein, Todd Cunningham

Rangers - Neil Ramirez, Michael Olt

Rays - Tim Beckham

Marlins - Kyle Skipworth, Dan Jennings, Matt Dominguez

 

 

 

Prospect Action - Trumbo, Parker, Nats, Cox, Scheppers

• The Angels had their prospects on display on Thursday, as Mark Trumbo homered for the second time this spring, but Garrett Richards gave up three runs in 2 1/3 innings of relief work, and Trevor Reckling gave up three more in his two innings.
• Jarrod Parker tossed two scoreless innings in his second appearance for the Diamondbacks, and showed much better command than he had in his first outing, notes Steve Gilbert of MLB.com.
• The Nationals have some depth at catcher in their farm system, and their top two backstop prospects, Wilson Ramos and Derek Norris, both had solid days at the plate, with Ramos collecting two hits, and Norris hitting a home run off of Cardinals pitching prospect Maikel Cleto, reports Danny Wild of MiLB.com.  Zack Cox collected two hits in the game for the Cardinals, including a double, notes Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
• Brad Lincoln retired all nine batters he faced for the Pirates on Thursday, reports John Parker of MiLB.com.
• Aroldis Chapman struck out two batters in his one inning of work for the Reds, needing only seven pitches to complete the feat, including getting Dodgers prospect Trayvon Robinson to ground out on one pitch.  On the Dodgers side, Jerry Sands knocked two more hits, and Rubby De La Rosa threw two shutout innings, striking out three, and continuing to impress new skipper Don Mattingly.
• Tanner Scheppers couldn't get through his scheduled inning of work for the Rangers, walking two batters and complaining of back stiffness afterward, reports Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

 

 

Winter League Update - 11/10

Arizona Fall League

• Blue Jays pitching prospect Mark Rzepczynski tossed six shutout innings, striking out eight hitters as the Javelinas dropped the Rafters 8-5.
• It was a huge night for Nationals prospects as the Scorpions 11-1 victory was led by Derek Norris, who was 3-for-6 with a home run, Bryce Harper, who went 2-for-5 with two triples, and pitcher Sammy Solis on the mound, who threw five strong innings, giving up just one run and getting the win.  Brandon Belt also contributed with three hits, including a double and a triple, to raise his AFL batting average to .388.
• Michael Taylor's 4-hit, 4-RBI day was enough run support for the Desert Dogs, who got four scoreless innings from Manny Banuelos despite the Yankees pitcher walking four batters.

Dominican Winter League

• Red Sox prospect Yamaico Navarro homered for the second time in as many days to lead his Tigres team to a 3-1 victory.

Venezuelan Winter League

• David Cooper has seen action this week with the Bravos de Margarita, but the Blue Jays first base prospect is off to a slow start.
• Alex Liddi posted a 4-for-5 night with a triple and a home run in the Cardenales 9-3 victory.
• Two hits and an RBI by Mark Trumbo weren't enough to overcome five shutout innings by Austin Bibens-Dirkx, who earned his second win of the VWL season.

Puerto Rican Winter League

• Dee Gordon reached base three times and stole a base, but it wasn't enough offense as his Gigantes fell 5-4 to the Criollos on Wednesday.
• More good news for Nationals prospects, as Danny Espinosa reached base three times and had two extra-base hits and Chris Marrero drove in four runs to help lead the Leones to a 9-3 victory.