MLB Prospect Watch

Notable Prospect Performances - 5/25

The news flash that Stephen Strasburg gave up his first earned run in Triple-A isn't nearly as interesting as why he was taken out after only 52 pitches.  It could be that the Nationals wanted to limit his pitch count and chose a start where he was merely good but not dominant to do it.  It could be that he'll be in Washington sooner than expected.  Or perhaps they're just babying him.  Only time will tell...

• Speaking of guys who probably shouldn't be in Triple-A, Jeremy Hellickson retired the first 18 batters he faced en route to 8 scoreless innings of one-hit ball, reports Robert Emrich of MLB.com.  Hellickson would probably be in the majors for 29 other teams, but not the Rays.
• Someone needs to get Kyle Russell out of the California League before he hurts someone and into a more hitter-neutral league so we can properly gauge his abilities.  The Dodgers' OF prospect hit two more home runs on Monday to bring his 2010 Cal League totals to .341/12/41.  Dee Gordon, the team's top prospect, collected 4 hits in his Double-A game on Monday night to get his batting average back up to .291.  After a red-hot April in which he hit .345, Gordon is still hitting just .239 in May.
• Buster Posey put together a 4-hit game bring his average to .344 on the season, continuing to prompt speculation like this and rebuttals like this.
• Tyler Skaggs turned in a nice performance, striking out 6 over 5 innings while giving up just one earned run as part of an Angels' system that is becoming increasingly deep in the low minors.
• Tim Alderson (PIT) responded with a solid outing, tossing 7 strong innings while striking out 5 and walking none, lowering his ERA to 5.17 on the season.

Prospect Potent Potables - 5/22

• The Indians promoted Nick Weglarz to Triple-A Columbus, reports Indians Prospect Insider.
• Depressed Kansas City residents should start watching the Northwest Arkansas Naturals, the Royals' Double-A affiliate, featuring Aaron Crow, Mike Moustakas, Mike Montgomery, and the rest of your 2013 Kansas City Royals.
• There are a lot of question marks about Kyle Russell as a potential major leaguer, but production isn't one of them.  The Dodgers' outfielder continues to produce and will continue to be challenged to see if scout's doubts are warranted.
• The Cubs need a reliever and Andrew Cashner used to be one, but if he continues to have dominant starts like he did on Saturday night, it will be tough to justify such a move.  No longer relying on pure velocity, Cashner is now locating his fastball with more precision, says Robert Emerich of MLB.com.  If the Cubs need his power arm in their bullpen in 2010, the move will be only temporary until Cashner proves he can't start at the big league level.
• Bad news for Yankees' prospect watchers, as it looks like Jeremy Bleich's issues this year may be due to injury and will need surgery to fix the problem, according to Tim Bontemps of the NY Post.  No official announcement from the team has been made, but the Bleich continues to get tests on his balky throwing shoulder.  The news isn't all bad for Yankees' fans though, says EJ Fagan of The Yankee U, who tells Bombers' fans not to worry about the concern surrounding Zach McAllister.
• Tim Kurkjian (via SportsCenter) predicts that Stephen Strasburg will be called up to Washington during the first week in June, and on Baseball Tonight Buster Olney predicted June 4th specifically.  Kurkjian also mentioned June 8th as a possibility.

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.

Prospect Potent Potables - 5/20

Stephen Strasburg is still good, just in case you were wondering.

• Carlos Peguero is off to the start the Mariners have always expected from him, reports John Hickey for Baseball America, but keep him mind that he's 23-years-old and in Double-A, which is getting just old enough to take a grain of salt with his performance.
• Diamondbacks' pitcher Wes Roemer is heading to Triple-A, tweets Matt Eddy.  And speaking of D-Backs-related tweets, Jarrod Parker, the team's top prospect despite Tommy John surgery, says he will throw off a mound on Monday for the first time since the operation.  Isn't Twitter great?
• As Cody Overbeck is trying to prove to the Phillies, sometimes struggling is just a matter of being injured and not knowing it, says Lee Diekemper of MiLB.com.
• The Rangers' farm system is deep enough that Jamey Newberg of MLB.com found 10 non-fastball pitches worth talking about among their pitchers, and ranked them for us.  It's worth noting that if one pitcher has the 2nd and 4th best off-speed pitches in a system this deep (as Martin Perez does on this list) and also throws in the high 90's, then he might be pretty darn good.
• Edgar Osuna has to be having the best season of any player who was offered back to his old team after the Rule V draft (Atlanta), but was turned down and was allowed to stay with his even worse team (KC).  Not that that's a huge group.
• You probably thought it was over long ago, but just now is the Wagner Mateo saga is finally complete.

Strasburg, Chapman Heading in Opposite Directions

The two biggest name prospects entering this season were undoubtedly Aroldis Chapman and Stephen Strasburg, but besides that and triple-digit fastballs, the two had little else in common.  Then the season started and it seemed like the two were in an unrelated battle of "can you top this?" with both putting up impressive outing after impressive outing.

Their paths have begun to veer apart, however, as Strasburg's promotion to Triple-A has left him on the doorstep of the majors, while Chapman's recent struggles have forced us to question how far away he may be.  Fans in Washington are plotting out the possible days for Strasburg's MLB debut (a task that has become more difficult with rumors of extra days of rest worked in), but fans in Cincinnati are just hoping Chapman can find the strike zone, or perhaps not as much of it.

Chapman's latest start was his worst and his ERA in the month of May is now 9.64.  He's walked 9 batters in 14 innings during that span, but even worse, he has surrendered 22 hits.