Daily Minor League Update: Monday

Big weekend for a lot of the big pitching names in the minors – Chapman and Strasburg starred on Sunday getting 8 and 9 K’s respectively.  Strasburg got the win and allowed only 1 ER while Chapman allowed 0 ER and only walked 1 over 4.2 innings.

The group listed below will be our group of players for Monday updates. 

Some big bats are starting the year on fire (Posey and Smoak) while some others no so much (Carter and Ackley).  Players and comments after the jump.

Stanton and Alvarez continued their strong starts and are on the Friday update list so we will get to them later in the week (3 of 4 hits for Alvarez have been HR and Stanton has a 1.650 OPS through the first 4 games). 

Jesus Montero can hit – he just hasn’t done it in the first few of games.  He has a couple RBI and his bat will catch fire sooner or later, most likely sooner.  His bat is the reason people have him scheduled to be up with the Yankees at some point this year to at least get some AB as a DH.  Buster Posey and Justin Smoak have had an excellent start to the year.  Posey probably should have broken camp with the team to be the starting catcher, but with a young guy, it is easy to want to rush them – I personally am glad they sent him down to get a tiny more seasoning at AAA.  Posey should be up for good quite soon as he is just too good to keep in the Minors.  Batting .500 with a 1.369 OPS through his first 4 games sets a good foundation for a quick promotion.  Smoak has started the year hitting as well.  2 HR in his first few games with a 1.154 OPS gives Texas another option if Chris Davis can’t get it going soon (4/19 with 0HR and a .581 OPS).

Chris Carter, Dustin Ackley, and Aaron Hicks are each prime talents and some of the best hitting prospects in their respective clubs systems.  They all have started very slowly (Carter only has 2 games thus far) and each will be in the minors all year regardless of performance for various reasons.  Carter has huge power – he needs seasoning but next year he can should be an early call-up for the A’s.  Ackley is learning a new position (2^nd base) and should get his hit stick going, but is probably a couple years away from getting the call.  I personally love Hicks and think he will eventually be a big time player with contributions in many categories with all his tools.  He started the year missing everyting (8K’s in 14AB).  Too much talent with all these guys to keep ‘em down for long.  Next Monday’s report may have very different things to say about them after another week of games.

Everyone is writing about Strasburg and Chapman making their debuts yesterday.  I won’t spend much time on them as they pitched well.  Chapman especially exceeded expectations with his control (1BB).  Strasburg should contribute to the big club sooner than Chapman as he seems more refined, but both will get some time in the Majors – significant contributions probably won’t come until 2011 however.

Hellickson and Teheran were excellent.  I am very high on Teheran for Atlanta.  Both of these guys aren’t very big in terms of height and weight, but wow can they throw.  Atlanta should take it slow with Teheran for another year or two – excellent start to the year and could end up with AA by the mid-point if all keeps flowing this well.  Hellickson should be up with the big club this year and is probably the first guy to get the call up if an injury occurs in the Tampa Bay rotation.  If he spends most of the year in AAA, he will be one of the best minor league pitchers and could win some awards down there.  Expect him to run with the first opportunity he gets this year with TB.

Aumont probably wants a do-over as he wasn’t terribly effective.  The Phillies will take it slow with him as he was a big piece to the Cliff Lee deal this offseason.  He is solid and will probably finish the year in AAA unless he can’t get his control down.  He is a huge kid and will eat up some innings once he builds up his arm for a starter’s workload.  Walks haven’t really been a problem so I will just chalk this first start up to being, well… his first start.  It’s a long season and he will be just fine.

Bumgarner on the other hand, is really worrying me.  Not a good start to the year after losing the 5^th starter’s job, not regaining his lost velocity, and not yet finding his command.  I really, really hope that there isn’t an underlying injury that hasn’t been found yet.  I love  Bumgarner.  If there is a mechanics issue going on, the Giants will get him fixed.  They have been good with young arms but the fact that Bumgarner hasn’t flashed any of the tools that made him the best pitcher in the minors over the last two years has to have the organization worried.  He is very young and very talented.  Here’s hoping his next start gets him trending in the right direction.

We will check in with this group again next Monday.  Again, any comments on the daily minors updates are welcome.  See you tomorrow with a new group of minor leaguers to track.