Minor League Daily Update: Friday 4/30/2010

Here is Friday’s group of minor league players.  Their statistics shown are for April 23 through April 29.  In addition to the update below, there was a lot of movement by several players yesterday.

Michael Montgomery was promoted to AA after a lights-out start to the year.  He is showing why he is the best prospect in the Kansas City farm system.  AA should present a new challenge to him.  So far this year, Montgomery is 2-0 with a 1.09 ERA.  He has 33K’s in 24.2IP to go along with only 4BB.  Drew Storen was promoted to AAA yesterday – Storen has been impressive for the Washington Nationals’ AA farm team.  Storen has compiled 11K’s vs. 1BB in 9.1 IP and he has gotten 4 Saves in the early going.

Another no-hitter was thrown yesterday by Ryan Brasier of the Angles’ AA teram (Arkansas Travelers).  He had 3 strike outs and 2 walks issued in the 9 inning win.  Twins prospect Kyle Gibson threw a 1 hitter in his 5^th professional start.  He is in A+ ball with 28K’s in 30IP to go with a 2-1 record and 1.76 ERA.  Finally, R.A. Dickey allowed one hit – to the game’s leadoff hitter – and then went on to retire the next 27 consecutive batters.  He is with the Mets’ AAA team and is 3-1 on the year.

The normal Friday group of players are listed after the jump and I have added Jordan Danks, Chris Davis, Michael Brantley, and Derek Holland to the list. 

Just a couple of quick notes:

• Mike Stanton leads the minors with 10HR.  He currently has a .347 AVE on the year.  His 20BB to 21K’s is probably deceiving as AA pitchers no-doubt do not want to pitch to him.  If there is a promotion to AAA, I would expect him to still hit for plenty of power but potentially struggle with his K’s again.  He did show in spring training that he had much improved plate discipline so it hopefully won’t balloon back up to K rate of 30% or more of the time.
• Jose Iglesias has shown his glove would probably play in the majors right now, but he is doing absolutely nothing offensively.  He is batting 0.247 with 1RBI and 1SB.  He has been caught stealing two times however so his speed isn’t even an asset at this point.
• Jemile Weeks had a fairly down week considering how he has played thus far.  He did steal two bases and now sports a .286 AVE with 7 RBI.  He has 4SB on the year but has also been caught 3 times.  He should be at AA all year to develop his skills further.
• Pedro Alvarez is slumping – .222AVE for the year so far after his hot start. 
• Carlos Santana’s knee is fine as he played a full slate of games this week.  He keeps hitting. 
• Michael Brantley was sent down to AAA from Cleveland and is hitting for a good average.  He will be fine but needs to get into a comfort zone to get another crack at Jacob’s Field.
• Jordan Danks has been solid this year – .270 AVE / 2HR / 6RBI / 6SB
• Chris Davis was demoted to AAA with the promotion of Justin Smoak.  Davis is showing that he has the skills to dominate AAA but not quite up to par in the MLB.  He may deserve the ‘Quad-A’ label at some point.
• Chacin was promoted to Colorado after De La Rosa hit the DL.
• Aaron Crow pitched well – after his previous two starts were disappointing, Crow threw 8 strong innings.  .
• As stated in the intro, Mike Montgomery was promoted to AA.  He leaves A-ball with 33K’s in 24.2 IP (only 4BB issued).  2-0 with a 1.09 ERA.
• Kyle Drabek pitched well and is now 3-1 on the year with 20 K in 21 IP
• Trevor Reckling got the win but is still walking too many batters.  For the year he has 12 K and 14 BB in 20 IP.
• Derek Holland should be up in the Texas rotation sometime this year and probably sooner rather than later.  He has 29K and 6BB in 33 IP.  In those 33 innings, he has allowed only 2ER to give him a 0.56 ERA and a 3-1 record on the year.  He isn’t owned in my keeper league and I will be targeting him for my team at the faintest hint that he will be coming up.

 As always, comments and questions are welcome.