Minor League Level Review (Low-A): Brinson and Buxton Start the Season Hot

Every other Wednesday, I will be taking a quick look at some of the top prospects at the Low-A level, including their stats for the previous two weeks, and if anything stands out about the performance. Obviously two weeks isn't a particularly large sample size, but there are usually also some updates on how they are doing these things as opposed to just the numbers themselves. All statistics are courtesy of MILB.com, and are through the games of Monday, 4/8/13.

South Atlantic League

Dahl was a bit of a story over the weekend, as it was announced that he had been removed from the Low-A roster and sent back to Extended Spring Training. After a little while, he noted on Twitter that he had missed his flight to Asheville, and would be working on improving his attitude. It sounds to me like the Rockies were not happy with whatever decision he made that caused him to miss that flight, and it remains to be seen how long he will remain in XST until being sent to play again. Reports on his makeup have been excellent to this point, so hopefully whatever the issue is will turn out to be a one-time occurrence only.

Brinson has been tearing it up so far, showing off both his power and speed to go with a .318 batting average. Craig wrote about him last week, and the thing that still sticks out is just how high his ceiling can potentially be. Brinson is likely to get help with his prospect value due to his potential to stay in center field long term, and could be a huge riser on prospect lists for next year.

Starling is finally making his full-season debut at the age of 20 (he'll be 21 in August), and it's not exactly what anyone wanted to see from him, even with the massive small sample size caveat. The reports on Starling have always pointed to a player who could strike out a lot, and early on it is showing.

Midwest League

Paulino has a .250/.286/.250 slash line so far in the Midwest League, as well as three errors in 11 chances so far. It's early, and Paulino is young for the level still (18 years old). The defensive numbers should come back into a more reasonably range, although reports point to him ending up at second base in the long-term.

The small sample size reminders go in both negative and positive directions, as Buxton has been absolutely destroying the Midwest League so far with a .500/.565/.950 slash line and a pair of steals to go with it. I have probably been a bit lower than most on Buxton, but he's showing all the tools that made him the #2 pick, and is making consistent contact as well.

The top pick in last year's draft had a great game on Friday night, filling up all five fantasy categories in the game. In contrast to Paulino, he has made all 14 chances without an error.

I was able to watch part of Ross' start on MILB.tv on Thursday, and real quickly I noticed that he was commanding his pitches well, although with some exceptions where he looked almost like he was overthrowing a bit. The delivery looks like it requires a bit of effort, but not so much that I'm very concerned just yet. Craig wrote up Ross last month, which you can find here.

Fried's start on Friday was also available on MILB.tv, and at the start of the game he was having issues with his release point, allowing three walks and a hit in the first five batters. It was, however, the only hit he would allow in his four innings of work, and the run came in on a fielders' choice from the fourth batter. He did use his 12-to-6 curveball a fair amount during the game, but was having a hard time throwing it for a strike.