Minor League Level Review (AAA): Shakeup in Tacoma, Rendon Promoted

Every other Sunday, I will be taking a quick look at some of the top prospects at the AAA level, including their stats for for the season, and if anything stands out about the performance. The season stats may not always tell us the whole story, 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 Fangraphs.com and are through the games of Friday, 5/31/13.

Be sure to check out tonight's Fake Teams podcast, as Craig Goldstein will be joining Zack and Andrew to discuss the upcoming amateur draft, along with prospects in general.

• South Side Sox speculates on whether the team could bring up catching prospect Josh Phegley to replace the struggling Tyler Flowers.
• Amazin' Avenue wonders if the Mets should bring up prospect Wilmer Flores to replace Ike Davis.
• Mike Smith of Fangraphs was able to get a look at the Red Sox' AAA team, including prospects Jackie Bradley and Bryce Brentz.
• Mike Olt returned from the disabled list earlier this week, and hit a home run in his first game back.
• The big shakeup finally came last week for the Mariners, as the team sent struggling hitters Dustin Ackley and Jesus Montero as well as Brandon Maurer back to the minors, while promoting Nick Franklin to take Ackley's place.
• The Twins sent struggling outfielder Oswaldo Arcia back to AAA, and called up feel-good story Chris Colabello to help with their struggling offense.
• It was announced on Saturday that Nationals' top prospect Anthony Rendon had been promoted to AAA Syracuse, and it remains to be seen whether the team will try him out at second base in the hopes of replacing struggling starter Danny Espinosa.
• Oscar Taveras hit the disabled list after nearly a week of missed games, and it was announced early on Saturday that Jesus Montero would be out for 4-6 weeks with a torn meniscus.

• Minor League Ball profiled Jarred Cosart and Michael Wacha recently. They will also be completing their Community Mock Draft this weekend as well. Leeervin also profiled Robbie Erlin and Brad Boxberger there as well.
• Pinstriped Bible gave updates on Michael Pineda's rehab, as well as some notes from Brian Cashman on the subject.
• Arodys Vizcaino is out for the season.
• Nathaniel Stoltz of Athletics Nation took a look at what we can expect from Sonny Gray when he arrives in the Majors. I wrote about Gray after I saw him recently as well.
• The Rays have used a pair of prospects in place of the injured David Price so far, calling up Jake Odorizzi and then Chris Archer
• We've written about it a bit, but Cardinals' pitching prospect Michael Wacha was called up to take a spot in the rotation, and pitched very well on Thursday.
• Our own Craig Goldstein wrote about a pitching prospect who isn't getting the same amount of hype as Wacha, but could be just as good in Kyle Gibson.
• Cardinals' pitcher Carlos Martinez was also sent back to AAA, and it sounds like the hope is that he will be stretched back out should the team need another starting pitcher.