As May comes to an end, so mitigates some of the financial incentive for teams to keep their prospects in the minor leagues (i.e. Super Two status), which means youngins should start popping up all over big-league rosters once the calendar hits June. Get ready to get busy, my little waiver wire watchers.
Entering the 2011 season, Wilson Ramos had three main obstacles standing between him and the Washington Nationals’ starting catcher job.
One was Ivan Rodriguez. Though Pudge hasn’t possessed offensive punch in years, Nationals manager Jim Riggleman dubbed the 39-year-old the main man behind the plate. Ramos’ other two obstacles were health and his tendency to hack at nearly everything thrown his way.
The 23-year-old broke the tip of his left middle finger and injured his hamstring in 2009, and he dealt with an oblique injury in 2010. Though he held his own in a short 82 plate appearance stint in the majors last year (.278/.305/.405), Ramos walked just 2.4% of the time while swinging at 38.2% of pitches thrown outside of the strike zone (the MLB average is around 29 percent). Swinging early and often was nothing new for the backstop whom the Nats picked up from the Twins last July in exchange for Matt Capps — Ramos’ career walk rate in the minors sits at 5.5 percent.
Ramos has since leapfrogged Pudge on the depth chart, drawing the majority of starts. He has also stayed out of the trainer’s room and is showing a more refined approach at the plate. If you’re in need of catching help, it’s time to start taking this guy seriously.
In 122 trips to the plate this season, Ramos has a .262/.336/.430 triple slash. His .327 Weighted On-Base Average (wOBA) places him squarely in the middle of the pack among catchers with at least 100 PA. Ramos’ pop — he’s got a .168 Isolated Power that is comfortably above the .137 major league average — isn’t shocking, given that Baseball America said before the season that he “has good loft and leverage in his swing, giving him a chance to hit for solid-average or slightly better power in time.” Ramos’ patience, on the other hand, has been a pleasant surprise.
Batting mostly out of the fifth slot in Washington’s lineup, Ramos has jumped after pitches thrown out of the zone just 26.8% of the time. That, in turn, has allowed him to draw a walk in 9.8% of his plate appearances, above the 8.6% MLB average. Laying off those junk pitches means more hitter’s counts and chances for Ramos to utilize his power.
While changes in a hitter’s power production take a large sample size to become meaningful, that’s typically not the case with changes in plate discipline. Swing rates for batters become reliable after about 50 plate appearances, a mark that Ramos is well past at this point. Chances are Ramos’ increased patience in 2011 is more than a mere blip on the radar.
Despite the positive chances in Ramos’ plate discipline, he’s still on the waiver wire in 97-98 percent of ESPN leagues. This is a great time to add him to your roster on the cheap, before more people start taking notice of his quality bat. Ramos isn’t a top-tier catcher. But it’s a far better idea to take a chance on a maturing 23-year-old with a prospect pedigree than it is to settle for the A.J. Pierzynskis of the world.
Injury information courtesy of Baseball Prospectus’ Corey Dawkins.
After focusing on pitchers for the past couple Mining the Minors Fridays, let’s switch gears and check out two hitters who could soon be making their way to a major-league ballpark near you.
Last Thursday, there was a lot to get to, what with plenty of minor-league players — and even some really big-name prospects — making their MLB debuts. Just because there may not be an Eric Hosmer or Julio Teheran to introduce to owners this time, does that mean recent recalls should be altogether ignored? Disregard at your own risk, fellow fantasy fiends.
In this installment of Mining the Minors, we take a look at a pair of high-upside pitchers in Triple-A — one starter and one reliever — who pile up loads of strikeouts. And almost as many walks.
As mentioned in Mining the Minors a couple weeks ago, timing is important when it comes to keeping tabs on minor-leaguers while they’re still, ya know, in the minor leagues. But knowledge was meant to be shared, not withheld. Hence, a second incarnation of this column is born — with the same 2011-or-bust focus for fantasy — only instead of highlighting players in the minors, this iteration will cover those who recently have either made their big-league debut or been recalled.
Similar to the other version of this column, which will still drop on Fridays, the Thursday edition will offer a quick take at lesser-known farmhands and veteran minor leaguers, but will also look at the top-end prospects, too — all with a nod to their fantasy relevance and impact for this season. To help owners, I’ll continue to include a player’s Talent Rating; but just as important is what I’m calling the Cling Factor, which points out the likelihood that a player will remain in the majors (or return, if already sent down) during this season.
For those of you wondering, yes, go pick up Royals prospect Eric Hosmer, if he’s still available in your league. The first baseman has been called up sooner than expected — leading the minors in average and on-base percentage will do that — and will be in Friday’s lineup. He’s going to take over the starting job, and he’s worth a shot in every league, even 10-team mixed, on the chance that one of baseball’s best prospects translates his talents to the big-league level immediately. If so, we could be looking at this year’s Buster Posey.
Now back to your regularly-scheduled Mining the Minors programming, as we take a look at another minor-leaguer who could soon be making his own way to the majors, even if he’s not quite as highly-regarded.
While the rest of the world is going gaga over the resurgence of Bartolo Colon (I’m not buying it), there’s another pitcher out there who has apparently hopped into his Delorean and gunned it to 88. San Francisco’s Ryan Vogelsong made his first start of the season in replacement of the injured Barry Zito this past week, pitched 5.2 innings allowing two runs on four hits and a pair of walks, and picked up his first win as a starter since 2002. He actually looked better than his stat line reads as opening jitters got the better of him in the first, but he settled down very nicely and matched a career high eight strikeouts. But now the question remains — is he worth a spot on your fantasy roster? Read the rest of this entry »
Timing is an important factor in this space. I had been planning to include Alexi Amarista, a second baseman in the Angels org who leads the minors with a .455 batting average. Except Amarista no longer plays in the minors…because the Angels called up the 22-year-old earlier this week to be a part of their middle infield mix in a utility role. Oh well. That just means one of these minor leaguers got some pub instead.
Chalk it up to small sample size. This column is off to a 2-for-2 start, with each edition having highlighted a minor leaguer who was called up to the bigs only days later. First Chris Davis two weeks ago, then Jerry Sands last week. Don’t expect Mining the Minors to maintain this type of perfection because, frankly, that would be impossible. In fact, the three players chosen in this installment, while certainly capable of making an impact at some point in 2011, will definitely not be doing so in the next few days. Even Jobu doesn’t have that kind of power.