QUOTE
Working AT Baseball America seems like it would be such a good fit for you. Maybe we need to send them a group letter recommending you, or something.
Technically, I have a bit of an in there as I know Conor, who interned there and is now one of their beat writer types. It was not a possibility I would have been considering even a couple years back, but it could happen. You never really know.
QUOTE (DrDetecto @ Jan 26 2010, 05:02 PM)
My only question is: wouldn't you be better able to gauge this than they are?
Cortes was pegged by Grifol as a TOR starter; you know what G (and obviously Zuriencik) think of Robles ... is there some kind of argument that the guys we sent to Pittsburgh were on that level? I thought they were org 20-30 guys?
To a certain extent.
One of the reasons I asked the question was because I wanted the perspective of a national guy. Cortes et al are still somewhat new to me, and while I have heard enough to make an opinion on them, there's no such thing as too much knowledge. For all I know, Cortes' issues, which seem overblown to me, could actually be more serious than I know, or people could have concluded that Robles was just not going to hold up mechanically long term, a fair possibility given that his delivery at present is anything but consistent and repeated. This was partially a test balloon to see if any issues came up with the three. I was never at any point uncertain of what I thought the answer SHOULD be, it seemed obvious, but I thought it was worth asking.
Second, while Adcock is nothing extraordinary, though I see him having a major league future in relief, Lorin and Pribanic were only 20-30 prospects last season because they had recorded so little time in the system and no one quite knew how they'd fare as pros given their track record.
Lorin, if in the system right now, would be 10-20 for me, because he's able to throw with some power and locate it well. He had 2.5 walks per nine and 8.8 Ks last season, and since he's usually sitting low 90s, that might give him the edge over the few starters that beat him out on the front in Kasparek and LaFromboise, who are in the 80s (I think Kasparek may be touching low 90s now, but I still don't think it's as consistently as Lorin). And, while not a skill per se, he did manage to keep hitters to a surprisingly low average, I think in part because he moves the ball around well. In Clinton, hitters were .192 off of him.
.192. Even in an 88-inning sample, it could be nothing but noise, but it's still interesting that he was more difficult to hit than most of the team's relievers. Clinton, for the record, might be the strongest hitter's park in the league too.
Pribanic is another test of evaluation. You could look at him from the angle of him having rather pedestrian strikeout numbers and walk rates slightly worse than Lorin. You could also look at him as a guy who was throwing low-to-mid 90s and getting 2.7 grounders for every fly. We've talked a little about this before, about groundballs not necessarily being an elixir that turns mediocre pitchers into valuable commodities under all circumstances, but that profile, from a scouting perspective, seems to have some fascinating potential to me at least. Had Pribanic stuck around, he may have been fringe-10 material.
So it's a question of potential number one with command issues that are not improving at the moment, short hard throwing lefty with no set mechanics, and even shorter mechanical oddity, versus reasonably hard throwing groundballer, command/power combo, and a guy whose curveball is a major league pitch in Adcock, or rather, a bunch of guys with high ceilings and issues compared to guys with low-to-medium ceilings and few known problems. Risk, versus likely reward.
I knew how I personally came down on it, but I basically wanted another set of eyes/ears on it. And, while not personally too high on Cortes (BA and I came down similar in the numbers), I know enough about his history as a prospect to recognize that it would be really stupid to bet against him improving.
And G has made his own case known on Robles
BA's '10 Top 10 Mariners Prospects, They like Liddi too!
Jan 22 2010, 11:06 AM
Agree with Jay - BA's list makes a lot of sense compared to most.
Lonnie