Off Topic
As members of the Yellow Springs Nine head to Fools Gulch for Spring Training, it’s time for us baseball writers to have fun taking a look at the players in the organization and pretend like we know who it going to make a difference. In the past we’d wait until later in the year and do a prospect review, but this time we figured why not go full Monty and do it all at once, right?
Today we’re going to talk about the shortstop position, focusing first on the guys we expect to see in Yellow Springs, and then a few others down deeper in the organization who could crack the lineup over the next several years.
Yellow Springs
| Player | Age | B | OVR | HITTING | DEFENSE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Luis Pena | 23 | R | 55/55 | 5/6/3/5/7 | 10/11/9/11 |
Luis Pena won is second Zimmer in three seasons, and the odds are that 2043 will see him in the mix to win another. His bat dipped a notch last year to .255/.324/.379, but he showed a bit more power, hitting ten homers. His legs were probably even more valuable as he stole 26 bases in 33 tries, a 78.9% success clip.
Pitcher's Best Friend
“I love Luis,” said Nebraska Award winner Carlos Valle. “I say he’s the guy that got me this award.”
That’s the thing about a shortstop like Luis Pena. His value is of the charts, but invisible. Is there a coincidence that Valle’s two Nebraska awards came in years that Pena took the Zimmer? We think not. A lot of pitching is defense, and all defense is pitching. If you look up Luis Pena’s WAR, you see 2.3 last year, down from 3 the year before. We’d suggest that’s under-stated. Just as any Nine pitcher.
BEST CASE PROJECTION: Pena scores 2.5-3 WAR and takes his third Zimmer
CONCERNS: If Pena gets hurt, Thum moves to shortstop…which is fine for shortstop, but leaves a hole at second.
Prospects
| Level | Player | Age | B | OVR | HITTING | DEFENSE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AAA | Ron Ritchie | 22 | L | 45/50 | 5/6/4/5/6 | 9/6/11/11 |
| Level | Dark Horses | Age | B | OVR | HITTING | AB/ARM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SA | Jose Terrero | 19 | R | 40/40 | 3/3/2/6/4 | 9/9/10/11 |
| A | Juan Echevarria | 22 | S | 35/35 | 3/4/2/6/3 | 10/11/11/11 |
| A | Julio Colon | 21 | R | 25/40 | 3/3/1/6/4 | 10/6/9/8 |
Given their numbers, I write about both the Prospect list and the Dark Horses together.
The fact is that when San Antonio pulled a Rule 5 sneak attack and stole away Bob Allen, the Nine lost a secret weapon from their utility belt. That leaves Ron Ritchie as the lone shortstop in the true prospect lists. And he’s a pretty good one. The YS9 front office acquired him from Charm City to little fanfare, but despite being a bit of an error magnet at this point in his development, admittedly likes him quite a bit.
Ritchie’s left-handed bat should play well, and his arm and footwork acumen around the bag are already considered elite. If he can manage to cu down on errors even a little, he’ll be another elite fielder cut from the same cloth as Luis Pena.
Can’t complain about that.
At issue though is what comes next.
Ultimately, the entire Dark Horse list is filled with guys who will need the miracle of laying on hands to their bats in order to make a dent in the big leagues. What they can all do, however, is to field. Echevarria in particular outrates even Pena as it stands today. Of the trio, however, Terrero gets the nod as the guy most likely to succeed, mostly because he’s the youngest.
The team also has Alex Nunez and Jose Moran in the organization, both miraculous glove men, but we couldn’t put Nunez’s “2” contact on a prospect list, and Moran has now aged out of it.
OVERALL FARM SYSTEM STATUS: Ritchie doesn’t get much respect in national news, but he’s the kind of guy we like. Nine scouts expect he’ll be a valuable member of the team sometime in the next two years. After that? Well, it’s time to either get lucky or for team scouts to put the nose to the grindstone and find another shortstop to draft.
