Off Topic
Travelblog of Thom S. Hunter
Editor’s Note: This is a running blog that will cover minor league players in the Yellow Springs organization. We initiated it because this kid reporter was hired without my knowledge and we needed to do something with him. He seems flaky to me. Seems like a waste of good cash. But what do I know? Good luck.
September, 2046: Whereabouts Unknown – Let’s talk about catchers shall we? It’s a weird-assed position, right? It you think about it, anyway. I mean, Garbanzo beans, man! If you want to basically squat down a hundred and fifty times a day, and leave your … un … dangly bits exposed to guys who can throw a very hard baseball about 100 miles an hour toward you, well, I’m not sure what to say about that. Then, of course, a guy with a club tries to keep it from getting to you by swinging that club right around your head.
You might say the helmet is snazzy.
Yeah, right.
Anyway, with that out of the way, I think it’s fair to say that Nine fans have been enjoying a particularly Golden Age of catching in the form of Jesus “J2” Rodriguez and Bruce McKinley. The two, together, may well be the heart and soul of the Nine during what is arguably the greatest span of baseball in franchise history. Rodriguez is 27 now, and has another season left on his deal. If rumors are to be believed, the team expects to get McKinley (25) under a bit of a long-term deal soon. Fact is, they’ll probably need it, because while there is some value in the organization, it’s a bit of a way away.
How long?
Well, let’s see.
(#1)
A scout found Ziad Abdul-Samad on an Israeli playground, and noted that he “wings at everything, and generally hits it.” He also noted “needs to work on defense,” which is probably not something you’d hear about much of anything coming out of Israel, but I freaking digress. Regardless of all that, the team signed him up on the spot, and a year later he was hitting .190 in Alamogordo, and not much better in the winter leagues. A dearth of catchers in the organization led to a promotion anyway, and it was on Cat Island that the kid really took off.
Home sickness, Abdul-Samad says now. That first year away was tough.
Bottom line, the kid hit .358 on The Island, and followed up with a .298/.346/.430 slash in A-ball with Silver Springs. One suspects Santa Cruz in 2047, then Indy in 2048 before being ready in 2049—but not so fast there Baba-Louey. There’s still that glove, which scores in at a generous “2” overall right now, and which some scouts suggest isn’t moving at all. Bottom line, if it doesn’t Abdul-Samad can’t play at anything but maybe DH. Add it up, and you can see that the kid project to arrive anywhere between 2049 and never.
This, you see, is why I worry about the team's overall rankings—which show Abdul-Samad at #2—and the fancy BBA ones, too, which have him at #69. Yeah, okay. Maybe he makes it and maybe he doesn't. But that defense is a big ol' thing. I just don't see that kind of a risk factor allowing him to be up in those regions. At least not without taking some kind of artificial reality enhancer, anyway, so you judge for yourself but I'm figuring the guys doing these charts have got to have been about as high as a Boise GM on a Saturday night bender.
(#2)
Hollis “Duck” O’Hara spent the last two seasons in lock-step with Abdul-Samad, working as his platoon mate for both years. He is essentially the Israeli’s exact negative. He hails from Bridgewater, New Hampshire—which is culturally about as far from Israel as you can get. He bats left, to his cohort’s right. He throws left to his cohort’s right. And, of course, he’s an elite defender while barely passing as a baseball player with the stick.
That last is what the scouts say, anyway, but as I sit here in this jail cell waiting for the coppers to let me go free, I’m finding myself not quite believing them. Duck hit for a 110 OPS+ on Cat Island, and managed a 92 in Silver Springs. I figure if he can get close to those numbers in the bigs, that defense is going to carry him to a pretty solid little career. Still, you have to listen to scouts sometimes, and my guess is that next year will tell the tale well enough. Look for O’Hara and Abdul-Samad to reprise their roles in AA. If the bat comes along, I’ll laugh in the scout’s faces and move Duck up a notch. If not, well, I hang myhead.
So, yeah, the good news—especially if Abdul-Samad can edge the glovework up even a little—is that the team has another dynamic duo coming through the ranks. The bad news is that it might not make it.
Go where you want with that.
(#3 and #3a)
I should probably remove both Rich Burke (25) and Alistair Hall (26) from the list. They are both getting too old to call prospects, and neither makes the heart go pitter-patter.
Of the two, Burke is probably a better big-leaguer, which accounts for why he got the brief call-up when J2 got himself nicked up earlier this year. Hall was a bit of a prayer selection during a draft where the team thought they might need a catcher earlier. He was controversial at the time of his selection—"controversial" in that way that half the fans thought Collins was crazy for picking him and the other half simply knew that was trueright off the bat. Hall was older than the usual high draft pick, and not as developed. So odd how it turned out, eh?
Bottom line here is that these two are kind of Blah. No Nine fan of sound mind will be happy if either are needed for long.
(#4)
I kind of like Gerald Clothier, though I don’t know why. Watched him play in Santa Cruz this year, and he just kind of made me feel happy in some way I hadn’t in a while. Okay, maybe it was the shrooms they put on the nachos, but if so I don’t care. Clothier hits left and throws right, which is nice and neutral—and he’s managed to hit a bit everywhere he’s gone.
I talked to him one night after he’d caught a big game and he came out with this accent that made me flash on James Bond: “Clothier, Gerald Clothier,” he said, extending his hand. Of course, I thought, feeling stupid as shit when I realized he’s from London. What did I expect, a Kennedy-esque Bostonian brogue?
If there’s a guy who is effectively “ready” now, it’s probably Clothier. The issue though is that he’s never going to hit for power, and despite calling a fair enough game, he doesn’t seem to know the zone well enough to take a walk. For my cash position, he’s a backup kind of guy, but a good one of those, so as long as the team doesn't stretch their britches here, I could see him contributing to the greater good in one of those small-guy kinds of ways, then retiring off to the English countryside to raise horses and chickens or whatever they do there in Downton.
(#5)
Anyone who can play defensive catcher as well as Mario Quintana can play it has to be on a list like this somewhere. I mean, to watch him move around behind the plate is to see a ballet performed. Smooth, and slinky. If Quintana were a cartoon caricature, he’d be a snake. And he blocks balls with a passion you’d not find anywhere else. It’s like any ball that hits the backstop is a mark against his very soul.
But, yeah, he’s got to go find an arm somewhere. I mean, I suspect that team scouts have him walking around with a wrought-iron dumbbell every day this off-season, and sleeping with it at night. And, no, I’m not talking about a girl—or a boy, or any other form of non-binariness that you want to throw down here—I’m talking about a thirty-pounder that he pumps, say thirty times every ten minutes.
Bottom line, Quintana needs to get better before he can play in the bigs. Yeah, the arm needs to be stronger, and the fact is that the bat needs to edge upward a notch, too. I say that despite some good numbers (5 homers, 27 RBI, .250/.375/.414) on Cat Island. He’s a scrawny kid, a scrapper, as my mama woulda said if she’d seen him. But he needs work, and to be honest, all that scrappiness hasn’t been translating to pumping that iron.
He’s 20 years old now. My guess is that he’ll either progress in 2047, or he won’t ever.
# By now I suppose you get the drill on the rest. Interesting guys in weird sorts of ways. Could be something if the dev gods smile. But then, maybe you could say that about me, too.
ORGANIZATIONAL PROSPECT DEPTH CHART
September, 2046: Whereabouts Unknown – Let’s talk about catchers shall we? It’s a weird-assed position, right? It you think about it, anyway. I mean, Garbanzo beans, man! If you want to basically squat down a hundred and fifty times a day, and leave your … un … dangly bits exposed to guys who can throw a very hard baseball about 100 miles an hour toward you, well, I’m not sure what to say about that. Then, of course, a guy with a club tries to keep it from getting to you by swinging that club right around your head.
You might say the helmet is snazzy.
Yeah, right.
Anyway, with that out of the way, I think it’s fair to say that Nine fans have been enjoying a particularly Golden Age of catching in the form of Jesus “J2” Rodriguez and Bruce McKinley. The two, together, may well be the heart and soul of the Nine during what is arguably the greatest span of baseball in franchise history. Rodriguez is 27 now, and has another season left on his deal. If rumors are to be believed, the team expects to get McKinley (25) under a bit of a long-term deal soon. Fact is, they’ll probably need it, because while there is some value in the organization, it’s a bit of a way away.
How long?
Well, let’s see.
(#1)
A scout found Ziad Abdul-Samad on an Israeli playground, and noted that he “wings at everything, and generally hits it.” He also noted “needs to work on defense,” which is probably not something you’d hear about much of anything coming out of Israel, but I freaking digress. Regardless of all that, the team signed him up on the spot, and a year later he was hitting .190 in Alamogordo, and not much better in the winter leagues. A dearth of catchers in the organization led to a promotion anyway, and it was on Cat Island that the kid really took off.
Bottom line, the kid hit .358 on The Island, and followed up with a .298/.346/.430 slash in A-ball with Silver Springs. One suspects Santa Cruz in 2047, then Indy in 2048 before being ready in 2049—but not so fast there Baba-Louey. There’s still that glove, which scores in at a generous “2” overall right now, and which some scouts suggest isn’t moving at all. Bottom line, if it doesn’t Abdul-Samad can’t play at anything but maybe DH. Add it up, and you can see that the kid project to arrive anywhere between 2049 and never.
This, you see, is why I worry about the team's overall rankings—which show Abdul-Samad at #2—and the fancy BBA ones, too, which have him at #69. Yeah, okay. Maybe he makes it and maybe he doesn't. But that defense is a big ol' thing. I just don't see that kind of a risk factor allowing him to be up in those regions. At least not without taking some kind of artificial reality enhancer, anyway, so you judge for yourself but I'm figuring the guys doing these charts have got to have been about as high as a Boise GM on a Saturday night bender.
(#2)
Hollis “Duck” O’Hara spent the last two seasons in lock-step with Abdul-Samad, working as his platoon mate for both years. He is essentially the Israeli’s exact negative. He hails from Bridgewater, New Hampshire—which is culturally about as far from Israel as you can get. He bats left, to his cohort’s right. He throws left to his cohort’s right. And, of course, he’s an elite defender while barely passing as a baseball player with the stick.
So, yeah, the good news—especially if Abdul-Samad can edge the glovework up even a little—is that the team has another dynamic duo coming through the ranks. The bad news is that it might not make it.
Go where you want with that.
(#3 and #3a)
I should probably remove both Rich Burke (25) and Alistair Hall (26) from the list. They are both getting too old to call prospects, and neither makes the heart go pitter-patter.
Of the two, Burke is probably a better big-leaguer, which accounts for why he got the brief call-up when J2 got himself nicked up earlier this year. Hall was a bit of a prayer selection during a draft where the team thought they might need a catcher earlier. He was controversial at the time of his selection—"controversial" in that way that half the fans thought Collins was crazy for picking him and the other half simply knew that was trueright off the bat. Hall was older than the usual high draft pick, and not as developed. So odd how it turned out, eh?
Bottom line here is that these two are kind of Blah. No Nine fan of sound mind will be happy if either are needed for long.
(#4)
I kind of like Gerald Clothier, though I don’t know why. Watched him play in Santa Cruz this year, and he just kind of made me feel happy in some way I hadn’t in a while. Okay, maybe it was the shrooms they put on the nachos, but if so I don’t care. Clothier hits left and throws right, which is nice and neutral—and he’s managed to hit a bit everywhere he’s gone.
If there’s a guy who is effectively “ready” now, it’s probably Clothier. The issue though is that he’s never going to hit for power, and despite calling a fair enough game, he doesn’t seem to know the zone well enough to take a walk. For my cash position, he’s a backup kind of guy, but a good one of those, so as long as the team doesn't stretch their britches here, I could see him contributing to the greater good in one of those small-guy kinds of ways, then retiring off to the English countryside to raise horses and chickens or whatever they do there in Downton.
(#5)
Anyone who can play defensive catcher as well as Mario Quintana can play it has to be on a list like this somewhere. I mean, to watch him move around behind the plate is to see a ballet performed. Smooth, and slinky. If Quintana were a cartoon caricature, he’d be a snake. And he blocks balls with a passion you’d not find anywhere else. It’s like any ball that hits the backstop is a mark against his very soul.
Bottom line, Quintana needs to get better before he can play in the bigs. Yeah, the arm needs to be stronger, and the fact is that the bat needs to edge upward a notch, too. I say that despite some good numbers (5 homers, 27 RBI, .250/.375/.414) on Cat Island. He’s a scrawny kid, a scrapper, as my mama woulda said if she’d seen him. But he needs work, and to be honest, all that scrappiness hasn’t been translating to pumping that iron.
He’s 20 years old now. My guess is that he’ll either progress in 2047, or he won’t ever.
# By now I suppose you get the drill on the rest. Interesting guys in weird sorts of ways. Could be something if the dev gods smile. But then, maybe you could say that about me, too.
ORGANIZATIONAL PROSPECT DEPTH CHART
| Level | Player | Age | B | OVR | HITTING | DEF | Ceiling | Arrival | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Ziad Abdul-Samad | 21 | R | 30/65 | 10/9/4/4/9 | 7/3 - | All-Star | 2049 | Needs an arm |
| A | Hollis O'Hara | 21 | L | 30/40 | 7/5/2/4/8 | 10/10 - | Platoon | 2049 | |
| AAA | Alistair Hall | 26 | R | 35/45 | 7/7/5/6/4 | 8/5 - | Platoon | 2047 | Slow develop |
| AAA | Rich Burke | 25 | R | 35 | 7/7/1/3/8 | 9/5 - | Backup | 2046 | Solid defense |
| AA | Gerald Clothier | 20 | L | 30/35 | 6/10/2/4/7 | 6/6 - | Imp defense? | ||
| SA | Mario Quintana | 20 | R | 20/30 | 4/7/6/6/4 | 11/4 - | Solid defense | ||
| R | Scott Phipps | 17 | R | 20/40 | 4/8/8/6/3 | 6/5 - | |||
| SA | Ricardo Martinez | 20 | R | 20/30 | 6/7/3/4/8 | 3/4 - |
