2057.11 Nes Lessman Takes the Downforce for a Test Drive Part 1: The 2056 Heroes

[Trebro]

Nes Lessman Takes the Downforce for a Test Drive Part 1: The 2056 Heroes

Editor's note: Our amazing, award-winning farm reporter, Nes Lessman, wrote some amazing work about the Yellow Springs Nine 2056 minor league seasons, the first in which the organization under GM Rob McMonigal reached that achievement. Unfortunately, they got lost in our offices until recently and are presented here for our readers to see just how good Lessman is at evaluating talent.

Note: For AAA, I'm including any players who spent almost the entire year with Indy, so that will include the September call ups but not someone like Micah Murphy, who played 43 games with the Nine, or roughly 1/3 of a season.

The Heroes:

Starters:

Luis Abdul-Halim. 24. 2053 second round pick. OSA scouts hate him, but he went 8-11 with a 3.45 ERA in 26 games (25 starts). 6.2 K/9 and 1.28 WHIP. FIP- of 90. 3.3 WAR. He's not known to try hard, but so far, so good. Probably a bullpen piece at some point, though unlikely it will be 2057, given the Rule 5 pick ups.

Maurice Jeffes. 29. Claimed off waivers in 2054, Jeffes can't seem to get a look from McMonigal despite a combined 9.4 WAR over the past two years. I thought sure he would end up on the 40-man or be taken in the Rule 5, but clearly McMonigal and the rest of the league see a problem I don't. His 2056 saw him be a AAA All-Star for the second time, along with a second place finish for AAA pitcher of the year. A FIP- of 77, 15-8 record, 2.79 ERA, 8.9 k/9, 1.05 WHIP, .4 HR/9 clearly wasn't good enough to get a second look from anyone. With the Nine, he's been behind quite a few young players with promise, a lot of whom crashed and burned. Perhaps this is his year. If not, I think his time in the org is probably coming to a close.

Relievers:

Dave O'Reilly. 28. Reinvented himself as a closer for Indy, going 7-9 with 30 saves in 61 games for AAA with a 3.72 ERA. K/9 of 9.6 and WHIP of 1.19. He had a .4 HR/9, a WAR of 2.7 and a FIP- of 62 in 75 IP. A 10th round pick in 2049 who then was taken and returned in the 2053 Rule 5, O'Reilly says and does the right things, but can't get it together in the BBA. In 7 September games he was 2-1 with a 6.00 ERA in 9 innings, due mostly to 2 ill-timed home runs that helped cost the Nine a winning season. Out of options, he's on his last chance in Yellow Springs and given all the competition around him, won't have much rope despite strong popularity locally.

Position Players:

1B/DH Balbinder Polamreddy. 24. The Nine got him in a trade in 2055. He had an amazing 2055 but struggled for parts of AAA, which contributed to the departure of the Downforce's hitting coach. He battled .278/.334/.516. Solid numbers but he slugged almost .640 the prior year. He did have 30 HR in 596 plate appearances but his Ks practically tripled. While he has a shot at being on the BBA roster in 2057, he's got all his options left and McMonigal may want to give him another year in AAA to try to recover his power. With 2.6 WAR in Indy and playing first base, he's going to need to step it up to stay on pace.

OF Zoya Turkes. 23. The only remaining piece from the infamous Rodriguez trade with Heartland foes Nashville, Turkes never quite hit the power potential he flashed as an international prospect but has a solid OPS of around .850 in AAA, close to his .875 in AA. He was hobbled by an injury that hurt his counting stats, but he still had 2.4 WAR in 100 games, which would mean over 3 in a full season. The biggest positive for Turkes is that he can play all 3 outfield positions, so he's got a good shot at making the Nine's roster as the 4th or 5th outfielder, unless they go outside the org for a veteran on a 1 year deal.