Sticking Points 2040.5: A Look at the Rockville Farm

[aaronweiner]

With three services in the BBA rating farms, how good Rockville's farm is depends on who you ask. Rockville's farm has gone through a boom phase over a transformation over the past few seasons. Looking at the farm, one could hypothetically see the future of the Rockville team in a few seasons.

AAA Dodge City: Bing-de Zhao has reached AAA this season, and if the team wasn't already stacked at 1B, LF, and DH, you might see him in the majors right now. As it is he may replace Manuel Marino next year, especially if the slugging first baseman's contract demands get out of hand...Willis Roberts might also be up and playing next year, which would probably keep Palacios in the outfield along with Julio Barajas. Roberts is a real Moneyball player...Man-keung Sui has also made it to the majors. He's a likely fifth outfielder soon and has a good chance of replacing Jin-song Xuan in two years...Raul Correa was considered important enough to protect in the expansion draft, so we can figure on seeing him in a year max. Guy's got a gun.


AA Winston-Salem: Top organizational starting pitching prospect Angel Romero has made it to AA this year, the first of the Rockville starting pitching prospects to make it to that level. Romero doesn't look like a future star, but he should be a quality lefty starter in the majors...Jose Ayala and Julio Gonzalez might have a future as major league relievers, and they might not, too.


High-A Eau Claire: A number of Rockville's top prospects have made it to full-season A ball this year, and they look ready for the challenge. Wilson Alomar, Sergio Valentin, Daniel Pepper, and Gilberto Falchonelli all look like major parts of Rockville's future and potential stars. The difficulty, along with other prospects, is fitting ALL in - but that's a good problem to have...Jason Hone was dominant in his first exposure to Rookie League and is getting a chance at high-A; he looks like a potential star reliever...SP Guillermo Sanchez is getting his second year at high-A, but he probably moves to AA this year. The team needs to see a little more from him first...SP Dwight Dunn is getting his first high-A exposure this year. He dominated at Aurora.

Short-A Port au Spain: Matthew Reilly, the team's second-highest rated hitting prospect, might move up this year...Yasuhiro Nagai, former 3rd rounder, appears to not be destined for a major league career...the team is still hoping Blake Bullivant can turn into a major league reliever and that Mark Yard has a chance to be a swingman.

RL Aurora: The team's pretty well cleared out from last year's 41-23 squad. Danny Leach will probably move to Eau Claire and Cesar Montoya to AA or AAA...defensive wiz Juan Domingo probably moves up this year to Eau Claire too.