Bandit Post, Vol 2.1, 2001 - News and Notes

[aaronweiner]

After Wise, Birmingham Has the Wright Stuff

Birmingham GM Aaron Weiner won't say so publicly, but we'll say it for him: Carl Wright is one of the more fun draft picks imaginable.

"The guy's got massive, massive skills, but he hasn't developed one pitch that's an out pitch yet," said a MBBA scout who covers high school baseball. "He's got pitching smarts way beyond his years and he's fun to watch, but his stuff is just average."

Reportedly, Weiner is silently slapping himself on the back for this pick. He won't say so publicly, but he's thinking that there's the possibility that he may have found the next Williamson Prushnok. Wright is a good comparison with Prushnok; neither is a hard tosser, both have excellent movement and control and a huge GF ratio (Wright's is 76%).

"We're very happy to have a player with the immense skills of a Carl Wright," said Weiner. "We just hope that he works as hard as he did in high school. If he's a hard worker with us, the sky's the limit with him."


Is Birmingham Adding?

With their first place status, the Birmingham Bandits are the team that usually tries to add about this time of season. Already reports had leaked during their sub-.500 start that the team was perhaps not rebuilding, as was previously thought, due to their meager success.

Now? It appears the team is in a holding pattern, waiting to see if their newfound success can be maintained.

"At this point, we're in a wait and see mode," said a team official on the basis of anonymity. "We're not sure we're ready for the big time yet, but we'll definitely be reassessing after each sim now."

Certainly nothing is set in stone, but it may mean that the team is open to dealing prospects for players, a stance which seemed impossible about a month ago.

[cheekimonk]

Wright does have that similar profile. I've started looking at guys like this more closely since having Prushnok on my squad. With that ridiculously high groundball % it's very unusual for Prushnok to have more than 2 bad outings in a row because even if he's getting knocked around the defense can make plays. Just got to make sure you're strong up the middle of the infield.

[aaronweiner]

Working on it. I'm hoping this guy might be able to help out in a few years.