Charm City 2056.7 - Best of the Minor League Teams

[DaveB]

The minor league systems have completed their seasons. It's that time of the year to give out the awards for each of our minor league teams pitcher and hitters of the year.

AAA - ANNAPOLIS SAILORS:

Best Hitter:
Former 2053 2nd round pickUTIL: Héctor Escobedo takes home the honors this season. Escobedo posted a .332/.408/.481/.889 slash line with 5 homers and 56 RBI along with a 3.6 WAR. Escobedo is a super utility type player who could push for time in the major as soon as next year.

Best Pitcher:
BBA #90 ranked prospect Qing-lai Ou-yang takes home the honor for the AAA pitchers. He posted a 13-4 record with a 3.06 ERA along with a a 1.16 WHIP and 141 strikeouts in 158.2 innings. Ou-Yang's solid performance this year earned in 2 promotions to Charm City including an expanded role where he'll be sliding into the rotation for the last couple weeks in place in the injured Héctor Silva.

AA - FREDERICK TRAVELERS:

Best Hitter:
This really surprised me. INF: Subhadra Murugesan earned the most WAR out of any of our AA position players this year with 2.2 in 67 games and 238 at bats. Murugesan posted a .345/.408/.492/.899 slash line with 4 homers in AAA before being promoted. I don't really consider him a prospect, hopefully he proves me wrong and continues to produce.

Best Pitcher:
SP: Ramiro Cruz went 9-2 with a 2.59 ERA and 89K's in 107.2 innings this year. Cruz, who is 24, is a pitcher I'm pondering using the relief conversion on this off season as I feel his best chances of reaching the major is through the route of the bullpen.

A - CUMBERLAND MINERS:

Best Hitter:
Does the name 3B: Izz al Din bin Riyad sound familiar? If you have been following our annual Best of Minor League lists you'd remember this name as bin Riyad was named as the tope hitter for Cayman last season. He posted a solid .292/.370/.434/.804 slash line with 16 homers and 67 RBI's. We worked bin Riyad at 2B as well as some at SS and LF this year. I'm expecting to see him continue this trajectory with some time spent in RF next year as well. While he's not a sexy prospect I am always looking for ways to expand a prospects horizons and get him to the majors.

Best Pitcher:
SP: Richard Waddell has made a slow and steady progress through our system since being selected in the 11th round in 2051. 2056 saw him earn top pitcher in AA with a 4-5 record with a 2.88 ERA and 111 Ks in 90.2 innings of work. Waddell also posted a 157 ERA+ this year to take the award.

SA - CAYMAN ISLANDERS:

Best Hitter:
Our first round selection from 2056 3B: Izz al Din bin Riyad takes the award for SA Cayman. Arthur hit .324/.432/.486/.918 in 185 at bats while chipping in 5 homers. I'm expecting Arthur to make the move to A ball at some point next season with a stop in AA not out of the question.

Best Pitcher:
Nobuhiko Kokura, a former minor league free agent, went 4-1 with a 3.00 ERA and 58 K's in 78 innings of work this year. He's got some work to do to get to the minors, but our scouts like the increased movement he showed as the season progressed which is a nice positive.

R - ASSATEAGUE PONIES:

Best Hitter:
James Darvell had a very solid year. He was named to the rookie league all star game as well as being named the team's player of the year. Darvell, a former 3rd round pick in 2055, hit .382/.413/.602/1.015 with 8 homers and 44 RBI while generating 3.1 WAR in just 64 games. Darvell is listed as a shortstop, but I don't think it's his long terms position as I feel he will perform better at 2B or even 3B the higher in the minor leagues he goes.

Best Pitcher:
Saled Lahsini gets the nod as pitcher of the year for Assateague. He posted a 5-1 record with a 1.64 ERA in 66 innings spread across 15 games (8 starts). I'm hopeful the OOTP gods will see his good performance and grace him with some talent upgrades because he performed quire well this year after being selected in the 8th round.

Thoughts:

Before I wrote this article I reviewed the 2054 and 2055 pitchers and players of the year. While I don't think our minor league teams aren't stocked with talent, I felt the best performers this season were all basically guys I could see being getting to the majors by either progressing to their potentials or with a talent increase or two. Previous versions of this hasn't always been that way. So while as I mentioned our minor league system isn't great I do feel that I'm doing a better job getting better depth throughout the minor league system. I with our low levels had some better pitching prospects so that might be an area to focus on in the 2057 draft.

[lordtoffee]

That's one thing I have noticed is that the OSA ratings and the actual statistics don't always play nice together, and guys in OOTP 24 can develop out of nowhere.