Marlins make a move

The Marlins traded LHP Aaron Thompson(below) for 1B Nick Johnson. Good deal. While I like Thompson, it's a move the Marlins had to make right now. Bat Nick Johnson second, move Cantu to 3B and make Bonifacio the utility man. I can dig that.

Aaron Thompson continues his late season surge in JAX

Aaron Thompson continued his strong summer campaign in Jacksonville Tuesday night in an 11-4 win over Birmingham. He went 7 innings, giving up 3 runs on 9 hits, while walking none and striking out 3. Is one mistake of the night was a 2 strike, 2 out hanger to LF David Cook who deposited the ball over the right field wall for a 2 run homerun.

In his last 10 starts, Thompson is 3-2 with a 3.28era in 60.1 innings of work. He has given up 22 earned runs on 55 hits, while walking 20 and striking out 41. Opposing batters are hitting just .234 off of him during this run of solid outings. The strikeouts still aren't ideal, but he's definitely missing some bats. This continues to raise the question if Thompson is eventually going to move to the bullpen, or will he continue being a starter?

Thompson was taken with the 22nd overall pick in the 2005 draft by the Marlins. He was awarded with a $1.225mil bonus. Most believed he would be a tough sign because he had committed to Texas A&M early on, but things changed once the Aggies fired their coaching staff, and Aaron then signed with the Fish. After struggling in his first couple of professional outings, he came back strong in his Jamestown campaign with a 3.10era in just over 20 innings. The 6'3 left-hander spent the 2006 season at low-A Greensboro and showed much promise in what is considered a hitter friendly league. Thompson went 8-8 with a 3.63era and a 1.30whip in 134 innings of work. The longball was a bit of a problem as he gave up 12, but he did strikeout 114 compared to just 35 walks. 2007 was a minor breakout for him. Aaron battled with shoulder tendonitis early on but still went 4-6 with a 3.37era and a 1.36whip in 115 innings of work in high-A Jupiter. He gave up just 2 homeruns, while walking 35 and striking out 84. What was most impressive from his 2007 performance was his consistency from month to month. Besides June where he had a 4.05era, his era in every other month was 3.67 or better.

Thompson took a major step backwards in 2008 while in Carolina. He dealt with injuries much of the year and when he was healthy he showed little command. His strikeouts plummeted and he gave up well over a hit per inning. Like many finesse left-handers, Thompson has garnered plenty of comparisons to Tom Glavine. Thompson’s fastball sits at 89-91mph and his three secondary pitches, changeup, curveball and slider, are all solid. His curveball has the most potential out of those pitches. All four of his pitches have the potential to be (or are already) plus pitches. Aaron has shown good poise, savvy and competitiveness on the mound. He also showed a much improved pick-off move at first base, and was good at holding runners. He has a projectile frame, and should add strength and muscle in the near future. With this added strength, his pitches should have improved velocity as well.

Most would say that Thompson is near his ceiling as a #3 or 4 starter. I believe with the improvement of all four of his pitches, his ceiling is much closer to being a #2 than in being a #4. He's about as developed as much as a 22 year old can be and has done well in his second season in the Southern League. Heading into August, he's 5-9 with a 4.11era, .268baa in 114 innings. Lefties are hitting just .209 against him. With just a few starts left before the season ends, it will be interesting to see if Thompson's arm tires out or if he can finish strong.

Hammer Time

As if Josh Willingham wasn't on fire enough, he goes out and does something that hasn't been done since 2003. Tonight in Milwaukee, Hammer hit 2 grand slams, and drove in 8 as the Nats beat the Brewers 14-6.

He's now hitting .298/.410/1.007

That OPS is only bested by Albert Pujols, Joe Mauer, Prince Fielder, and Raul Ibanez. That's it. Not only that, but he's within shouting distance of everyone but Albert. And yet, here he is, 4 days from the deadline and still stuck in D.C.

The Cardinals traded for free-agent-to-be Matt Holliday and his .857 OPS just this week. They gave up a real nice prospect in 3B Brett Wallace, along with RHP Clayton Mortensen and OF Shane Peterson. They could have had Josh Willingham for faaaaaar less.

Tonight, the San Francisco Giants gave up LHP Scott Barnes in exchange for 1B Ryan Garko and his .826 OPS. Barnes, rated as SF's #9 prospect heading into 2009, was 12-3 with a 2.85 ERA and 99 strikeouts in 18 starts and 98.0 innings. Sabean and Co gave up alot for a guy that has nearly .200 points less in OPS than the Hammer.

Do teams not realize what he is doing right now? How is this happening? Hopefully his 2 grandslams wake someone up tonight. Even if it's the Phillies. Hammer needs to be in a pennant chase.

Alejandro Sanabia flirts with no hitter, just gets her number, no goodnight kiss

On Sunday afternoon, Marlins right-hander Alejandro Sanabia came within 6 outs of pitching a no hitter against the Dunedin Blue Jays. Throwing mostly two-seam fastballs, the 6'1 righty struck out 6 and walked just 1 in his 8 innings of work. Coming into the game against the Jays, Sanabia had knocked around in July, giving up 13 runs in 19.1 innings. The remedy for his struggles would be a visit from Dunedin, a team that now only has 4 hits off him in 15 innings this season.

Sanabia has been a nice surprise this year for the Hammerheads. In 104.1 innings, Alejandro has gone 9-5 with a 3.45era and a .231baa. He has given up just 89 hits while walking 36 and striking out 68.

The Marlins drafted Alejandro Sanabia in the 32nd round of the 2006 draft. The San Diego, native spent the 2005 season as part of the rookie league Gulf Coast Marlins pitching staff, going 3-1 with a 3.24 ERA in 11 appearances. Opponents hit just .169 off him while with the GCL Marlins. He shows a sinking fastball at 88-92mph that tops out at 93. He has a big slurve-like breaking ball and is working on a changeup. The changeup improved greatly from 2007 to 2008.

Stepping up from Jamestown to Greensboro was a big challenge for the 19 year old. In Jamestown, he was able to hold right-handed batters to a .212 average while walking just 9 and striking out 42. Obviously this meant that lefties killed him, which they did to a tune of .347. Pitching in Jamestown as an 18 year old, the late round pick certainly opened up some eyes in a much older league. Marlins vice president of player development and scouting Jim Fleming just raves about him, especially with his bounce back in the second half of the 2007 season after being hit hard in Jamestown early. He had a 5.80era before the break, and posted a 3.74era after, while batters hit just .224 off of him.

Sanabia took another step forward in his development in 2008. He held his own in the South Atlantic League, posting a 4.93era, .273baa and a 1.36whip in 96.2 innings. It seems as if he turned a corner late, as in his final 10 games he went 3-2 with a 3.78era. In those 52.1 innings of work, he gave up just 53 hits, walked 11 and struck out 41.

Still very young and quite raw, Sanabia has been a bright spot in high-A Jupiter. His work on his secondary pitches is what has transformed him into a legitimate pitching prospect. With his stuff, he’s definitely a big time sleeper in this system and if he can finish strong, he will easily be one of the better pitching prospects in the Marlins system heading into 2010.

Projecting Gaby Sanchez

Well, he's finally up. And he gets to ride the bench.

Regardless, I figured he would be best to post up now so fans can know around what to expect from it.

Coming up through the minors, he's been known as a line drive contact hitter with good patience but questionable pop. No surprise to anyone, this shows up in the numbers.



While at first glance you might look at the numbers and say "Hey, those are very similar power numbers to Maybin" (.175 ISO, 16 HRs for Maybin), they in fact come to those numbers very differently. The first thing to understand is age relative to league. Maybin, at 22 years old, is still growing. Gaby, 25, is basically in his prime years now. The second thing is their HR/FB rates (Or, % of times a FB goes for a HR). Gaby's HR/FB is 9.6%, whereas Maybin's is 14.3%. This shows that Maybin has a lot more raw power.

The other thing with Gaby is the park factors. Greensboro, the Class A affiliate of the Florida Marlins, is a hitters park in a hitters league. Jupiter, the Class A Advance affiliate of the Florida Marlins, is a massive pitchers park in a pitchers league. So, power numbers for hitters are normally high in Greensboro but take a massive drop when they go to Jupiter. This happened to Gaby; after posting a .286 ISO and 17% HR/FB in Greensboro, he went down to .154 ISO and 6% HR/FB. Carolina is a rather neutral park, and he posted pretty impressive .200 ISO although just a 9.8% HR/FB. His ISO mostly came from doubles, as he finished the year with 42 doubles and 1 triple (29% of his hits). Unfortunately, this number should lower as he reaches the majors due to better offense. Normally for a prospect, you hope that doubles turn into home runs as their body fills out and they gain more power. But again, with Gaby's age, there is not much room for more power projection. That means the balls will stay in the ball park, and better defensive players will track down more of those balls.

To make a comparison to another former "old for his league, question his power" Marlin is none other than Josh Willingham, who didn't get to AA until 25 and AAA until 26. Willingham has had quite a career, with a MLB ISO of .212 and HR/FB of 14%. However Willingham showed a lot more in the minors then Gaby did. Take a look at Hammer vs Sanchez(Note: the former Class A affiliate with Kane County, but it's park factors are similar to Greensboro, meaning it's a hitters park. The New York-Penn League, where the short season affiliates are, are mostly neutral. Also, HR/FB data only goes back 2005)



As can be seen here, Willingham had a continual power improvement from ages 23-26, posting a .275 ISO in that time spawn. Sanchez, meanwhile, actually took a step back, only posting a .172 ISO. An absolute huge difference.

There's also a worry about Sanchez's LHP and RHP splits. He has crushed LHP (.963 OPS) but hasn't fared that well against RHP (.831 OPS). This is mostly do to a big BABIP (batting average of balls in play) difference. There isn't much of a power difference (.204 ISO and 10.3% HR/FB against LHP, .169 ISO and 9.2% HR/FB), nor BB/K difference (1.10 BB/K against LHP, 0.93 against RHP). Basically about what you'd expect for most players. However, he has a .356 BABIP against LHP and a .318 BABIP against RHP. This is fueled by a 20% LD rate against LHP while only 17% against RHP. Will it even out, or is it something we need to expect? Just won't be something we know until he's up here and does his thing.

Defensively, he was once considered a horrible defensive first baseman but made huge improvements and won the gold glove award for the southern league. However, I have my doubts of just how much he improved, and although I do expect him to be better than average, I don't expect him to be great. Base running wise, he's not a big lumbering first baseman but he isn't fast either, but he's suppose to be a smart base runner.

So it's projection time.



His WARs aren't exactly eye openers.

What most likely happens is that he displays basically average power, keeping around the same HR rate but losing some doubles to better defenses. It also allows him to still keep a solid BB rate, but overall he's nothing special. The biggest problem being the position he plays, with the average 1B OPS normally hovering in the .800-.850 range. He could still have a career ahead of him, Doug Mientkiewicz took a very similar career line of .271/.360/.405 and had a long career. However, Mientkiewicz was also worth 10+ runs on defense. If Gaby can get to that level, he could duplicate Mientkiewicz's career. The biggest problem with this for Gaby is that he has Logan Morrison breathing down his neck. And while there are rumblings of moving Morrison to LF, it then becomes a question of "Do you want Gaby Sanchez at first base, or Scott Cousins/Bryan Petersen/John Raynor/someone else in the OF? With how cheap 1B/LFs are on the FA market now, is it worth spending that extra 5 mil to get a mid .850 OPS bat?". Unfortunately, he'll probably be a 1B/3B back up, and the fact that he was called up to ride the bench just kind of affirms it. Then again, our front office has gone a bit coo-coo over the last few years, so who knows.

Best case scenario: He's a late bloomer and his HR/FB raises, turning those doubles into homeruns. This is certainly possible, some players took a long time to hit their power peak. It's just rare when this happen. His power though is really the only thing keeping him from being an slightly below average to average player and being a good player, everything else though he already does well.

Worst case scenario: He doesn't develop the HR power, and a lot of those doubles start turning into outs, dropping him to the high-end power of a slap hitter. This is already happening in AAA. Last year a hit went for a 2B/3B 28.7% of the time, this year just 13.6%. Pitchers then pound the zone, dropping his ability to take a walk. If this happens, he's probably not even a major leaguer.

It should also be noted that a lot of things depend on how well Sanchez can field third base. If he can field 3b at a neutral level, that would basically add 1 win to his WAR, turning him into a good player. Big difference between a .770 OPS 1b and a 3b. But this is again a question of how good he is defensively, and a lot of scouts don't think he can handle the position well enough to play everyday.

My assumption is that the Marlins played him so much at 3b in AAA to see if he could handle it. If he could, he'd usurp Emilio Bonifacio (like Fredi has the balls to bench him, right?). If he couldn't, he'd ride the bench. And we're now watching this happen. Hopefully Gaby atleast gets a chance to show what he's got. I don't know if he can handle getting 3 at bats a week. The same thing Brett Carroll had to go through forever (and he still doesn't play nearly enough).

I'd like to thank Nny for putting together all the stats and numbers. Dude knows his shit.

So the Marlins need a bat...

So here we are on Thursday, July 23rd with the Florida Marlins 6 games behind the Phillies in the NL East, and just 3.5 games out of the wildcard (Rox, Giants, Cubs, Astros ahead of them). The low payroll Florida Marlins are somehow in the thick of things for the playoffs. Even after all the of moves made by both the front office and the managerial braintrust that left us shaking our heads, the Marlins have an actual chance at a playoff birth with about 65 games to go.

The three headed monster in the starting rotation is starting to come around. Josh Johnson has been a horse all season long. Chris Volstad has a 3.24era and under a 1.00whip for the month of July. Since Ricky Nolasco was sent to the minors towards the end of May, he has made 9 starts. In this 59.1 innings, he has a 2.73era to go along with a 1.03whip with 68 strikeouts and just 13 walks. Opposing batters are hitting just .218/.361/.355 against him during his recent run of dominance. The Fish are lacking a legit 4th starter right now, but it looks like Rick VandenHurk might be ready to contribute to the team for the first time in his young career.

The Marlins bullpen is pretty damn good. Dan Meyer has found the form that made him one of the best prospects in baseball a few seasons ago. Leo Nunez has been a rock back there in the abscence of closer Matt Lindstrom. Brian Sanches and Kiko Calero have been absolute revelations, proving yet again that seemingly anyone not named Jorge Julio can pitch effectively in the Marlins bullpen at anytime. The additions of veterans Brandon Donnelly and Luis Ayala only strengthen the Marlins bullpen even more.

What the Marlins need is a bat. A guy that can step in and just mash the ball. A guy that can play either corner outfield spot if need be, and even some first base at times. Being that the Marlins have payroll constraints, they could use someone that isn't exactly making that much money. It would be nice if this masher could also take a walk here and there. In a best case scenario, this player the Marlins would bring in would be a veteran but someone the players on the team could instantly connect with. In a perfect world, there wouldn't be a bunch of teams lining up to get this guy because of bigger fish in the sea (Matt Holliday, Roy Halladay, Victor Martinez). And oh yea, this player's current team would have to be terrible and be in somewhat of a cost-cutting mode so they could maybe save some money to try and sign their top draftee from 2009.


Next on ABC: "I'm a good hitter... get me outtttta here!"


As it turns out.... there is such a guy out there. He meets all of our requirements. Ya'll remember Josh Willingham, don't you? The guy we unceremoniously shipped off to D.C. along with Scott Olsen in exchange for Emilio Bonifacio (seriously) and a bunch of minors leaguers. Well it turns out, rumors of his back being shot for good were greatly exaggerated. Former Nationals Manager Manny Acta, not knowing how potent a weapon Josh Willingham's bat really is, started him off on the bench to begin the 2009 season. In exchange for this treatment, Josh hit all of .143/.302/.257 in 35 at bats in the month of April.

May finally comes around and with injuries to Elijah Dukes, Austin Kearns, Lastings Milledge and every other outfielder that Acta liked over Willingham, Acta had no choice but to start giving The Hammer some legit at bats. Josh hasn't seen the pine since (although Acta is now watching games at home on his couch after being fired... no doubt for his lack of trust in Josh Willingham). Since May 5th, Willingham is hitting .328/.438/.632 in 174 at bats. He has 27 walks to go with just 36 strikeouts. On the season, even with that horrid start, Josh has a .984 OPS. If he had enough at bats to qualify(missed a bunch of time due to a death in the family), that OPS would rank him 7th in the majors. That would be ahead of guys like Hanley, Utley, Miguel Cabrera and Mark Teixeira.

But Nomahhhhhh you ask, Hammer is probably just feasting on lefties, he can't come in and just tear up all the righties like we need him to. I'm so glad you posed that thought. While Josh is hitting .326/.492/.674 against lefties, he is still crushing righties to a tuen of .288/.389/.540 in 163 at bats. He's turned himself into a legit force in the middle of the order. Can you imagine just plugging his bat right behind Hanley and in front of Cantu? The best part is that depending on where Hammer plays in the field that day, you either get Emilio Bonifacio (Cantu at 3rd) or Chris Coghlan (who I love, but still he isn't bringing much to the table right now) out of the lineup on those days. How about a 2-3-4-5 of Hermida/Baker (walk machines), Hanley, Willingham and Cantu? Obviously Cody should be hitting 6th with Uggla 7th, but I think that might be asking too much of Fredi. We know he doesn't look at stats or splits or anything when he makes his decisions. Hell, he'd probably ask Hammer to hit 8th in his order.

Why are no other teams even interested in Willingham anyway? There were rumors saying the Cardinals may go after Josh if they can't land Matt Holliday. How about just going after the guy that have .150 OPS points on Holliday and won't cost nearly as much (in prospects or in salary). Seriously, when was the last time someone playing this well, making this little amount of money, relatively inexpensive (prospect-wise) was available in the middle of the season? It's not like he has baggage with him and it's not like he's a bad clubhouse guy. Forget Roy Halladay, the road to the playoffs goes through whichever team decides to man-up and grab Josh Willingham. If no one decides to, he'll just continue to kill the ball in D.C. and be everyone's worst nightmare down the stretch.

What's new with Cameron Maybin?

He's been lighting up the PCL over the last few weeks and there is an obvious need for an upgrade in Miami. Here's what Baseball Prospectus' Kevin Goldstein has to say:

Cameron Maybin, CF, Marlins (Triple-A New Orleans) I'm not sure what else this guy has to do to get another chance. Maybin went 7-for-13 over the weekend and is batting .345/.428/.500 overall, including a .393 mark in his last 30 games. In addition, the once-disturbingly high strikeout rate has become much more manageable, as the former first-round pick has whiffed 38 times in 200 at-bats, although the power is significantly down, as he's hit just three home runs. Like Reds outfielder Drew Stubbs, he's a different player than he once was, but he might be an overall better one because of it, and he deserves second shot.

He certainly deserves a shot, and no doubt the Marlins could use a shot in the arm these days but perhaps his pending contract status/arbitation is what could keep Cam down in NOLA for longer than he probably should be.

Just to remind you before starting, 172 Days of service time is 1 MLB season.

Cam Maybin’s Service Time

Entering 2009 - 58 Days
April 6 -May 10 2009 - 35 Days
Total - 93 Days (He was sent down May 11th, not sure if day of transaction counts, so everything may be off by 1 day, but you get the idea).

July 7th today through end of the season - 90 Days (183 Days for Maybin)
August 1st through end of the season - 65 Days (158 Days for Maybin)
September 1st through end of the season (Oct. 4th) - 35 Days (128 Days for Maybin)

So depending on when we call him up, we have a few scenarios

Calling him up before July 19th

Maybin will accrue 1 year of service time by the end of 2009. Assuming he is on the major league roster here on out at the next call up, his progression would look like:

2010 - Minimum Salary; End of the year Service Time over 2 seasons
2011 - Minimum Salary; End of the year Service Time over 3 seasons
2012 - Arbitration year 1; End of the year Service Time over 4 seasons
2013 - Arbitration year 2; End of the year Service Time over 5 seasons
2014 - Arbitration year 3; End of the year Service Time over 6 seasons, FREE AGENCY

Calling him up July 19th-August 12thish

First, August 12th puts him at 135 days of service. Historical Super 2 Deadline is 128 days, lately it’s been 140 days as teams are playing younger players. I’m splitting the difference.

2010 - Minimum Salary; End of the year Service Time around 1.135
2011 - Minimum Salary; End of the year Service Time around 2.135
2012 - Super 2 Arbitration; End of the year Service Time around 3.335
2013 - Arbitration year 2; End of the year Service Time around 4.135
2014 - Arbitration year 3; End of the year Service Time around 5.135
2015 - Arbitration year 4; Service Time over 6 years, FREE AGENCY

Calling him up August 13thish or later

2010 - Minimum Salary; End of the year Service Time around 1.134
2011 - Minimum Salary; End of the year Service Time around 2.134
2012 - Minimum Salary; End of the year Service Time around 3.134
2013 - Arbitration year 1; End of the year Service Time around 4.134
2014 - Arbitration year 2; End of the year Service Time around 5.134
2015 - Arbitration year 3; End of the year Service Time over 6 years, FREE AGENCY

----

Basically, the Marlins have an entire year of control to gain by not calling him up until July 19th. It’s cutting it REALLY close, but following the service time progression, that’s how it is. At absolutely minimum, he's not coming up before July 19th. There is no way they risk an entire year of control for a few games.

The choice they have to make is, do they want to really try and nickel and dime it and wait till, let’s be really safe and say August 20th, to prevent Maybin from being a Super 2, or will they call him up end of July/Early August for the playoff push?

the above was courtesy of my boy lou... he's gonna be my arbitration guy someday when im running the nationals

Hitter Roundup: June Edition

c/o my boy lou over at http://tealandblack.net/

NEW ORLEANS (AAA)

Cameron Maybin
June - 76 AB, .382/.489/.500 (.949), 0HR, 14/13 BB/K, 4/2 SB
Season - 139 AB, .331/.422/.460 (.883), 1 HR, 19/23 BB/K, 5/2 SB

Doing what he should be doing. His line drive rates went up in June, even if he had a ridiculous BABIP (.433). I think we'd all like to see more HR, but the walks are there, the average is there, and the general contact is there. Power is always the last tool that develops and he's young. Looking good.

Gaby Sanchez
June - 84 AB, .250/.315/.405 (.720), 3 HR, 6/17 BB/K, 2 SB
Season - 171 AB, .298/.366/.462 (.828), 7 HR, 17/31 BB/K, 3 SB

Slumped a bit in June, but it's a small sample size and his season line is OK. What's notable is his seemingly fulltime transition to 3B. Maybe that is messing with his offense a little bit. Either way, he's probably not a call up coming off this kind of month but longterm he is still looking like a solid bat to have around.

John Raynor
June - 91 AB, .209/.263/.319 (.581), 1 HR, 4/27 BB/K, 4/1 SB
Season - 261 AB, .253/.304/.352 (.656), 3 HR, 16/64 BB/K, 8/5 SB

I didn't even think he was going to be this bad. Only positive here is he has a few option years so we can stash him in AAA for a few years and see if he regains some of his prospect clout from his A/AA days. Horrible. Simply horrible.

Brett Hayes
June - 66 AB, .242/.282/.364 (.645), 0 HR, 4/16 BB/K
Season - 178 AB, .264/.302/.343 (.645), 1 HR, 11/33 BB/K, 2 SB

Not very encouraging coming off the .851 OPS May, but I think we realize at this point Hayes isn't going to be a huge bat. Ideally, he can sit in AAA for the next year or two and develop his bat into a .250/.300/.350+ kind of guy that hits lefties harder than righties (.793 OPS vs LHP this year). With his defense, that would make him a solid backup. But like to see some more hits.

Jai Miller
June - 93 AB, .323/.369/.570 (.939), 3 HR, 7/20 BB/K, 2/1 SB
Season - 161 AB, .292/.361/.484 (.845), 4 HR, 18/42 BB/K, 5/3 SB

So Jai had a pretty good month, and his season looks alright. However, he has a sub .700 OPS versus RHP and a 1.300+ OPS versus LHP this year. Can't feel very confident about him turning into a bench outfielder if this is how he's going to play.

JACKSONVILLE (AA)

Mike Stanton
June - 84 AB, .214/.302/.369 (.671), 3 HR, 9/27 BB/K, 0/1 SB
Jupiter A+ - 180 AB, .294/.390/.578 (.968), 12 HR, 28/45 BB/K, 2/2 SB

The fact he is in AA at his age is ridiculous so an initial learning curve is expected. It's nice to see the BB rate, and a little bit of power. Just have to wait and see how long it takes him to figure it out. It may take awhile, but even if he's in AA the rest of this year and next, he's still way ahead of schedule.

Logan Morrison
June - 68 AB, .217/.325/.319 (.644), 1 HR, 11/9 BB/K, 1 SB
Season - 75 AB, .227/.348/.387 (.735), 2 HR, 14/10 BB/K, 1/1 SB

Back from injury, getting his timing back. It's nice to see the BB/K so he's still seeing the ball well. As with Stanton, just a matter of time. I'm expecting a big rest of the year.

Scott Cousins
June - 96 AB, .313/.383/.521 (.904), 3 HR, 10/13 BB/K, 6/3 SB
Season - 270 AB, .256/.325/.419 (.743), 7 HR, 26/57 BB/K, 16/5 SB

Welcome back Cousins. That was a very nice 300 OPS jump from your May total. Love the BB/K and huge huge decrease in strikeouts, and the average is fantastic. Your season line is still subpar, but we'll overlook it if perform well in July. It's also important to remember Cousins is left handed, and a plus defender. So he can become a pretty significant prospect if he starts to figure it out.

Bryan Petersen
June - 96 AB, .313/.367/.406 (.773), 1 HR, 9/17 BB/K, 0/3 SB
Season - 258 AB, .287/.362/.372 (.734), 2 HR, 32/51 BB/K, 10/5

Slightly better than what he's been doing all year. I ask again, where is the slugging! Last year, Petersen had a .477 slugging between three levels, and a .486 in AA Carolina. Where is the slugging! The average is good. The walks are nice. The strikeouts are borderline acceptable, but can we get some HR? You hit 23 last year in 488 AB. You have 2 to 258. What gives? Here's to hitting some XBH in the second half.

JUPITER (A+)

Matt Dominguez (who is very lonely)
June - 95 AB, .295/.352/.474 (.826), 3 HR, 9/14 BB/K, 1 SB
Season - 271 AB, .247/.305/.365 (.671), 5 HR, 21/51 BB/K, 1 SB

As with Cousins, Dominguez finally decided to show up. You can see the dramatic BB/K improvement, average, power, everything. This is the guy we drafted in the first round. Let's see him keep it up as he's the only hope for 3B in the organization (not including Gaby, but I don't think anyone sees him there longterm).

GREENSBORO (A)

Isaac Galloway
June - 41 AB, .293/.340/.463 (.804), 1 HR, 3/12 BB/K, 2/2 SB
Season - 118 AB, .288/.331/.449 (.780), 2 HR, 8/32 BB/K, 8/4 SB

He's back from injury and seemingly picking up where he left off. It's a smaller sample size than everybody else so far, but I'd like to see improvements with the BB/K here on out. Love the average, as he's really raw, but just have to work with the plate discipline with the younger hitters. At this point, you can chalk this up to a big win for the Marlins to be able to sign him, and that he is doing pretty good in his first professional season.

Jake Smolinski
June - 77 AB, .299/.449/.468 (.917), 3 HR, 20/16 BB/K, 2/3 SB
Season - 142 AB, .261/.375/.444 (.819), 24/25 BB/K, 2/3 SB

Jake is playing 2B/3B, and you can consider him a younger Coghlan. He's everything as advertised. Advanced plate recognition for his age, excellent average, a little bit of pop which Greensboro is surely helping. I like him a lot and am excited to track him the next few years.

Kyle Skipworth
June - 67 AB, .254/.315/.328 (.643), 0 HR, 5/21 BB/K, 0/1 SB
Season - 189 AB, .201/.259/.328 (.587), 4 HR, 14/71 BB/K, 1/1 SB

I'm so glad we drafted him. It's sad to even say this, but his June line is up 200 OPS points from May. Look at the strikeouts. I want to punch something. Also looking for a positives, he simply cannot hit left handers at this stage of his career, and his season line moves up a bit against right handers. There is a lot of hope longterm. We're just not seeing any of it right now.

JAMESTOWN (A-)

These guys just started so there isn't much. We have two big international signings here.

Jose Ceballos
Season - 23 AB, .217/.250/.261 (.511), 0 HR, 0/5 BB/K

He is a catcher, and ideally Skipworth and him each level and in 2013 we have two excellent young MLB ready catchers. Still a long long way to go.

Jose Torres
Season - 20 AB, .100/.095/.100 (.195), 0 HR, 0/5 BB/K, 0/1 SB

I feel silly even typing that line, but he is a SS from Venezuela. He wanted to play next to Miguel Cabrera in 5 years. Whoops. But he is definitely one to watch.

GCL MARLINS (R)

It's hard to judge if anyone is interesting here, especially since our top two picks in the draft are pitchers, but

Marquise Cooper
Season 22 AB, .136/.174/.136 (.310), 0 HR, 1/7 BB/K,1/7 BB/k, 1/1 SB

Our third round pick, and is a speedy low-power OF prospect. Welcome to baseball. Now get some hits.