Marlins headed to the Arizona Fall League

Marlins will play for the Mesa Solar Sox (along with prospects from the Angels, Cubs, Red Sox, and Twins) with Bo Porter managing

We have 4 spots for pitchers, but only have used 3 at this point (Kyle Winters is probably the 4th choice, depends on his health)

Jay Buente, Jay Voss and Garrett Parcell

Matt Dominguez will go along with Michael Stanton, Bryan Petersen and Greg Burns

Greg Burns is on the taxi squad, meaning he will only be activated on Wednesdays and Saturdays.



Arizona Fall League Player Eligibility
Roster size is established at 35 players per team.
Each major-league organization is required to provide seven players subject to the
following eligibility requirements:
• All Triple-A and Double-A players are eligible provided they are on
Double-A rosters no later than August 17.
• Two players below the Double-A level are allowed for 2009.
• Foreign players are allowed as long as the player is not on his native
country’s primary protected player list.
• No players with more than two years of credited major league service
as of August 31 (including major league disabled list time) are eligible
except a team may select one player picked in the most recently
concluded Major League Rule 5 Draft.
• Each team is allotted 20 pitchers but only 15 are designated “eligible”
each game day.

July Roundup: Hitting Prospects

analysis c/o lou over at SoFlaMarlins.com

NOLA (AAA)

Cameron Maybin CF
July - 103 AB, .320/.403/.485 (.889), 2 HR, 15/24 BB/K, 2/0 SB
Season - 244 AB, .328/.415/.471 (.886), 3 HR, 34/47 BB/K, 7/2 SB

Gaby Sanchez 1B/3B
July - 61 AB, .246/.310/.377 (.687), 2 HR, 6/6 BB/K, 2/0 SB
Season 234 AB, .282/.353/.436 (.789), 9 HR, 25/38 BB/K, 5/0 SB

Brett Hayes C
July - 75 AB, .242/.263/.360 (.623), 2 HR, 3/13 BB/K
Season - 255 AB, .255/.291/.345 (.636), 3 HR, 14/62 BB/K, 2/0 SB

Jai Miller CF
July - 70 AB, .300/.351/.557 (.908), 5 HR, 6/22 BB/K, 1/0 SB
Season - 235 AB, .289/.352/.498 (.950), 9 HR, 24/66 BB/K, 6/3 SB
vs LHP 6 HR, 1.112 OPS, vs RHP 3 HR .725 OPS

John Raynor LF/RF
July - 77 AB, .221/.333/.286 (.619), 1 HR, 13/31 BB/K, 6/1 SB
Season - 342 AB, .243/.308/.333 (.641), 4 HR, 29/97 BB/K, 14/6 SB

So business as usual. Maybin isn’t hitting for much HR power, but has an excellent average, BB rate, and the K rate is much improved from last year. It’s just a question of when he comes up at this point. In other threads, I have detailed his future arbitration status which may be of importance here. Basically, if the Marlins call up Maybin now, he will be a Super2 in 2012 and the Marlins will be on the hook for an extra $2-3 million in salary. If the Marlins call him up around August 20th, take maybe a week or so, Maybin will probably not be a Super2 and the Marlins will have Maybin club controlled 2010-2012. Kind of a big deal. If the Marlins don’t ‘need’ him for the playoff push, he should stay down for a few more weeks just to preserve his status.

Gaby had a bad July, but he was up with the Marlins for a bit explaining the low PA. I kind of feel that Gaby’s current minor league line is what he’d be doing in the big leagues. And I’m more than happy with that for a few club controlled years. Jai is really smashing lefties, but still can’t be considered much of a prospect since he can’t hit RHP. Jai is out of options after this year, so I’d suspect he is out of the organization in March unless he wins a job on the big league roster somehow. Hayes and Raynor are just brutal and will surely repeat AAA.

JAX (AA)

Bryan Petersen RF
July - 54 AB, .315/.373/.500 (.873), 2 HR, 4/8 BB/K, 1/1 SB
Season - 315 AB, .292/.365/.394 (.759), 4 HR, 37/60 BB/K, 11/7 SB
vs LHP 0 HR, .605 OPS. vs RHP, 4 HR, .797 OPS

Logan Morrison 1B/LF
July - 83 AB, .313/.500/.554 (1.054), 5 HR, 31/15 BB/K (not a typo), 3/0 SB
Season - 161 AB, .267/.430/.466 (.896), 7 HR, 46/26 BB/K, 4/1 SB

Mike Stanton RF
July - 94 AB, .277/.349/.596 (.945), 7 HR, 7/32 BB/K, 1/0 SB
Season AA - 180 AB, .244/.330/.483 (.813), 10 HR, 18/60 BB/K, 1/1 SB
Season A+ - 180 AB, .294/.390/.578 (.968), 12 HR, 28/45 BB/K, 2/2 SB

Scott Cousins CF
July - 100 AB, .260/.299/.460 (.759), 2 HR, 6/23 BB/K, 5/0 SB
Season - 374 AB, .257/.317/.428 (.745), 9 HR, 32/80 BB/K, 22/5 SB

Morrison. Is. Retarded. At this point, we may have to pencil him into the starting lineup in April 2010, whether it’s 1B or LF. Average, Contact, BBs, Power. Full package right there. Stanton is holding his own in AA overall, and was much improved in July. You’d like to see a few less strikeouts, but I’m really happy he’s not being dominated. Plate recognition will probably improve as he ages, so he just needs to keep at it. If he can hit .260 in the bigs, he’s probably going to be a star with that power and BB potential. If Petersen can start hitting for power, he’s going to start looking real good with that avg/bb potential. Especially against right handers. And Cousins hit a lot of 2B/3B this month to explain the slugging, but he should probably repeat AA next year. Petersen should move up as he is a college player.

Jupiter (A+)

Matt Dominguez 3B
July - 102 AB, .314/.410/.569 (.978), 6 HR, 16/16 BB/K
Season - 381 AB, .262/.333/.420 (.753), 11 HR, 38/68 BB/K, 1 SB

Not really any other major hitting prospects in Jupiter, but boy has Dominguez turned it on. April .681 OPS, May .513 OPS, June .826 OPS, and now July. Season line is nothing to write about, but he’s been on a tear the last two months. One more good month, and we have to look at this as a highly successful season for Jupiter.

Greensboro (A)

Isaac Galloway CF
July - 100 AB, .240/.255/.310 (.565 OPS), 1/23 BB/K, 3/2 SB
Season - 224 AB, .262/.293/.378 (.671), 2 HR, 9/59 BB/K, 11/6 SB

Jake Smolinski 2B
July - 81 AB, .259/.348/.407 (.755), 1 HR, 10/11 BB/K, 0/2 SB
Season - 226 AB, .261/.365/.429 (.794), 7 HR, 34/38 BB/K, 2/5 SB

Kyle Skipworth C
July - 58 AB, .224/.262/.328 (.590), 1 HR, 2/26 BB/K, 0/1 SB
Season - 250 AB, .204/.257/.324 (.581), 5 HR, 16/87 BB/K, 1/2 SB

Not much positive to say. Smolinski has a nice walk rate. Skip and Galloway brutal.

Jamestown (A-)

No one of particular interest at this time. If someone wants to fill something in, feel free. But no major hitting prospects, and the international signings are not hitting.

GCL Marlins (R)

Marcell Ozuna, RF
July - 96 AB, .396/.443/.646 (1.089), 3 HR, 8/19 BB/K, 1/1 SB
Season - 133 AB, .346/.393/.556 (.949), 4 HR, 9/28 BB/K, 2/1 SB
vs LHP .545 OPS, vs RHP 1.134 OPS.

Ozuna played in the Dominican league last year as an international signing. He did ok for a 17 year old, hitting .279/.335/.416 (.751). Now, he’s really hitting the ball hard. It’s not unusual to struggle against lefties at a young age, but I note it just to show how hard he’s hitting right handers. Scouting reports are thin, but he is turning into a prospect of interest.

And Hickman is back playing in the GCL. Only a few games, we'll see if he is still striking out at an astronomical pace.

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.

3. Michael Stanton

3. Michael Stanton - Outfield - 6'5 - 225lbs - Throws: Right - Bats: Right
(last year: 12)

Arguably the best athlete in the entire draft, Michael Stanton was a three sport start (baseball, football, basketball) at Notre Dame Academy. Recruited by Southern Cal as a wide receiver/defensive back, the Marlins inked him to a $475,000 signing bonus (about $60,000 over slot). The main issue with USC was that they wanted him to play baseball, and would allow him to walk-on to the football team. (UNLV offered him a full football ride with a chance to play baseball). Right away the Marlins thought they got an enormous steal being able to draft Stanton in the second round of the 2007 draft.

There wasn’t much to take from his 56 at bats between the Gulf Coast League and Jamestown in his professional debut. He struck out too many times, but atleast he did walk 4 times. In postseason minicamp, He hit a couple of mammoth homeruns and some compared him to Pat Burrell while others said he was a young Dave Winfield. Stanton is as raw as you can get in terms of where he is right now as a baseball player. He was overmatched in the 2006 summer showcases, even with improved pitch recognition throughout the year. The Marlins were a bit surprised with how well he ran, but considering he was going to play WR, they shouldn’t have been. The 6′5 monster projects as a corner outfielder with an average arm.

2008 was a massive coming out party for Stanton. In 468 at bats, he hit .293/.381/.611 with an astonishing 39 homeruns for the Low-A Greensboro Grasshoppers. Those numbers are amazing at any level, let alone for an 18 year old starting his first year of full season ball. While he walked 58 times, something to keep an eye on is the 153 strikeouts which is also a very large amount at any level. Even with the strikeouts, Stanton put himself in the top 50 prospects in all of baseball. Prospect guru John Sickels gave this analogy for Stanton’s high risk/high reward prospect status: His ceiling his very high, but there is a huge risk of a Soviet N-1 moon-rocket-style flameout at higher levels. To make a long story short of the N-1, it was potential unfulfilled once the Americans reached the moon.

Michael takes his 39 homeruns to the Florida State League, along with teammate and bash brother Matt Dominguez for 2009. The FSL and especially their home park in Jupiter has been known to be pitcher’s paradises. Stanton has to not press when his usual moonshots are just warning track flyouts. With the pitchers in the league being much better than the South Atlantic League, it will be interesting to see if he can do anything about the massive amount of strikeouts. We’ve seen players have huge years in Low-A, only to be knocked off their pedestal in High-A ball. Either way, it’s going to be an important season in the maturation of Michael Stanton.