Archive for February, 2011

James Paxton Has Signed?

by ~ Sunday, February 27th, 2011

Bit of late breaking news tonight: per the Twitter feed of University of Kentucky pitcher Alex Meyer, LHP James Paxton has finally signed with the organization after being a fourth-round draft pick last June (hat tip to Prospect Insider’s Chris Crawford for finding the tweet first). (ed. note – Meyer has since deleted the tweet [...]

Appreciating Felix Hernandez

by ~ Saturday, February 26th, 2011

Seattle sports fans – particularly those who are baseball fans – are long-suffering creatures. We haven’t been gifted with a team with seemingly unlimited finances like the Yankees, nor a team with a smart ownership like the Rays (owned by Wall Street investor Stuart Sternberg). Long stretches of mediocrity followed by brief bouts of success over [...]

Bradley vs. Saunders?

by ~ Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011

I get caught up in the countdown to pitchers and catchers as much as the next baseball fanatic, but every year it turns out to be a letdown.  The same thing that happens the days following pitchers and catchers also occurs and pretty much every day in Peoria, Arizona– men employed by Major League Baseball [...]

Get Excited About Josh Lueke

by ~ Monday, February 21st, 2011

Amid his slowly abating legal troubles, Josh Lueke has been severely underrated by a lot of people. A relief pitcher is expected to do two things well to be considered great: miss bats and limit walks (or rather have good control).  You’d be surprised by the number of Major League relievers who can find work [...]

Pro Ball NW On ESPN.com

by ~ Saturday, February 19th, 2011

Yes, you read that right.  We’ve already been part of ESPN’s SweetSpot network for the last year but with Rob Neyer leaving ESPN.com there’s been a void at the head of our network and at the SweetSpot blog that he maintained.  While ESPN has been looking for Rob’s replacement they have been filling the void [...]

Weekend Reading: Astronaut Ichiro Edition

by ~ Friday, February 18th, 2011

Mariners Can Jose Flores make the jump? Shannon Drayer tells us everything we need to know about Rule 5 pickup Jose Flores.  Click through for background, a scouting report and quotes from catcher Chris Gimenez, countryman Felix Hernandez, manager Eric Wedge and Flores himself. “When I get out there I just want to kill everyone [...]

Position Battles: The Bench

by ~ Friday, February 18th, 2011

The bench of any given team is very often overlooked, but it can frequently become a very important part of a team.  When a player needs a day off or gets hurt, the guys on the bench are the first line of replacements for that player.   Oftentimes these are guys who play several positions or [...]

40-man, Player by Player: Jack Cust

by ~ Thursday, February 17th, 2011

“Career by Billy” Jack Cust was one of baseball’s top prospects in the early 2000s.  He placed on Baseball America’s top 100 in 2000, 2001 and 2002, ranking as high as #31 (2000).  His career minor league line rests at a staggering .285/.429/.516 over 4926 plate appearances.  And yet, Cust didn’t  receive more than 84 [...]