7Mo

Jharel Cotton from MLBTR: Jharel Cotton: Like Duffy, Cotton’s story is largely defined by injury. Since coming to Oakland from the Dodgers as part of the package received in return for Rich Hill and Josh Reddick, Cotton has loomed as a potential impact arm on the edges of the Athletics rotation. However, his unimpressive 2017 (5.58 ERA in 129 innings) was followed up by Tommy John surgery in 2018, and Cotton ultimately missed most of 2019 due to a hamstring issue that required surgery. The now-27-year-old righty hasn’t thrown a pitch in the majors in two years, but his relative youth and starter’s repertoire could see him latch on with a new team in short order. Cotton was removed from the A’s roster on Wednesday to make room for Daulton Jefferies.

Nice!!

From MLBTR: The Brewers added three players to their 40-man roster yesterday in advance of the deadline for teams to set their rosters in advance of the Rule 5 Draft. As you might expect, “these are not 100 percent easy, clear decisions to make on some players,” Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns told MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy and other reporters. While Milwaukee has only 36 players on its 40-man, teams often leave spaces open for future additions or other roster maneuvering prior to December 12, when the Rule 5 Draft takes place. This means that other teams could select some notable Brewers youngsters who weren’t protected, such as right-hander Zack Brown, currently ranked by MLB.com as the third-best prospect in Milwaukee’s farm system. Brown was quickly ascending up the minor league ladder and was the Brewers’ minor league pitcher of the year in 2018, though his 2019 numbers (5.79 ERA over his first 116 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level) were a step backwards. Stearns admitted that these struggles “certainly influenced our decision,” though “we still have high hopes for Zack Brown.” If Brown is chosen, his new team would have to keep him on its Major League roster for the entire 2020 season to gain his permanent rights, or else the team would have to offer Brown back to Milwaukee.

@NCRaven made the point that this guy is the highest rated player available through Rule 5. I'd be concerned about what basically sitting for a year does to his development but there sure seems to be a lot of talent there. I tend to think there are better Rule 5 choices but if the idea is finding high upside, it's a name to take a look at.

You weren't asking me but I'd be happy with OR. And I'm not picky about which.

Here's the writeup on Minnesota's #7 rated prospect, Wander Javier: Scouting grades: Hit: 50 | Power: 50 | Run: 55 | Arm: 60 | Field: 50 | Overall: 50 There was obvious excitement when the Twins aggressively pursued Javier, one of the top prospects in the 2015-16 international class, and signed him for $4 million in July 2015. Since then, however, there have only been glimpses of what he can do. The talented infielder missed most of his first summer, in 2016, because of a hamstring injury, then re-set a high bar by being one of the best prospects in the Appalachian League in his United States debut in 2017. Momentum was halted when a torn labrum in his non-throwing shoulder kept him off the field for all of 2018. Because the injuries have limited his time on the field, Javier is a bit of a wild card. Once he can shake the rust off, there is confidence he'll once again show his considerable offensive upside. He makes consistent hard contact with a natural feel to hit and while as a young player without that many reps, he'll need to refine his approach. He does work counts and draw walks. As he fills out, his bat speed and potential plus hitting tool could lead to at least average power. Fortunately, Javier's injury wasn't to his throwing shoulder, so his plus arm should be just fine. Whether he outgrows the position remains to be seen. With a clean bill of health and no setbacks from his injury, Javier should be ready to show what he can do over the course of a long season. Getting at-bats and reps in the field is priority number one for now.

@Tony-OH @Luke-OH Any comment about Johnny Rizer, .308 combined in 63 games with 15 doubles. Obviously it's a very small sample size.

I'm really pulling for this guy. Often we hear about some guy standing on the table yelling to advocate picking a player during the draft. If that happened with this guy, I'd love to hear the story if it's possible to find out.

I'm not sure what the answer is but to me, it's 2 separate questions. I think the analysis is that Sedlock and Fenter are very unlikely to be picked in the Rule 5 draft, or not be returned during the year. That's one question. Secondly, I think there's a very good chance 1-2-3 guys from the current 40 man ARE bumped off to make room for one of these guys from Luke's post on page 8 of this thread: Here's a series of brief notes on the DFAed players with significant team control remaining. In order of preference for the Orioles...(top 5 would be a clear back of the 40 man upgrade IMO, although Cotton and Greene are projects rather than immediate improvements) Luis Escobar 23yo, mid 90s, overpronated fastball with big horizontal, makings of two quality but low spin offspeed pitches Montana DuRapau 27yo super premium spin guy, 4 pitch 5'11" righty, needs to use curveball more, better. Jharel Cotton 27yo 5 pitch former top prospect, led by a elite changeup, been injured, reclaimation project, maybe in the pen Justin Shafer 27yo, solid pitch mix including above avg spin mid 90s FB, slider, hard cutter (90mph), rare change. Strikethrower, but lacks command Conner Greene 24yo righty, big stuff, mid-rotation or late inning, has never been able to throw enough strikes Nick Dini 26yo Bat first catcher, but not an everyday bat. fringe average catch and throw, questionable framing, better than Wynns maybe Drew Gagnon 29yo super low spin 4S FB, uses it up when he shouldn't, good changeup. Could be useful, limited upside Williams Jerez 27yo Mid-90s lefty, low spin FB, that he elevates and gets crushed, quality split, and a usable slider, poor command Taylor Guerrieri 26yo with premium curveball spin and solid command who lost the zone in 2019. Nestor Cortes Jr 24yo command and deception lefty, good k/bb, flyball pitcher hurt by juiced ball CD Pelham 24yo hard throwing lefty reliever, has t100, couldn't throw strikes in 2019 Arnaldo Hernandez 23yo righty, good changeup, hasn't been used in relief, doesn't work as a starter Dario Agrazal 24yo blah command based sinkerballer without a strikeout pitch Jorge Bonifacio 26yo plus run, fringe average glove COF, hit a little, but not enough Nick Martini 29yo LF with some bat control but without LF power

Here's a possible: Kyle Holder, meanwhile, has been one of Double-A Trenton’s best hitters with a .278/.335/.434 batting line and 124 wRC+ this year. He’s good at putting his bat on the ball and already was a wizard with the glove. His future as a middle infielder in the Majors looks brighter than it did a year ago. https://viewsfrom314ft.com/how-the-yankees-farm-system-looks-after-a-stagnant-deadline/

I'm curious about these Rule 5 eligibles: Astros Name age level era IP H BB K’s avg WHIP rank Brandon Bailey 25.0 AA 3.30 92 72 41 103 .212 1.22 FG21 Yohan Ramirez 24.5 AA 3.99 106 64 74 158 .172 1.30 Carlos Sanabria 22.8 AA 2.84 66 42 40 86 .176 1.23 FG31 Yankees Daniel Alvarez 23.3 AA 2.29 59 41 23 76 .193 1.08 Trevor Lane 25.5 AA 2.05 74 45 26 74 .170 0.95 James Reeves 26.4 AA 1.79 67 41 26 83 .177 1.00

If you punish Hinch and Luhnow, what do you do with Beltran and Cora? Maybe Beltran gets a pass because he was a player but it's also possible an investigation finds he was a major influence in how things were done. Is a player exempt when it's electronic detection of signs? I'm specifically thinking of the snide comment by Bregman about how much Beltran could be helping the Yankees in his front office gig. If there's a sincere, credible investigation actually done, I don't see how this doesn't spread to a number of other teams as well, even though Manfred clearly wants to wrap up a nice tidy bow with the Astros.

The site has been going strong for 26 years. I've been here for 3 months. Not sure this is a good sign.........

From the scout series of articles on The Athletic with Dan Connolly, the comments on Sedlock were pretty brutal: Scout’s take: “Ahh, Sedlock. I finally saw him pitch. He reminds me of Jeff Hoffman (a former Blue Jays first-rounder), and that’s not a good thing. He has a really tough time timing himself (through his delivery). He has a lot of length on the back side and very funky body movement, which makes him very inconsistent. To me, he’s soft-looking on the mound. I would like to see him more confident and with a more aggressive presence. I see him as a bottom-end starter, who is probably gonna pitch in the big leagues because he was a first-round pick. But I think he is gonna be too soft, too many walks, too much picking and not enough challenging there.”

They're in good shape on their top 30 in terms of the Rule 5 draft: San Diego Padres (2) 18) Esteury Ruiz, 2B 25) Buddy Reed, OF No-brainers to protect: Reed Could be intriguing to other clubs: N/A https://www.mlb.com/news/top-prospects-eligible-for-rule-5-draft

from MLBTR: There are tons of factors that go into these decisions, but roster space does still matter. Here are the number of open 40-man spots for each MLB team, as things stand this morning (per MLB.com’s roster pages): 10: Nationals 8: Cubs, Twins 7: Braves, Brewers, Tigers, White Sox 6: Astros, Red Sox 5: Mariners, Diamondbacks, Marlins, Orioles, Phillies, Reds 4: Rangers, Rockies, Yankees 3: Dodgers, Mets, Rays 2: Angels, Cardinals, Indians 1: Pirates 0: Athletics, Blue Jays, Padres, Giants, Royals since then: The Braves announced Tuesday that they’ve selected the contracts of outfielder Cristian Pache, catcher William Contreras, right-hander Jasseel De La Cruz and lefties Tucker Davidson and Phil Pfeifer.

Might be a while. Only the Braves have announced so far.

Looking only at pitchers, I count 6 guys that are Rule 5 eligible with the Yankees that seem worth looking into. I'm only looking at stats and haven't seen any throw but it's worth checking on Miguel Yajure, Daniel Alvarez, Trevor Lane, James Reeves, Brooks Kriske and Nick Nelson. I'd agree. I think there's one or more trade coming from them this week. And the Astros have more exposure than that.

I found this interesting: Iglesias has been linked to the Orioles in the past, but he brings some baggage. They did their homework on him last winter, found that he’s developed a reputation as a negative influence in the clubhouse and passed on him. Iglesias has registered a career 6.3 dWAR, per Baseball-Reference.com, and Hechavarría has a 6.2 dWAR. They’d both make sense as far as what the club is seeking on the field. If you’re ranking the possibilities, I think you’d be wise to place Hechavarría ahead of Iglesias. https://www.masnsports.com/school-of-roch/2019/11/elias-holding-same-shopping-list-as-gm-meetings-conclude.html

Agreed. Good point.

I don't agree with non-tendering Villar (and I don't think it will happen) but it's because I believe he has more value than $10M as a trade asset. I have no problem non-tendering a guy you don't believe has value above the arb figure and replacing him with a 6 year minor league guy you believe might provide similar production.

The O's aren't "purposely losing". They're allocating assets in other areas in order to build an organization for purposes of winning. The alternative is to devote more assets to the MLB team, to "lose less now" but ensure that they're never rebuilt into an actual contender.

Not suggesting you're wrong by any means and you're certainly not the only one who doesn't have great confidence in Zimmerman but there is this: Holt on Zimmermann: “Man, where do I start? No. 1, his fastball got better. No. 2, his curveball got better. No. 3, his changeup got better. Four, his command and approach to attack hitters got better. He overall took everything that we would throw at him and put it to use to make it actionable on field. Just really proud of that guy for the work ethic and willingness to go out and work to improve all facets of his game. Certainly a guy who does fly below the radar. But certainly a guy who is capable of being an impact guy at the big league level at some point.” After hearing Holt’s very positive comments on Zimmermann, I asked him if maybe this was the pitcher that came the farthest on the farm this year. “He came over from the Braves, so largely what we had looked at prior to his arrival, he was throwing a lot of two-seam fastballs and changeups down and away,” Holt said. “Kind of indicative of a little more of a Braves/National League style. He basically was able to take more advantage of a four-seam fastball and his changeup, so it allowed him to use more on plate and use more of the plate up and down in the zone. “As I said, his curveball got much better and his slider was very, very solid and so overall, yes, he made as much improvement as anyone in the organization. It was a testament to his willingness to go and do work and take accurate information and formulate a plan and put it to use.”

Let me rephrase. An article about a really interesting dude. There's more in the article than just the Metallica reference.

Really interesting dude: “I remember the night before my second Tommy John, I flew into Laguardia, took a cab right from Laguardia to MetLife to see Metallica the night before my surgery. I just did stuff like that where I normally wouldn’t. https://www.nbcsports.com/bayarea/giants/how-30-months-rehab-3-surgeries-became-blessing-giants-ian-gardeck