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2019 #8 Prospect: Zac Lowther - LHP


Tony-OH

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52 minutes ago, Philip said:

Why did you have Henderson ahead of some pitchers who are farther along and have been successful? I had Harvey higher  because I think there’s still a chance he can make it as a starter, but Henderson just showed up, he’s nothing but potential at the moment, and the other guys have had some time to justify many of their expectations. I’m not being snarky, I’m genuinely wondering what your justification was. 

Well I will assume this question is to me since I had final say on the rankings. The potential impact of Henderson as an everyday impact bat outweighs a reliever profile on my mind. Yes, there is a little doubt that Harvey is a safer bet outside of his injury risk which still remains high until he can put up an entire season without being shutdown for a period of time.

We have in the past put players like Machadon, Bundy, Britton, Eduardo Rodriguez and Jonathan Schoop pretty high in our rankings before they played above rookie ball. Sometimes the potential impact outweighs a player who is major league ready but ha a lower ceiling. 

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1 hour ago, Philip said:

Why did you have Henderson ahead of some pitchers who are farther along and have been successful? I had Harvey higher  because I think there’s still a chance he can make it as a starter, but Henderson just showed up, he’s nothing but potential at the moment, and the other guys have had some time to justify many of their expectations. I’m not being snarky, I’m genuinely wondering what your justification was. 

I had told him that I selected him at the choice 7 and therefore annihilated my list which he thought I was perfect on. The question was to me. 

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1 hour ago, Philip said:

Why did you have Henderson ahead of some pitchers who are farther along and have been successful? I had Harvey higher  because I think there’s still a chance he can make it as a starter, but Henderson just showed up, he’s nothing but potential at the moment, and the other guys have had some time to justify many of their expectations. I’m not being snarky, I’m genuinely wondering what your justification was. 

Henderson being ranked so high is perplexing.  He didn't even hit as well as the other young shortstop on GCL Orioles.  Darrel Henraiz who is actually younger.  Reminds me when Sedlock was ranked #1 overall prospect on here when he hadn't done anything. 

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4 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

Well I will assume this question is to me since I had final say on the rankings. The potential impact of Henderson as an everyday impact bat outweighs a reliever profile on my mind. Yes, there is a little doubt that Harvey is a safer bet outside of his injury risk which still remains high until he can put up an entire season without being shutdown for a period of time.

We have in the past put players like Machadon, Bundy, Britton, Eduardo Rodriguez and Jonathan Schoop pretty high in our rankings before they played above rookie ball. Sometimes the potential impact outweighs a player who is major league ready but ha a lower ceiling. 

He was asking me why I thought he would be at the seven slot. He mentioned that I had a perfect card which was the farthest thing from the truth. I was correcting him. 

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2 minutes ago, atomic said:

Henderson being ranked so high is perplexing.  He didn't even hit as well as the other young shortstop on GCL Orioles.  Darrel Henraiz who is actually younger.  Reminds me when Sedlock was ranked #1 overall prospect on here when he hadn't done anything. 

You can’t worry much about rookie ball.     People like the tools.   I haven’t even read the write-up yet, but what I’ve heard is Mountcastle level bat, and an arm that will keep him on the left side of the infield even if he outgrows SS.    I read that and think of someone like Kyle Seager as a comp.    That’d be real nice.    

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3 minutes ago, Frobby said:

You can’t worry much about rookie ball.     People like the tools.   I haven’t even read the write-up yet, but what I’ve heard is Mountcastle level bat, and an arm that will keep him on the left side of the infield even if he outgrows SS.    I read that and think of someone like Kyle Seager as a comp.    That’d be real nice.    

Well if he was so great why didn't he get picked until the second round?  The Diamondbacks picked at #33 and #34.  Certainly if they thought he was Kyle Seager good they would have used one of those picks to select Gunnar.  They had plenty of slot money so it wouldn't have been any problem signing him. 

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7 minutes ago, atomic said:

Henderson being ranked so high is perplexing.  He didn't even hit as well as the other young shortstop on GCL Orioles.  Darrel Henraiz who is actually younger.  Reminds me when Sedlock was ranked #1 overall prospect on here when he hadn't done anything. 

The year Sedlock was ranked #1 (2106), Mancini was the only guy who has shown to be an underranked miss at #11.

Nobody else has proven anything at the major league level.

#2 Harvey - injuries

#3 Sisco - yuck

#4 Akin - Same draft, short season sample

#5 Hays - Same draft, short season sample

#6 A Wells - good placement for org at the time

#7 Mountcastle - More bat, less glove than Gunnar

#12 Tanner Scott- still huge ?

Stewart #21, Mullins #23, Hess #24 are other guys who have been in the majors from that year

Not much going on in the organization to criticize Sedlock being #1 at the time

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5 minutes ago, atomic said:

Well if he was so great why didn't he get picked until the second round?  The Diamondbacks picked at #33 and #34.  Certainly if they thought he was Kyle Seager good they would have used one of those picks to select Gunnar.  They had plenty of slot money so it wouldn't have been any problem signing him. 

Why was Kyle Seager picked in the third round?   

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6 minutes ago, DirtyBird said:

The year Sedlock was ranked #1 (2106), Mancini was the only guy who has shown to be an underranked miss at #11.

Nobody else has proven anything at the major league level.

#2 Harvey - injuries

#3 Sisco - yuck

#4 Akin - Same draft, short season sample

#5 Hays - Same draft, short season sample

#6 A Wells - good placement for org at the time

#7 Mountcastle - More bat, less glove than Gunnar

#12 Tanner Scott- still huge ?

Stewart #21, Mullins #23, Hess #24 are other guys who have been in the majors from that year

Not much going on in the organization to criticize Sedlock being #1 at the time

LOL.  I don't see how  you get that at all.  I guess if you don't want to use facts at all and live  in a fantasy world you could come up with that. 

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6 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Why was Kyle Seager picked in the third round?   

A lot of guys picked in the third round never make it to the majors.  I am not sure what your point is?  Before you can call him the next Kyle Seager he has to do something to prove that he is better than his draft location. 

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1 hour ago, Big Mac said:

It was a pleasant surprise, I'm glad to see you guys think the stuff plays.  The write-up was very encouraging, I'm looking forward to seeing how he does with the AAA ball next year. 

I will admit I'm higher on him then most, including Luke. I could be wrong, but I just feel it in my bones that he's going have success a major league starter. I just see a lot of bad swings against him and when he mixes his pitches, he's really hard to hit even when his command isn't great.

I do know a scout who like me, likes him more than Baumann overall. In the end though, I was swayed to put Baumann over Lowther and it's certainly the safer bet. But, if I had a gun to my head and someone asked me if I could only have one, I would have taken Lowther over Baumann, but it is close due to Baumann significant velocity advantage. 

Like their grades though suggest, they are the same kind of prospect for us.

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26 minutes ago, atomic said:

Henderson being ranked so high is perplexing.  He didn't even hit as well as the other young shortstop on GCL Orioles.  Darrel Henraiz who is actually younger.  Reminds me when Sedlock was ranked #1 overall prospect on here when he hadn't done anything. 

You can only take so much from GCL stats and both had less than 125 PAs. Henderson was taken in the 2nd round and Hernaiz in the 5th because of their tools. At this point, there is no concrete data to say which one is ahead of the other so you have to go off pure tools which Henderson gets the nod.

Saying that, Hernaiz could very well end up the better prospect down the road because he does have a better chance of sticking at SS than Henderson. Both should be at Delmarva next year and then we'll have some more data to go off of. Plus, both Luke and I will have seen them play outside of the scouting videos and some quick clips in the GCL by this point.

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1 minute ago, Tony-OH said:

You can only take so much from GCL stats and both had less than 125 PAs. Henderson was taken in the 2nd round and Hernaiz in the 5th because of their tools. At this point, there is no concrete data to say which one is ahead of the other so you have to go off pure tools which Henderson gets the nod.

Saying that, Hernaiz could very well end up the better prospect down the road because he does have a better chance of sticking at SS than Henderson. Both should be at Delmarva next year and then we'll have some more data to go off of. Plus, both Luke and I will have seen them play outside of the scouting videos and some quick clips in the GCL by this point.

I like Hernaiz a lot. He's likely to be fun. 

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