David Regan - Page 11

Scott Baker (MIN) – Big news in Minnesota is Baker unexpectedly opening the season on the 15-day disabled list with what is being diagnosed as shoulder stiffness. Baker finished his spring with a 6.85 ERA and a batting practice-like nine...

Josh Hamilton (OF-TEX) - We all know Hamilton has All-Star type ability and is a borderline first round fantasy pick in 12-team mixed leagues. However, I got to see Hamilton up close and personal in Arizona this week and let’s...

Preseason Outlook - March 10, 2009 Ryan Franklin (STL) - Not surprisingly, Tony La Russa isn’t quite ready to hand the closer job over to “unproven” rookies Chris Perez and Jason Motte, leaving the door open for Ryan Franklin to...

Juan Cruz (KC) – A depressed market leads the Royals to a nice free agent bargain in Juan Cruz, giving him a two-year $6 million deal. Cruz will set up Joakim Soria and is the proverbial heartbeat away from closing...

Dodgers 2B The Dodgers clearly aren’t giving Hudson $3.4 million guaranteed (up to $8 million with PA-related incentives) to be a backup. He’s the starting second baseman. This has a couple implications. First, Blake DeWitt will likely begin the year...

Minor League Analyst David Regan has updated the 2009 Top 100 Prospect Spreadsheet. David updates the Prospect Spreadsheet throughout the 2009 MLB season.  Here's a peek: TOP 50 HITTING PROSPECTS 11-30 11 Yonder Alonso CIN 1B A- Bat will...

Jim Edmonds Edmonds continues to be a surprisingly-valuable asset for the playoff-bound Cubs, going 1-for-4 with a double on Saturday. He’s batting a so-so .236/. 345/.479 in 330 at-bats and while the average is a bit of a liability, Edmonds...

Tim Lincecum Lincecum on Saturday – the good: his first career shutout, a complete-game four-hitter in which he struck out 12 Padres. The bad: an unbelievable 138 pitches. With a 17-3 record, 2.43 ERA, and major league leading 243 strikeouts,...

Randy Johnson Johnson was scratched from his start on Sunday against the Dodgers due to a sore shoulder. Let Andre Ethier and company rejoice. From all the reports, the injury isn’t serious, with Johnson saying that he just needs a...

This week's Prospect Spreadsheet update wraps up my contribution in this area this year. The minor league season is just about over, though guys like David Price are staying down to help their teams through the playoffs. This year's awards...

Michael Bourn With the Astros firmly out of the NL Central race, the organization announced a few days ago that Bourn would get the majority, if not all, of the starts in center field through the end of the year....

Clayton Kershaw Entering Saturday’s game against the Phillies, Kershaw had been in the midst of a stretch of five consecutive quality starts, going 2-0 with a 1.45 ERA and a 29:9 K:BB in those 31 innings. Saturday though, the expected...

Quite a few new names on this week's top 50s and team top 5s, as the deadline for teams to sign their 2008 draft picks passed on Auguste 15. Due to Major League Baseball's new compensation rules, failing to sign...

Pablo Sandoval Sandoval had his contract purchased by the Giants on Wednesday. It seems unlikely that the minor league catcher will supplant Benji Molina, but he could see quite a bit of time between catcher and first base as the...

American League 15 Chris Carter OAK 1B B+ 34 HR and excellent 55% XBH%.127 K in 117 games but we'll overlook that for now. 19 Carlos Triunfel SEA SS B .357 since the end of June. 6 HR in July...

American League 1 Matt Wieters BAL C A Think he wants a Sept. call-up? .441 in last 10 games. For the year: 1.03 EYE, 1.041 OPS. 5 Matt LaPorta CLE OF A- Just .212 in 52 at-bats for CLE before...

Barry Zito I’m pretty sure it was Barry Zito tossing eight scoreless innings against the Padres on Saturday, but with the lineup San Diego is rolling out there these days, it may as well have been horse trainer Nick Zito....

Crazy times for me right now with the prospect spreadsheet. As I type this, the Manny Ramirez / Jason Bay / Jeremy Hermida deal has yet to go through, with multiple prospects rumored to be included in this one. Also,...

John Van Benschoten There are some guys you see in box scores and wonder, “Him again? Why?” I had that sort of feeling when I saw that Van Benschoten was going to get the start on Saturday. Predictably (though apparently...

American League 30 Lars Anderson BOS 1B B Torrid July got him the AA promotion prior to his 21st birthday. 3-for-14 in AA so far. 37 Beau Mills CLE 1B B .351 in July with 4 HR. May be the...

Kevin Kouzmanoff Kouzmanoff isn’t getting much coverage this year for obvious reasons – the Padres are terrible and Kouzmanoff has been consistently average at best. Saturday, Kouzmanoff was 1-for-3 with an RBI single and is now hitting .277/.322/.442, but .308/.369/.488...

American League 10 Chris Davis TEX 1B A- .259 with 6 HR in 58 at-bats. That kind of power could keep him around for awhile. 12 Mike Moustakas KC SS A- .304/.380/.478 since his ASB in an otherwise disappointing full-season...

Rich Harden Sure it was the Giants, but that didn’t make Harden’s NL/Chicago debut any less impressive. Okay, maybe it did (check out the lineup Bruce Bochy had to roll out there Saturday). Anyway, Harden shined for the Cubs Saturday,...

American League 3 Matt LaPorta CLE OF A- Word is he'll report to AA, but Garko owners will want to watch what pos. he plays for CLE. 6 Travis Snider TOR OF A- .313/.371/.469 in June is outstanding for a...

Troy Tulowitzki After a rookie year (.291/.359/.479, Gold Glove defense) that normally would have resulted in a trophy in a non-Braun year, Tulowitzki has to be this year’s biggest fantasy bust. Not only is he hitting .166/.246/.298 with three homers...

American League 14 Jeremy Hellickson TAM SP A- AA is a huge jump and he was hammered for 8 runs in first start there. Let's see how he recovers. 20 Ian Kennedy NYY SP B+ 1 ER in 16.1 innings...

Garrett Atkins With Garrett Atkins, we just assume that he’s going to put up a decent average, 25+ home runs, and 110 or so RBI. This year though, Atkins is a bit behind his normal pace. After batting .319-6-21 in...

American League 15 Austin Jackson NYY OF A- Power coming around? 4 HR in June after 3 the first two months. .366 OBP and 12 SB. 19 Desmond Jennings TAM OF A- .324/.457/.486 with 3 SB in 27 at-bats. Just...

Rich Hill Rich Hill is sort of like that accident on the freeway that you, despite knowing better, just can’t take your eyes off as you drive by at 5 mph. After striking out 183 hitters for the Cubs last...

American League 28 Chris Davis TEX 1B B Oh my. .459 with 5 HR in last 10 G. .339 with 20 HR and 21 doubles this year. 36 Chris Carter OAK 1B B .231 in June, but 14 BB and...

Charlie Morton (rookie) - Making his big league debut Saturday, Morton impressed, beating the Angels, allowing three runs on five hits over six innings. He walked one and struck out four. Morton threw 104 pitches (64 for strikes) in picking...

Quick note: I will start adding 2008 draftees like Pedro Alvarez and Aaron Crow to the top 50s and team top 5's when they sign a contract officially making them property of the team. Some may consider it folly to...

Tom Gorzelanny After entering Saturday’s game with a 7.22 ERA and 28:40 K:BB, it was hard to be optimistic about Gorzelanny’s chances against the potent Arizona offense. There have even been rumors of a Triple-A stint should his struggles continue....

If you're not a subscriber, you may not know that each week, we have between 60 and 80 prospect updates to our top 50 hitters, top 50 pitchers, and team-by-team top 5s. This is just a small sample. I'll move...

Carlos Marmol Entering the ninth inning in a save situation, Marmol converted, but not before allowing Scott Podsednik’s first homer of the year and sixth since 2004. It was Marmol’s third save of the season to go with his major...

American League 40 Jose Tabata NYY OF B Finally hit first HR on May 21. .275 AVG in May is much better than .200 April mark. 41 Beau Mills CLE 1B B 15 doubles hints at his power potential and...