Jacob McGee - Rays
Starter - Throws Left - 6-3, 190 - 8/6/1986
The Rays may not have a ton of pitching at the major league level but there is some talent in the pipeline as two of their young arms show up on BA's mid-season top-25.
There's nothing that gets an organization more excited than a 6-3, 190 left-hander with velocity, unless it's when that kid has outstanding life on that fastball. If that same left-hander is only 20 years old with three hundred pro innings under his belt, well, people start to get giddy.
Jacob's 171 strikeouts in the MWL last year led the league. He cruises in the low-90s with a fastball that has a great tail and Jacob can top 95 on occasion. His curveball is advanced with bite, although it could be deeper. Jacob's change has life as well and he throws it with good arm action.
Right now he has the problems of a typical 20-year-old. He needs to be more consistent in both mechanics and location. He is still overpowering people so he will have to learn the joy of keeping the ball down in the zone, probably the hard way, as he faces more sophisticated hitters next year. Jacob could also develop a little more speed differential among him pitches.
McGee also has some problems most 20-year-olds would love. He needs to develop a relationship with the life on his fastball and harness that a bit. And he has time to add a 4th pitch, although the Rays haven't asked that of him yet. Adding a cut fastball or slider would make him even tougher.
Jacoby already has the physical size and stuff to project as a middle of the rotation starter. A year from now when he's seen some AA hitters, as well as added 10 pounds and another foot to his fastball, we may be looking at a solid #2 level starter prospect who still has a little ceiling left.
Long Term Fantasy Grade - A-
Seas Lvl W L ERA IP K/9 BB/9 HR/9 AVG WHIP
2006 A 7 9 2.96 134.0 11.5 4.4 0.5 .214 1.25
2007 A+ 5 4 3.23 97.2 11.4 3.0 0.7 .214 1.10
Wade Davis Devil - Rays
Starter - Throws Right - 6-5, 220 - 9/7/1985
Yes, another starter in the Rays pipeline, this one right handed and a little bit further along that Jacob McGee. Wade finished second to McGee in strikeouts in the MWL League last year and he does bring four pitches to the mound starting with a 92-94 mph fastball that will occasionally produce 98. Wade also has a hard but vertical curve and a bting slider. And he is making progress with a change.
Davis has very good size which should make him a workhorse, but that size creates mechanical problems for him and Wade has not yet nailed down his mechanics. When he doesn't repeat his best delivery every pitch suffers including his fastball which straightens out. Last year he also showed that his incoinsistency can linger beyound a couple of pitches or an inning or two. Davis got out of sorts in the middle of the season and took 6 weeks to get back in sync.
Right now Wade projects like a starter that could eat significant and effective innings in the big leagues like a usable #3 or a good #4. But I'm not yet convinced that's his top end. When he has been on, Wade has been very impressive. If he gathers some consistency and command and can repeate his best stuff more often, he could be a very strong starter. Should he add a change that is more than a show-me pitch, he might approach the level of a poor man's (poor team's?) #2.
So far this year he has adjusted quite well to AA and he is beating better hitters. This is very encouraging. The Rays will try to bring along his change and continue to polish his delievery. Given the state of the big club's staff, Wade could be a factor in spring training next year.
Long Term Fantasy Grade - B
Seas Lvl W L ERA IP K/9 BB/9 HR/9 AVG WHIP
2006 A 7 12 3.02 146.0 10.2 4.0 0.3 .231 1.29
2007 A+ 3 0 1.84 78.1 10.1 2.4 0.6 .196 0.96
2007 AA 4 0 2.23 36.1 8.7 3.0 0.3 .238 1.21
Jeff Clement - Mariners
Catcher - Bats Left - 6-2, 215 - 8/21/1983
You may remember Jeff as the third overall pick in 2005, but you'd be forgiven if you do not. Jeff ran into knee and elbow surgeries in his first pro season, missing valuable development time, collecting just 113 MWL ABs. When he returned for 2006 the M's inexplicably threw him to the AAA wolves. That would have been daunting enough for any hitter but considering he is a catcher, a catcher that has a lot of defensive polishing to do, you start to understand his AAA stat line from last year.
Jeff is a Slugger. He topped J.D. Drew's prep school HR record and then challeneged Mark McGwire's HR mark at Southern Cal. As you can see he's doing a lot better in his second tour at AAA. His 16 HRs and 44 XBH tells you all you need to know about his power and he still hits more ground balls than he eventually will.
Jeff is showing that he can make adjustments when asked. He hit just .208 vs. lefties last year in 53 ABs with a .321 SLG%, but he has shown the ability to adapt this year, hitting .333 off of LHP with a .738 SLG%. This year he has struggled a bit with right-handed pitching, hitting .249 against righties this year with a .400 SLG%. Last year he hit .275 off of them. If he simply repeated his 2006 performance vs. RHP his 2007 line would look even more impressive.
A slugging left-handed hitting cather is a huge find for an organization and a catcher with 30-homer potential is a huge fanatsy asset. However the jury is still out as to whether Jeff can catch well enough to play behind the plate in the majors on any kind of regular basis.It probably doesn't matter in Seatlle where they have first base and catcher covered for the time being. That wion't stop Jeff though. The M's have fast tracked him from the beginning and they are anxious to see him in their MLB lineup. If things weren't going so well with the big club this season he might be there already. Expect a September call up and a full time arrival in 2008 for Clement.
Long Term Fantasy Grade - A-
Seas Lvl AB AVG XBH HR SB BB% K% SLG OPS
2006 AA 59 .288 9 2 0 10.6% 13.6% .525 .889
2006 AAA 245 .257 14 4 0 6.1% 21.6% .347 .650
2007 AAA 320 .272 44 16 0 11.1% 19.1% .516 .868
