What To Expect When You're Expecting...A New Affiliation

MARCH 2nd, 2013-With Spring Training just now getting underway, there are certain players who already know where they're heading when the season starts.

However, in Class A ball, it's a little harder to predict.

Kansas City carries three Rookie-level clubs (Burlington, Idaho Falls, plus an AZL team) and a total of eight minor-league teams. Burlington of the Appalachian League is, essentially, the substitute for the fact that KC doesn't have a Short-Season Class A team.

The easiest way to look at predicting Lexington's 2013 roster is to take a look at Burlington's 2012 roster, with consideration given to the age of players, the highest level they've reached thus far, and their 2012 stats. With that all in mind, here's a few players we can expect to see here in Lexington, along with the highest level they reached last year and their 2012 stats:

Adalberto Mondesi, SS, Idaho Falls Chukars (Rookie, Pioneer League)

Born: 7/27/1995 in Los Angeles, CA

Bats: Both Throws: Right

Ht: 6'1” Wt: 165

Drafted: UFA

2012:

50 games, 232 PA, 35 runs, 60 hits, 7 2B, 2 3B, 3 HR, 30 RBI, 11-13 SB .290 BA, .346 OBP

The son of Raul Mondesi, former Dodgers slugger, had little difficulty adjusting to his first year in pro ball. Keep in mind that he put up those stats as a 16-year-old kid in his first year of pro ball. The only glaring issue was that he struck out far too much, but what more can you ask of a kid that age? All things considered, he had a pretty great year. He will probably start off 2013 in rookie-league ball again, but he has little to prove there. He's just a little young for A ball; that may be the only real problem holding him back. Expect him to head to Burlington to start off the year.

Bryan Brickhouse, RHP, Kane County Cougars (Class A, Midwest League)

Born: 6/6/1992 in The Woodlands, TX

Bats: Right Throws: Right

Ht: 6' Wt: 195

Drafted: KC Royals, 3^rd round, 2011 MLB Draft

2012:

3-3, 6.62 ERA, 11 games, 11 GS, 53 IP, 55 H, 39 runs allowed, 4 HRA, 26 BB, 41 K, 7 WP

While he had a rough year overall, it was his first year in pro ball and he spent nearly all of it in A ball. He registered his share of strikeouts, but walked a batter every other inning. Add to that seven WP and 4 hit batters, and you've got enough to work on for awhile. He's 21 on Opening Day, so he could start off in Rookie ball, but I don't expect that to be a long-term assignment. He's still age-appropriate for rookie-league ball, and assuming he advances to Class A ball this year he'll still be on-track age-wise.

Bubba Starling, OF, Burlington Royals (Rookie, Appalachian League)

Born: 8/3/1992 in Gardner, KS

Bats: Right Throws: Right

Ht: 6'4” Wt: 180

Drafted: KC Royals, 1^st round, 2011 MLB Draft

2012:

53 games, 232 PA, 35 R, 55 H, 8 2B, 10 HR, 33 RBI, 10-11 SB, .275 BA, .371 OBP, .485 SLG

For the moderately-involved baseball fan, Starling needs no introduction. This kid is now the top prospect in the Royals system, now that Wil Myers is with TB. With size, strength and easy projectability, Starling has power and speed which have already manifested themselves. While he did strike out 70 times last year, it was his first year of pro ball and he did manage to draw 28 walks, ending with an excellent .371 OBP and .856 OPS. This is the kind of batter who projects to hit cleanup and could be a perennial 100-RBI man in The Show, with 25+ homers and 15-20 steals. Of course, there's a lot of baseball to be played before he gets there.

Ethan Chapman, CF, Idaho Falls Chukars (Rookie, Pioneer League)

Born: 1/5/1990 in Upland, CA

Bats: Left Throws: Right

Ht: 6' Wt: 180

Drafted: KC Royals, 30^th round, 2012 MLB Draft

2012:

67 games, 318 PA, 58 R, 88 H, 9 2B, 9 3B, 1 HR, 29 RBI, 25-32 SB, 32 BB, 43 SO, .313 BA, .383 OBP, .803 OPS, 12 OF assists in 141 total chances (67 G)

Here's a kid you may not know about. I have to admit; I didn't know a thing about him. Judging by his first season, we may be hearing a lot more about him. Yes, he was 22 in 2012, and yeah, that's older than much of his competition, but don't write off the numbers because of that. Should rack up a lot of extra-base hits from gap power and plus speed, and already shows a very good eye at the plate, so he's looking like a protypical table-setter; batting in the 2-slot sounds like a good fit for him. Expect him to start the 2013 season in Lexington.

John Lamb, RHP, Idaho Falls Chukars (Rookie, Pioneer League)

Born: 7/10/1990 in La Palma, CA

Bats: Left Throws: Left

Ht: 6'4” Wt: 200

Drafted: KC Royals, 5^th round, 2008 MLB Draft

2012:

6 games, 6 starts, 6.92 ERA, 13 IP, 15 HA, 10 ER, 2 HRA, 4 BB, 14 K, 1 WP

Despite injury concerns and Tommy John surgery in 2012, Lamb is still considered one of KC's top prospects and is now pitching in Spring Training with no restrictions. Ranked as the 18^th best prospect as recently as 2011, the greatest challenge now facing him is remaining healthy. When he finally hits his stride, he's really going to be something to watch. He seems to be a level-headed kid with strong ties to his family and friends, and could end up being quite popular in KC. I expect to see him here in Lexington for some tune-up work before he goes back to Class AA; he had reached NW Arkansas as soon as 2010, posting a 3.09 ERA there in 2011 in 8 starts.

Nicholas Cuckovich, 3B-LF, Idaho Falls Chukars (Rookie, Pioneer League)

Born: 10/8/1991 in Riverside, CA

Bats: Right Throws: Right

Ht: 6'2” Wt: 200

Drafted: KC Royals, 17^th round, 2011 MLB Draft

2012:

66 games, 288 PA, 44 R, 69 H, 12 2B, 8 3B, 3 HR, 43 RBI, 9-11 SB, 33 BB, 68 SO, .280 BA, .376 OBP, .807 OPS

He had a strong showing in Idaho Falls, demonstrating gap power and avg-plus speed. It doesn't hurt that his OBP was 96 points higher than his BA, indicative of a sound eye and good patience at the plate. In 43 games at third base last year he made 15 errors, which is certainly not good. It's especially bad because third seems to be where he's going to be playing in the near future, so there's going to have to be some work done, there. With his speed, he could end up becoming a left fielder with plus range if KC needs a Plan B. Could develop average power, but lower limits of his hitting ceiling ought to be the kind of hitter who would bat #2 or at least #7 with relative ease. He should start the year at Lexington, given his age and the fact that he has nothing left to prove in rookie ball. 

That's all for now. More to come as I dig a little deeper for info on the new kids on our block. 

Former Houston Prospect Jason Chowning Works Out For Brewers

Threw Today For Team Reps, Decision To Come Next Week


FEB 6th, 2013-Former Lexington Legend and Lancaster Jethawk RHP Jason Chowning threw off the mound for team representatives from the Milwaukee Brewers today, bidding to return to professional baseball.

Chowning last pitched for the High-A Jethawks in 2012 before arm troubles led to his release by the Astros. Milwaukee has been in contact with the former Astros prospect since October of last year, setting up the throwing session today through one of Chowning's former coaches.

"Went good...threw real well. (Got my) fingers crossed. Arm feels good; I'm ready to go", said Chowning, who also posted to his Facebook account concerning today's workout.

I'll be posting updates on this as they become available. I'm definitely one of many pulling for him. 

Astros IF Alex Todd Retires

Cites Growing Unhappiness with Part-Time Role

JAN 30^th, 2013-As mentioned on Jayne Hansen's site WTH Bobby?, Houston Astros minor-league IF Alex Todd has chosen to retire from the pro ranks. This came as quite a shock to me (and, as I'm sure, to a number of other Astros fans), until I spoke to him about his decision.

“It was just time...I didn't want my hatred of not playing everyday to ruin my love of the game”, Alex told me. “I'm working for a start-up doing sales and finishing up my degree (now)”, he added.

“(Things are) not all planned out, but I'm excited about it”.

Say what you will about his decision; you have to respect that the game means enough to him that he's willing to abandon this dream in order to follow another.

Alex was a 27^th round pick by the Astros in 2011, reaching Class A+ Lancaster last season. He never played more than 54 games for any one team, and totaled only 76 games in 2012 between Class A Lexington and the aforementioned Lancaster squad. For his career, he batted .260 with 5 homers, 47 RBI, 25 doubles and 71 runs scored in 125 total games played. 

St Louis Icon Stan Musial Passes Away at 92

Cardinal Legend's Unassuming Persona Belied Historic Career 


JAN 20th, 2013-In all honesty, I never met The Man.

Oh, I'll try my very best to describe him. I'll try to explain him as an individual, beyond the box scores and the cheering crowds and the 24 (!) All-Star selections and so on. But I will fail, miserably.

Nevertheless, I must try. I suppose this would be my "Ode to A Total Stranger", if I truly felt that he was a stranger. Somehow, he never struck me as such.

Still, how much can you say about a player you've never even seen in person? I suppose that depends on the player. In the case of Stan Musial, I think the answer would be "quite a lot that's already been said".

There's a reason for that. Musial, who has passed away at the age of 92, was known far and wide among baseball aficionados and casual followers of the game alike as a modest man who had an easy and almost retiring sense of the appreciation he was shown.

He was a great man, to be sure, but not so much for the outrageous numbers he put together while a member of the St Louis Cardinals as for the manner in which he lived his life off the field. There is, as it turns out, much more to be said about Stan the man than there is to say about "Stan The Man". For those of you familiar with Musial's HOF career, you may find this doubtful. For those who knew him, there is surely no doubt, whatsoever.

The story starts out as do so many others: from humble beginnings...

Stanisław Franciszek Musiał was born November 21st, 1920, in Donora, Pennsylvania. Donora was a bustling town of just over 14,000 at the time, when the local industrial and mining activity was the very essence of the town's identity. So it was with many other towns in this region, where a man and his son would often work the same coal mine for the better part of their lives. Lukasz Musial wanted better for his son.

Lukasz left his native Poland in 1910 for the mill town in the Mon Valley Region, 20 miles south of Pittsburgh. He married Mary Lancos, daughter to Czechoslovakian immigrants and a native-born Pennsylvanian, in Donora on April 14, 1913. At the time, he was nearly 23, while she was only 16. Mary, in contrast to her husband, was nearly 6 feet tall and strongly built. "Stasiu", a Polish nickname by which his father called him, was one of six children of Lukasz and Mary. He was also Lukasz's first son.

It wasn't long before the Donora locals had their own nickname for young Stanislaw: "The Donora Greyhound". Stanley (his name was Anglicized by the time he reached high school) soon demonstrated the athleticism by which he would come to be known, starring in basketball and as both a pitcher and outfielder in baseball. Stanley grew into a standout pitcher under the tutelage of Joe Barbao, himself a former minor league pitcher and manager of the Donora Zincs, a semi-pro team on which Musial played at the early age of 15.

Actually, Stan started with the team at age 14. As a batboy, no less. As the story goes, Barbao ran out of pitchers in a game in Stan's first year with the team and hit upon the idea of putting the adolescent Musial on the mound.

He did well enough, it seems. He pitched 6 innings, striking out 13. Thirteen. All of them adults. Signs of that which was to come, perhaps? Not exactly.

As a side note: baseball, for reasons I cannot fully explain or comprehend, is a game of interconnected relationships; player begets player, what's-his-name is cousin of so-and-so who played for the same team, etc. Musial's life is no less connected, being born in the same town and on the same day (though obviously not the same year) as another well-known star left fielder of our generation: Ken Griffey, Jr.

But the connection doesn't end there. Griffey Jr's grandfather, Buddy Griffey, played with Musial on Donora High's resurrected baseball team. Stan was present when Junior hit his 500th home run in June 2004. With that moment, a legend of the past became further intertwined with a star of the present generation. It can be easily argued that no other sport has such reverence for its history, as well as for the men who built it.

It wasn't long before the pro scouts were lurking about, and soon the Cardinals offered the teenager Musial a contract after a workout with their affiliate in the Class D Penn State (referred to in some sourcebooks as Mountain State) League: The Williamson Colts.

The Colts, who changed their name to the Red Birds in 1938 (Musial's second year with the team), worked him as a pitcher, in which position he produced mediocre results. Williamson's manager in 1939, Harrison Wickel, stated thusly: "The only place he can win is in Class D". Well, as a pitcher, Wickel may have been right on target. After Musial hurt his arm while playing the outfield in 1940 and attempting a rather acrobatic catch of a sinking liner, his pitching career came to a sudden halt.

No matter; his hitting prowess was becoming quickly apparent. In an outfield collision with Terry Moore, fellow future HOFer Enos Slaughter broke his shoulder and was lost to the team at a time when his bat and defense would be most sorely missed. Cards GM Branch Rickey made the decision to replace him, at least part-time, with the newly-promoted Musial.

What he accomplished in the majors, I cannot hope to illuminate in any way comparable to such outstanding writers as Peter Golenbock, Roger Angell and John Thorn. I will leave such matters to the true professionals.

Throughout his MLB career (indeed, throughout his life), Musial was never the sort of person who would ever give you the idea that he was even faintly aware of the mythic figure his play on the diamond had firmly ensconced in the minds and hearts of the American baseball fan. Always willing to sign an autograph, make an appearance for both MLB functions and charitable affairs, or simply chat about the game he loved, the true legacy he leaves behind cannot be measured in percentages and league standings.

A quote generally credited to magazine magnate Malcolm S. Forbes, "You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him", is in my estimation an exceptional way of assessing a man's legacy. In this regard alone, I believe it can be said that Stan Musial showed no variance in the way he treated the thousands who flocked to his side for a moment with a baseball god; indeed, he seemed to fully appreciate what he had accomplished as well as how it caused others to view him, without showing any outward signs of egoism or arrogance, neither did he ever seem to feel entitled to such treatment.

In short, he was the sort of person who, had you no prior knowledge of his chosen profession, would never lead you to believe he was anything more than an average man. He could have been the neighborhood milkman or the baker down the street; I imagine he would carry himself with the same humility for which he was known by family, friend, and stranger alike.

But it was even more than that. When LIFE Magazine covered Stan Musial Day in Oct 1963, Stan took the podium and gave careful thought to his words while fighting back tears, overwhelmed by the thought of a giant bronze statue dedicated to him by the team:

"I don't know how I'll feel when I first see the statue", he had said. "Down in Florida, at St. Petersburg Beach, there's this museum--a wax museum--and that was the first time I saw a statue of myself. It was kind of funny, looking at myself. I took a picture--you know, being there and taking a picture of yourself--it gives you a strange feeling".

I can easily imagine that had he been asked the same question while standing in front of his own likeness, immortalized in bronze for countless future fans, he would have been at an utter loss for words.

That, in my mind, is the measure of this man; THE Man. This was a man who, while seemingly comfortable with his fame, would have been just as well-respected even without all the hits and homers, without all the kids who grew up copying that "looking around the corner of a building", almost pigeon-toed stance which produced such prodigious power and EXACTLY the same number of hits at home as on the road (a fascinating stat, to be sure).

His legacy is that, while he knew him, he was what a man should be. And even if he hadn't been "The Man" to the people and fans of St Louis, he most certainly would have been to his children, grandchildren, friends and even minor acquaintances.

He was so much more than just a baseball star. Because if you take away all the accolades, awards and records, he was still The Man to the people who mattered most. As hokey as it sounds, it is nevertheless just as true.

Maybe this incident sums up that sentiment as well as any (from LIFE Magazine; Oct 11, 1963)

"Only once did they ever boo him in St Louis. On August 22nd 1956, against Brooklyn, he made two errors and wound up hitless for the second straight night. They booed him when he stepped to the plate in the eighth inning, but the boos were gradually drowned out by the cheers.

"'It was the worst game I ever played,'" he said later.

The next day, 10 fans bought space in the St Louis press and apologized."

Astros Send ST Invites To 65 Players

JAN 16th, 2013-The Houston Astros have sent out Spring Training invitations to 65 players this week, according to a source within the organization.

With report dates just around the corner, the following players have received confirmed invites to join the team in Kissimmee, Florida, when the Astros hit camp. I've added links for the less-familiar names and newly-acquired players:

Alan Abreu
Luis Alvarez
Travis Ballew
Joseph Bircher
Jake Buchanan
Tanner Bushue
Colton Cain
Jon Carnahan
M.P. Cokinos
Kevin Comer
Jamaine Cotton
Luis Cruz
Brandon Culbreth
Zachary Dando
Lance Day
Chris Devinski
Michael Dimock
Bobby Doran
Jonas Dufek
Michael Feliz
Christian Garcia
Theron Geith (drafted by TB Rays in 2011; reached Class A+ FSL in 2012)
Ernesto Genoves
Alex Gillingham (drafted by Rockies in 2011; 3.66 ERA in 123 IP with Asheville in 2012)
Ricky Gingras
Alfredo Gonzalez
Erick Gonzalez
Murilo Gouvea
Evan Grills
Zach Grimmett
Kyle Hallock
Miles Hamblin
Mark Hamburger (played in 3 different organizations in 2012-Texas, SD, Houston; ML debut in 2011)
Michael Hauschild
Ben Heath
Matt Heidenreich (drafted 4th round in 2009 by White Sox)
Krishawn Holley
Adrian Houser
Jordan Jankowski
Cameron Lamb
Mitchell Lambson
Christopher Lee
Kenny Long
Ricky Martinez (in Cardinals organization during 2012)
Ryan McCurdy
Jeremiah Meiners
Daniel Meszaros
Juan Minaya
Daniel Minor
Christian Moronta
Joe Musgrove (acquired via trade with Toronto; drafted in 1st round, 2011)
Wes Musick
John Neely
Juri Perez
Tyson Perez
Carlos Quevedo
Francis Ramirez
Raul Rivera
Andrew Robinson
Richard Rodriguez
David Rollins
Gera Sanchez (drafted 42nd round by Boston, 2009; failed to sign, but joined Houston after college career in 2012)
Tommy Shirley
Alex Sogard
Jason Stoffel (2.33 ERA, 27 saves in 58 IP with Class AA Corpus Christi in 2012)

Of course, we're no longer in the Houston system, but I know some of you still follow the Baby 'Stros and will be continuing to watch their progress. There are quite a number of players in this list that I'll be watching, myself, and hopefully I can add to this list soon.

More updates to come in the near future regarding both the fellas with Houston and Kansas City, the ones we've known and the ones yet to come. Stay tuned.