Results tagged ‘ Rancho Cucamonga Quakes ’
Aliotti, Lennerton featured in All-May lineup
By Ashley Marshall
It includes nine batters — eight position players and one DH — assembled into a batting order. Like real-life lineups, mine includes players with high on-base percentages and good speed at the top of the order, the most productive hitters in the heart of the lineup and a mixture of power, discipline and speed in the lower third.
1. Micah Johnson, 2B
2. Anthony Aliotti, 1B
3. Ryan Mount, 3B
4. Matt McBride, RF
5. Josh Phegley, C
6. Jordan Lennerton, DH
7. Corey Dickerson, LF
8. Joe Sclafani, SS
9. Rico Noel, CF
• Micah Johnson (Kannapolis Intimidators, White Sox) does everything you want a leadoff hitter to do. He hits for average and draws walks, and when he gets on base he runs. A lot. No Minor Leaguer at any level or any position stole more bases than Johnson in May (27). Part of the reason that he had so many chances to victimize battery mates was a .446 OBP, crafted via a .357 average and 17 walks in 28 games for Kannapolis.
• Anthony Aliotti (Midland RockHounds, Athletics) had a huge month for Midland, batting an even .400 in 29 contests. He flashed some power (six homers and 10 doubles), gave the RockHounds some production (24 RBIs) and showed patience at the plate (22 walks). His 72 total bases ranked third in the Minors in May, while his 18 extra-base hits fell two shy of the lead league.
• Arguably the hottest hitter in the Minors last month, Ryan Mount (Rancho Cucamonga, Dodgers) has been crushing the Cal League. He hit a Minors-best .460 in 23 games for Rancho Cucamonga and had a .500 OBP. He had a career-high 15-game hit streak from May 3 to May 19 and he recorded 14 multi-hit games in total, including a 5-for5 outing in Lake Elsinore. With five homers and 16 extra-base hits, only Norfolk first baseman Travis Ishikawa and Rochester outfielder Chris Colabello had a better OPS than Mount’s 1.289.
• Matt McBride (Colorado Springs, Rockies) tied for the Minors lead with 11 homers in May and he ranked first with 31 RBIs in 25 games. He saw time as a right fielder, a catcher and a DH, but his versatility was matched only by his output. He went deep in three straight games against Iowa and Omaha, and he had a pair of two-homer games — one a six-RBI game, the other a five-RBI game. Making his tally even more impressive is that he struck out just nine times over that span.
• Josh Phegley (Charlotte, White Sox) hit .356 with seven homers, 10 doubles and 19 RBIs in just 22 games in May. No full-time catcher had more total bases (65) than Phegley, who raised his average 62 point from April and more than doubled the number of extra-base hits (18) from the previous month (eight).
• Jordan Lennerton (Toledo, Tigers) was one of the few players who had a slugging percentage over .600 and an OPS over 1.100 for the month of May. The secret to those numbers? He hit .387, smacked seven homers and drew 21 walks. His average ranked eighth in the Minors in May, while his 43 hits were two short of the lead across all levels.
• While Cameron Flynn led the Minors with a .551 on-base percentage in May, Corey Dickerson (Colorado Springs, Rockies) led the Minors with 82 total bases. He hit for power (five homers, eight doubles) and he showcased elite speed (seven triples). Add a .375 batting average, 18 RBIs and the ability to swipe the occasional base, and you can see why he’s a perfect choice for that No. 7 spot. Only his discipline (seven walks in 127 plate appearances) stop him being a leadoff-type hitter, but his power and production stop him from slipping any lower.
• Joe Sclafani (Lancaster, Astros) put together a nice month that saw him bat .357 with a .488 OBP. He’s not a guy that will hit for power (just eight extra-base hits in 26 games), but at this spot in the lineup it’s more about reaching base and setting the table for the guys at the top. He walked more than he struck out (23:15), he stole eight bases in 10 tries and he scored 24 runs. His on-base percentage ranked 10th in the Minors this month.
• Rico Noel (San Antonio, Padres) would serve as a great secondary leadoff hitter because of his speed. He hit .326 and drew 16 free passes, giving him a terrific .436 on-base percentage. Once on base, he stole 17 bags in 22 attempts in 28 games for San Antonio. With guys like Mount and McBride providing the power in this fantasy All-MiLB team, having the balance of a fleet-footed center fielder like Noel in the No. 9 spot is a blessing most teams would love to have.
Prospect Uniformed: Dodgers Right-hander Zack Lee in Every Minor League Jersey He’s Worn
Zach Lee did not have a completely healthy season — or a particularly good one — in 2012. The Dodgers’ right-hander (bio, stats here) was one of a handful of prospects I zeroed in on last week when examining the up-and-down trends of our Top 100 List: Lee fell from No. 42 at the end of ’12 to No. 78 at the start of ’13. Something tells me that Lee, who enjoys the spotlight, only uses something like this as motivation. And why wouldn’t he?
Here is a gallery of the 2010 first-round Draft pick, in every uni he’s donned to date. Click on any picture to begin the slideshow. For all past editions of Prospect Uniformed, head here.
Prospect Uniformed: Phillies Right-hander Ethan Martin in Every Minor League Jersey He’s Worn
Dodgers-turned-Phillies pitching prospect Ethan Martin (bio, stats here) emerged in MLB.com’s new Top 100 Prospects list, which was released on Wednesday. Martin, a 23-year-old right-hander, checked in at No. 80. If you recall, he was traded from Los Angeles to Philadelphia, in a Nonwaiver Trade Deadline deal on July 31, 2012 for veteran outfielder Shane Victorino. Originally a first-round pick of the Dodgers four years earlier, Martin has now pitched for five Minor League teams in his career. Based on his success with his first Phils affiliate, Double-A Reading, last fall (5-0, 3.18 ERA in seven starts), he could begin 2013 with a sixth in Triple-A Lehigh Valley.
Here is a gallery of Martin, in every uni he’s donned to date. Click on any picture to begin the slideshow. For all past editions of Prospect Uniformed, head here.
Lost and Found: Mariners Prospect Leon Landry
Editor’s note: Lost and Found is this blog’s first offseason series, in which one underrated prospect from each of the 30 MLB clubs will be discussed in a short, snappy post.
Lost: Twelve months after the Los Angeles Dodgers made him its third-round draftee in 2010, lefty-hitting outfielder Leon Landry was hitting in the .220s in what was supposed to be an easier assignment in the Midwest League.
2011: .250/.307/.360 slash line, 36 extra-base hits and 41 RBIs in 500 ABs spanning 125 Gs at Class A Great Lakes
Found: Fast forward another 12 months, and Landry was just about to be traded from LA to Seattle, but not because the Dodgers didn’t want him — the Mariners just wanted him more. Of his uptick in offensive production — while increasing his batting average 91 points, he was +29 in extra-base hits and +35 in RBIs despite playing 21 fewer games — Landry told me by July that his pitch selection had improved.
2012: .341/.371/.584 slash line, 65 extra-base hits and 76 RBIs in 449 ABs spanning 104 Gs at Class A Advanced Rancho Cucamonga/High Desert (full stats here)
So Landry was lost, now he is found. Now, about the Mariners’ returns: Landry may not stay in center field (he was playing left field mostly before the trade), but that’s not all that irrelevant to his increased value as a prospect. He’s being mentioned in this space because of his improvement with the bat. Simply put: He does more things well (make consistent contact, find the gaps, run like mad, etc.) than he does poorly (has more of a “hack” than a fluid swing, not much home-run power). His ceiling is batting first or second at Safeco Field by 2014. His floor, which he’s more likely to top out at, is on the M’s bench as a pinch-hitting outfielder, by 2015.
2013: ??? at Double-A Jackson (he finished 2012 on the DL with strained quadriceps, but he should be ready to go next spring).
Mike Andruski/High Desert Mavericks
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