Weekly Minor League Thread: Haigwood Special
The Red Sox recent trade for Daniel Haigwood generally flew under the radar, but the more I look at it, the more it seems like a steal. As recently as prior to the 2006 season, Sickels ranked Haigwood a B prospect. In his midseason, prospect review, he said that Haigwood was “[p]itching just as well as [Gio] Gonzalez,” and made no negative comments. Yet, come this spring, Haigwood was listed only in the “Others of Note” section for the Rangers, meaning his grade is now likely in the C range. He was soon DFA’ed by the Rangers, presumably because of a 40-man issue.
Here’s a comparison of Haigwood to Gonzalez and Thomas Diamond, a top pitching prospect from his latest org, the Rangers. All three pitched in AA in 06, with Haigwood splitting time between the two organizations. Here’s how they fared in 06:
Name Age IP H BB K HR ERA
Haigwood 22 146 138 86 142 11 3.58
Gonzalez 20 154 140 81 166 24 4.66
Diamond 23 129 104 78 145 14 4.24
Both Diamond and Gonzalez had years that are very hard to distinguish from Haigwood’s, yet their grade’s dropped from B+ to B. Haigwood’s went from B to essentially to being listed in “Others of Note.” There are probably good reasons for Haigwood’s harsher treatment (he hasn’t pitched anywhere yet this year, but I can’t figure out why), but they got him for Scott Shoemaker, a 25-year-old who has yet to pitch consistently well in AA. If Haigwood is even in the class of Diamond and Gonzalez, he’s a really nice pickup for the price. Possibly a steal.
Added Bonus: I went to see the Portland Sea Dogs play the New Britain Rock Cats tonight. Buchholz started and looked very good, going 5.2 IP, allowing 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, and 8 K. In the 4 innings I saw before my daughter got bored, cold, and tired, Buc didn’t exactly seem to be dominating, but he was throwing a variety of pitches for strikes and New Britain did not seem to be hitting anything hard. The only exception was a liner to first base that resulted in a DP. Nothing particularly interesting to report about the hitters. One fun play: Otness, while playing 1B, managed to get hit in the back by a throw from SS Lowrie. Truly bizarre and I’m still not sure how it happened.
Darren
Posted: April 24, 2007 at 09:26 PM |
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So far, he and Bowden both look good.
5 lines of observations?
Gotta bring it a little harder than that Darren.
I was expecting a pitch-by-pitch account.
From poster Vendrell at SoxProspects.com.
Temple, what's your opinion of the Haigwood deal?
There are a couple players doing interesting things in AAA though. Brandon Moss 306/377/565 with a respectable 7/16 BB/K ratio. This is probably one of his notorious hot streaks though. Pauley is also doing well through his first 3 starts: 18 IP, 12 H, 1 HR, 3 BB, 16 K, 1.00 ERA. He's probably better than Koufax right now, and he's still developing.
His fastball isn't even in the same ballpark as Gonzalez, who tops out at 93-94 as a 5'10" lefty. Not to mention he's two years older. The age alone is enough to explain the difference in grade. Add in the 4-5MHP difference between fastballs, and they're hardly in the same category.
Gonzalez currently leads the Southern League in strikeouts with 30 in 21.1 innings to go along with 8 walks and a 1.69ERA.
Bard, on the other hand, might want to Greenville a try.
That's good info and it does show that Gio Gonzalez is certainly looking a lot better than Haigwood right now. I don't mean to imply that these guys are similar right now, because if they were, there's no way the Red Sox get Haigwood for nothing.
I was only trying to show that a year ago, Haigwood was considered a damn fine pitching prospect, and then he went out and put up a season very similar to two guys who were considered damn fine pitching prospects. Those two guys kept their status somewhat and Haigwood dropped off the map.
"Portland center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury continued his spectacular start last night, going 4 for 4 -- all singles -- and reaching base when he was hit by a pitch. Ellsbury, who also stole his sixth base, is batting .468 for the Double A Sea Dogs."
Jacoby Ellsbury, MLE: 418/460/592
Ellsbury's been insane this year, although it would be nice if he showed a skill besides being good at having an unsustainably high BABIP. He probably doesn't need very many offensive skills to be a good major leaguer with his defense though.
Daniel Bard had another horrible start last night. Will he have a start with more strikeouts than walks this year?
Oops, I don't mean to be so negative. The top four prospects in this system are awesome, honest.
Woah, woah, woah. Let's not get crazy here. It's not like he's going to blow past Hansack on the depth chart.
He's shown patience, he's got good speed, and he makes a lot of contact too. Those are skills and getting hits on BIP is a skill as well.
Me: snarkier
you make the call!
I guess that by the numbers, any minor leaguer other than a Delmon Young should be compared to marginal major leaguers, but Ellsbury seems clearly to have the upside of a better Johnny Damon. Do you compare any prospects outside BA's top 5 to Johnny Damon, and thus your claim is really about how we should talk about prospects in general, or are you claiming that Jacoby Ellsbury in particular should be downgraded more than other prospects?
Should that extra year of age make any real difference? Are there park factors I'm not considering?
Damon did slug a bit better in A+ than Ellsbury.
That's the classic adage of focusing on what a prospect can't do versus what what he can do. There's a wide gulf between a young Johnny Damon and Endy Chavez. Ellsbury at this stage is in between the two.
Johnny Damon was a top prospect when he came out of the minors. If you're asking for that standard out of all your OF prospects, then you're going to be waiting a long time.
Ellsbury is a great fit for what the Red Sox need and will need in the short term. He'll be an excellent defensive OFer who can get on base at a strong rate and brings a lot of speed. Personally, I'd promote Ellsbury in mid-May or early June barring no new developments.
Through five scoreless innings with the Pawtucket Red Sox [team stats], Lester threw 84 pitches (56 for strikes), giving up three hits, no walks and striking out six against Cleveland’s Triple-A Buffalo Bisons.
Lester did not allow a runner past second base, with Hector Luna the only Bison advancing that far, reaching on a single to center, then stealing second.
*Whoo-hoo!*
That's the classic adage of focusing on what a prospect can't do versus what what he can do.
?
i think ellsbury will be a .285/.340/.390'ish hitter if he's a major leaguer next year. if he hits that and is one of the top half dozen baserunners and defensive outfielders in the world like i think he may be, then mgl will probably say he's a boarderline all-star caliber player. i dont think im particularly pessimistic about him or focusing on what he can't do.
if ellsbury is a low-mid 800's OPS hitter than he's probably one of the top 25 players in the world
Daniel Haigwood was the closest thing to a major leaguer my HS baseball team ever faced.
Buchholz- 7 IP, H, 0 ER, 9/0 K/BB
Bowden- 6 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 9/0 K/BB
YTD:
Buchholz- 22.1 IP, 12 H, 27/3 K/BB
Bowden- 33 IP, 28 H, 37/7 K/BB
Any questions?
Groundball/Flyball tendencies?
Buchholz- 4/7 GO/AO
I'll wait for the updated stats on Minor League Splits, but in terms of GB/FB, Buchholz has a 2/1 GB/FB ratio and Bowden has a 1.8/1 ratio.
Other BABIP stuff (not updated through tonight):
Bowden:
GB%- 44%
LD%- 16%
FB%- 24%
Buchholz:
GB%- 50%
LD%- 8%
FB%- 25%
Obviously it's important to have the league averages, but I don't have them right now. So that's that.
Buchholz's 9/1 K/BB ratio makes me wonder if he would be ready to take Tavarez's spot in the very near future.
Lars Anderson is sinking like a stone. His OPS is just under 800 with a BABIP just under .400. Oh well, he's still a nice prospect even if he doesn't destroy A-Ball this year.
Brandon Moss might still have a major league career. He's now at .321/.421/.593, altho his strikeout rate is kinda high. Is his defense supposed to be any good? If everyone's healthy in a few months he might make Wily Mo expendable.
No shame in that - he was a monster as a prep.
Haigwood turned in a 5.74 ERA in 69 IP at Portland, easily his worst stint of his four-team (!) tour of AA. He really didn't progress much this year, with a HR rate that jumped up quite a bit.
Marshall, one year older, didn't have a much better season than Haigwood - but that was in the majors, a pretty big leap from high-A Winston-Salem, where he spent 2006. Any scouting reports? (I expect a quick response, what with nothing else of significance going on with the Red Sox organization these days.)
Actually, no. I misspoke. DFA means off the roster, and they have 10 days to do something with him: trade him, release him, or outright him if they can (a player can be outrighted only once). Most often it precedes a player being released, and that's the leap I made. In his case, he'd never been outrighted before, so that's what they did (according to soxprospects.com).
He is exposed to the Rule 5 draft, but I think that's low risk.
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