Carter Kieboom believes he’s prepared to compete for Nationals’ third base job

And now, for a palate cleanser after the news of the day….

When Carter Kieboom made it to the majors, he announced his presence with authority.

The Nationals’ top prospect batted ninth against the San Diego Padres on April 26 for his MLB debut. Washington trailed 3-2 heading into the bottom of the eighth. Kieboom, just 21 years old, took a hanging slider and hit it to straightaway center field for a game-tying home run.

It was an incredible moment, one Kieboom and his family will look back on and remember for the rest of their lives. However, the game caught up to him quickly. Washington was forced to send him back down to the minors after he posted a .491 OPS with four errors in 11 games.

Despite the demotion, Kieboom wasn’t deterred.

Navy denies Red Sox prospect’s request to delay service time so he could play baseball

The Boston Red Sox may lose one of their most promising young pitchers for the next two seasons. Prospect Noah Song attempted to obtain a waiver that would allow him to delay his military service time so he could pursue a career in baseball. The Navy denied that request, according to Bill Wagner of the Capital Gazette.

If that ruling holds, the 22-year-old Song will spend the next two years in active service. Song is planning to report to flight school in Pensacola and will not be able to re-apply for a waiver until those two years are up.

Song had hoped to delay that service after President Donald Trump pushed the Department of Defense to create new guidelines that would allow athletes at military academies to play professionally after they graduate.

Trump argued that athletes only have a limited amount of time “during which playing professional sports is realistically possible.” Under the new guidelines, military athletes would either have to eventually fulfill their active service obligations in the future, or pay back the cost of their education, according to the Gazette.

Breaking Down All 109 of MLB’s 40-man Roster Additions — Prospects Live

Your one-stop post for 40-Man adds.

Padres send Luis Urias to Brewers, get Trent Grisham, Zach Davies

Urias is a second baseman who is presumably being moved to SS.  This deal opens a hole at second for the Friars.  And while obviously Urias isn’t a 398/600 hitter (like he was at El Paso last year), he looked to have second nailed down in a Placido Polanco sort of way.  Their outfield does need help, in part because they traded Franmil Reyes (who, to be fair, really is a DH). Padres also gave up Eric Lauer to get Zach Davies.  That part of the deal is fine, if kind of boring.

Here’s the best athlete in all 30 farm systems

Everyone loves an impressive showcase of athleticism on the baseball field. Whether it’s Byron Buxton improbably running down a ball in center field, Yasiel Puig uncorking a jaw-dropping throw from right or Cody Bellinger launching a tape-measure home run on what should be an unhittable pitch, there are eye-opening feats of athleticism across the Major Leagues on a daily basis.

Amidst our ongoing State of the System series, in which we provide an in-depth breakdown of all 30 teams’ systems, we’re using this week to highlight some of the premier athletes in the Minors—guys who possess the type of high-end athleticism and tools comparable to the aforementioned big leaguers.

Specifically, 20 of the 30 prospects selected by MLB Pipeline for the article are outfielders, and, overall, position players occupy all but one spot on the list.

MLB’s top prospects deal with good, bad of ‘robot’ umpires

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — First baseman Ali Sanchez was standing in the on-deck circle so he had a great vantage point of the two-strike breaking ball to Jacob Heyward. It finished so low that by the time it reached the catcher it nearly bounced in the dirt.

Sanchez — like everybody else who was watching this game on a Tuesday night in the Arizona Fall League — had an immediate mental reaction.

“That’s a ball,” Sanchez said.

Not so fast in the brave new world of “robot” umpires.

Next, the robot umpires shall be eating old people’s medicine for fuel.

Giants prospects Joey Bart, Heliot Ramos could start 2020 in Triple-A

SAN FRANCISCO—Mike Yastrzemski was a hell of a find, and the Giants feel good about what they saw from Tyler Beede, Logan Webb, Tyler Rogers and others late in the year. But as they try and build a contender, the best developments in 2019 came at much lower levels.

For the first time in a decade, the Giants have a group of high-end prospects coming through the system, and a couple could arrive as early as next year. Joey Bart and Heliot Ramos finished the season in Double-A, and president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said on this week’s Giants Insider Podcast that both will enter spring training with “the opportunity but not with a guarantee of starting the season in Triple-A.”

Being in Sacramento in April would put Bart, a 22-year-old catcher, and Ramos, a 20-year-old outfielder, in position to debut next season.

“They’re going to have to earn that (promotion to Triple-A) and then we’ll see where things go from there,” Zaidi said. “One thing that we really wanted to emphasize and create a culture of this year was you earn your way through the system and there’s no fixed timetables. Guys will be moved on merit and be given opportunities. That’s true for guys that might be perceived as org guys and it’s also true for the top prospects.

Something to watch for, particularly for those of us lucky enough to live in a AAA city.

After 114 losses, Tigers still waiting on top prospects

DETROIT (AP) — The most promising moment for the Detroit Tigers this year may have occurred far away from Comerica Park — or any other major league field.

On April 29, Casey Mize threw a no-hitter in his debut for Double-A Erie.

After narrowly avoiding triple-digit losses the previous two seasons, the big league Tigers sank all the way to a 47-114 record in 2019. They were particularly awful at home, going 22-59. If there was going to be any cause for optimism, it was going to be because of young prospects who might be able to help this team in the future.

“I think our fans down at spring training are going to see some of these guys,” manager Ron Gardenhire said. “They’re going to get their chances out on the mound during games and hopefully our fans will get to see those guys firsthand produce and throw the ball like we know they can throw the ball. Some of the infielders and outfielders that we’ve got, you’ll see them in spring training I’m hoping. I’m asking for some of those guys (from the) Double-A team.”

A brief reminder as for what the phrase “wait until next year” has such power in baseball.

Here’s the final Top 100 Prospects list of the year

Now that the Minor League regular season and playoffs have concluded, we’re making a few adjustments to MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 Prospects list.

While Rays shortstop Wander Franco remains at No. 1, we’ve jumped a pair of position players to the Nos. 2 and 3 spots and anointed a new best pitching prospect in baseball. We’ve lightly reshuffled the first 15 prospects, moved eight others up and six others down, plus added three new guys to the list.

Other than replacing a couple of prospects who may lose their rookie/prospect status by exceeding 130 at-bats or 50 innings in the big leagues through the remainder of the season, these will be the last changes we make to the Top 100 until a total overhaul in January.

So, any thoughts on this list?

Source: A’s to call up No.1 prospect Jesus Luzardo for stretch run

Jesús Luzardo’s highly-anticipated major league debut appears to be on the horizon.

The A’s will call up their top prospect from Triple-A Las Vegas on Monday. MLB.com’s Martin Gallegos was the first to report the move.

Luzardo, 21, is ranked as the No. 3 left-handed pitching prospect in baseball by MLB Pipeline and the No. 18 overall prospect. He has put together back-to-back excellent starts for Las Vegas, combining to allow just two runs in 11 2/3 innings with 17 strikeouts and two walks. In seven total starts for Las Vegas this year, he went 1-1 with a 3.19 ERA.

As a side-note, the Las Vegas team was just eliminated from the Pacific Coast League playoffs- I have no idea if it did (or should) have influence on the A’s decision, but the timing makes it seem like it wasn’t a coincidence.

Report: Dodgers calling up prospect Gavin Lux

MLB.com’s William Boor reports that the Dodgers are promoting infield prospect Gavin Lux to the majors. Ron Cervenka of ThinkBlue LA was the first to break the news.

On the bright side, if baseball doesn’t work out, he can have a long and happy existence as a character in a soap opera.

Royals’ Van Buren records 5-K inning

While four-strikeout innings are impressive, five-strikeout frames are nearly unheard of. But that’s exactly what reliever Malcolm Van Buren recorded in the seventh inning of Rookie Advanced Burlington’s 7-6 win over Elizabethton on Wednesday night at Burlington Athletic Stadium.

“Honestly, I was kind of struggling with command at the time,” Van Buren said.

The right-hander began the inning simply enough, when Seth Gray swung and missed at a 3-2 curveball low in the zone. Parker Phillips whiffed at a 1-2 curve in the dirt for what should’ve been the second out, but he reached on a throwing error by catcher Jesus Atencio.

“I didn’t really realize that he struck out also,” Van Buren said, “because I was trying to focus and get in the zone.”

Astros land Greinke from DBack at deadline

HOU: Zack Grienke, $24MM
ARI: Seth Beer, J.B. Bukauskas, Corbin Martin, Josh Rojas

That’s a haul.  Beer could be a star, Martin looks like a decent mid-rotation guy, Bukauskas is K’ing more than 10/9 (albeit in AA), Rojas is a flier who is killing it this year.  This is how you restock a farm system.

Prospects Traded At Deadline Rarely Make Big League Impact

In all, 86 of the 428 prospects traded in July deals from 2003-2014 went on to play the majority of at least two seasons in the major leagues and post a positive career WAR, as measured by Baseball-Reference. That’s just 20.1 percent of all prospects moved in such trades.

There are big hits among them to be found, however. Corey Kluber, Josh Donaldson, Adrian Gonzalez and Nelson Cruz were all traded as prospects in July deals. So were Jean Segura, Eduardo Escobar, Kyle Hendricks and Patrick Corbin. Mitch Haniger, Addison Russell and Josh Hader were among those were dealt in the most recent years of our sample, 2013 and 2014.

But, by and large, such players are the exception. Much more often than not, prospects traded at the deadline fail to make any significant impact in the major leagues.

How Dodgers prospect Gavin Lux developed into the hottest hitter in baseball

Augie Schmidt, a baseball lifer, sat alone in his home in Kenosha, Wisconsin last Thursday watching a Triple-A baseball game.

He was nearly brought to tears by what he saw.

The moment struck when Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop prospect Gavin Lux, Schmidt’s nephew and star pupil, parked a homer in the right field seats at Principal Park in Des Moines, Iowa.

Schmidt, a former minor leaguer and the head baseball coach at Division III Carthage College since 1987, knew he was witnessing the culmination of the work started more than a decade ago.

Note to self: Check back in at this time in 2029 to see how this panned out.