Baseball America Hot Prospect Sheet Thread

[Mass Haas]

Two Brewers from last Friday's list, although one has cooled a bit since

[Mass Haas]

Gamel and Scarpetta make their way onto different portions of the "Sheet", both positively.

[NastyTwig]

Has anyone been on the Hot Sheet more than Gamel over the past 2 years? Wieters? Price?

[battlekow]

Andundsen (#8) and Gindl (#13) make this week's Hot Sheet:

A Brewers fourth-round pick from Columbine High in Littleton, Colo., in 2006, Anundsen could be on his way to a break out season. He certainly put himself on the radar after firing the season's first nine inning no-hitter Tuesday against Daytona. Anundsen relies on a sinking mid-80s fastball, which he uses to get opponents to beat into the ground, and has had spectacular results so far. He went only 12-8, 4.28 last year in low Class A in his first year of full-season ball, but he's off to a 2-2, 1.44 start through four outings for Brevard County.

Gindl tended to get lost in the shuffle among all the talented teenagers in the South Atlantic League last season, but he put up a strong year of his own in hitting .307/.388/.474 (including .344/.417/.535 in the second half) as a 19-year-old in his first full season. This year, Gindl has picked up where he left off, despite now finding himself in the pitching-oriented FSL. He's started cutting down on his strikeouts after racking up 144 last year, and has continued producing at a high rate, hitting .380/.446/.563 through 71 at-bats. He had a six-game hitting streak snapped yesterday, but has driven in at least one run in eight of his last 10 games.

[rousieboy]

Are Anundsen's stats going to transfer when he advances? Will his "mid-80s fastball" work at AAA or on MLB hitters or is this a guy to trade sooner (ala Inman) while the fire is hot...?

[JoeHova]

A good question about Anundsen.

[TheCrew07]

Some reports have his fastball topping out in the low 90s, others in the high 80s, tough to say until he gets to AA where we actually have some decent media coverage.

[Never Outhustled]

Ya, the writers from BA keep saying he has a mid 80s fastball, and everyone else says high 80s to low 90s. Is BA just taking that from their predraft report on Anundsen? A major reason the Brewers drafted Anundsen was they thought he would add velocity, I hope that has happened.

[pogokat]

I sat behind a scout checking anundsen last year on a stalker gun, and he never went over 86 mph...

 

he might throw a little harder than that, but if he hits the 90's, it's 90...and he definitely works in the mid 80's...

 

of course, groundball guys can be successful like that...but if he gives up any homers at all, well, he's yuemiro petit...which we saw today is an iffy proposition

[TheCrew07]

That's disappointing... I was hoping 89-92.

[ORLANDOBREWER]

Talked to a scout tonight that was at the Anundsen no hit game last week and he was not overly immpressed. We did get to talking about some guys he has seen over the last few years in the FSL and he was impressed with Escobar when he was at Brevard saying that he had star like qualities at that time. He never saw Braun in the FSL but raved about Maybin and Bruce when he saw them in the FSL.

[HankSterling]

if you have devistating movment on the sinker you can get away with it. Maddox never threw much more than high 80s, low 90s. But it is the movment that counts and of corse throwing it for strikes to get people to chase it. He might also pick up a few mph as he matures. I did.

[battlekow]

Lawrie's "In the Team Photo" in this week's Hot Sheet:

Low Class A Wisconsin 2B Brett Lawrie (Brewers) has continued has demolition of Midwest League pitching. The 19-year-old batted .444/.500/.667 (12-for-27) with a home run, a double and a triple on the week, upping his line for the year to .330/.381/.596 with four home runs and 20 RBIs

[battlekow]

Jeffress made this week's Hot Sheet for a bad reason:

 

NOT-SO HOT SHEET

 

Jeffress has one of the fastest fastballs in the minor leagues, routinely working the mid- to high-90s and capable of hitting 100 mph. Unfortunately, locating the strike zone has been problematic. Jeffress, 21, has walked 27 hitters in 23 innings on the season while going 1-2, 7.04 through seven starts for Double-A Huntsville. In his only start this week, he couldn't make it out of the second inning, getting pulled after allowing six runs on four hits and five walks over 1 2/3 innings. This was the third straight start in which Jeffress lasted three innings or fewer.

Ben Badler touched on Lawrie during the Hot Sheet chat:

[tt]Tim (Chicago): How good is Brett Lawrie's bat? Do you see him sticking at second and what are his weakness if any at this point?[/tt]

Ben Badler: Very, very good. That's an incredible performance for a first-year pro in the Midwest League at age 19. Second base is up in the air at this point, but it's too early to move him anywhere else yet.

[ILuvDaBush]

Have bat, will travel....all over the diamond. As for Jeffress, where does that leave him? His biggest question coming into this year has been his command, and now he's lost any semblance of control. Maybe it would be best to switch him to the bullpen (ala Phillipe Aumont) to streamline his ascension to the majors. I also wonder if perhaps his cataracts are acting up. Someone should be in his ear telling him to take a weekend trip to Amsterdam.

[battlekow]

Anundsen was #12 on this week's Hot Sheet:

Anundsen put his name on the map with his no-hitter against Daytona on April 28, but he hasn't tailed off much since. Anundsen has gone 4-1, 2.25 in six starts since the no-no, and turned in his best effort since then last Monday against Fort Myers. His 11 strikeouts were a season-high (he had 10 in the no-hitter), and his sinking fastball has continued producing ground balls at a healthy rate (1.58 groundout-to-flyout ratio for the year). Anundsen is all over the FSL's leaderboards, where he ranks third in ERA (1.87), is tied for first in wins (6) and ranks third in strikeouts (54).

[804Sox]

Have bat, will travel....all over the diamond. As for Jeffress, where does that leave him? His biggest question coming into this year has been his command, and now he's lost any semblance of control. Maybe it would be best to switch him to the bullpen (ala Phillipe Aumont) to streamline his ascension to the majors. I also wonder if perhaps his cataracts are acting up. Someone should be in his ear telling him to take a weekend trip to Amsterdam.

I think it's a little early to think about moving Jeffress to the 'pen. He's still only 21 and has already tasted AA. I think he should at least get another year to figure it out as a starter. From where his is now between A+ and AA he could make it to the bigs in months of he transitions smoothly.

[battlekow]

Seems like an odd time for BA to point out Evan Frederickson's struggles since he hasn't actually struggled recently:

The 35th overall pick out of San Francisco last year, Frederickson has struggled to gain traction in the usually pitcher friendly Midwest League with low Class A Wisconsin. His ERA ballooned to 7.06 in late May, though he's shown signs of life lately, improving his mark to 3-3, 5.31 in 42 1/3 innings. Still, you expect better of a college pitcher in the MWL.

[Never Outhustled]

Seems like an odd time for BA to point out Evan Frederickson's struggles since he hasn't actually struggled recently:

Yeah, thats really slanted coverage. It makes it seem like they have an axe to grind. Frederickson, since the beginning of May, has a 3.54 ERA with 30 Ks/14 BB in 28 innings.

 

It would make more sense for them to point out that he's turning the corner. Describing him as a disappointment because he was a college pitcher is misleading because he doesn't have anywhere near the experience on the mound as most college pitchers, he was just a 1 year starter.

[TheCrew07]

Maybe they are just trying to aggravate me again, the report certainly isn't timely and he's been making slow/steady progress. He's another pitcher that could explode through the system if he puts it together...

[Godspeed]

This Hot List consisted solely of players from the 2008 draft and takes their season as a whole into consideration (or so they say in the intro), so I don't think it's that much of a cheap shot.

 

But while I understand why Frederickson was listed, I feel it's a bit disingenuous for them to do so while completely disregarding his performance of late.

[biedergb]

Back to Anundsen -- I was looking at some archived draft stuff at mlb.com and the scouting video has Anundsen clocked at 87-92, with mostly 90-91 mph. Did he lose velocity, or the pitch he 'relies on' another fastball that's in the mid-80s and he has a regular fastball in the 89-92 range?

And back to Frederickson. Any reports on his stuff this year? Didn't he have both a loss of command and velocity last year. It appears the command is an issue, but is the velocity back?

[TheCrew07]

It could be the difference between his 4 seam and his 2 seam fastball... maybe he takes a bit off the 2 seam and it breaks more for him?

[Never Outhustled]

And back to Frederickson. Any reports on his stuff this year? Didn't he have both a loss of command and velocity last year. It appears the command is an issue, but is the velocity back?

He's throwing in the low 90s mostly, upper 80s a little. He also throws on a downward plain, making it very difficult for hitters to elevate his pitchers. His ball seems to suprise hitters, likely because he deliveries pretty good velocity from a low effort delivery. I've seen him pitch twice this year, once live, but was rather distracted that night, and that was a relief outing for him, so I couldn't get a lot of gun readings. TheCrew07 could probably give you a more accurate description of his velocity.

[trwi7]

I think when TheCrew did say something about Frederickson, he said pretty much the same thing as you X. Low 90s mostly.