Loewen, Wood, and Jackson

[cressj]

Adam Loewen's team was knocked out of the juco playoffs, so the O's can begin negotiating with him. Secondly in AskBA, it was interesting to hear that Conor Jackson could fall into the second round because of a possible arm injury.

 

Finally some information on Brandon Wood - As a HS Jr, he hit .443 with 18 doubles and 8 home runs. He is 6'3" and about 180-185 and many consider him the top talent in the state of AZ. He played in the 2002 Area Code Games and is described on one site as "lean, projectable infielder with twitch and a compact stroke at the plate." He is currently batting leadoff for his HS team and spent the summer working out with the likes of Nomar and Jason Giambi. He has at least 18 home runs in this his senior year. That is all I have.

[colbyjack]

Coincidentally enough, Brandon Wood was my scheduled prospect for today's player profile. That said, he has been a known commodity for several years now, and we all know how much focus the Brewers place on players in AZ. Be sure to follow the profiled link within this link for more info:

 

www.brewerfan.net/ViewFea...Profile.do

 

This information provided by the BA chat on Friday will make the pick easier for the Brewers' 2nd round pick in the mock draft over at T1 http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif .

 

And guess who knocked off Loewen in the Florida JC playoffs? Justin Barnes' Manatee team. A lot of scouts walked away with a sour taste in their mouths. Loewen reportedly was pitching in the 91-93 area with his 4-seamer, in the 88-89 area with his 2-seamer with nice life, and also displayed a good curveball & slider. According to the report, he left a lot of his stuff up high in the zone, and lost his velocity after the first couple of innings. Some of this info comes from Anup Sinha's report on T1, where he also said one scout said that Manny Parra was a lot better of a prospect last year, and was surprised that Loewen was asking for $4 million. Like I said, a lot of people walked away unimpressed, but it seems as though this was far from one of his better performances. The stuff was there, but it would seem that his command/control was not.

 

Jackson's arm injury could cause him to fall far, depending on how serious it is. To me, his value really is at 3B, and it's already in question whether or not he'll be able to stay there long term. His bat is pretty good, and he displays a keen eye at the plate, but to me it doesn't sound as though he'll hit enough to play 1B.

[cressj]

Here is a quote from a recent Washington Post article about Loewen:

 

"Orioles officials believe their chances of signing Loewen are about 50-50, although the sides were nearly $1.5 million apart last year when negotiations fell apart."

 

Also, today BA is doing draft previews on the NL Central and I am guessing that Colby is going to make his next selection on the T1 draft board for the Brewers.

[xisxisxis]

Some of this info comes from Anup Sinha's report on T1, where he also said one scout said that Manny Parra was a lot better of a prospect last year, and was surprised that Loewen was asking for $4 million. Like I said, a lot of people walked away unimpressed, but it seems as though this was far from one of his better performances. The stuff was there, but it would seem that his command/control was not.

 

This could be very good news. If the Orioles are influenced by the bad outing they probably won't want to move into the $4M range and Loewen may not sign. OTOH, the Brewers might look at that performance and decide not to take him if he was available at #2. How many bad games has Mark Prior had in his career? How about Bullington? And as far as Anup Sinha's report, does that scout understand draft postion/slot money and their relation?

[colbyjack]

Good points David. We've heard stories on how scouts stopped attending Stephen Drew's games during his senior year in high school because he wasn't performing very well. It turns out he was sick, and wasn't at 100%. You would think that scouts would look into this & come back when he was playing better, but I guess that isn't always the case. Poor performances can leave a lasting impression that's hard to shake.

[igor67]

Timing and expectations. Things that amount to little more than luck and circumstance. Was Loewen really that bad or was it more of a case of him not performing quite as well as expected? This is where timing comes in. If he had had a less than stellar start a month ago people would have noticed, but then forgotten about it. I swear you see this every year with the top tier talent they get built up and then the first less than stellar thing that happens people are shooting each other trying to get off the ship. I'd be concerned that the bad performance may have been due to other reasons, but a single start isn't going to change my mind.