Short-Seaon ball is a tease. Full-Season ball breaks hearts. Taylor Cole is of interest as it's possible might move faster now. Can anyone tell me how good he can be, because it's harder for me to do than others.

Who is Walden? He's gone totally under the radar for me. Is he any good (MLB or trades)?

Lopes was my pre-season selection for the prospect for the one that was be a household name by the end of 2013.
Good start, C-Lopes!

Correction on the NH game report: it's Clint Robinson, not Clint Johnson.

But it's understandable error, since Robinson is definitely the most obscure player on the Jays 40-man roster. I'm still puzzled by the Jays decision to give a 40-man spot to a 28-year-old first-baseman who apparently can't even crack the Buffalo lineup and who has had only a few cups of coffee at the MLB level. Perhaps I'm missing some scouting reports that explain his appeal, but I'm surprised that the Jays couldn't find better options on the waiver wire at the end of spring training when a lot of players became available.

Robinson.....fixed.

Taylor Cole is really interesting ... I have tremendous respect for the guy putting his baseball career on hold to pursue his religious beliefs.  I don't think I would have made the same decision, but you have to admire someone putting their ideals ahead of money.

Who is Emelio Guerroro?  his stats from the last years show a week bat, but he's a young guy and won the shortstop job in Lansing with an impressive spring ... any thoughts on this kid? 

I have seen Walden pitch a couple of times. I liked him last year and thought he could be a major league reliever. Walden is a shortish righthander who throws hard. Here is what I wrote last year about Walden:

Walden is another shorter pitcher, around or just under 6 feet, and is a sinker, slider type of pitcher. Walden's fastball sat 93-94 in his first inning and broke down and in with lots of hard movement to the hitter. Walden was very effective in keeping the ball down and missed low when he did miss. Walden also threw a change-up and a slider or cutter. If it was a slider it didn't move much. Walden's velocity dropped a bit by the later innings, down to 89-92 by the fifth.

Summary: I thought Walden could make a good reliever where he could max out over short periods. If he can develop a real good change-up to go along with the moving fastball and a cutter/slider he could be effective in short stints. I say that because the sinker/slider pitchers, like Walden often struggle when they get to AA, but Walden has more velocity than most sinker, slider pitchers.

I wrote about Guerrero in the rosters thread a few days ago. He impressed in spring training but it's probably too early to get over-excited about him.

Taylor Cole is an interesting guy. He left baseball for two years to go on a mormon mission. When he returned his fastball speed and command were worse than they were before he left. So the $64m question is, does his fastball get better with more pitching? As of last year his fastball was average and his command of it was average. His fastball was in the mid-80's when he came back from his mission but reportedly it was up close to 90 mph by the end of last season. We need some time and some scouting reports to see how much Cole has developed.

Today's starters:

Claudio Vargas

Deck McGuire

Aaron Sanchez

Alonzo Gonzalez


The next two starters for Lansing are Osuna and Norris. Norris pitched in relief on opening night to get him some work. The Lugnuts are not using tandem starters this season but I expect Osuna and Norris to follow last years pattern, three innings to start moving to four and five.

My 5 prospects to watch this season with the thought that they would increase their value were:

Christian Lopes
Matt Dean
Jacob Anderson
Kenny Wilson
Gustavo Pierre

Side note, Tyler Beede is looking amazing this college season.
7-0 in 7 starts holding hitters to a .159 average with Ks per inning slightly under 1

If struggling prospects like Pierre, Dean and McGuire can rebuild some value, we could be back in the top ten minor leagues systems next year, assuming AA has another good draft.  Of course, that rebound is a big if.

I was worried we might lose Wilson in the rule v last year ... he struck me as someone who started to put it all together last year and feel he could be a quality 4th OF if he continues to rebound. 

Another win for the Bisons today.  Andy LaRoche had 4 hits including a homer, but the interesting thing for me was Kawasaki's first start.  He went 2-3 with 2 walks.  It sure would be nice to have a good defensive shortstop on the major league bench so that Reyes could DH some to give his hamstrings a rest.