by George Utter on February 4, 2012
Gerardo Concepción, LHP Chicago Cubs
6/6/1993
Height: 6’2″ Weight: 180
Cuban left-handed pitcher Gerardo Concepción Pérez wasted no time in signing with the Chicago Cubs on Thursday, barely 2 weeks after establishing residency in Mexico and being declared a free agent by Major League Baseball. The deal is reportedly worth $7 million with various incentives that could drive the price beyond $8 million.
It had been speculated by several sources that Concepción was on the verge of reaching an agreement with a major league club last week, and now the speculation is over as Theo Epstein has landed the 1st of the Cuban free agents this winter. Concepción is expected to start his professional career in the minor leagues and while I selfishly wish that he starts off the 2012 season with the Boise Hawks up here in the Northwest League so that our own Bart Klett or myself can get a first hand look at him and provide video for you, though that’s not likely the case. The good news however, is that if he heads to the Midwest League with the Peoria Chiefs or to Florida State League with the Daytona Cubs, Baseball Instinct’s Dave Reiffer (MWL) or Tom Belmont (FSL) will be on top of it. Bottom line, there’s an excellent chance that we will have video and a comprehensive break down on Conception by the early days of this summer.
The lefty is coming off of a season where he was named Rookie of the Year for the Industriales of the Cuban National Series. As an 18-year-old, he went 10-3 with a 3.36 ERA, 53 Ks, and 43 BB over 102 innings in 21 games; 16 of those were starts. Aroldis Chapman comparisons will be inevitable, but he doesn’t have the same kind of triple digit gas that Chapman has. [click to continue…]
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by George Utter on January 30, 2012
Joe Panik, SS San Francisco Giants
10/30/1990
Height: 6’1” Weight: 193
Joe Panik may not be the player that San Francisco Giants fans wanted, but he may be exactly the player they need: A baseball rat that’s not afraid of getting his uniform dirty. Panik did not get drafted right out of John Jay High School in upstate New York in 2008. At just under 6’0″ tall and 170ish pounds, he was just another small infielder with potential but too many questions about where he would project at the next level. In three years at St. John’s, Panik worked his tail off to bust those stereotypes. He added 20 pounds of muscle, improved his speed and agility, and became a better overall athlete. He also figured out how to grow a couple of inches, too. You got to love a guy with THAT much determination.
In 169 games for the Red Storm in those 3 years, Panik put up a triple slash of .370/.474/.597. For you stat and fantasy geeks (me), his college career also included 25 HRs, 11 Triples, 48 Doubles, 164 runs, 157 RBI, and 33 SB in 640 at bats. With a fantastic eye at the plate, he had a eye-popping, jaw-dropping 57/111 K/BB rate. For 2011, in 498 at bats between St. John’s and Salem-Kaizer of the Northwest League, Panik Hit .367 with 16 HRs, 111 RBI, 109 runs, and 34 SB. That will grab your attention even if you felt the Giants should have drafted someone else with more “upside” than Joe Panik. He recently came in #111 in our Baseball Instinct 360°. [click to continue…]
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by George Utter on January 25, 2012
Anthony Rendon, 3B Washington Nationals
06/06/1990
Height: 6′ 0″ Weight: 190
It sounded something like this: “With the first pick in 2011 Major League Baseball Amateur Draft, The Pittsburgh Pirates take…” The answer, as expected, was RHP Gerrit Cole from UCLA. Up second was the Seattle Mariners who assuredly were going to take Rice 3B Anthony Rendon. In need of star potential bats, especially at the hot corner the Mariners called out the name of their future all-star third baseman. “With the second pick in 2011 Major League Baseball Amateur Draft, The Seattle Mariners take….” And there it was. Virginia LHP Danny Hultzen. Wait..What? Yes, the Mariners went another direction.
The slipping didn’t stop there, however. The Arizona Diamondbacks picked UCLA RHP Trevor Bauer. The Baltimore Orioles then selected Oklahoma high school RHP Dylan Bundy. With the 5th pick the Kansas City Royals would be the 1st team to break the ice and take a position player, but it wouldn’t be Rendon. It’s was Kansas high school sensation OF Bubba Starling.
To the shock of everyone including Washington Nationals General Manager Mike Rizzo, for the third straight year the Nationals would select possibly the best player in the draft. There was no hesitation from the Nationals at this point. Rizzo met with the press to discuss the selection. “We were pleasantly surprised that he got to us at six,” Rizzo said, “Going into the draft season, he was projected to be the no.1 pick, the best college hitter in the game, and throughout the college season and the draft season he held onto that status, and as late as about twenty-four hours ago he was supposedly going one or two in the draft. So we’re pleasantly surprised, we did a lot of work on him we feel we know him very, very well, our Vice President of Player Personnel Roy Clark actually drafted him out of high school for the Atlanta Braves and got to know him very, very well, so we’ve had a long relationship with him and his family and we feel really good about it.”
We agree. The Nationals got themselves a steal at this spot. Recently we released our Baseball Instinct 360° and Rendon came in #18 where we had this to say about him:
[click to continue…]
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by George Utter on January 24, 2012
Welcome back to the 2011 draft “in-season” review. We started the series last fall, but took a break from it to present to you our top 10 lists and, of course, our Baseball Instinct 360° top prospects list for 2012. In this series we’re taking a look at players from the 2011 draft who signed and got into game play in 2011. We’ve separated the High School players from the College players and compiled which players had the best season statistically. This ranking if you will, isn’t based on tools or skill set, nor is it a projection into the career these players may have. It’s purely a spotlight on those players from the past draft that grabbed our eye statistically.
I love these types of articles. I get to get my stat geek on. I’ll take a look at a guy like Adam Eaton, OF Diamondbacks (2010 draft round 19 pick 571), who had a great 2010 debut, got on our radar like these players, we investigated him closer, and he followed up 2010 with a solid 2011 campaign. Or perhaps a kid like Brandon Drury, 3B Braves (2010 draft round 13 pick 404). He didn’t have a statistically impressive debut in the GCL, but in a short-supply class of high school players, coupled with the fact that he’s from my region in the Pacific Northwest, he made the “keep an eye on” list for me. As with Eaton, a fantastic 2011 campaign and now both players are on our top 360 list.
We jump back into things with a look at the First basemen. As with the other articles, there was no short supply of silky sweet statistical goodness from the college players, however, the high-school players were in short supply.
[click to continue…]
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