I was asked to join up with some of the best farm reporters in the business for a United Baseball Blogger Mock Draft  which is underway (click on the link to follow the action).

In a bit of a shocker, ESPN’s Keith Law, selecting on behalf of the Tampa Bay Rays, went with Florida State catcher Buster Posey as the top pick in the draft.  

Somewhat surprisingly, Eric Hosmer was still on the board when my turn came up to select on behalf of the Rangers and I couldn’t resist.

The objective of this draft wasn’t to go with the guy the selectors would want their team  to pick, but to predict who they would actually pick.    Thus,  while Hosmer likely would have been a top five pick based on talent alone, he dropped down the board because he is a Boras client who is asking for a $7 million signing bonus.

As most of you know, the Rangers have done a lot of business  with Boras over the years and pounced on Boras client Julio Borbon when he slid into the sandwich round last year.    The Rangers have also paid well over slot for Boras clients Vincent Sinisi and Taylor Teagarden in recent years.

As long as Boras doesn’t insist on a major league deal for Hosmer, I believe that the Rangers commitment to stockpiling as much talent as possible in the farm system will allow them to find a way to come to terms with Boras and Hosmer.    Say what you want about major league payroll, but clearly, the Rangers have not skimped when it comes to spending on acquiring and developing young talent in recent years.

Hosmer, a 6’4″,  220 lb. first baseman out of a Miami-area high school,  wields the most powerful bat in the draft. He is the two-time Miami Herald state player of the year, the 2007 Connie Mack and 2007 World Wood Bat Association MVP and a 2007 Rawlings High School Gold Glove winner. 

Swinging from the left side,  he drives tape-measure shots out of every part of the yard and has incredible bat speed that allows him to wait for the ball to get deep in the zone before contact.   He was also the closer on his state championship high school team, dealing 96 mph cheese.

The leader among American League second baseman in OPS.

The leader among American League second baseman in SLG.

The leader among American League second basemen in Homers, RBI’s, Runs Scored,  Stolen Bases.   Never been caught stealing.

A close second among American League second baseman in batting average.

Fourth among American League second baseman in OBP.

Now go get it done for Kins.  Send him to Yankees Stadium.

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/events/all_star/y2008/ballot_reg.html

Lots of good stuff yesterday.

At Visalia,   Bakersfield second baseman Jose Miguel Vallejo (.295 / .352 / .486)  posted  what
stands, without question, as the box score line of the year for an offensive player in this system, going 3-4 with a triple, two homers, two walks,  four RBIs,  four runs scored and a stolen base as the Blaze posted a 13-7 victory over the Oaks.

Vallejo, whose physical maturity started to catch up to his mental and emotional maturity this past off-season,  came into the season with five career homers in 1382 minor league at-bats.   This year, he has nine bombs in 220 at-bats.   His outstanding base running has not suffered in spite of the fact that he’s packed probably 15 pounds of muscle on to his frame.  He’s nabbed 19 bags while being caught just three times.  And he remains probably the most outstanding defensive infielder in the system, Elvis and Joaquin notwithstanding.

Now in his third full year as a switch hitter, Vallejo is hitting .316 / .355 / .579 from his natural right side and .288 / .352 / .454 from his ‘weaker’ left side.    Impressive stuff all the way around.   Between the physical gifts and the makeup, Vallejo is a bonafide jewel.

If not for Vallejo’s freakfest, we’d be leading off this edition of Stars with Julio Borbon (.330 / .379 / .436) who homered, doubled and walked in a 2-5 outing from the top of the Bakersfield order, driving in three, scoring three runs and stealing his 19th bag of the season.

Can someone buy Julio a ticket to Frisco already?

Evan Reed (4-2;  5.15) was the beneficiary of the Blaze lineup’s big performance, but he didn’t need anywhere near half of their production.    He held the Oaks to a run on four hits and five walks over six.

The best thing about minor league Spring Training isn’t seeing the guys you went there to see, but finding the guy you didn’t know about.   My friend Jamey Newberg and I will live off of our tales of realizing that an obscure 17th round shortstop from Missouri was ‘actually a pretty big deal,’  back in 2004.    I’ll never forget seeing Edison Volquez pitch for the first time and thinking that he was, by far, the most talented pitcher in camp back in 2005.

This year, the day after I’d watched Wilmer Font and Neftali Feliz light up the radar gun in the high 90′s, I saw a skinny Dominican kid stride to the mound and make hitters look sillier than either of his more heralded flamethrowing teammates had the day before.

And on March 15, I wrote:   “The most interesting young pitching prospect to take the mound today was perhaps Kennil Gomez,  a 6’3″ 165 lb. 19 year old who posted a 9.96 K/9 for the Arizona League club last summer (3.15 ERA & 1.17 WHIP).   He threw a 90ish fastball with explosive life and he’s obviously in love with his slider, which features sharp, hard late break and he throws it for strikes.”

Two weeks later, Gomez was dispatched to Clinton, Iowa and now five weeks after making his MWL debut, everyone knows about him.

Yesterday, Kennil Gomez (2.21 ERA) held Beloit scoreless on one hit for seven innings, fanning four and getting ten ground ball outs as Clinton topped the Snappers in ten innings.

Gomez isn’t posting huge strikeout figures (7.11  K/9), but he’s holding the MWL to a .196 batting average, getting 2.26 grounders for every ball hit in the air, and has a 0.91 WHIP.  

It won’t be long before Gomez moves on to Bakersfield.

OK, so he doesn’t lead the National League in about five pitching categories or sport one of the ten best ERAs in the American League at the tender age of 23 years and one month,  but D-1 has still got skills, and it won’t be long before he joins he’s making noise in the bigs like his old buddies Edinson and John.

Thomas Diamond made his second start in an official game since undergoing Tommy John surgery a little more than  one year ago and held Tulsa to one earned run on three hits and two walks in five innings while racking up seven strikeouts as Frisco opened a six-game homestand and the confluence of Dallas Tollway and Highway 121 with a 6-3 victory over the Drillers.

Emerson Frostad (.281 / .343 / .475) paced the RoughRiders attack, going 3-4 with a double to drive in two and Max Ramirez (.374 / .455 / .678)  made his first start of the year at first base and went 0-2 with a pair of walks.

Just emptying out my head of a few thoughts:

Worst Fans in Baseball:

More on Money and the Farm:  

Your friends make fun of you for following minor league baseball?     They give you the Dan McDowell line about how it doesn’t matter and, like their leader, believe that the only way to build a winning ballclub is to spend wildly in free agency?

Read on.

For a long time now, I’ve been arguing that the Rangers woes have absolutely nothing to do with the owner’s decision to cut back on payroll from a top-5 ranking to a bottom half to bottom third ranking.  I wrote extensively on this subject last summer: 

HERE:  http://rangersfarmreport.mlblogs.com/archives/2007/08/money_cant_buy_.html

And HERE: http://rangersfarmreport.mlblogs.com/archives/2007/10/you_reap_what_t.html

In baseball, in spite of an asinine disparity in payroll, it still all comes down to scouting, drafting and developing more talent than the other guy.

This year?   More of the same.

Lowest payroll in the AL East:   Tampa — 1st place

Lowest payroll in the NL East:   Florida — 1st place

Lowest payroll in the NL West:  Arizona — 1st place

The three highest payrolls in MLB?   Yankees (last place),  Detroit (last place) and Mets (next to last and in disarray).

2010:

I’m enjoying this run as much as the next guy,  but I pray Jon Daniels doesn’t take his eye off the ball.    Please don’t be a buyer JD.   Sell off the parts that you won’t need in two years for the best pitching you can get and shoot to build a strong young starting rotation around this lineup:

2b = Ian Kinsler

3b = Michael Young

RF = Josh Hamilton

DH = Max Ramirez

C = Jarrod Saltalamacchia

1b = Chris Davis

LF = David Murphy

SS = Elvis Andrus

CF = Julio Borbon

4th OF = Brandon Boggs

UTIL:  German Duran

Just two games on the ledger as the Midwest and Texas Leauges took the day off to switch dance partners.

Bakersfield and Oklahoma both lost and there wasn’t much to write home about in either game, but Eric Hurley (2-4;  5.49) battled his way to a quality start in the Redhawks’  5-2 loss at beautiful Rosenblatt Stadium in sunny south Omaha.   The 2004 first rounder gave up three runs, one earned, on seven hits — including two more bombs, giving him a league-leading 13 gophers – and a pair of walks in six. 

Given that there’s not much else to tell you about this morning, maybe this is a good time to take a look at where Hurley’s season has been and where it’s headed.

My enthusiasm for Hurley has always been pretty muted when compared to others who follow the Rangers minor league system and I’ve been critical of the way that he has failed to develop fully as a starter by leaning too heavily on his lively four-seam fastball as he rose through the system.  

Yeah, he consistently posted excellent ERAs at every stop, but his splits were horribly lopsided and he had a disturbing trend at every stop during his career that saw leagues catch up to him the longer he stayed around (his ERAs by month in Frisco last summer were 1.50 in April,  3.46 in May and 5.49 in June — pretty standard for Hurley).   This, to me, signaled a problem in that a league’s hitters consistently adjusted to Hurley rather than the other way around. 

By the time he left Frisco for Oklahoma last summer,  he was still hanging about half of his sliders and even my daughter Erin was able to see his changeup coming before he threw it because he telegraphed it so vividly by changing his arm speed and angle.   I didn’t like it that he was leaving double-A with only one quality pitch he could go to reliably for strikes.

As I’ve often said,  I admire Hurley enormously for his tenacity and I have long suspected that he’s one of those guys who has to learn the hard way.   Hitters never really made Hurley learn how to pitch because he enjoyed so much success coming at them with almost nothing but fastballs for so long. 

Well, the PCL is making Hurley learn.  In 133.2 Triple-A innings to date, Hurley has surrendered a ******** 26 homers, including the two yesterday.

This year, lefties are crushing him to the tune of a .306 / .370 / .537 line.    In other words, the average PCL left-handed hitter becomes Adrian Gonzalez when standing in against Hurley this year.

Having said all of that, I do think that Hurley’s pride and desire will get him over the hump eventually, but you can’t compare him to a guy like Chris Young or John Danks — or even Doug Mathis —  right now because he came to Oklahoma with such a dramatically different experience in the lower minors than those guys did.  Adjustments most guys make before they get to the PCL, Hurley is having to make now.   Making adjustments is a skill and it’s one that Hurley hasn’t honed yet, but he’s in the process of doing so.

I still suspect that Hurley’s future may be in the bullpen where his plus fastball and intensity would seem to play well, and given his propensity for giving up the long ball, I wouldn’t be surprised if he joins the armada of pitchers –  Young, Danks, Volquez, Galarraga, Cruceta, Duchsherer, Masset — that the Rangers have sent packing just before or shortly after reaching the Show.   

Blake Beavan (4-1; 2.90) kept up with his Clinton rotation-mates with six strong innings of work in the LumberKings 7-2 victory at Cedar Rapids, holding the Kernels to two unearned runs on four hits and no walks, fanning four.    Amazingly, Beavan has allowed just one walk in 31 innings while holding the opposition to a .226 batting average.

Catcher Justin Pickett, who has spent the past two years in the Padres organization (shout out to Billy Killian), homered and doubled twice, driving in three runs in support of his pitcher.

Engel Beltre (.269 / .295 / .406) extended a five game hitting streak, going 2-5 with his third homer of the year.   Beltre, who is hitting .300 over his past ten games,  is struggling mightily against lefties (.203 / .354 / .254) and at Alliant Energy Field (.192 / .223 / .313).

The first two hitters in the Bakersfield order — Julio Borbon (.328 / .376 / .414) and Jose Vallejo (.289 / .343 / .441) each went 2-5 — with Bobron driving in two and Vallejo three, but the Blaze fell 12-8 to Inland Empire at San Bernardino.   Borbon notched his 18th stolen base of the year while Vallejo went deep for the seventh time this season.

Taylor Teagarden (.310 / .459 / .483) extended his 15-game hitting streak with a 1-4 outing while Chris Davis singled twice and fanned twice in four trips as Oklahoma dropped a 6-4 decision in Des Moines.   4-A  doubled and tripled in four at-bats.

Luis Mendoza was roughed up, getting chased after just two having surrendered five runs on six hits.   Lizard took the ball from Mendy and held the I-Cubs to one unearned run on six hits and a walk in six innings of work.

Frisco suffered a 5-2 loss in Fort Smith as the mighty Riders lineup was held to just five hits.   Dustin Majewski (.295 / .386 / .447) doubled and walked in four trips and Thomas Berkery (.237 / .333 / .395) tripled and walked. 

The reigning Texas League player of the week went 0-4.   Just for fun, take a look at what I wrote about the great Maximiliano last summer, the day after he was acquired in the Kenny Lofton deal:  http://rangersfarmreport.mlblogs.com/archives/2007/07/maximiliano_ram.html  

After walking on, he spent five years toiling in various roles at Georgia Tech, then lasted until the 33rd round in last year’s draft.  The Rangers sent him out for 18 appearances, all out of the pen, spread out over three stops in the organization last summer. 

He’s really never been anybody’s first choice for anything except the Dean’s List. 

This year, he’s spen
t most of his spring in the Bakersfield bullpen, but with Omar Poveda on the shelf and Tommy Hunter off to Frisco,  Jared Hyatt (5-0;  3.29) has gotten an opportunity to start and he’s making the most of it.

Yesterday, Hyatt (pictured) held Inland Empire to a run on just one hit while punching out six in seven very strong innings as the Blaze ran off to an 11-2 victory.

The Bakersfield  lineup recorded a dozen base hits and as many walks. Johnny Whittleman (.280 / .398 / .434) reached base five times, going 1-2 with four walks, driving in two and scoring three times while Julio Borbon (.325 / .375 / .414) went 3-6, stole his 18th bag of the year and scored three times from the top of the order. 

In Iowa,  the LumberKings continued to use Cedar Rapids as a punching bag, recording their ninth straight victory over the Angels affiliate as southpaw starter Derek Holland (5-0;  2.47) did his part to maintain the legacy of what must be the most dominant starting rotation — top to bottom – in minor league baseball. 

Holland went seven,  limiting the Kernels to a pair of runs on six hits.  He fanned three and induced 11 ground ball outs.  

Toolsy 18 year old center fielder Engel Beltre (.266 / .293 / .391) tripled in a 3-5 outing to drive in three.  He also recorded an outfield assist, nailing a baserunner at third.   The Midwest League’s leading hitter (by .025), Renny Osuna (.365 / .439 / .528) also went 3-5 and hit his ninth double of the year.

Ben Harrison (.351 / .449 / .649) homered twice in  four trips, driving in three, but it wasn’t enough for the Riders-sans-Davis as Frisco dropped a 6-5 affair at Fort Smith.  

Harrison’s 1.098 OPS is second in the league — ahead of Chris Davis and behind you know who.   Harrison is also second in the league in OBP and slugging percentage, third in batting average, and sixth  in both dingers (9) and RBIs (35). 

Any notions  Tommy Hunter (1-1;  5.25) might have had about the Texas League after his first dominant start against double-A competition were tempered yesterday as the Naturals chased him after five having gotten to him for six runs on six hits – two of which left the yard — and four walks.  

In Iowa,  4-A doubled and homered in four trips but the I-Cubs trounded Oklahoma 9-2.  Dustin Nippert wasn’t so good.   Chris Davis went 0-1 in a pinch hitting appearance.  

Kasey Kiker (3-0;  4.83) merits first star after dealing 7.2 dominant frames against Visalia, holding the Oaks to just one run on three hits and a walk while racking up nine strikeouts as Bakersfield posted a 6-1 victory at Historic Sam Lynn Ballpark.

In Des Moines,  Rob Tejeda (1-1;  2.18) blanked the I-Cubs on four hits and two walks for six innings, fanning eight and batterymate Taylor Teagarden (.315 / .471 / .500) continued his assault on the PCL, going 2-2 with a pair of walks and his second dinger of the year for the RedHawks.

Teagarden now has 54 at-bats with Oklahoma after mysteriously hitting .169 / .279 / .305 in 59 at-bats for Frisco to begin the season.  His hitting streak has now reached 14 games.

Fabio Castillo (2.88 ERA) got things off to a good start for the winningest team in all of professional baseball, but 33-12 Clinton needed 14 innings to get by Cedar Rapids for the eighth straight time and Castillo did not factor into the decision.  

Castillo held the Kernals to a run on three hits and two walks while fanning five in as many innings.   In his two starts, Castillo has a 0.90 ERA and has limited the opposition to a .152 batting average.

Renny Osuna (.357 / .434 / .519) drove in four runs while knocking out four singles and a walk in seven trips and shortstop Andres James (.268 / .297 / .299) singled four times in five trips.   Engel Beltre (.257 / .286 / .376) doubled in a 3-7 outing from the top of the order. 

Frisco said goodbye to first baseman Chris Davis, who moves on to Oklahoma today, with a 4-2 victory at NW Arkansas as Matt Harrison (3.15 ERA) followed up his no-hitter last Sunday with a solid 5.2 innings of work, holding the Naturals to two runs on seven hits. 

Ben Harrison (.345 / .448 / .600) and Craig Gentry (.277 / .339 / .364) each went 2-4 with a double.

The other day over lunch, I told my friend Jamey Newberg that he had to get out to see Frisco ASAP — before the two -headed monster,  or even half of it, goes away.   “It’s like having Josh Hamilton and Lance Berkman in the same lineup,”  I explained.

And last night, the duo marched into the old ballyard at the corner of 15th and Yale in Tulsa and simply tore it down, leading the Riders to a 12-2 victory.

Chris Davis (.335 / .379 / .626):  4-5 including his 13th and 14th doubles of the year as well as his 12th and 13th dingers, driving in three.

Max Ramirez (.399 / .473 / .728):   3-4 with his 12th double, his 12th homer, a walk and three RBIs.

Starter Michael Schlact (2-3;  4.60) took the mound in the bottom of the second, already up 8-0.  He surrendered one in that frame on a pair of singles.  He left after seven with his best start of the year on his resume, having given up just the one earned run on six hits and three walks, fanning five.  

“I just wanted to throw strikes,” said Schlact, who did so on  59 of his 92 pitches. “We have the whole package, pitching, hitting and defense. With a team like this we can win a bunch of ball games.”

Elvis Andrus (.275 / .330 / .319) set the table, going 1-3 with a walk, reacing on an error, stealing two bases and scoring three times from the one hole.   After hitting .260 / .302 / .310 in 100 April at-bats,  Andrus has bumped it up to .293 / .363 / .329 in 82 May at-bats.

A.J. Murray (2-2;  4.17) is rounding into form for Oklahoma.   The Pirate held the I-Cubs to just one run on six hits and a walk, ringing up seven strikeouts in eight innings,  but the RedHawks failed to put a number on the board and Murray was saddled with the loss in spite of his outstanding effort.

Julio Borbon (.321 / 374 / .409) belted his 14th double of the year while going 3-5 from the top of the order in Bakersfield’s 5-1 loss to Visalia. 

In Clinton’s 3-1 victory, Neftali Feliz (2.27 ERA) held Cedar Rapids to one unearned run on four hits and a walk in five innings,  strangely recording just one K.   Jorge Quintero (3-1;  5.97) got the win with three scorless innings of relief, punching out four while allowing two hits and a walk.

A few baseball friends who are aware of my background in thoroughbred horse racing have asked me questions about Big Brown’s place in history.   

Seeing this horse being hyped as potentially one of the greatest horses of all time  I am compelled to point some facts about the horse known in racing circles as “Big Red”:  

Secretariat.

Bottom line:  If Big Brown would have been born in 1970 instead of 2005, he’d be a very minor footnote not just in horse racing history, but among the colts in his crop.

Big Brown’s mile and a quarter time in the Kentucky Derby (2:01.8) would have resulted in a 12 length beating at the hands of the great Secretariat (1:59.2) who still holds the Derby record — by a full second — 35 years after he set it. 

He ran each quarter of a mile faster than the one before.   This is simply unheard of in horse racing.

Secretariat’s 35 year old World Record at a mile and a half, set in the 1973 Belmont Stakes has never been broken.    He broke the previous World Record at that distance by two seconds.  The record he broke is still the second fastest mile and half ever run on dirt, anywhere in the world.   Put differently, the second fastest mile and a half ever run would have been 10 lengths behind Secretariat’s World Record.

He also destroyed the track record in the Preakness.

Secretariat also set a World Record at a mile and an eighth.

Secretariat’s Beyer Speed Figure in the Belmont was 139.

The great Cigar never topped 121.

Big Brown’s best so far is 109.   He posted a flat 100 in the Preakness.

Sports Analogies:

Secretariat would be like a hitter who routinely smashed 600 foot homers;   a long jumper who popped a 35 footer;  a sprinter who ran 100 meters in 8 seconds;  a golfer who shot four rounds of  60….

In all four majors….

In one year. 

In what is universally regarded as the weakest crop of three year olds in decades,  what you are seeing from Big Brown is the equivalent of watching a really good hitter — say, Milton Bradley — spending two months in the Texas League.

Big Brown is a good horse beating bad horses in a down year.

Big Red — as he was known — was the greatest of all time.