Friday, July 17, 2015

Minor League Set Week: 2015 Richmond Flying Squirrels

Down to the last my minor league set for the weekend.  This is the Richmond Flying Squirrels set for this year's team.  A lot to like about this set.  The design is pretty simple and let's the picture do most of the talking.  The pictures are crisp and we don't have any pixelated pictures or blurriness.  Any haziness in the cards is from the fact that my scanner game is bad this week.  I also like that the pictures were taken over the first half of the season and showcase a variety of different uniforms the team has worn during the year.  Believe it, or not, the Flying Squirrels seem to be one of those minor league teams that relies a little bit on gimmicky promotions.

I like the cards showing the players wearing the orange and black RVA jerseys.  Pretty sweet look.

Here are my three players:

1. Kyle Crick- Listed as the Giants top prospect and in the Top 50 in many overall prospect lists.  The 22 year old right handed pitcher throws in the mid nineties and has a nice array of pitches.  His record is not that impressive, but he is striking out a batter per inning and has a decent ERA.  I did not get to see him pitch while I was in Richmond, but he tends to have some long innings and loses focus.  There are several different places, Baseball America and MLB.com, that suggest he will be a high value relief pitcher in the long run.

2.  Tyler Beede- I have seen Beede pitch before at USA Baseball while he was at Vanderbilt.  Really good college pitcher with a high degree of finish before entering the minors.  I think he could be in the Wacha/Stroman category of being up in the Majors quickly and contributing.  He is not high end as someone like Carlos Rodon, or Strasburg, coming out of college, but he's going to play a long time and win a lot of games.

Under the radar-

3. Mac Williamson- If you look at the Giants prospects lists on Baseball Prospectus, Baseball America, or MLB.com you will notice it is jam packed with pitchers.  So, I am going to go with the consensus best hitter in the Giants system Mac Williamson.  He was not in Richmond when I attended a game there, he has been promoted to Triple A, but I saw him play in college when he was at Wake Forest.  In fact, Mac is from Wake Forest, North Carolina which is about 15 minutes north of Raleigh (not home to Wake Forest U-long story go look it up).  He was one of the better power hitters in the ACC while he was in college and has shown some pop in the minors.  This year he has only 6 home runs in almost 300 at bats, but has been getting on base at nearly a .370 clip.

Other favorites in this set include Matt Lujan, the pig, who lives in the players parking lot, and Steve Kline.










4 comments:

  1. Baseball needs more teams with names like The Flying Squirrels

    ReplyDelete
  2. The card featuring the team pig is vaguely interesting.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you search out the blog Bens Biz he has a short video about his visit to The Diamond, home of the Flying Squirrels, and visits the pig.

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