Pro Debut Base Set: 9 Players I Watch

I did a top 10 list with my Bowman box a few weeks back and decided to do something similar with my Pro Debut box.  However, since the two sets share quite a few players I decided to put a little bit of a twist on this list.  For Pro Debut I am going to share nine players who I check in on regularly during the season.  I like checking the scoreboard and readying through box scores, but with the minors there are only so many scores that you can stop and read without spending the whole day on baseball.  That wouldn't be so bad, but I am not sure I would get much done at work.

Everyone ready?  Let's go.

Alex Reyes- Peoria Chiefs - He's only 1-4 on the season, but has 66 strikeouts in just 44 innings.  The tall right hander is widely considered the best prospect in the Cardinals system and rated by many publications in the Top 50 for all of baseball.  While Reyes might not win many of his starts, I always check his box scores for his strikeout/walk ratio and to see if the other team hit him in any way.  He has not given up a home run yet this year.

Carlos Rodon- Chicago White Sox - The former NC State lefty did not last long in the minors this year.  He made his Major League debut in late April out of the bullpen, but was quickly put into the starting rotation by the Sox.  Rodon has now made 4 starts with almost a strikeout per inning.  His WHIP is 1.709, so he needs to keep a few more people off the base paths if he is going to be successful long term.  Still, the rookie has an ERA+ of 113 during his limited time up with the ChiSox.

Willy Adames- Charlotte Stone Crabs - I follow the Rays Minor League team to see who is up on their way to the Durham Bulls.  The scenery around the Rays Minor League changed greatly during the past year with all of the trades.  Adames is one player who has flown under the radar to a degree.  The shortstop was acquired in the David Price trade with the Tigers and has posted a .316/.382/.462 line so far this year with 18 extra base hits (13 doubles, 3 triples, 2 home runs) in just under 200 at bats this year.  I know there are some Rays fans who have openly, and frequently, complained about the haul the time received for Price, but Adames seems to be a really nice prospect.

Corey Seager- Oklahoma City Dodgers- Seager is a local guy from North Carolina.  He's had a great Minor League career and has now reached Triple A.  His OBP is down slightly, but Seager is still showing good pop at the high level of the Minors.  I obviously watch Seager to see how well he hits, but it also seems that the Dodgers are starting to work the top prospect out as a third baseman.  He has played 5 games so as at third, but many predict that he will land there long term.  

Colin Moran- Corpus Christi Hooks - Moran was one of the better college players I have seen with my own two eyes.  The guy could hit while he was at UNC.  My only hang up with him was always his foot speed.  Still, the Marlins took him with the fifth overall pick in the 2013 draft and later moved him onto the Astros.  Moran is almost a .300 career Minor League hitter with an OBP near .350.  However, his slugging percentage is just above .400 and he has only 11 career minor league home runs in almost 800 at bats.  Moran was a great college player, I hope he makes it in some capacity.  

David Dahl- New Britain Rock Cats - Dahl has shown great flashes during his time in the Minors, but has had some trouble staying healthy.  Last season, his only full year in four years in the Minors, Dahl went .299/.355/.492 with 41 doubles, 8 triples, and 14 home runs.  The Rockies outfield prospect also stole 21 bases.  He was off to a bit of a slow start in Double A this year, but is out again after having his spleen removed last weekend after a pretty bad collision.  

Trea Turner- San Antonio Missions - Well, for the moment Turner is a Padres prospect, but he will be a National soon.  He was in the Will Myers/Steven Souza three way trade between the Padres/Nationals/Rays, but he could not actually leave the Padres yet because he has not played a year in their system.  In 47 Double A games the former NC State shortstop is hitting .333/.405/.508 with 5 home runs 2 triples, 12 doubles, and 9 steals.  I think Turner could be up in the Majors within the next year.  

Francisco Lindor- Columbus Clippers - Lindor is a top 5 prospect according to MLB.com and Baseball Prospectus.  He played locally the past few summers with the Carolina Mudcats and has worked his way up to Triple A Columbus.  While the Clippers play the Durham Bulls, I still have not seen him play in Triple A.  However, the future shortstop of the Indians has had a slow start in the International League with a .260/.318/.367 line.  There is definitely a strong defensive presence with Lindor, base running is also an important tool also, but even those have been a little shaky this season.  I am still watching Lindor, but if he does not pick up the pace, I am going to have to check in a little less often.  

Henry Owens- Pawtucket Red Sox - I like Henry Owens, but he has fallen into a bit of a rut in Triple A.  It's not anything as bad as Lindor, but his ERA is up, along with his walks, and his strikeouts are down.  Still, I like the chances that Owens will figure out Triple A hitters and continue to progress as a top prospect.  Plus, I am watching the Paw Sox right now for Allen Craig.  Owens is there too, but someone left Allen Craig out of the Pro Debut set.  Hmm.


This is my list of players.  What are some of the players you check on everyday?  

A New Bull and a Tar Heel

I picked up three new autographs this weekend from two players with local connections to the Raleigh-Durham area.  Let's start off with a new player to my collection, new Ray and current Durham Bulls infielder Nick Franklin.  The second baseman came over to the Rays in the David Price trade and caused a little bit of disappointment amongst the Rays faithful.  I will admit that I had anticipated a huge haul of prospects for Price, but I think I am starting to finally wrap my head around what the team got in return.

Franklin actually appeared in Durham earlier this summer in the Triple A All-Star game playing for the Mariners Pacific Coast League affiliate the Tacoma Rainiers.  While his Major League stats leave a lot to be desired, Franklin has been a very successful player in the Minors and has remained a top 100 prospect throughout his career.  His overall career line in the minors stands at .284/.361/.450.  Throw in almost 200 extra base hits in 500 minor league games and you have a pretty good prospect. Perhaps a call up to Tampa this September?  I think so.

Nick Franklin has several autographs out on the secondary market and I managed to snag two copies of his Bowman Inception card from last year.  I have a huge chunk of this set, but no Franklin until this weekend.....

Now I have two.  The same person who was selling these Nick Franklin cards also had a Colin Moran autograph up that nobody was going to bid on.  He's a Tar Heel and he has not hit much of anything in the minors, but a $1 autograph is hard to pass by......

Let's change that statement a little bit.  Moran hit .296 with a .344 on-base at two minor league stops. The former Heel also had a .397 slugging in both stops.  That's 7 home runs and 27 doubles from a player who was considered the "best power hitter" in the previous summer's amateur draft.  The Marlins, who originally drafted him, passed him on to the Astros at the trade deadline.

it's a tar heel card

It's too bad that Blogger does not let you change the font size for just one post because the Tar Heel in the title would be a size 3 font if I had my way.  Last spring as college baseball was winding down there was a lot of speculation about Colin Moran, the UNC third baseman, being the top overall draft pick in the MLB amateur draft.  There were a group of people who were pretty sure if he was not the first pick, he would be in the top five for sure.  ESPN's Keith Law issued a video scouting report of the Tar Heels third baseman which confirmed this common notion.

After Moran was drafted his cards went crazy, like most top draft prospects, and collectors spent plenty of time and money scooping up cards of the future Marlins third baseman.  However, I decided to let a little time go by before picking up too many Moran cards.  I got a few, but not much time or money was sunk into the effort.  The main reason being that I am not drinking the Kool-Aid on Colin Moran being a good Major League player.  I know that certain individuals might attribute my opinion to my degree and sports loyalty belonging to the red North Carolina school, but it goes far beyond that.

First, in the Keith Law scouting report he makes light of the fact that Colin Moran might have a slow first step.  Let's correct that and say that the second, third, fourth, and so forth are also slow steps with Colin Moran.  He's slow.  Molina brother, Vinny Castilla slow.  Let's take a look:

Moran is on second when the ball is hit and is a good ten to fifteen feet off the base.  When the ball gets past the pitcher he's running "full speed", the outfielder for NC State throws the ball with on several bounces, and Moran is still out by feet.  Does he get within five feet of the plate even?  I don't think so.  In watching Moran his lack of speed really hurts his defense.  I know he has a good arm over at third base base, but his fielding stats in Single A last year showed his range factor is somewhere around David Freese (Cardinals fan cringe) and he has a lower fielding percentage.  Yikes.  

I know he's more of a power/hitting prospect, but I even have my doubts there.  Last year Moran' overall offensive production in college looks great.  He posted a .357/.485/.579 line with 13 home runs and 84 RBIs.  Good enough to win the ACC Player of the Year.  However, it should be noted that their was a drop off in both power and batting average from Moran once UNC reached ACC play last year.  I am not sure he ever got a hit off of Luke Weaver or Carlos Rodon, who are the two best pitchers in the ACC.  

After being drafted last year, Moran hit .296 in Single A Greensboro and also managed an On Base Percentage of .354.  However, he only had 4 home runs and 8 doubles in almost 200 at bats for a slugging percentage of .442.  Moran still has not appeared in a minor league game and seems destined for a short season A ball team this year.  Not a great thing for a top 5 draft pick who's supposed to be a polished college bat.  

Moran started this season in the Baseball America Top 100 prospects, but down the line a bit at 74.  I'm not going to doubt Moran's ability to reach the Majors, he will get there, but I am calling into question how big of an impact he will have once he reaches that level.  Card collectors seem to have figured out Moran quickly and his card prices have dived south sharply.  

The drop in prices has put many of Moran's autographed cards below $5.  Sure, if it's short printed or serial numbered to something really low you are still going to pay for it.  If you are looking for a good risk on a $4 or $5 autograph this a good risk.  I could be right about Moran and he could be a ho hum third baseman for your favorite team for the next five to ten years in which case $5ish is a good price for an on-card autograph.  If I am completely wrong about Moran and he ends up being the National League starter at third base for the next decade I will write another post saying I am wrong and you will have scored a major bargain on a nice piece of cardboard. 

Buy Local Part 3- Colin Moran

So far I have covered a high schooler and a Blue Devil with my Buy Local posts.  Today I am going to drive down 15-501 from Duke University to the other blue North Carolina school located in Chapel Hill.  The University of North Carolina has had a great run of baseball teams during the past decade headed by Coach Mike Fox.  There are several Major Leaguers or serious prospects that I could put in this space for a UNC post.  I will get to a bunch of them eventually, but for today I am going to focus on the school's most recent top amateur draft pick, Marlins third baseman Colin Moran.

Moran "slid" in the draft because he was picked sixth instead of the top 5.  He was one of the better players in the ACC last year, and in my opinion, the best offensive player.  His stance reminds me a lot of Andres Galarraga where he is a big guy with an open stance as the ball approaches.  I don't think he will have that kind of pop in the majors, but you never know what can be changed and improved with work in the minors.

Moran's one real weakness, again just my opinion, is once he gets on base he can be kind of a base clogger.  He's a smart base runner, but not a speed burner.  Here's a good example of a base hit to the outfield, not hit directly at the outfielder, with Moran on second he is thrown out at the plate.

He is also a good defender.  Not Scott Rolen or Nolan Arenado, but good.  I am always really surprised by his arm.  If he fields the ball cleanly and has time to throw there is an excellent chance the runner is out.  I think that Moran will likely be a good everyday Major League player, but I am not going to use the word great.  He seems like a guy who will get to the Majors quickly, but he is kind of who he is at this point.  Low ceiling, high basement would be my best description.  On to the cardboard.

2013 Leaf Draft State Pride Blue Colin Moran Autograph 

I recently had a chance to pick up my first Colin Moran autograph for the 2013 Leaf Draft set.  I'm not a huge fan of Leaf (long story that would make a great blog post) and was reluctant to pick up an unlicensed card, but the flag in the background and the fact that there are no other choices made this the only choice.  I know that Moran is on the initial checklist for Bowman Draft this fall, so maybe the choices will increase shortly.  Hopefully.  

His card prices are pretty reasonable as long as you stay away from the really low print runs of 5 and 10 on autographs.  If you have $10 and want a Moran autograph you will likely find one and have enough money left over to buy yourself a bottle of Cheerwine.  Given that Moran is on the Marlins, and is not named Stanton, I would guess that the trend will continue for sometime.  The Marlins always seem to have some good young players that baseball card collectors are slow to pick up on.  See Jose Fernandez.  Moran could hit 30 home runs for the Marlins next year and few would notice.