Biggest Minor League Disappointment

by gordonrules on Jul 25, 2008 10:36 AM EDT

the newest issue of BA says that Ryan Braun is the Royals biggest disappointment in the minors. I think that is kind of unfair due to him being injured. He had TJ surgery this year. My biggest disappointments this year would have to be Tyler Lumsden. He is 3-10 with a ERA of 7.27. You can't get much worse than that. I believe that he has been relegated to the bullpen. Yabuta is also in the minors getting tourched. 1-3 with a ERA of 6.23 in AAA. He was supposed to be a productive member of the major league bullpen. So I guess he would be an even bigger disappointment than Lumsden. Anyone have someone else that deserves nomination? I am not trying to be negative. Later I will post about the most impressive player in the minors (in my opinion) this year.

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Jeff Bianchi

Some were calling him our shortstop of the future. He has .699 OPS in high A ball following up a season of a .611 OPS in low A ball last year.

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by RoyalsRetro on Jul 25, 2008 11:05 AM EDT 0 recs

injuries, injuries, and more injuries

i think this is right on as far as disappointments go.

throws down a 1200 ops first time he picks up a wooden bat, then nothing.

by ZeppelinDZ on Jul 25, 2008 11:22 AM EDT up 0 recs

Totally agree on Bianchi and Lumsden

Bianchi was my choice after Lumsden who is the obvious #1 disappointment. No power, low average hitter with some speed isn’t a prospect. IMO – Kurt Mertins is a better propsect at 2B. Another busted high round pick by the Royals. Bianchi is the Class A biggest disappointment.

I think Mario Lisson is the disappointment in AA. He was with the Royals for much of spring training, then hits in low .200s for most of season. Moving Lisson to SS is an interesting move for the future but if his hitting doesn’t come around, it won’t matter anyway.

by daveyork on Jul 25, 2008 8:17 PM EDT up 0 recs

Bianchi

Is showing impressive power for a 21-yo in the Carolina League, especially for a MIF. As a northeast kid, I don’t think we can declare him a bust yet.

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by doublestix on Jul 25, 2008 8:29 PM EDT up 0 recs

Lubanski

still young. Still got a chance. Lumsden’s the guy though.

by Stook on Jul 25, 2008 11:05 AM EDT 0 recs

Lubanski represents a bit more of a cumulative disappointment, though

because he was promoted to Omaha in the middle of last year and still hasn’t come close to turning a corner. We tend to forget that from 2005 thru mid-2007, Lubanski was consistently posting an OPS of around .850 or higher through high A and AA ball, but in AAA, we’ve seen how apparent Lubanski’s weaknesses are.

That being said, my vote is also for Lumsden, especially given the fact that he was supposed to be the centerpiece of the MacDougal trade, with Cortes as the throw-in. Lumsden has been consistently awful the last two years, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Royals cut bait on him by 2009.

by DarthYoshi on Jul 25, 2008 11:49 AM EDT up 0 recs

It has to be

Mario Lisson for me. I thought he actually looked poised to break out in spring training this year.

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by SittinByTheFoulPole on Jul 25, 2008 11:07 AM EDT 0 recs

Agreed.

I thought Lisson would break out this year, but he’s been pretty darn bad for the most part.

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by doublestix on Jul 25, 2008 4:37 PM EDT up 0 recs

That's disappointing about Yabuta.

by djk royal on Jul 25, 2008 11:16 AM EDT 0 recs

Definitely Lumsden

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by cmkeller on Jul 25, 2008 12:26 PM EDT 0 recs

+1

This guy has fallin apart Lefties hitting .307 and Righties .343 49 Bb – 31 K’s, 1.94 WHIP. He appears to be over his head in AAA.

Who cares about RBI's, how many HDB's you got?

by kcscoliny on Jul 25, 2008 12:56 PM EDT up 0 recs

I would have to agree

by royalsreview on Jul 25, 2008 12:58 PM EDT up 0 recs

Lumsden

That trade may ultimately prove to be a subject of debate. Soren Petro strongly advocates that the Royals, when trading a vet off the ML roster, gamble and take 2 or 3 prospects at lower levels, in the hope that one will pan out, rather than a slightly above avg prospect already in AA or AAA. (I think I’m representing his thoughts correctly). His rationale is that perhaps one of the low level guys may ultimately prove to have a higher ceiling, if they do pan out, than the more known (and lower) ceiling of the AA or AAA prospect.

It’s an interesting theory, and if Cortes succeeds in the big leagues, I think that trade is a perfect example of what he is advocating.

By the way, out of all the Royals announcers, analysts, Star columnists, etc., I think Petro is by far the most inciteful and the most in tune with sabermetrics.

by loyal2sdad on Jul 25, 2008 2:02 PM EDT 0 recs

+ 1 I really like Petro.

by djk royal on Jul 25, 2008 2:11 PM EDT up 0 recs

On the radio side, I would agree. JoPo is pretty "in tune" though,

and there’s Bradford “Stat Guy” Doolittle, but you only get something from about once every two months.

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by Royal Kingdom on Jul 25, 2008 2:11 PM EDT up 0 recs

In general, I might agree with that theory

...if and only if the low minors prospects appear to genuinely have a high ceiling. That doesn’t mean they’ll hit it, but they have to have something special about them that makes it look like their potential is high. I actually think I prefer the idea of getting a more polished, closer to the majors guy with a moderate ceiling (like Lumsden) and a less polished, younger, low minors guy with a high ceiling (like Cortes). I prefer the mix to just getting low minors prospects.

This is just my opinion. I could easily be wrong.

by NYRoyal on Jul 25, 2008 2:12 PM EDT up 0 recs

To be fair here...

I’m not sure they even knew Cortes has #1/#2 ceiling when they got him. The Royals kinda lucked into him suddenly adding 5 MPH to his fastball and getting the “potential ace” tag all of a sudden.

But in general, I agree. It’s kind of what the A’s got in the Haren deal. A couple of low upside, more polished guys (Greg Smith, Dana Eveland), and a few low level high upside prospects (Vernon Carter, Brett Anderson).

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by doublestix on Jul 25, 2008 4:36 PM EDT up 0 recs

I think they saw a high ceiling

You expect a guy with a projectable body to add velocity. And they saw a curveball which projected as a plus pitch as well. I think that was more good scouting than luck. Of course, with prospects, having them pan out always involves significant luck.

This is just my opinion. I could easily be wrong.

by NYRoyal on Jul 25, 2008 4:52 PM EDT up 0 recs

Well, maybe

They might have saw a high ceiling, but you can never guess a guy will go from topping at 94 to 99 in one year. Probably a combination of both scouting and luck.

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by doublestix on Jul 25, 2008 4:56 PM EDT up 0 recs

Combination of scouting and luck

It’s not uncommon for a young prospect with a projectable body to add 2-3 mph to his fastball. The Royals got lucky in that it was a couple MPH more than that.

This is just my opinion. I could easily be wrong.

by NYRoyal on Jul 25, 2008 5:03 PM EDT up 0 recs

I like that

There is less of a likelihood something could go wrong on their way to the majors with more polished guys further along.

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by RoyalsRetro on Jul 25, 2008 4:38 PM EDT up 0 recs

I used to disagree with that theory

But seeing Baird constantly draft and trade for “near MLB ready guys” and failing to land impact players had a way of changing my mind.

And I like Soren. He’s wrong a lot, and he still makes old school conventional wisdom statements, but he at least seems to grasp sabermetric principles and covers baseball more than anyone else in the city.

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by RoyalsRetro on Jul 25, 2008 4:37 PM EDT up 0 recs

You know Blake Johnson

isn’t having that bad a year. I was looking at the TX League leaders and he is 10th in WHIP, 3rd in Wins, 8th in IP, has a 3/1 K-So ratio. Not all that bad in his first year of AA Ball.

Who cares about RBI's, how many HDB's you got?

by kcscoliny on Jul 25, 2008 5:08 PM EDT 0 recs

I would say that it is very so-so

The only really good stat for him this year is his 2.1 K/9. The 5.5 K/9 is unimpressive and very disappointing for a guy with his stuff. And the 15 HR’s is very disheartening. And while it is his first year in AA, he’s 23 years old. I’m not giving up on him, but I’m not very optimistic about him.

This is just my opinion. I could easily be wrong.

by NYRoyal on Jul 25, 2008 5:16 PM EDT up 0 recs

I think for a guy like McDougal

we may get a pretty good return. Same thing for Elmer Dessens. Both excellent pickups.

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by Home Run Tony Cogan on Jul 25, 2008 11:55 PM EDT 0 recs

Even just the innings that

Odie pitched for us last year the Dessens trade was undoubtedly a win, the two prospects were just a bonus if they pan out to be anything. Cortes looks mighty impressive, I think he’ll make the McDougal trade look like a bust for the Sox. I probably agree biggest dissappointment is Lumsden. Many prospects are vying for that award in Lisson, Bianchi, even Moustakas season might be considered a mild disappointment, though he’s turned it around lately.

by lordbyronk on Jul 26, 2008 7:14 AM EDT up 0 recs

re:moustakas....

He’s outperforming the other HS hitter we were thinking about drafting by a large margin. I’ll take Moose. Since April, his OPS has been over 800. His line drive rates have steadily increased from 9.6% in april up to 20 in july…thats a great sign. He just needed an adjustment period…remember, even justin upton borderline sucked his first year in the minors…and he’s a regular in the majors at 20. So this season isnt really even a minor setback

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by billybeingbilly on Jul 26, 2008 10:48 AM EDT up 0 recs

Moose is pickin up his game

Post A ball All Star Game (25 Games) his OPS is .887 with a .316 BA 12 BB to 13 K’s. Those are pretty good numbers for a 19 yr old in a pitcher heavy league.

Who cares about RBI's, how many HDB's you got?

by kcscoliny on Jul 26, 2008 11:30 AM EDT up 0 recs

Injuries

Didn’t Bianchi have back surgery or something like that? Those injuries usually take more than a year or two to finally get back to normal. I think he will end up being a MLB player. It may just take a little longer than us Royal fans would like.

Moustakas is looking great. I’ve been listening to the Bees games on MiLB.com the last few days while I watched the Royals on TV. I finally figured out you could listen to MiLB games for free.

Lumsden really has been a disappointment. I was hoping he’d be a great pickup in the MacDougal trade. A young LHP. But getting something for MacD was a good thing for us. Remember Dayton was trying to trade the losing mentallity when he dealt some of those guys. I thought he had a few more to trade but never did. But I’m glad we got some of the losing mindset out and brought in fresh heads.

It’s getting better. The lower levels look like they will be fine. I was looking at our system yesterday and decided that having 3 low A teams is the best thing we could have done. That promotes competition just to move up one level. And if a guy isn’t ready, he won’t be forced/pushed up there for lack of a better player. We’ve seen that a lot in the previous era.

by 306008 on Jul 27, 2008 11:26 AM EDT up 0 recs