FanPost

Minor League Watch List, August Update

The dog days of summer are upon us, which means there are only a couple more updates for the watchlist in store before the year end grades. Let's just say that a lot of the students didn't do so well this year and may be in for some remedial work next summer unless things really turn around over the next few weeks. On to the update!

1. Elier Hernandez - His slash has rebounded - all the way to .237/.272/.351. His walk rate is a paltry 3.5% (Be Royal!) and his K rate is 21.4% (although that is down over the last month. It's safe to say that he has not handled the transition to full season ball very well. The tools are there, but the production has not been. I would tab him for a repeat of the Sally before sending him to the pitcher's paradise of the Carolina League.

2. Christian Binford - Since we last saw him, he was promoted to AA, which was timely, since his time in Wilmington saw him post a 2.40 ERA with a WHIP of 1.004 and K%/BB% of 28%/3.3%. When you strike out more than seven times as many batters as you walk, you may be too far along for your level. Binford allowed just 85 baserunners at A+. He struck out 92 batters. At AA his first 29.1 innings have seen him walk three batters and strike out 23. He has started giving up some more hits, though - 27 so far. The K%/BB% is still a tidy 19.3%/2.5%. The hits are up, but as long as he keeps his walk rate low, he can afford to give up nearly a hit an inning because those are the only baserunners you can get off him. The singular stat of concern for Binford is his HR9, which is up to 0.9. That's notable because he had never been above 0.5 before. I never expected him to stay that low, but the jump is something to watch through the end of the season and next year. If Binford maintains even an average K% (around 17.5%) then he can carve out a ML career because his lack of walks will allow him to pitch above his TTL.

3. Aroni Nina - Through our last update, Nina had walked 23 batters in 26.2 innings. Since then he has pitched another 12.2 innings and walked just two batters. Wait, what? It's true. Aroni Nina walked just 2 batters in the entire month of July, while striking out 10. So that's good. The bad news is that in that time he has surrendered 11 hits and 7 ER. The walks have come down, but he's living in the middle of the plate and getting banged around. I had some hope that Nina would be the next power arm for the Royals bullpen, but it looks like his control will keep him in A+ for another year.

4. Brett Eibner - .243/.319/.382. His plate discipline remains pretty good, as he walks at a 9.7% rate. But he has struck out a quarter of the time. His power isn't so incredible (just 13 HR) that it can overcome that sort of K rate. I think the magic number for him is 18%. If he can get down to 18% he can utilize his other tools and become a good player. Unfortunately, asking a player to cut his strikeouts by 30% at this stage of his career is not likely to happen. Maybe he is the next power arm out of the pen for KC.

5. Jack Lopez - .220/.274/.283. Jack is surrounded by younger and better prospects in the middle of the diamond. At this point, 2015 looks to be an absolute last stand for Lopez. Either he hits next year and carves out a place as a utility guy, or he doesn't hit and he's out of the organization. There's really not much else to it, honestly. He's in a MI/UI crunch and if he can't hit, there are too many guys in the AA/A/rookie level that need ABs for him to continue to sit at Wilmington and play regularly.

6. Chris Dwyer - I think this is the swan song for Dwyer. He's had a rough year of things and probably will be in another uniform next season. Hits, home runs and walks are all up from last year. The numbers crunch is coming, and when it arrives, Dwyer is probably going to be one of the first victims.

7. John Lamb - Most have given up on John Lamb. He used to be one of the big time prospects, back in the heady days of the BFSITHOW. Now he's a grizzled 23 year old just trying to hang on. Wait, he's still just 23? Actually, no, he turned 24 on July 10. Oh, and just in case you missed it, after last year's dismal K% of 13.8% (with almost a 10% walk rate!) Lamb has rebounded this year with a 23.3% rate while keeping the walks at 9.7%. He's not "back" because in 2010 (his breakout year) he had rates of 26% and 7%, but he's showing some signs. His velo is creeping back up. I'm not saying that he can make the ML roster next year, but in two of his last three appearances he's tossed six innings of two hit ball and seven innings of one hit ball (in between he gave up 2 HRs in four innings to surrender 3 runs). He had 11 K's in 7 innings back on July 9. There has been a bit of an uptick over the last few weeks in his performance. Whether this is a hot streak or a sign of things to come will show over the next month.

8. Terrance Gore - .213/.277/.250. He's stolen 32 bases. Unfortunately, he can't steal first, and even though he will take the occasional walk, his bat is far too weak to make him an everyday player in the low minors, even.

9. Cheslor Cuthbert - .271/.339/.419. Last month he was slashing .273/.339/415. We have been looking for a full season from Cheslor and he has kept his level of play steady over the last month. The critical thing now is that Cheslor has never performed consistently for past about game 90. He's at 92 games, so the next three weeks will say a lot about his progression.

10. Alfredo Escalera-Maldonado - .246/.294/.372. Much like Elier above, he hasn't capitalized on the promise of youth. He's only 19, but his first trip through full season ball hasn't been anything to write home about (if people even still do that sort of thing). Strikes out a bit too much (20%), but not so much that you can say that's his biggest problem. Doesn't walk enough (just 4%). But really, his main problem is he doesn't do any one thing well enough to make him anything more than a roster filler.

Bonus Ramon Torres - The promotion to Wilmington has not been kind to Ramon. Slashing .304/.346/.428 in the Sally, but just .221/.270/.279 in 76 PAs at A+. He could get going, but it seems he has hit a bit of a wall, and for a guy that is dependent on BABIP (just 14 HR in 5 years, career walk rate of 7.6%, career K rate of 12.3%) he has to get hits and that isn't happening at A+ like it did at low A.

Bonus Michael Antonio - Slashing .267/.302/.460 since finally arriving at Wilmington. Antonio may be finally turning the corner. He's played SS, 3B and 1B this year, but I think the Royals should give him a shot as a corner OF. He's still just 22 and if he can handle a corner and hit he could move through a system that doesn't have many advanced OF prospects right now.

This FanPost was written by a member of the Royals Review community. It does not necessarily reflect the views of the editors and writers of this site.