Category: Rookie Watch

MONEY BALL keeps on rolling!!! Billy Beane has brought up one of the youngsters he acquired this past season, retooling his ballclub. The Oakland A’s don’t have alot of money to keep their established stars. So instead, they need to rely on a good farm system and the ability to bring in blue chippers from other organizations when the talent on the A’s get too overpriced for their budget.

Some of the talent they’ve jetisoned recently has been Mark Mulder, Barry Zito, Dan Haren, & Nick Swisher. Now with alot of teams, getting rid of that much talent would mean disaster. But that’s not the case with the A’s. Oakland is currently in 2nd place in the AL West with a record of 29-26. While nobody expects this team to be there at the end, it’s something they’re only 2 1/2 games behind the LA Angels of Anaheim.

The pitching staff is pretty much made over, with a rotation of Rich Harden (if his arm stays on), Justin Duchscherer (from bullpen to disabled list to the rotation), Greg Smith (a lefty prospect acquired from the D*Backs), Joe Blanton (will get his 30+ starts in), and Chad Gaudin (can work the rotation or the pen). If anybody falters, there are a couple of highly touted hurlers waiting in the wings, Gio Gonzalez (a nice lefty) & Fautino De Los Santos (a fireballing righty), both picked up from the White Sox. Huston Street is still around to close out the games, one of the best, and still young enough to stay in Oakland, for now.

The infield is made up of some veterans, the oft-injured Bobby Crosby & Eric Chavez at SS & 3B respectively, with Mark Ellis playing 2B. 1B Daric Barton & C Kurt Suzuki are two youngsters, who’ve been holding their own, but look to be good ones. Beane brought in DH Mike Sweeney from KC and brought back Frank Thomas, after Toronto cut him loose, both at bargain basement prices.

Speaking of bargains, Emil Brown has 37 RBIs for the A’s in 53 games this year. A young talented outfielder from Iowa, acquired from Chicago, is Ryan Sweeney. Then there’s Travis Buck, who batted in the .280s as a rookie, last year. A couple of other castoffs on the team are Jack Cust (who can hit the ball as far as anybody) and Rajai Davis.

After all this talk about the A’s, it’s time to talk about the man of the hour, Carlos Gonzalez. Carlos was one of the best prospects with Arizona. Gonzalez is a lefthanded hitting outfielder, with a line drive stroke. The Venezuelan youngster was hitting .293 at Sacramento when he was called up to the big club. In his first game he was two for three, with two doubles, and an RBI. This kid is a special player, he belongs. Believe it or not, the pipeline’s not dry yet as there are still a couple of players down there, power hitting firstbaseman Chris Carter (whom the Sox traded to the Diamondbacks for Carlos Quentin) & always hustling switch-hitting outfielder Aaron Cunningham.

The Cincinnati Reds have finally called up phenom Jay Bruce. Bruce is a 6’3″ 205 pound outfielder from Beaumont, Texas. Jay is the #1 prospect in all of baseball and it looks like there’s still plenty of time for him to make a strong run for Rookie of the Year. At Louisville this year he was hitting .364 with ten home runs, 37 RBIs, and 8 stolen bases.

I saw Jay Bruce in Dunedin, FL (home of the Toronto Blue Jays, a looong way from Toronto) this spring when the Reds came to Dunedin. Alot of the regulars didn’t make the trip (where’s Junior?), but that was okay with me because I wanted to see Bruce play. He didn’t disappoint that day, got a hit, ran like the wind, and patrolled centerfield like he belonged.

Before the game I had to take care of some business in the Men’s room. Standing in front of a urinal a few down was a gentleman in a Reds cap, who struck up a conversation with me. It turns out it was none other than Jay Bruce’s Dad. He was a very nice man, explaining how the offer from the Reds was just too good to pass up. Jay was all set to accept a college baseball scholarship before the Reds made Bruce their man.

I’m very excited to see Bruce in action in the big leagues starting tonite. The Reds will play host to the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Actually John Lannan is a young lefty with the Washinton Nationals, not a member of the Band from Liverpool. Although Lannan is only a .500 pitcher with an ERA in the mid-threes, he is starting to get noticed around the league. Last night John faced the very tough lineup of the Houston Astros, allowing one run on seven hits over six innings of work. In the sixth he looked to be in trouble when Lance Berkman & Carlos Lee reached base with nobody out, but the unflapable rookie induced Miguel Tejada to rap into a 6-4-3 doubleplay and then got the next hitter to ground to short to get out of the jam.

The 6’5″ 200 pound lefty out of Mineola, NY, a product of Siena was drafted in the 11th round of the 2005 draft. In his last year at Siena he was 10-2 with a nifty 2.29 ERA. Then last year Lannan was was 12-3 cruising through A+, AA, & AAA, before being called up to the Nats. With Washington he had an ERA of 4.15 with a 2-2 mark in six starts.

In his major league debut against the Phillies on July 26, 2007, John hit Chase Utley with a pitch breaking Utley’s hand, then he hit Ryan Howard, and was ejected from the game, becoming the first rookie pitcher ejected from his debut.

On August 6th Lannan found himself on center stage as he faced the Giants at AT&T Park in SF in Barry Bonds’ in his first start after tying Hank Aaron’s alltime home run mark. Bonds didn’t fare well in his four plate appearances against the 22 year old lefty, fouling to 3rd, walking, grounding into a doubleplay, and striking out. Despite his efforts against the Giants, the Nationals lost the game 3-2 in eleven innings.

Lannan is 3-3 with a 3-3 record in seven starts this year. This is a special rookie, with the heart of a lion, who should have a long & successful major league career.