Lakewood Weekly Report (7/5-7/11)

4. Lakewood

Recap: The BlueClaws went 4-3 on the week.  Colby Shreve and Jon Pettibone were the standouts on the pitching side.  Jiwan James was the most notable on the hitting side as he extended his hitting streak to 19 games, moving within 2 games of the Lakewood record.  After winning the first half championship, the ‘Claws are again on top of the SAL North with a 12-5 record, 2 1/2 games ahead of Hickory.  Baseball America ranked Lakewood as perhaps the single most talented team in the entire minor leagues.  In personnel notes, Trevor May made his first two starts for Lakewood, while Matt Way and Jordan Ellis both moved on to Clearwater.  And tooting my own horn, I won four tickets to a future ‘Claws game via Twitter by coming up with the best Springsteen-related reference they can use on the air (home run call:  “The Big Man has joined the band”.)

Hitters: Tough week across the board for all the prospects, save for James and Castro.

  • Jeremy Barnes: 4-13, 2B, CS, 2 E (one error in a start at 3B)
  • Leandro Castro: 10-25, 3 2B, 3 RBI, 4 SB
  • Anthony Hewitt: 1-21, 9 K / 2 BB (his two good weeks in June are in the rearview mirror)
  • Jiwan James: 8-22, RBI, 5 SB / 2 CS (afore-mentioned 19-game hitting streak)
  • Alan Schoenberger: 4-22, 2B, 4 RBI (welcome to the Report)
  • Jonathan Singleton: 4-20, 2B, 2 RBI, 2 K / 7 BB
  • Sebastian Valle: 6-26, 2B, 4 RBI, 2 E
  • Jonathan Villar: 7-27, 3B, 2 RBI, SB / 2 CS, 7 E

Notes: James had his third walk-off hit of the year.  Interestingly, he’s a 3B away from the walk-off cycle (has a 1B, 2B, and HR)…James’ hitting streak was kept alive by a postgame scoring change on Tuesday that changed an error to a hit…Valle threw out two runners trying to steal on Monday…Singleton was touted as the Biggest Step Forward in the system by BA and was ranked among the 26-50 best prospects in baseball.

Pitchers: Real nice run for Shreve and Pettibone.  Trevor May was okay in his two starts–results aren’t there, but his K / BB is encouraging.  

  • Brody Colvin: 5 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 5 K / 3 BB
  • Jordan Ellis: 1 IP, 2 K (best of luck in Clearwater)
  • Ebelin Lugo: 2.1 IP, H, ER, 3 K / BB (1.35 ERA on the year)
  • Trevor May: 11 IP, 11 H, 7 ER, 13 K / 5 BB
  • Jonathan Pettibone: 8 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 7 k / 0 BB
  • Colby Shreve: 15 IP, 10 H, 3 ER, 9 K / 2 BB
  • Luke Wertz: 4.2 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 6 K / 1 BB (0.66 ERA on the year)
  • Josh Zeid: 5.1 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 3 K / 2 BB

Notes: Colby Shreve’s last six starts–35 IP, 23 H, 8 ER (2.06 ERA), 20 K / 10 BB, .193 BAA…With Jordan Ellis’ promotion, Ebelin Lugo is now the closer at Lakewood…Pettibone’s start was the first complete game by a BlueClaw in a nine-inning game since Carlos Monasterios in 2007 (even though Pettibone threw eight innings)…he also retired 16 straight at one point during his start…Brody Colvin’s last ten games:  63 IP, 43 H, 12 ER (1.71 ERA), 58 K / 16 BB, .189 BAA…Jarred Cosart has been shut down for a few weeks before beginning a throwing program.  He was rated among the 26-50 best prospects by BA…Nick Hernandez turned out to have a frayed labrum–he is reportedly on his way back.

24 thoughts on “Lakewood Weekly Report (7/5-7/11)”

  2. loux flunk his phycial with st louis.They broke off negoiation with him, now if he doesnt sign they get the 17 pick next year, how does this work, if I take a guy who i know wont sign, the next year I get that pick plus my own pick. So in a year where the draft is weak like this draft and pick up extra pick in a strong draft.

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  3. I don’t think that is a game you want to play if you are really trying to better your organization. I would much rather draft/sign the guy I really want, to get him into your system, and get him playing as qucikly as possible.

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  4. I don’t go to these games, and only occasionally listen, but it seems like Singleton’s issue is that they are just not pitching to him. Yeah, his AVG and SLG haven’t been there, but he’s still sporting a 447 obp over the last ten days. Any firsthand reports about how he’s looking at the plate over the last two weeks? In the absence of decent pitches to hit, I’m glad to see he’s not getting himself out, and maintaining a very good K/BB ratio.

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  5. Red – I think you’re on to something. They may need to promote him just so he’ll get pitches to hit. Once in a while, a player will have such good plate discipline and such good bat control, that he will hit much better after a promotion. This may be the case with Singleton now and might even happen with each promotion he receives throughout his stay in the minors.

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  6. Catch- that sounds like exactly the situation that skewed his high school numbers and left him there for us in the late rounds. I’m usually in the “one year: One level” camp, but I agree that it is probably about time for a promotion.

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  7. Wouldn’t Singleton be one of the younger players in the FSL? I would probably wait and let him stay at Lakewood. The last thing you want to do is move him too quickly.

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  8. catch that’s the same thing nowwheels has been saying for a few weeks now about moving him up because they aren’t pitching to him but many jumped all over him, I don’t think you were one of them. anyway I tend to agree, let him see some pitches. If he hits .250-4-20-OBP of .300 I’m happy and he will probably rake there to start next year. Is he too young to go to AFL? didn’t brown go to Hawai in off season a few years back as a lessor league?

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  9. I believe the Hawaii league was disbanded the year after Brown and Taylor went there. I don’t think there is any age limit for the AFL, but not sure.

    Not saying I disagree with moving Singleton up, I just don’t think it will happen. He’s young for the league he’s in now. I saw that Mike Trout just moved up, so MAYBE the Phils will follow suit.

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  10. Thanks Tom! Trout was at the same level as singleton and also 18 I think from reading prospect reports. Every orgnization does things dif. and I’m o.k. with him staying putif they think he can’t handle it, I just have a feeling he would hold his head above water for the last month and a half based on what he did at a new evel a few months ago and him seeing better pitches, but I’ll leave it to the experts to decide, they do a pretty good job handling their prospects for the most part.

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  11. Oh Tom I actually meant level limit. I thought there was some rule where you could only have so many players from A ball or something like that, not sure.

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  12. Flores was moved up as well but the mets are notorious for rushing their prospects so I don’t think their model should be replicated.

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  13. Agreed on the Mets not being a model. I’ve said it before, wouldn’t mind them following the Jason Heyward model with a late season promotion to HiA so he gets 1-2 weeks in to get his feet wet. Then start in HiA and see what happens. If he’s raking a midseason, AA wouldn’t be out of the question. A lot of people outside the organization think he’s got the chance to be a really special player.

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  14. Does anyone who’s close to the Lakewood team/news know how serious the injury to Cosart seems to be?

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  15. Singleton is a very good prospect, but Trout is widely considered the #2 prospect in all of baseball behind Brown. Also, he played from the beginning of the season in Low-A, whereas Singleton missed the first month or so.

    So I wouldn’t say that just because Trout was promoted, Singleton should be.

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  16. Jiwan James is quietly improving all of his numbers across the board. The difference between his first 51 games and his last 35 is huge. Higher BB rate. Lower K rate. Much higher AVG. 20 game hit streak.
    Who needs players with tools.

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  18. Is it just me or does it seem that Ebelin Lugo almost always is an afterthought when prospects at Lakewood are mentioned? Not saying it is intentional, but it just seems that way.

    Lugo just turned 20 at the end of April, has a 1.35 ERA in 40 innings, and is 6’2″ 190lbs. He seems to be getting better each year from GCL to Williamsport to now Lakewood.

    What is the deal with him? Is he viewed as a legit prospect or not? Is it just because Luke Wertz has pitched even better than he has?

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  19. Speaking of Jiwan James, his “little brother” down in the GCL (Aaron Altherr) is much improved as a hitter in his second minor league season.

    The contact and average seems to be coming around. Hopefully as he matures physically and as a hitter the power will come, as well as an ability to draw more walks. The one negative this season is probably that his walk rate is much lower than last year while the SO rate has remained about the same.

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  20. Was in Lakewood on Saturday. Jiwan James showed lost of energy. Hewitt looks lost in the field and at the plate. He did show of energy.

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  21. “loux flunk his phycial with st louis.They broke off negoiation with him, now if he doesnt sign they get the 17 pick next year, how does this work, if I take a guy who i know wont sign, the next year I get that pick plus my own pick. So in a year where the draft is weak like this draft and pick up extra pick in a strong draft.”

    From what i read about this situation is as follows. Arizona took Barret Loux number 7 overall but he failed his physical. Arizona has 2 options, lowball him into signing and rehab, or take pick #8 overall next year. The downside to taking a pick next year is if they do not sign whoever they take #8, that pick is lost forever which gives whoever they take great leverage. What do they do with 8 overall next year? take an average prospect way higher then he should be picked because they know they can sign or take a highschool kid who has all the leverage in negotiations. It is actually not a great situation.

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  22. With the 8th pick they will over draft some college player that is rated as a late 1st rounder, and sign him below or at slot. Washington did the same thing last year with a college reliever.

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  23. Yea, no matter what you either get less value than you should at 8 or pay way more than you should. who would take slot when you know you have all the bargaining power, except for college seniors. even then, whoever they take will ask for 8 slot money even if they are projected late rounders. bottom line getting 8 next year is no great thing for ‘zona in this scenario. i would lowball Loux this year and rehab him.

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  24. Yeah, last year Washington took some College reliever, who is now in MLB.
    Having the 8th choice in the draft awarded as compensation for this year’s 7 not signing presents the problem of having to sign that player or losing their rights and getting nothing in return, just like the entire draft was until recently. If a team is awarded the pick ,immediately after where the selection of the unsigned player , in the following year, they still do not get the specific player they wanted in the 1st year. Like Washington, if they had not signed Strasburg, they could have waited until this year, and if the draft unfolded similarly to this season, they could have got a chance to hope for the development in about 4 years of Jameson Taillon. Or if they can not sign Harper, they can get someone of presumably lesser talents next season. Arizona likely will earn another bottom feeder draft choice through their own record after this season, and combining that with the suggested 8th pick ,, will likely result in 2 huge money outlays , if they take the biggest upside talents at those spots, rather the usual one for an early pick. That may “force” the drafting of one “slot” or “signable” pick , moreso than the massive leverage of a young player, because they pretty much have that anyway. That may also have been Washington’s problem 2 drafts back.

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