He’s fully transitioned to third base where he’s got plenty of range and arm to get the job done. There are breakouts every year for Diamondbacks hitters, it seems, and this season has belonged to Dawel Lugo. He can struggle to make contact and doesn’t walk a ton, so it’s an all or nothing profile from first base, which severely limits his upside.
In my looks at him in Spring Training, the bat was obviously loud as one would expect from a towering first baseman. He’s racked up 20 doubles, too, suggesting that he really can hit the ball hard. Better yet, he’s hit 26 to date for Mobile in the pitcher-friendly Southern League, the most of any hitter there this year. He hit 27 in Visalia, which is impressive but one has to take the California League’s hitter-friendly confines into account.
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Most of those have come in the past two years in full season ball.
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That out of the way, Cron has hit 65 professional home runs since being drafted in the 14th round of the 2014 draft out of TCU. It’s generally difficult to get excited about first base prospects given their lack of defensive value and often base-clogging ways on the base paths. Kevin Cron, 1BĬron is a 23-year old first baseman with one calling card: power. He’s fringy enough, however, that even that projection may be generous. He has, however, been particularly tough on lefties and that’s about how one should project him: a potential LOOGY if all breaks right. Speier can generate some ground balls but has never been noted for having a particularly strong arsenal.
He’s a lefty reliever that’s worked his way up to AA this year after starting the year at Kane County. He was acquired from Atlanta in the Shelby Millertrade, but was originally drafted by Boston and found himself dealt for a second time last December. Just 21, Speier is among the younger players on the Salt River roster. Big lefties don’t grow on trees, so this is a unique and hopeful situation. Noted as a hard worker, he turned an ugly 2015 campaign into a 2016 breakout, something that shouldn’t go unnoticed. He’s been 93-94 out of the bullpen with a reworked slider that’s tremendously improved. An 11th round pick in 2014, he’s showed some interesting reverse platoon splits in 2016, a trend one wouldn’t expect to continue (because they almost never do). He’s been hard to hit for opposing batters and he’s struck out 80 in 61.1 innings this year across four levels. While that’s a tad old for a true “breakout prospect,” Miller’s situation is interesting in that he was converted to a relief role in 2016 and has seen the results take off. Jared Miller, LHPĪ hulking lefty, Miller stands 6’7″ and recently turned 23. He’ll likely be used as a reliever as we get our first look at him. It’s hard to make much of the stats given his history and age compared to the competition, so he’ll be a really intriguing guy to watch when the AFL kicks off. He’s struck out 39 in 31 innings to date while walking ten. Since being signed, he’s pitched in the Dominican Summer League against primarily teenagers, making him truly a man among boys.
His mechanics have been blamed for his inability to throw consistent strikes as he’s had trouble with locating his pitches since his days in Cuba. There are reports of an ineffective changeup and an inconsistent breaking ball. On the mound, he’s noted for some mid 90’s velocity with his fastball but fringy secondaries. He’s been available for some time now and no one signed him up until this point. His bonus is unreported and that’s to say that it wasn’t a large bonus. He had escaped Cuba a few years back and trying to figure out where he pitched over the last year and a half has proven a bit of a mystery. Despaigne, however, was signed this July out of Cuba and was not subject to international bonus pool rules given his age (he’s 25). Thanks to the Yoan Lopez debacle of 2014, the Diamondbacks have been mostly very quiet on the international front. Here’s who’ll be going, what to watch for, and a few notes on other Salt River Rafter players from other organizations. So, it makes sense to talk a bit about who’s going to represent the D-backs in the AFL this year. Each team sends a handful of guys to the league and the Diamondbacks are one of them. It’s basically the highlight of the prospect world since there is a high concentration of premier, close-to-the-majors talent. In case you’re not privy, the Arizona Fall League is the premier prospect league of the minor league season and it takes place in the Phoenix metro area in October and November. The Arizona Fall League is upon us once again, which is sort of hard to believe, but I guess time flies when you’re losing a bunch of games.