2011 Players to Watch - Part Two

This is part two of a series focusing on the 2011 Oz MLB Players to watch. Today is a focus on some young up-and-comers in the lower levels of minor league ball.

MATT KENNELLY - C - PERTH HEAT/ATLANTA BRAVES

Matt Kennelly is coming off a red hot season for the Perth Heat. He appeared in all 40 regular season games and hit for an average of .306, with nine doubles, two homeruns and 24 RBIs. At the age of 22, Matt has played four seasons of minor league baseball with the Atlanta Braves organisation, culminating in a solid 2010 season for the Myrtle Beach Pelicans, in which he hit seven home runs. He has been rewarded for his success over the past year, and started the season at the Double-A Mississippi Braves.

Bank in 2009, Baseball America rated Kennelly in the top 30 Braves prospects. His 2009 and 2010 seasons were solid, but not stellar. At just 22 years of age, he is still young enough to develop further. Expect him to hit the ground running at Double-A, and continue to improve his game. He has had a chance to play a couple of games in AAA already, and has not disgraced himself (.286 avg with a double and RBI), and will look to get some more time in AAA this year.

Matt Kennelly

JOSH SPENCE - LHP - MELBOURNE ACES/SAN DIEGO PADRES

In June 2010, Geelong-born Josh Spence was picked up as a 9th round draft pick by the San Diego Padres. He battled some issues with an inflamed nerve in his elbow through 2010, and while he didn't require surgery, he did spend some time away from the mound. 

Spence has won quite a few accolades through the College system, after originally learning about the Arizone State University program on the internet and successfully  trying out for the team. He started out playing ball in junior college, and he dominated. Through 2007 and 2008, Spence posted an ERA of 1.40, and struck out 327 hitters over 270 innings, with a remarkable WHIP of 0.88.

In 2009, Spence moved to Arizona State, and again put up some serious numbers - although not without overcoming a few obstacles. He was struck in the face by a line drive, and also suffered a finger injury. In the end he compiled a 10-1 record over 18 appearances, with an ERA of 2.37. He went on to pick up a win in the College World Series, striking out 16 hitters over 14 innings of work. 

Spence earned a lot of respect in Arizona, with Arizona coach Pat Murphy remarking that 'the most important thing about Spence is that in my 22 years in Division 1 baseball, he's possibly the most special kid I've ever been around...he's delightful, sensitive, caring, an extraordinary teammate and he comes over and plays with my son. It just seems like sometimes this kid is too good to be true. He's the type of guy I'm going to get emotional about when he finally leaves campus'.

Josh Spence

After signing with the Padres in mid-2010, Spence appeared in 10 games through Rookie ball up to Class A. He compiled a record of 2-2, with an ERA of 3.00, and 42 strikeouts in 24 innings.

Spence proved himself good enough to kick off the season in double-A with the San Antonio Missions, and he is off to a solid start - he has given up two home runs, but has also picked up ten strikeouts over eight innings, allowing just three earned runs. Spence has shown that he has real quality stuff through his college career, and is well placed to have a big year.

STEFAN WELCH - 1B - ADELAIDE BITE/NEW YORK METS

Stefan Welch has played four seasons in the Mets minor league organisation, and played high-A ball through the end of 2009 and through 2010 at the St Lucie Mets. 

Running off the back of a strong end to the ABL season - he went 4-for-11 (.363) in the ABL Championship series, with two doubles and a home run - Welch will be keen to carry some momentum into the US summer.

Welch has predominantly played first base in his time in the US, but showed some versatility in the ABL - spending most of his time at third base. He will be looking to expand his power hitting and earn a spot at the double-A Binghamton Mets.

Welch is off to a flyer through the first couple of weeks of the season - having started with the high-A St Lucie  Mets. He has whacked six doubles, a triple and a home run through his first 20 games, and is hitting .284 with 13 RBIs.

RORY RHODES - 3B/1B - BRISBANE BANDITS/MINNESOTA TWINS

Rory Rhodes

He's a 19-year old kid from Narangba, Queensland, and he has one of the most American-sounding names going around, but Rory Rhodes is a fair dinkum Aussie prospect with the Minnesota Twins.

Signed at the age of 17 in 2008, Rhodes is yet another Aussie following the path to the bigs through the Twins organisation. In his first season of Rookie ball he found it a little tough, hitting just .198 with 28 strikeouts in 116 at bats, but he improved significantly in 2010. In his second year, Rhodes hit .319 and improved his strikeout numbers.

He is yet to hit a homerun, but at the age of 19 he has plenty of growing to do, and plenty of time to find some power - he did find some more power in the ABL - cracking five homeruns while hitting .279. A recent poll conducted by the Twinkie Town blog found Rhodes as Minnesota's number 50 prospect, and predicted a breakout year in 2011.

BOSS MOANAROA - 1B - SYDNEY BLUE SOX/BOSTON RED SOX

In 2008 Boss Moanaroa had seriously thought about quitting the game of baseball. 'I lost interest in playing baseball and wanted to focus on BMX racing. I was a state champion, national champion and went to the world titles' he said. He didn't quit though, he decided to continue working hard, and it paid dividends when he signed a contract with the Boston Red Sox.

Boss Moanaroa in 2008

At the time he was signed, Red Sox scout and Australian coach Jon Deeble noted that Boss was big and strong, but had 'never lifted a weight in his life'.

Nearly three years on, and Boss has two seasons of Rookie ball, and a strong half-season in the ABL, under his belt. And it seems Moanaroa is getting bigger and stronger.

Boss is an exciting hitter to watch - he has a strong plate presence and is the sort of hitter that always seems on the edge of making something happen. He was a strong performer for the Sydney Blue Sox early in the season, and they missed his bat later in the year.

In two years of Rookie ball, Boss is hitting .281/.367/.366, and he picked up a couple of homeruns in 2010. He will be looking to develop some stronger power numbers, both in terms of extra base hits and RBIs over the next year.

ESPN says Boss is 'essentially a raw athlete with a lottery-ticket chance of developing into an impact major leaguer'. While these are not exactly encouraging words, Boss is someone who shows a lot of potential. He is expected to start the season at the class A Lowell Spinners.

How are the ABL US imports doing this season?

While technically not an 'Oz MLB players' story, I am interested to see how US-based players who played in the ABL perform back in the US leagues. With things starting to progress through the minor league season, I thought it might be worth checking in on some them to see how they are progressing. It is a bit of a mixed bag really, quite a few players have stepped up to AA for the first time, and are not quite hitting their straps - some others are doing real well.

Quincy Latimore has stepped up to AA this year for the Altoona Curve. Through 42 games he has posted an average of .219 (34-for-155) with just 9 doubles and 2 home runs. Probably a bit of a slower start than Latimore would have liked, and his strikeout rate continues to be a concern - he has struck out in 47 of 155 at bats (30%).

Latimore's teammate from the Bite, James McOwen, has also made the step up to AA this year, and is faring a little better. Playing for the Jackson Generals, McOwen has a .252 average (40-for-159) with 9 doubles and 4 home runs.

From the Heat, Ronnie Welty has also entered his first year of AA, with the Bowie Baysox. Like McOwen and Latimore, he is not yet putting up huge numbers, with an average of .212. He does though have seven home runs.

Alongside Welty is Robbie Widlansky - who is in his second year of AA with Bowie - and he is hitting .256 with 14 doubles, three home runs and 28 RBIs.

Also at Bowie is ex-Heat pitcher Cole McCurry. McCurry recently commented that he felt the ABL was a big help to him coming into the American summer, as his arm was in 'midseason form' at the start of the season. His numbers so far certainly support that. They speak for themselves really, and I think they are worth calling out:

• 11 appearances in relief
• Record of three wins and zero losses
• 27 innings pitched
• 12 hits
• One run
• 34 strikeouts

McCurry has not allowed a run in his last 24 innings of work, while picking up 32 strikeouts.

Wow.

Also on the pitching front, Brandon Maurer has had quite a solid start to the year. He started out in Class A with the Clinton LumberKings, where he struck out 44 hitters over 37 innings, mainly as a starter. He put up a record of 1-3, with a 3.41 ERA, and was promoted to Class A Advanced  with the High Desert Mavericks (seriously, I can't get enough of these awesome names). He has pitched in two games for the Mavs, including one just yesterday in which he pitched an eight-inning, three-hit shutout. Remarkably he got a no decision, when the opposition (the Modesto Nuts!!!) put up five runs in the ninth inning. In his two starts for the Mavericks, he is 0-1, with 13 innings pitched. He has given up 10 hits, 2 runs, and has struck out 13 (with zero walks). So things are looking pretty good for him.

We might check in later in the year to see how things progress.

2011 Players to Watch - Part One

Over the next few weeks, as the minor league baseball season gets fully up and running, I will be running a feature on the 2011 Oz MLB Players to watch. Today marks Part One, with a focus on some young up-and-comers in the lower levels of minor league ball.

JAMES BERESFORD - SS - MELBOURNE ACES/MINNESOTA TWINS

In 2010, a 21-year old James Beresford backed up and played a second year of class-A ball with the Minnesota Twins affiliate Beloit Snappers. Signed by the Twins at the age of 16, Beresford had played three years of minor league baseball, and also represented Australia in the 2009 World Baseball Classic. He entered 2010 looking to develop some power - having hit just 19 extra base hits in more than 200 at bats. Through the season he did not quite hit the level of power he might have liked, but he certainly improved. 

Beresford cut his strikeouts from 70 in 2009 to 56 in 2010, and he picked up 25 extra base hits, including his first home run. He ended the year with a line of .297/.349/.363, and he was awarded the Beloit Snappers Player of the Year Award.

James Beresford at the World Baseball Classic

Beresford returned to Australia for the inaugural ABL season in 2010, and he performed well. He appeared in 12 games for the Melbourne Aces, where he struck out just four times in 52 at bats, and put up numbers of .404/.436/.519.

Like Joel Naughton for the Phillies, James Beresford played a few games with the Twins big league squad at Spring Training. Presumably he will spend a lot of time this year at high-A Fort Myers Miracle, and will look to continue to add some pop to his bat.

MITCHELL FIENEMANN - RHP - ADELAIDE BITE/PITTSBURGH PIRATES

Mitchell Fienemann has played two years in the Pirates minor league organisation, and was in Low-A ball in 2010. He has put up some respectable numbers - over two seasons he has struck out 51 hitters and walked just 10 over 77.2 innings.

Mitchell Fienemann

While Fienemann did not play in the ABL in 2010/2011, he has an affiliation in that he was signed to the Pirates by the Adelaide Bite manager Tony Harris in 2009.

Fienemann spent 2010 at the short season State College Spikes, and will this year be pushing to make the roster at West Virginia Power, in the class-A South Atlantic League.

Joel Naughton

JOEL NAUGHTON - C - BRISBANE BANDITS/PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES

Joel Naughton is a guy the Phillies must be taking pretty seriously. At the age of 24, he has accumulated six years in their organisation. He has shown good progression through Rookie Ball, low class A, A, and Advanced A-ball. This culminated in a strong 2010 at Clearwater Threshers, in which he hit a career high .308 while being hampered towards the end of the season by an arm injury. 

Naughton underwent surgery before joining the Phillies in major league spring training this year. It is the second time he has joined the big league squad in the spring. He had a good run of it this time round, getting hits in two of his three at bats, including a walk off single against the Rays. Naughton should play AA ball this year, and he is definitely one to watch.

STEVE KENT - LHP - CANBERRA CAVALRY/ATLANTA BRAVES

Steve Kent

Steve Kent is a 21 year old from Canberra, who signed with the Braves at the age of sixteen. He spent a couple of reasonably successful years in Rookie ball, before a shoulder injury ended his campaign in early 2009. 

Kent spent a year away from the game and returned to A-ball Rome Braves in 2010. He appeared in 19 games (three as a starter), and put together a record of 2-0 with one save.

Kent was a member of the inaugural Canberra Cavalry roster in the 2010/2011 ABL season. He started six games for the Cavalry, and was obviously on pitching restrictions - only pitching 12 innings over six starts. His numbers were nothing to write home about, although he did not have strong offense behind him. I would expect Kent will build on his performances from the ABL season and have a strong year for the Braves again - probably starting in class-A ball.

DAVID KANDILAS - OF - SYDNEY BLUE SOX/COLORADO ROCKIES

David Kandilas

I have written quite a bit about David Kandilas over the past few months. The 20-year old Sydney outfielder had a very impressive ABL season. His defensive skills are solid - and include a cannon of an arm - and his approach at the plate appears to be developing to a professional level.

When I spoke with Kandilas in December 2010, he said he was hoping to get some time at class-A in 2011. His form through the end of the ABL season certainly did not harm his chances of that happening.

Kandilas was one of the most reliable hitters in the Blue Sox lineup, and while he did not pick up a whole bunch of extra base hits, he hit consistently and executed well - picking up ten RBIs and a .274 average. He also swiped fives bases.

David has played two seasons of rookie ball with the Rockies, and seemed to make some improvements in 2010 - he took his average from .205 to .262, and picked up more extra base hits. He will be hoping that this progression, combined with his strong ABL season, will lead to some time with the class-A Tri-City Dust Devils.

Perth Heat to play in Asia Baseball Series - does anyone care?

So the Perth Heat/ABL today announced some groundbreaking news - that the Heat, as ABL champions, will participate in the Asia Series baseball tournament in November. Until today, I had never heard of the Asia Series, so initially didn't really understand what this actually meant. Turns out it is a relatively small tournament, which is quite young. It seems that there has been very little media or other interest in the story today. So why bother? Well, after reading about it some more - I think that the main strategy here must be to increase the exposure of the ABL in Asia - there doesn't seem to any other benefit.

It turns out that the Asia Baseball series has been around since 2005 - according to Wikipedia. And when i say it has been around since 2005, I mean there were four tournaments held between 2005 and 2008, with no tournament since then because it lost financial backing. The tournaments have involved teams from the Korean and Japanese leagues as well as teams from China and Taiwan. Predictably, the Japanese teams have won each of the four previous tournaments.

The ABL touted that the Asia League is a 'prestigious' event which will attract 5 million TV viewers. Having absolutely no idea about the level of prestige held for the league in Asia, it's hard to say whether this is true or not. What you can say is that there was practically ZERO media interest in the story. A google news search shows just one article, this one from Taiwan. I imagine there may have been some more coverage in say Japan or Korea, but certainly looks like there was very little interest here. Even twitter was rather quiet. This suggests that there is not a great deal of interest at home, which is probably not much of a surprise. It was hard enough for the ABL to generate any mainstream media interest in the home league, so generating interest in a small, unheard of tournament many thousands of miles away is unlikely be simple.

However, lack of media attention or public interest does not necessarily mean this is a bad idea. It was apparent during the course of the ABL Season that there was plenty of Asian interest in our league. This came both from Asian players and fans. Getting the premier team from the ABL facing off against top Asian teams will potentially lead to even greater interest in the league from our Pacific neighbors, which could lead to more support - both financially and through the fan base.

I don't expect there will be much local interest in the tournament - although I would be happy to be wrong about this - but I think it is a smart, but maybe premature, strategy for developing our league.

What do you think?

Contrasting fortunes in the Tigers' den?

There is an interesting movement going on in the Aussie ranks within the Detroit Tigers system. Brad Thomas, who has been reasonably consistent in recent seasons, is starting to find things difficult, and is starting to lose favor with some Tigers fans. Meanwhile, Brendan Wise is starting to attract attention for all the right reasons at the Tigers' triple-A affiliate, the Toledo Mud Hens. It is entirely possible the fates of Thomas and Wise could overlap in coming days or weeks.

Detroit have had some early-season bullpen struggles, and have faced challenges through injury. Brad Thomas has appeared in ten games for the Tigers, and has put up a rather unflattering ERA of 10.38 over eight innings. His opponents have put up a .417 batting average against him. This is a long way from the 3.89 ERA he put up last year, and it has a few Tigers fans up in arms. Check out some of these comments from Tigers fans baying for blood. The folks over at Detroit Tigers Scorecard are calling for him to be designated for assignment, and there is plenty of support from these other faceless critics.

Meanwhile, at AAA Toledo, Brendan Wise has been quietly putting up some solid numbers. Wise is yet to allow a run through eight games (10.1 innings pitched), and hasn't allowed a hit in his past three games. There are some other pitchers getting noticed at Toledo (mainly a bloke called Charlie Furbush), but people are starting to wise up to Brendan's efforts, and he is also getting noticed.

So, all in all, Thomas is a long way from the form he showed during Spring Training. Through Spring, I remarked that "Thomas is a guy who had probably surprised a few people with the quality of his season last year, and he is probably not quite assured of a place on the Tigers' Opening Day roster unless he can keep his form up". Unless something changes quite markedly very soon, it looks like Thomas could be headed to AAA. If he does end up in Toledo, Thomas may well pave the way for Wise to get a call up. Time will tell...