The Daily Tap is moving to Pine Tar Press

I'll be transitioning some of my writing over to Pine Tar Press during the season with the Daily Tap being the first feature on Greg Schaum's site. My goal was in creating this blog was to provide as much info on the minor league prospects as possible and I'll continue to do that whether it is on this site or Greg's. If you have read my stuff and like it please continue to do so here or at pinetarpress.com

Cougars Recap
The home opener wasn't much fun to watch for the Kane County fans as Crawford Simmons struggle with his control despite working his FB in the 89-91 mph range. He was up in the zone while missing early in counts finishing the day with 4 IP 4 H 4 ER 3 K 3 BB. Greg Billo didn't perform much better as he followed Simmons and allowed 4 more runs over the next 3.2 innings.
Brian Fletcher 2-4 2b RBI .333/.364/.524
Struggling
Geulin Beltre has fallen into a bit of a slump going 0 for his last 13.


Blue Rocks Recap
Noel Arguelles enjoyed a nice debut as he took only 40 pitches to get through 4 innings while allowing only 2 hits and 0 runs while striking out one. Reports from the game had his velocity in the 87-90 mph range while throwing a curve in the 69-72 mph range. He only threw one change up from reports at the game. Michael Mariot took over for Arguelles and continued the good pitching mixing three pitches FB, slider, curve for an effective 5 innings allowing just 1 hit while walking 2 and striking out 4. He did allow a home run but that one run wasn't enough for the Indians to hold off the Rocks as Rey Navarro, Deivy Batista and John Whittleman paced the offence to 4 runs on 6 hits from the threesome.
John Whittleman 2-3 HR, BB
Rey Navarro 2-4 3b Rbi hitting .563/.611/1.063 thru 4 games
Struggling
Alex McClure 0-15 he's playing superb defense but at some point he is going to have to hit.

Naturals Recap
Just another 1 run victory for the Naturals making that four in a row after losing the season opener. The Naturals did it in a different fashion this time scoring 4 runs in the first two innings to take a 4-2 lead and hung on with good pitching by Edgar Osuna and Buddy Baumann.
Christian Colon 1-3 1 BB 1 RBI
Struggling
Salvador Perez .133/.235/.400 in four games

Storm Chasers Recap
The Chaser had one of those nights as the lineup went missing against the Round Rock pitching staff. The Chasers could muster only 3 hits and 2 runs via HR's by Clint Robinson and David Lough. On the mound Everett Teaford was on cruise control thru 4 innings not allowing a hit but he ran into trouble in the 5th inning giving up 5 hits and 5 runs in the frame (4 ER) while not surviving the inning and taking the loss.
Clint Robinson 1-3 HR(3) 1 BB .316/.435/.947
Struggling
Mike Moustakas 4-23 .174/.208/.304 1 HR 1 BB

Introducing the Minor League Daily Tap

Christian Colon will try to bring home another AA championship

The daily tap is going to be a new feature at the 14 for 77 blog each day I will be selecting a Royals Minor League Hitter of the day and Pitcher of the Day from the previous days games during the Minor league season as well as a preview for that days games. I'll also give any information I may have seen or heard from attending whichever minor league game I was at as well as the next days pitching matchup. It's going to be a great season and I'm going to try to get as much Royal minor league info out there as any Royal blog going !

Audio broadcast of all the games are always free on milb.com and for another great value MILB.tv is a terrific value at only $29.99 for tons of games. Quite a few AAA games are on milb.tv !

If you are going to checkout the audio broadcast this year I rank the Royals minor league announcers like this:
#1 Wilmington Blue Rocks John Sadak
#2 Omaha Storm Chasers Mark Nasser
#3 NW Arkansas Naturals Steven Davis
UR Kane County Cougars ?
Sadak has major league pipes and calls a terrific game if you get a chance to hear him.

Pitching Matchups Opening Day
AAA
Omaha Storm Chasers Mike Montgomery (3)
vs
Albuquerque Isotopes(Dodgers) Dana Eveland
Game Notes:
Plenty of AAA debuts in this one for the Chasers as Montgomery, Hosmer, Clint Robinson, Giavotella and Paulo Orlando are all likely to make their level debuts. Montgomery has looked outstanding this spring but this will be a big test pitching in a tough run environment like Albuquerque that yielded nearly a quarter more runs(1.23 Park Factor) and over a quarter more home runs(1.27) in 2010. Look for good starts for the Storm Chasers offense.

Dana Eveland is your typical AAAA lefty starter and should prove to a nice test to the Chasers left hand heavy lineup. He's primarily a fastball/curveball guy but has four pitches in his repertoire and will likely work the youngsters backwards to see if they can adapt to the plus offspeed stuff. If he does get forced to come at them they should have the advantage as his fastball generally sits high 80s low 90s and that's not enough for the lefty threesome of Hos, Moose and Robinson.

The Isotopes feature three of the Dodgers top 10 prospects in Dee Gordon, Trayvon Robinson and Jerry Sands

AA
NW Arkansas Naturals Chris Dwyer(7) 6pm CST
vs
San Antonio Missions(Padres) Anthony Bass
Game Notes:
Chris Dwyer was looking pretty smooth at Double A last year until running into back problems forcing the Royals to play cautious and sit him for the rest of the year. First AA games for Colon, Myers and Salvador Perez all highly rated Royals prospects.

Anthony Bass is the 22nd rated Padres prospect according to Baseball America and features a 90-92 mph FB that can reach 96 at its peak. Along with that offering Bass comes at hitters from a 3/4 arm angle along with a sinking change up that flashes above average and a mid 80s slider. BA says Bass likes to work up in the zone which could be be a problem for him at the AA level.

Players of Note Jaff Decker and Drew Cumberland Top 10 Padres Prospects

Low A
Kane County Cougars Leonel Santiago
vs
Wisconsin Timber Rattlers (Brewers) Austin Ross
Game Notes:
This game features a couple older pitchers for this level as both Santiago and Ross are 21 or older. Santiago had a good season last year at the Rookie level for the Burlington club. Santiago's 7.3/1.9 K/BB ratio should help him early in the Midwest league as it generally features a colder low scoring run environment for the first month of the season.

Ross is a 2010 8th Rd draftee from LSU who is ranked at #30 according to Baseball America. Ross pitched 10 games in the Pioneer League last year with a 2.70 ERA in 47 innings while carrying an impressive 52/6 K/BB ratio. According to BA he has a low 90s fastball, consistent slider and below average change up. At the A ball level his above average control (1.61 BB/9 in college) and two pitch control should serve him well but he'll need a third pitch and more juice at the next levels.

Wisconsin features only one prospect in the Brewers Top 20 Cody Hawn 1b from University of Tennessee

Futures Game Video

Click on the line below to see video.
Mike Moustakas singles off John Lamb

Johnny Giavotella good play on a groundout on the shortstop side of second base.

Mike Montgomery Ks Wil Myers on a 96 mph fastball

Danny Duffy K's Christian Colon

Wil Myers doubles off Louis Coleman

David Lough HR off of Chris Dwyer

If you are interested to see more head over to my Youtube Channel kcscoliny. I'll post pics of the event within a couple days.

The Royals look into the future and past to start the season

Typically a couple days away allows me to come down from excitement and not overreact to what I've seen as I never want to overreact or cloud my judgement but when it comes to Mike Montgomery I just can't seem to pace myself. I've seen him twice this spring once versus the Cincinnati Reds and then again in the Futures game and he's been lights out both times. 8 innings 2 hits 2 walks 7 K's and 1 run allowed during that time. On Saturday he sailed through a pretty solid AA lineup working 91-93 pretty consistently while blowing away Wil Myers in the 1st inning with a 96 mph fastball. He featured the fastball so there wasn't many changes or curves thrown to report on I'll sure I get to see many more of those as the season goes on but from what I've seen so far he definitely has the makings of a #1 who I think we'll see in KC before the year ends.

Johnny Giavotella vs Christian Colon - This is a rivalry that should be fun to watch all season long, Colon hasn't excited me defensively at SS and while I didn't expect him to I'm unsure if his defense is good enough at 2b to eclipse Gio's offense. Giavotella is patient, knows his offensive limitations and is a good enough baserunner that he might be a difficult hurdle for the higher drafted Colon to get over. Giavotella looked much better on defense during the Futures game than I've seen him in the past making a good turn on a double play and making a jumping throw from the SS side of second base. Giavotella is never going to be an All Star second baseman but he has the chance to have a plus bat along with at his peak a average glove. I overheard some Royals scouts getting excited by Giavotella's play.

Danny Duffy - Looked alot like the pitcher we've seen most of the spring showing a low to mid 90s fastball with some shaky control (walked 3). Duffy only gave up one hit an infield single which was quickly erased by a double play. In the second inning when Mario Lisson reached via a walk Duffy was a little too deliberate to the plate allowing Lisson to get a extremely good jump and stealing second base but Duffy made up for that mistake by freezing #4 overall pick Christian Colon with a 77 mph bender. Duffy essentially got five outs in his third inning of work striking out three despite having to work an extra couple batters due to a Moustakas error at third and a Falu error at short.

Other pitchers - John Lamb's velocity was far from exciting throwing anywhere from 86-89 while touching 91 with his fastball but he gutted his way thru 2.2 innings giving up just one run on three hits. Lamb gutted out his effort by picking off Lorenzo Cain and allowing only a couple hard hit balls. The early muscle problems should be good for Lamb a little bit of adversity to overcome when not at 100%. Brandon Sisk only got to face one hitter (Moustakas) but he tied him up with a 90-91 mph fastball and two solid change ups, four pitches and a K against a premiere prospect, not bad. Chris Dwyer again like Lamb wasn't as impressive as I had hoped in the the velocity department working in 89-91 range while exhibiting some iffy control (3 walks). The AA pitchers fell victim to some poor defense behind them which could've lead to some of Dwyer's troubles trying to be too fine. One pitcher who didn't disappoint was Will Smith who despite giving up a in the park HR on a misplayed ball in LF worked quickly while touching 93 a couple times with his FB. One nice sequence for Smith was against David Lough starting him off with a couple low 90s FB, a 93 mph FB and then freezing Lough with a 76 mph deuce for strike three. Patrick Keating was disappointing to me as he was throwing in the low 90's which is quite a bit off from where scouting reports had him last season.

Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer - Neither player stood out with their results although Moose hit several balls hard. Hos on the otherhand seemed a bit impatient which is to be expected playing in the major league park in game action for the first time. The pair finished a combined 1-12 at the plate while Moustakas had a ball go right thru the wickets on defense leading to a Naturals run. Hosmer looked good on defense making all the plays in his area while also making a nice pick of a Van Stratten hard hit near the line.

Wil Myers- Myers had a tough start to the game turning a Hosmer flyball into a circus catch in RF while striking out 2 of his first 3 times at the plate. He settled on defense however making some routine plays and looks as if he'll be fine in RF. He also lined a pitch from Louis Coleman down the third base line for a double, that's a good sign as I expect Coleman will be extremely tough on righty's in the bigs with his arm angle and start from the extreme right side of the pitching rubber.

Other notes- David Lough and Jamie Romak hit the only Home Runs off the arms of Chris Dwyer and Blake Wood. Wood was throwing in the low 90s as opposed to the upper 90s like some had reported during spring training. I'll watch the guns closely in Omaha to see if that is the case once the AAA season starts.

MVP Mike Montgomery
Offensive MVP Johnny Giavotella 1-3 2-BB 1-2b

Royals announced a minor league deal with Jeff Suppan today. Suppan started for four seasons with the Royals compiling 132 starts and 832 innings over a 4 year period from 1999-2002. This is a decent little low risk deal for a ML veteran, if a couple injuries would take place the Royals could bring up Suppan to take over in the rotation as opposed to rushing Duffy or Montgomery to KC.

NEXT UP Pics and Video of the Futures game
Omaha Storm Chasers Workout Wednesday at the new Werner Park

Minor League Predictions and Goals for the Blog

The baseball season is slowly coming around as we are just 52 days until the Royals first spring training game. 2011 is going to be a interesting year at the major league level to say the least but the real excitement for the Royals in 2011 is going to happen at the minor league level. With the influx of talent I thought I would take this time to make my 2011 minor league predictions.

The Call Ups - Minor leaguers that will be called up this season.
Mike Moustakas after June
Tim Collins Makes the ML roster
Louis Coleman
Lorenzo Cain
Jeremy Jeffress
Danny Duffy
David Lough
Mike Montgomery September Call up
Eric Hosmer September Call up
Chris Dwyer September Call up


Positional Breakout Performer
Brett Eibner CF - Possibly the best athlete in the system since Beltran, Eibner has big time power and decent patience. I look for him to impress at the high A level and earn a bump up to AA to join Colon and Myers at NW Arkansas.

Starting Pitcher Breakout (outside the top 4)
Crawford Simmons - Simmons is a crafty lefty who should be able to handle Low A hitters with his great control and pitchability.

Minor League Playoff contenders
NW Arkansas
Omaha

14 for 77 Minor League Player of the Year
Wil Myers and Eric Hosmer- The two studs will share the award after repeating what they did in 2010. I expect Myers will crush AA pitching in Coors Arvest field while Hosmer will push his way to a September call up.

14 for 77 MILB Pitcher of the Year
Chris Dwyer - Dwyer's low to mid 90s fastball combined with his organization best curve will help him pick up where it left off in the Texas League last season prior to his injury. Dwyer great season will be rewarded with a September call up after joining the crew in Omaha for a playoff run.

While there are sure to be some bumps in the road for some Royal minor leaguers there is actually room to improve from last seasons stellar performance. Names like Cuthbert, Yambati and Ventura could see action for the first time in full season ball while Ordonzzi, Jeffress and Marks will be added to the depth of an already strong system. My new goal of this blog is to get as much video as possible of the Royal minor leaguers in their pursuit of a major league dream. Kane County, NW Arkansas and Omaha will all be on the agenda again in 2011 hopefully multiple trips will allow me to bring the few readers I have a better idea of the prospects that are in the system.

NEXT UP Major League Predictions

Royals send Myers and Colon to Wilmington

The Royals signed Christian Colon last week and quickly moved him to Wilmington where he'll be joined by Wil Myers who was promoted from Burlington(IA). Myers in my opinion is the best overall hitter in the system combining power and patience to go along with tons of raw tools. These additions combined with the players already there will make Wilmington the top draw by Royals prospect followers and could push them into a playoff run.



Wilmington Top Prospects
1.Eric Hosmer 1b- #1 in Carolina league in Avg and doubles, #2 in Lg OPS
2.John Lamb SP- Putting up as good of numbers as Duffy, Montgomery, Matusz, Kelly or any prospect in the Carolina League the last couple years.
3.Wil Myers C
4.Christian Colon SS
5.Chris Dwyer SP- Solid season for a guy many expected to take time to get thru the system.
6.Tim Melville SP- Early struggles were tamed but his last couple of starts have been tough.
7.Salvador Perez C- Great start to the season but struggled greatly in June.
8.Buddy Baumann SP/RP- Profiles as a Loogy down the road but is pitching well from both spots starter and reliever.

Colon has struggled so far going 0-12 with 4 strikeouts and hitting into 3 double plays. Colon was thought by many to be a sure fire major leaguer so hopefully these are nothing more than early struggles. I am a tad worried as the guy he is most compared to Grant Green hasn't exactly lit the very very hitter friendly Cal League on fire with a .844 OPS.

If Colon plays to the ability we all hoped and KC doesn't promote Hosmer or Lamb to AA then Wilmington will probably earn a shot in the Carolina League Playoffs.

Redoing the Royals Prospect List 6-10

#6 David Lough- Quick bat and adjusting to fulltime duty in CF. Still wish he was more patient at the plate but he is still young in his baseball career.

#7 John Lamb- Dominated Single A ball and has earned the quick promotion to Wilmington.

#8 Chris Dwyer- Adjusting well to his first full season of pro ball.

#9 Louis Coleman- Under 1 Whip while showing he can make it thru multiple innings. Don't be shocked to see him in KC by seasons end

#10 Tim Melville- Struggling with control and mechanics. Has definitely been the biggest disappointment of the Royal prospect season thus far.

The rumors were flying Monday as some speculation came out about a possible big promotion of a KC prospect was tossed around. While we are still unsure of the prospect or the rumor any move to KC for a prospect such as Crow, Moose or Montgomery would be a mistake in my opinion. KC is not contending this season and the short term gains of moving a prospect 2 levels to the bigs without as much as 2 months in AA ball would be a reach. You don't see the Marlins moving Mike Stanton or the Nats calling up Strasburg yet do you. And those teams are way closer to being in the race as the Royals are. Let them dominate and if you want to call them up in September then give them a crack otherwise you are just playing to attendance and job concerns.