Jason Parks reacts to Yordano Ventura

Who: He’s a 19-year-old Dominican smoke-thrower capable of causing this exchange:
JP: (incoming pitch; looks at gun reading; looks perplexed)
JP: (incoming pitch; looks at gun reading; looks around at other guns; looks perplexed)
JP: (incoming pitch; looks at gun reading) Did you get 98?
Scout: Yep
JP: (incoming pitch; looks at gun reading; endorphins begin to rush; brow begins to sweat; smile begins to creep onto face; pants begin to loosen) Does he normally throw 100 mph?
Scout: Why are you sitting so close to me?

Parks wrote a couple good pieces over at Baseball Prospectus on the Royals system as well as writing a great scouting blog about the Texas Rangers system. Both are great investments if you are into minor league players.

Lower Minors getting pub

Baseball America had a nice blurb about Yordano Ventura of the Arizona Royals hitting 98-99 mph with his fastball. Pretty impressive for a 5'11 150 lbs 19 year old to show that type of stuff already. Along with him Crawford Simmons was named Appalachian Pitcher of the Week for August 9th by milb.com. Simmons a 14th round pick last season is considered to be a good overall athlete as he could've had a scholarship in golf or baseball to Georgia Tech but passed on both to sign with the Royals for $450,000. Simmons according to BA sports the usual Royal minor league repertoire fastball,curve and change up averaging 86-90 while touching 91 with his fastball prior to signing. Simmons combined with a teammates Leonel Santiago and Willian Avinazar are leading the Burlington Royals to above normal season for the usual Burlington(NC) bottom feeders. Those four plus 19 year old Robinson Yambati in Arizona combine to give the Royals a possible second wave to the solid prospects they already have at the top levels of the system.

KC should be thinking of shutting John Lamb down for the season not because of his recent struggles but because he has pitched 58 more innings already over what he pitched last season. Even if you don't support the Verducci Effect or other systems Lamb is only 20 and recent struggles could be hints of injury or lead to possible injury down the road with too great a increase in workload.