The Padres will promote top outfield prospect Rymer Liriano on Monday, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. Liriano hasn’t made many lists of top prospects throughout the game, but Baseball America’s Prospect Handbook 2014 named him the Padres’ sixth-best prospect heading into the season, praising his five-tool potential, even after he missed the 2013 campaign due to Tommy John surgery. Since then, the 23-year-old has attracted attention with a solid performance at Double-A San Antonio and a ridiculous outburst in a small sample with Triple-A El Paso, in which he’s hit .467/.536/.683 in his first 69 plate appearances. Here are more notes from the West divisions.
- The Rangers will not promote top prospect Joey Gallo this season, ESPN’s Jim Bowden tweets. The 20-year-old is hitting .255/.347/.568 for Double-A Frisco after putting up even more ridiculous numbers earlier this season at Class A+ Myrtle Beach, and he wowed fans at this year’s Futures Game. But it sounds like we’ll have to wait until 2015 before we see him hit home runs in Arlington. He’s struck out more than three times for every walk so far at Double-A, and he has no Triple-A experience, so there could be merit to allowing him to spend at least a couple more months in the minors.
- The Rockies should make seven moves to vault themselves into contention in 2015, ESPN Insider’s Jim Bowden writes. FanGraphs’ Paul Swydan recently wrote an article with a similar theme, but very different suggestions, and it’s interesting to compare the two pieces. Some of Bowden’s suggestions (like trading Kyle Parker and DJ LeMahieu to Minnesota for Brian Dozier, or dealing Brett Anderson and prospect Raimel Tapia to the Red Sox for Mookie Betts) seem a bit far-fetched, but they’re good springboards for discussion, and figuring out how to fix a 45-71 team in short order isn’t an easy exercise.
Congrats to Liriano. He’s been crushing it in El Paso. I guess Frenchy is gonna be DFA’d
Brett Anderson hasn’t broken 100 innings since 2010. Man, is that a terrible trade suggestion.
EDIT: In fact, why wouldn’t the Red Sox just trade him to the Reds for Latos? That makes more sense for them.
Exactly. Tapia hasn’t even reached AA yet. Why would the Red Sox trade Mookie for an injury prone/ ok pitcher and talented yet low A player for Betts? That trade propasal is awful. Maybe if the Rockies toss in Story and Matzek along with Tapia and Anderson.
I’m sorry but Bowden has no credibility in my eyes. Like you said, he’s proposing an outlandish suggestion that doesn’t even have a snowballs chance in hell of going through
There should be a massive asterisk on the Liriano AAA stats. Those stats look insane, and are pretty good, but the PCL is infamous for these absolutely crazy batting lines.
What’s missing is the fact Liriano started to turn it around in the month of July while in double-A San Antonio. Is a little over a full month of hot hitting (both from double and triple A) enough to make him a major league hitter? Will he strike out a ton? Very possible. I hope not.
He was also hot in May. San Antonio is a tough place to hit especially for a right handed hitter. I think this is mostly a taste of the big leagues and a chance to win the job next Spring. Liriano is a notoriously slow starter and streaky player. In fact, AAA is the first level he didn’t start ice cold. Better to get his feet wet this year when they are already out of the hunt IMO. It does seem like an aggressive promotion though.
It’s a great hitters league, but that’s an overstatement. His .467/.536/.683/1.220 is more impressive than any 69 AB period by the PCL’s batting leader Matt Den Dekker. He is also pretty young for the league. Those numbers are impressive anywhere and at any level over 69 AB. Can you name a player that had a better 69 AB period in the PCL this year?
Is 69 PA really a large enough sample size to judge anyone?
In comparison to other samples of the same size, sure. I’m simply pointing out that you made it seem like this kind of production happens often in the PCL. It doesn’t, not even for 69 PA. His overall line (.292/.364/.476) between AA and AAA over 484 PA is still very good considering his age and the fact that he lost a year to TJ. Yes, you should take into account that he’s doing it in the PCL, but it’s very impressive either way. I’m not proclaiming him a star. Again, I’m simply pointing out that this is impressive anywhere.
Bowden that is a horrible trade for Brian Dozier
and an even worse one for Mookie Betts
why would the twins even think about trading a 4 WAR player for two guys who are not even prospects anymore
The twins should think of trading him. His value is as high as it’ll be the rest of his career. He’s young, he’s got 4 years of arb, and already 27 so he will be a FA by the time he’s 31. But they can certainly net a better package than Parker and The other guy. You’re talking a package around Butler or Gray for Dozier. Bowden is no longer allowed to propose trades.
Odd that a national mainstream media type would propose lopsided trades FAVOURING the Rockies. My guess is with his injury history, Brett Anderson’s value is very low – the Rox will either re-sign him (I wouldn’t but the FO would) or let him walk. If somehow he’s tradable, it will be for a lottery ticket-type or a surplus body.
Ralph has some crazy suggestions as usual in that ESPN piece.
That Betts trade is laughable, for a pitcher where you’ll be lucky to get 60+ innings? If Betts is traded, it’ll be in a Hamels or Reds SP package, not an injury riddled Anderson
“Liriano hasn’t made many lists of top prospects throughout the game”
BA had him #49 in 2012. BP had him #52 in 2012 and #39 in 2013. MLB.com had him #60 in 2012 and #55 in 2013.
Padres opened their Dominican Academy in 2008. This is their first DA player to make it to their big league team. Hopefully, this is the first of many and probably the main reason Preller was chosen – to better their international player representation.