Seedlings To The Stars
Old friend of I-70, Wally Fish (of Kings Of Kauffman fame), has a site known as Seedlings To The Stars. They are currently in the process of counting down their top 100 prospects and we thought our readers might like to drop by there for some insight. Below are I-70 players that are currently profiled. Drop by the site and read up on the future of your favorite franchise.
Top 100 Prospects, #92: Trevor Rosenthal – Cardinals
Nathan Stoltz of Seedlings To The Stars says:
Rosenthal had a big year in the Midwest League to establish himself as one of the Cardinals’ top pitching prospects. A local kid from Lee’s Summit, Missouri, Rosenthal was a 21st-round pick in the 2009 draft who was mostly a reliever in short-season ball his first two seasons. In 2011, he immediately announced his presence by striking out 11 batters in four innings in his first start. His season took off from there, as he put up dominant numbers.
Read Rosenthal’s full profile by clicking here.
Top 100 Prospects, #90: John Lamb – Royals
Nathan Stoltz of Seedlings To The Stars says:
Lamb is a very polished lefthanded pitcher who is well ahead of the age curve. He reached Double-A in mid-2010 right around his 20th birthday after blowing through High-A with a 90/15 K/BB in 74 2/3 innings, doing so on the back of exquisite command and a good fastball/changeup combination. That earned him Baseball America’s #18 overall prospect ranking last offseason, and he ranked #38 on my list. On that list last year, I said Lamb was “an extremely polished pitcher who could wind up similar to the Mets incarnation of Johan Santana.
Read Lamb’s full profile by clicking here.
Nathan Stoltz also takes a look at Pitch F/X Data on recently promoted pitchers in his incredibly in-depth series “The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of”
The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of: Brandon Dickson
From Seedlings To The Stars:
Entering the 2011 season, I thought Brandon Dickson was a nice dark-horse candidate for the Cardinals’ fifth-starter job, since he had turned in a very solid 2010 in the Triple-A Memphis rotation. He didn’t ultimately win that competition, but the 26-year-old righthander had another fine year with the Redbirds and got into four MLB games with the big-league Cardinals, including one start.
As is the case with the many of the pitchers I’m looking at in this series, Dickson faced far too few batters for us to get a good read on how effective his individual pitches are in the big leagues. Overall, he faced 34 batters in 8 1/3 innings, allowing just three runs on nine hits with three walks and seven strikeouts. The biggest blemish was two homers allowed, although 15 of the 24 balls in play off him were grounders.
As you might expect from a relatively anonymous minor leaguer who didn’t break through until he was 26, Dickson doesn’t throw overwhelmingly hard. He does, however, boast enough velocity to get by, working at 89-91 in his lone start and 90-93 in relief. He can add sink or cut to the pitch and gets good plane on it from his 6’5″ frame.
Read the rest of the profile, as well as the charts, by clicking here.
If prospects are what you are looking for and you want the most in-depth analysis available, all of us here at I-70 would suggest you drop by Seedlings To The Stars often. I know it is sitting at the top of my bookmarks currently.
Bill Ivie is the editor here at I-70 Baseball as well as the Assignment Editor for BaseballDigest.com.
He is the host of I-70 Radio, hosted every week on BlogTalkRadio.com.
Follow him on Twitter here.