Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2021 i Baseball America

1. MARCELO MAYER, SS AGE: 19. B-T: L-R. HT: 6-3. WT: 188. DRAFTED: HS—Chula Vista, Calif., 2021 (1st round). SIGNED BY: J.J. Altobelli. TRACK RECORD: Eastlake High featured an eventual first-rounder in 2019 in third baseman Keoni Cavaco, but whenever Red Sox area scout J.J. Altobelli went to see Cavaco, he invariably started raving about sophomore shortstop Marcelo Mayer. Based on his performance as an underclassman as well as a summer with Team USA’s 18U National team in 2019, Mayer entered 2021 as one of the top players in the draft class and never disappointed. He batted .397/.555/.886 with 14 home runs, 31 walks and eight strikeouts, while showing ease and fluidity both in the batter’s box and at shortstop. He was viewed as a candidate to go first overall…

1. GABRIEL MORENO, C AGE: 22. B-T: R-R. HT: 5-11. WT: 175. SIGNED: Venezuela, 2016. SIGNED BY: Francisco Plasencia. TRACK RECORD: Moreno had good hand-eye coordination as an amateur, but he was a lower-profile signing out of Venezuela as a 16-year-old in 2016 for $25,000. He made his debut in 2017 in the Dominican Summer League, where he struck out just five times in 135 plate appearances but also had just five extra-base hits. Moreno’s stock rose the following year in the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League, and swing changes helped him start to tap into more power in 2019 with Low-A Lansing to become one of the game’s better catching prospects in the lower levels. In 2021, everything was clicking for Moreno. He drew glowing reviews while crushing Double-A pitching…

1. FRANCISCO ALVAREZ, C AGE: 20. B-T: R-R. HT: 5-10. WT: 233. SIGNED: Venezuela, 2018. SIGNED BY: Andres Nuñez/Ismael Perez. TRACK RECORD: When the Mets signed Alvarez for a franchise international amateur record $2.7 million in 2018, they knew they were acquiring a player with a high upside. They just might not have expected him to realize so much of his upside so soon. Alvarez moved quickly to the Rookie-advanced Appalachian League in his 2019 pro debut and put up a .916 OPS as a 17-year-old catcher. He made the most of his time at the Mets’ alternate training site in 2020 during the coronavirus shutdown, wowing scouts and emerging from it as the organization’s clear-cut No. 1 prospect. Alvarez retains that standing following a powerful full-season debut in 2021.…

BALTIMORE ORIOLES The Orioles hold the No. 1 overall pick in the 2022 draft and would like to do as well with it as they did in 2019, when they took Oregon State catcher Adley Rutschman. The 23-year-old began the season at Double-A Bowie and reached Triple-A Norfolk on Aug. 10. The canceled 2020 minor league season did not deter him from looking like baseball’s top prospect. Rutschman led all minor league catchers with 543 plate appearances and hit .285/.397/.502 with 23 home runs in 123 games. He drew 79 walks against 90 strikeouts. He appeared in the Futures Game. “I found that every level has been a jump, for sure,” Rutschman said. “It’s one of those things that you wouldn’t notice right off the bat, I think, but as…

The results were immediate when Jonathan India moved to the leadoff spot for the first time on June 5. He drew a walk in his first plate appearance, hit a solo home run in his next and followed with a double. It was the first time India hit higher than sixth in the Reds’ lineup, and there was no mistaking his impact. Cincinnati vaulted into the playoff race. India leaped into the Rookie of the Year conversations. The guys hitting behind him raved about how much he helped the offense. As the Reds’ leadoff hitter, India hit .275/.383/.482 with 31 doubles, 17 home runs, 46 RBIs and 82 runs in 103 games. “Definitely there’s a lot more in me, I know that,” said India, who turns 25 in December. “I…

Building a contending big league team is like completing a puzzle. Core players in their primes are vital to success. So are trade acquisitions and free agent signings. Equally important are young players. Prospects bring a measure of budget certainty and are increasingly proving ready to meet the challenge of surviving and thriving in the major leagues. Prospects serve another key purpose: they are the inventory required to make trades to complement the big league roster. Our projected future lineups, in this case with players’ baseball ages in 2025, assemble all the puzzle pieces. The lineups have been a staple of BA coverage since the beginning and illustrate how both big leaguers and prospects fit on the same timeline.…

1. ANTHONY VOLPE, SS AGE: 20. B-T: R-R. HT: 5-11. WT: 180. DRAFTED: HS—Morristown, N.J., 2019 (1st round). SIGNED BY: Matt Hyde. TRACK RECORD: Drafted in the first round in 2019, Volpe’s first test in pro ball at Rookie-level Pulaski was marred by a case of mononucleosis. The 2020 season was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic, and the Yankees did not hold a domestic instructional league, which left Volpe to do as much development as he could through independent training and via remote work with the organization’s coaches. He emerged from the shutdown with renewed health and added strength, which he used to produce one of the finest seasons in the minor leagues. In a season split between Low-A Tampa and High-A Hudson Valley he hit .294/.423/.604 with 27…

1. MICHAEL HARRIS, OF AGE: 21. B-T: L-L. HT: 6-0. WT: 195. DRAFTED: HS—Stockbridge, Ga., 2019 (3rd rd). SIGNED BY: Kirk Fredriksson. TRACK RECORD: Most of the amateur scouting industry seemed to prefer Harris as a lefthanded pitcher out of high school in 2019. He touched 93 mph with his fastball and showed feel to spin a big curveball. Harris preferred hitting, though, and the Braves liked his upside enough as a position player to give him a chance with the bat and ultimately signed him for $547,500 as an outfielder in the third round. After flashing solid tools in 53 games in 2019, Harris impressed Braves officials in 2020 with quality at-bats against many of the team’s top pitching prospects at the alternate training site. In 2021 he put…

1. MICK ABEL, RHP AGE: 20. B-T: R-R. HT: 6-5. WT: 190. DRAFTED: HS—Portland, Ore., 2020 (1st round). SIGNED BY: Zach Friedman. TRACK RECORD: Abel first emerged on the scene after striking out Riley Greene as a junior in 2019 and continued to gain steam over the next year. He ranked as the top high school pitcher for the 2020 draft thanks to an impressive four-pitch arsenal, pitchability and the best command in the class. The Phillies were ecstatic to draft him at No. 15 overall. The 20-year-old righthander had an encouraging full-season debut in 2021, ranking as the top pitcher in Low-A Southeast by league managers and pitching to a 4.43 ERA in 14 starts. Abel missed the last two months of the season with a shoulder injury, but…

ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS It never has been easy to poke holes in D-backs outfielder Alek Thomas’ game, but some wondered how his aggressive approach would play against more advanced pitchers. Thomas answered that question in multiple ways in 2021 by torching Double-A and Triple-A pitchers across five months. Moreover, Thomas improved the quality of his at-bats and found a sort of selective aggressiveness. “We challenged him with controlling the zone better this year and making better swing decisions,” D-backs farm director Josh Barfield said. “That’s the kind of thing you see with elite hitters in the big leagues. He has always been able to hit, but we challenged him with that and he really responded.” Barfield said the organization pushed that idea on Thomas when he was with Double-A Amarillo in…

Tom Myers pitched five years in the minor leagues and spent more than a decade as a pitching coach at UC Santa Barbara and Santa Clara before becoming an area scout for the Cubs in 2011. He has scouted and signed multiple high draft picks for the Cubs in Southern California, including righthander Cory Abbott out of Loyola Marymount in 2017. Abbott made his major league debut this year to become the first player Myers signed to reach the major leagues. Myers joined the BA podcast to discuss his journey into scouting, the main differences between being a college coach and a scout and what he saw in Abbott in college. The full interview can be heard at BaseballAmerica.com. Baseball America: Abbott really took off his junior year at LMU.…

@JJCOOP36 The Lexington Legends completed perhaps the weirdest three-peat in recent baseball history this season. The first part, well that’s the conventional aspect of this story. Lexington won the South Atlantic League title in 2018 as the Royals’ Low-A affiliate. They won the league title again in 2019. Then, everything turned upside down. The coronavirus pandemic led to the cancellation of the 2020 minor league season. By 2021, Lexington had been jettisoned from affiliated baseball. In February of this year, the Legends joined the Atlantic League. New year. New league. Completely new team. In their first year in a partner league—the moniker adopted by independent leagues that now have a relationship with MLB—the Legends won it all. It was a third straight title, but it’s the first one in which…

Nez Balelo has known Shohei Ohtani as well as almost anyone since the Japanese two-way star first arrived in the United States. Balelo, the co-head of Creative Artists Agency’s baseball division, became Ohtani’s agent in the winter of 2017. He guided Ohtani through a fevered recruiting process that saw nearly every team try to sign him, watched Ohtani achieve his highest highs and was up close for his lowest lows—namely, the repeated injuries that limited Ohtani each of his first three seasons in MLB. Ohtani had Tommy John surgery in 2018, knee surgery in 2019 and suffered a forearm strain in 2020. He hit .190 and made just two, disastrous starts for the Angels last year, amplifying questions whether he should continue trying to be both a pitcher and hitter.…

1. ADLEY RUTSCHMAN, C AGE: 24. B-T: B-R. HT: 6-2. WT: 216. DRAFTED: Oregon State, 2019 (1st round). SIGNED BY: Brandon Verley. TRACK RECORD: The Orioles were made to wait longer than expected to see the No. 1 overall pick in 2019, who they signed to a record $8.1 million bonus, tear through the minors the way a generational amateur talent is expected. A College World Series champion and Most Outstanding Player for Oregon State in 2018 and the BA College Player of the Year in 2019, Rutschman got a late start to his 2019 pro debut due to illness, then spent the summer of 2020 at the Orioles’ alternate training site refining his swing and beginning to build rapport with some of the top pitching prospects in the organization.…

1. SHANE BAZ, RHP AGE: 23. B-T: R-R. HT: 6-2. WT: 190. DRAFTED: HS—Tomball, Texas, 2017 (1st round). SIGNED BY: Wayne Mathis (Pirates). TRACK RECORD: If the Pirates had traded Baz for Chris Archer as a one-for-one deal, the Rays would have reason to be pleased. The fact that Baz was the player to be named in a trade that also included Tyler Glasnow and Austin Meadows makes it one of the most lopsided deals of the 21st century. When younger, Baz struggled to throw strikes, was prone to over-throwing and had a pronounced head whack. His delivery has calmed down, as much from improved core strength as any significant tweaks to his delivery. He’s allayed concerns that he would be too wild to start by developing into a consistent…

1. EURY PEREZ, RHP AGE: 19. B-T: R-R. HT: 6-8. WT: 200. SIGNED: Dominican Republic, 2019. SIGNED BY: Fernando Seguignol. TRACK RECORD: As an amateur, Perez was already 6-foot-5 and a lanky 155 pounds. He’s gained both height and weight since then but has maintained his surprising body control and coordination. His professional debut was scuttled by the pandemic, though he did attend instructional league in 2020. He proved advanced enough to skip completely over both extended spring training and the Florida Complex League, jumping straight to a spot in the rotation at Low-A Jupiter, where he dominated despite being 18 and the youngest player on any Opening Day roster. His finest moment came on Aug. 7, when he whiffed a season-high 11 hitters in 4.2 no-hit innings against Tampa.…

1. KEIBERT RUIZ, C AGE: 23. B-T: B-R. HT: 6-0. WT: 225. SIGNED: Venezuela, 2014. SIGNED BY: Francisco Cartaya/Pedro Avila (Dodgers). TRACK RECORD: Ruiz signed with the Dodgers for $140,000 at the age of 16 in 2014 out of the Venezuelan academy run by former big leaguer Carlos Guillen. At the time, he was considered more of a defensive catcher, but that’s not the case now. Ruiz’s star really began to rise when he reached Double-A at age 19 in 2018. A return to Double-A the next season due to a logjam at catcher in the Dodgers’ organization slowed his progress, but a promotion to Triple-A later that year seemed to get him going again, at least until he was sidelined with a fractured finger. Formerly the Dodgers’ No. 1…

DOYLE CHADWICK, who played in the minor leagues from 1949-52, died Sept. 26 in Edmond, Okla. He was 90. HERBERT DUFF, a lefthander who pitched in the minor leagues in 1958 and ’62, died Oct. 13 in Lynchburg, Va. He was 81. MARLIN FISCEL, a righthander who pitched in the minor leagues in 1953 and ’54, died Sept. 30 in York, Pa. He was 86. RAY FOSSE, a catcher who played in the major leagues for 12 seasons from 1967-77 and in ’79 with the Indians, Athletics, Mariners and Brewers, died Oct. 13. He was 74. Fosse, whom Cleveland drafted seventh overall in the first-ever draft in 1965, made two all-star teams and won two Gold Gloves during his big league career. He was also a two-time World Series champion…