Blue Sparks 7/14- 7/27

Previous Blue Sparks

Prospect Notes:

Things have changed rapidly in the last two weeks. My favorite prospect Carlos Santana along with Jon Meloan was was traded to the Indians for Casey Blake. Carlos was only on a few peoples radar this spring but like a stealth bomber he exploded upon them before they knew what hit them. Displaying the unusual combination of power and patience he was sold off for 2 million dollars to cover Casey Blake's salary for 2008. At the time of the deal Carlos was leading the league in RBI's by 14, tied for the lead league in OBP ( .431), 3rd in the league in OPS (.993), and 2nd in the league with 69 walks.  Pathetic

On Saturday Blake DeWitt was sent down to make room for the new 3rd baseman and then LaRoche was sent down to make room for the recently activated Mark Sweeney. The dream infield of DeWitt at 2nd and LaRoche at 3rd for 2009 will be on display in Vegas for the rest of the year. Meloan just couldn't cut it as a starter and the Indians will quickly move him back to a relief role, a role in which he excelled at last year.

Many players trying to make comebacks with the Dodgers were released in the past week. Matt Riley, Ramon Martinez, and Mark Bellhorn head the list.

Blue Sparks:

Vegas(AAA)

Welcome back Mr. Hu. Things started out a little slow for Hu when he was first activated on July 19th(Vision related disability) but he is making up for lost time with 10 hits in his last 4 games. Nomar left the game early today, if he is going to miss any time I hope they just get Hu on a plane instead of turning to Berroa.

Jackonsville Suns(AA)

James Adkins was promoted and did poorly in his first start for the Suns. The former 1st round pick has run hot and cold this year. Scott Elbert looked to be making progress until he couldn't get an out in an outing on the 22nd. He did follow that up with a nice 2 inning blanket on the 25th. James McDonald has 13 walks in 22 innings so far in July. Very uncharateristic of him.

Inland Empire(High A)

Just a big gaping hole here.

Great Lake Loons(Low A)

With Carlos gone, the search went on for the next best catcher in the Dodger organization. I"m not a big fan of Lucas May so I went further down. The guy I've come up with is Kenley Jansen. At first blush he is not impressive but he does have some things going on for him. He played in the Hawaiian Winter League as a 20 year old and his defensive skills were said to be very advanced. On Saturday Night he blasted two home runs in a very tough league for home runs. If we were to compare what he has done this year to what Carlos Santana did in 2007 in the the same league we would find it very favorable towards Jansen. Jansen has a triple stat line of 243/308/448. Carlos was 223/319/370. The Midwest league cripples offense and the Cal league inflates it. So far the one player I liked who struggled in the Midwest league destroyed the Cal league. Now we need to find out if that was just growth or simply Carlos finding all the hot weather to his liking.One final thought, Lars Anderson is one of Bostons top prospects and is a year younger then Carlos but plays 1st base. Carlos kicked his ass in the stat department this year and plays in a tougher offensive park then Lars. Do you think Boston would have sold Lars for TWO MILLION? CLown

Lambo in the Cal league could be quite interesting next year.

Ogden Raptors:

Tony Delmonico was signed out of Florida State a few weeks ago. He made a key error in the college world series helping his team lose the final game to Fresno State. That was as a SS and word was that he was going to be converted to catcher. So far however he's been playing 2nd base but hitting a ton. While the big behemoths of Ogden continue to strike out at prodigous rates, the smaller Delmonico is putting on his Jaime Pedroza imitation with a 1.210 OPS after his first two weeks of pro ball.

Kyle Russel continues to rake and while the 38 k's are worrisome, others see quite a bit of potential so let us wait and see how he does as he moves up the ladder.

19 year old Michael Watt is on a roll with 3 straight outstanding outings. 25 strikeouts, 3 walks, and only 2 earned runs in his last 17 innings. Has he passed Withrow on the prospect list. Withrow has yet to throw a professional inning this year.

GCL Dodgers:

20 year old Eduardo Perez may have been the best pitcher in the month of July for the GCL team but Luis Ferreras has the more interesting story going. Ferreras was born on 12/28/89 and was promoted from the GCL team to the AA Suns last week and appeared in this game today. He is 4 years younger then any other pitcher on the Sun roster. I'm sure this is just temporary but it must be heady stuff for the kid to be pitching one day in the rookie league and the next day in AA. Plus he threw two shutout innings.