All Things Valley League

Sickels on Kipnis

Feel that tingling sensation? That's because the draft is about a month away.

Jason Kipnis (Covington 06-07) continues to be a hot topic among prognosticators.*

* Maybe I've ranted about this before, but what's the deal with all the mock drafts these days? Mel Kiper has parlayed this obsession into a pretty good gig, I guess, but why, in this society, are we so interested in the future of players- as opposed to the current, the right now?

That being said, I really enjoy John Sickels. He gets out to see as many players as possible, and he seems to blend the scouting and statistic theories about as well as anyone out there.

Sickels, in this article entitled "Interesting College Hitters for 2009 Draft," had this to say about our famous Jason Kipnis: "Traditional scouts aren't super wild about Kipnis, rating his tools as just average. But his performance is outstanding: .403/.506/.763, 11 homers, 15 steals in 19 attempts, 29 walks against just 16 strikeouts in 139 at-bats. He's polished, does a lot of things right, and has thrived this year against tough competition. One of the performance-oriented teams could consider him in the first round, and I doubt very much that he'll get past the second round. He turned down a fourth-round offer from the Padres last year, and it looks to have been the right move."

Sounds like Jason's performance is turning some opinions around. Really, this is what we knew all along; Jason is tough, he'll work hard, and he'll hit. Will he go in the first round in June?

Schimpf to Move to OF

Baseball America's Jim Callis has reported that Ryan Schimpf (Luray 08), one of the best hitters in the Valley League last summer, will be moved to the outfield in a domino effect to improve LSU's defense up the middle. (At the moment, LSU is 33-12 and ranked #4 in the nation.)

LSU will move D.J. LeMahieu to second, opening shortstop for freshman Austin Nola, and pushing Ryan to the outfield. Callis spent a paragraph on Ryan, saying, "Schimpf, a junior, packs a lot of punch for a 5-foot-9, 181-pounder. We rated him as the No. 1 prospect in the Valley League last summer, and he’s hitting .318/.443/.617 and leading the Tigers in slugging, doubles (10) and homers (12). He could move back to second base in pro ball or serve as an offensive utilityman, and he could go as high as the fourth or fifth round. He has nice pitch recognition and plate discipline, slightly above-average speed and sure hands in the field."

Sounds like the move won't hurt Ryan in the draft!

#3 Reliever: Jon Jacobs, Fauquier

Our #3 reliever, Jon Jacobs, a sophomore at Auburn, had a fantastic year for the Fauquier Gators. Jacobs was facing his first college hitters, as well, because he had redshirted his freshman year at Auburn.

Let's just say that Jacobs had some success. He threw 44 innings, going 4-1, with 2 saves, 1.84 ERA, 0.977 WHIP, 2.7 BB/9, 14.7 K/9, and .196 opponent's batting average. His 14.7 K/9 is the third highest on my list of top relievers, and his innings pitched is only one behind Kyle Cichy, who ended with 45 (and had two more playoff series to pitch, too). The League recognized Jon as a 2nd team All-League relief pitcher.

Even though Jon didn't pitch at Auburn in 2008, he comes with a solid pedigree: he was the 2007 4A Pitcher of the Year at Jackson High School in Alabama.

So far at Auburn this season (through April 21), Jon is 3-2, 5.79, with a 1.73 WHIP, 4.6 BB/9, and 6.9 K/9 in 46 2/3 innings.

Great summer, Jon, and good luck at Auburn!

 

Valley League Taking Over Southern Conference

Taking over in a manner of speaking, that is.

As faithful reader Mike Bishop (you are a faithful reader, right?) has recently pointed out, three former Valley League players are the top three home run hitters in the Southern Conference.

Number one: Brandon Sizemore (Waynesboro 06-08), with 15 (311/391/658 in 151 at-bats). Brandon also leads the league in RBIs.

Tied for number two: Matt Masilla (Woodstock 07), with 14 (367/438/748 in 147 at-bats), and Pat Irvine (Waynesboro 07), also with 14 (414/536/862 in 116 at-bats). Pat is also 5th in the league in batting average, while Matt is 5th in RBIs and 4th in total bases.

Way to go, guys- keep it up!

Pictured below: Sizemore, Mansilla, Irvine

Krieger Named CAA Player of the Week

I've seen an interesting name creeping up draft boards on a couple websites: Haymarket's Scott Krieger (08).

Scott had such an excellent week that he was named the CAA Player of the Week for April 19. He went 9-13, with a home run, 2 triples, and 7 RBI against VCU over the weekend.

Krieger is showing up on baseball blogs because he is ripping the cover off the ball for George Mason this season. He's currently hitting 390/489/801 in 141 at-bats, with 8 doubles, 4 triples, 14 home runs, and 54 RBI. He also has a solid 27/29 BB/K ratio.

Congrats, Scott!

(Thanks to Haymarket Joe for the heads-up)

ESPN's Crasnick on Gardner, Murphy

Until I saw Crasnick's article, I hadn't made the connection between Brett Gardner (New Market 03-04) and Dan Murphy (Luray 05). Of course, I knew that each played in the Valley League, but I missed the fact that they are both starting in the outfield for a baseball team that resides in New York- which is not generally seen as an easy place to play.

Whatever the connection, anytime an ESPN writer covers two of our graduates in one article, mention must be made here.

There are some great quotes in the article, including this about Brett: "The New York Yankees' center fielder is 5 feet, 10 inches and 185 pounds worth of former college walk-on, forever driven to prove people wrong. He plays the game with the exuberance of Bo Obama frolicking on the White House lawn."

About Dan (pictured): "The Mets' left fielder, in contrast, plays with a maturity that belies his youth. He's deliberate and analytical in his approach to all things baseball. Like Winston Wolfe, the cold-blooded crisis manager in "Pulp Fiction," he solves problems."

What did Yankee teammate say about Brett's speed? "The fastest white dude I've ever seen."

Met teammate JJ Putz on Daniel's obsession with hitting? "The guy sweats hitting. It's his whole life -- seriously. He probably sleeps with his bats. It wouldn't surprise me at all."

See? Our Valley Leaguers are special! Check out the link to read the whole thing...

Two Former Turks off to Great Starts

The Harrisonburg Turks have a huge amount of former players in the minor leagues, from Scott Cousins (05) to Rocky Cherry (01), from Michael Cooper (05) to Patrick Norris (07).

Two of their alumni, though, are off to tremendous starts in the new minor league season: Tony Thomas (05) and Clint Robinson (05-06).

Thomas, assigned by the Cubs to Double-A Tennessee (and pictured left), is hitting 361/415/639 in his first 9 games and 36 at-bats. While this is a small sample size, Tony has a quick 3 home runs in those 9 games.

Robinson, playing with the Wilmington Blue Rocks in the Royals' system (and pictured below), is hitting 351/385/486 in 10 games and 37 at-bats. The best sign for Clint in this young season is that he's hitting 350 (7-20) against left handed pitchers. (By the way, Wilmington is in the Carolina League, which means that Clint will play in Lynchburg, VA, Frederick, MD, Potomac, MD VA, and Salem, VA. I hope to see him play at some point this year!)

Good job, guys- keep it up!

Draft Report: Jason Kipnis

We're moving in on May, which means the draft is little more than a month away. It's the time that most college players look to- whether they admit it or not. It's the time when each will find out if a major league team wants them enough to make them one of fifty picks, or if they have more work to do, or if they need to check out the independent leagues.

MLB.com has been running draft reports over the past few months- each report has scouts' takes on skills, plus a video.

Only one former Valley League player has been featured thus far... Arizona State's Jason Kipnis (Covington 06-07). This should come as no surprise, as Jason was drafted in the '08 draft, and has been making waves with his hot hitting this spring.

Click here to see the report on mlb.com.

As a second helping of Kipnis-ness, here is an article on azcentral.com in which Jason describes why he came back for another year, and what he was doing in the Cape last summer (where, by most accounts, Jason struggled).

The article includes this gem of a quote: "I struck out a lot in the summer, but it was because I was messing around with two-strike approaches to see what would work," Kipnis said. "I found one I liked, and it's worked out well for me. I'm trying to make my name as a guy who can get on base. Coach (Pat) Murphy always preaches that the best hitters in the game walk more than they strike out. I try to pride myself on that and have that mind-set going into each game."

That fits exactly with ATVL's focus on on-base percentage. Just one more reason to root for the young man!

As a third helping, this guy thinks Jason will go #46 in the draft to the Minnesota Twins.

#4 Reliever: Josh Squatrito, Staunton

Our #4 reliever, Josh Squatrito, started the year as the Braves' setup man, but finished as the dominant last arm in the bullpen. His numbers certainly back up his change in roles, as he finished the year 2-4, 1.74, with 7 saves, a 1.065 WHIP, 2.9 BB/9, 19.7 K/9, and .197 opponent's batting average.

While all of Josh's stats are excellent, that K/9 ratio is outrageous. Such a high ratio comes from striking out 68 batters in 31 innings. In a different way to look at it, Josh got 73 % of his outs by strikeouts (68 out of 93). The next closest K/9 ratio on my list of relievers is almost 4 K/9 behind (the player shall remain nameless, as he's coming up later on the list of top relievers).

Josh, a senior at Towson, went 2-5, 7.32, with 10 saves, a 1.49 WHIP, 3.0 BB/9, and 11.5 K/9 in 51 2/3 innings in 2008 as a junior. (Notice the high K/9 again?) He played for CCBC-Catonsville in 2006 and 2007 before transferring in '08. In 2007, he went 7-2, 2.01, with 84 strikeouts, setting Catonsville's school record for strikeouts in a season. He was named first team All-Region XX, 1st team All-Maryland JUCO, an NJCAA All-American, and named to the All-Region XX Tournament Team. Whew.

Josh obviously has a live arm. It will be interesting to see if he gets a chance to continue striking out batters at the next level!

Congrats on the excellent year, Josh!

Minor League Releases

One thing is for certain in the world of professional baseball- it's a business.

This unfortunate fact has slammed a few former Valley Leaguers in the face over the last couple weeks.  Most major league teams have two rookie level teams, two A-ball teams, a AA team, and a AAA team in their minor league system. Each year, every major league team will add from 30 to 50 more players to the system. Those new players have to go somewhere...and teams will start releasing players.

It's easy to say that these guys never had a chance, that they were drafted too low, or what have you- but the truth is that these guys, no matter where they were drafted, or what their actual chances were to make the major leagues, were chasing the dream like everyone else. It's a sad day when the release comes.

Of course, there is always independent ball, and the chances that a different team might sign them, so the dream isn't necessarily finished.

Here are the seven released over the last few weeks:

• Eddy Rodriguez (Luray 05-06), by the Reds. Eddy hit 221/275/343 in 551 over 3 seasons. He also gave a baseball to my oldest daughter back in '05- instantly making him her favorite player.

• David Torcise (Staunton 05-06), by the Reds. David got a whopping 29 2/3 innings to prove himself in the Cincinnati system. He went 1-0, 1.82, with a 1.01 WHIP, 1.8 BB/9, and 6.4 K/9.

• Enrique Garcia (Winchester 05-06), also by the Reds. Enrique also only got a year, going 3-1, 5.72, with a 1.80 WHIP, 5.1 BB/9, and 6.4 K/9 in 28 1/3 innings. 

• Mark Brackman (New Market 06), by the Tigers. Mark got two seasons, going 8-10, 4.58, with a 1.44 WHIP, 2.7 BB/9, and 6.8 K/9 in 131 2/3 innings.

• Chad Rice (Staunton 06), by the Pirates. Chad hit 189/315/235 over two seasons and 264 at-bats.

• Michael Ross (Woodstock 06), by the Rays. Michael hit 240/317/295 over two seasons and 441 at-bats. He stole 66 bases!

• Mark Gildea (Covington 05), by the Nationals. Mark hit 200/321/289 over two seasons and 471 at-bats.

Good luck to one and all from here!