ashbury

I guess major league hitters are a little tougher to get out.

Fernandez has gotten off to a nice start in his first four games played for Cedar Rapids. At Kane County he got 3 hits with 1 double on April 10, and followed up the next night with 2 doubles. He has cooled off a little in his next two games, at home against Beloit, but his one single on April 14 led his manager to state, “Fernandez had a heck of an at-bat. It was two big runs there to give us a cushion. He was right on it.” He has a four-game total at this writing of a .375 batting average and a .974 OPS. Two games he played behind the plate (no stolen base attempts), and two he DHed, out of 6 games played, so they're doing their best to work him into a talented lineup that currently has 6 wins without a loss.

Jorge Jhamil Fernandez Born: March 30, 1994 (age 21 this season) Birthplace: Yabucoa, Puerto Rico Drafted 2012 in the 7th round (#220 overall) - $150K bonus School: Colegio Hector Urdaneta Height: 6' 3" Weight: 188 Position: Catcher Bats: Both Throws: Right Twitter handle: J.J. Dez, @jj_fernandez34 The sturdy and athletic switch hitter took a major stride forward in 2014 with a fine season at rookie-level Elizabethton. He batted .321 and flashed some power for a .440 slugging average. He didn't walk a real lot, leading to an OBP of .361, only a little higher than his BA. But the total OPS of .802 is a highly satisfactory number. His results were better against RHP than against lefties, but we are still in "small sample size" territory when splitting numbers in a short-season league. On defense Fernandez gets good marks from scouts. His ability to throw out base stealers resulted in a 38% caught rate last year (5 out of 13). Milb.com lists his school as Colegio Hector Urdaneta, while b-r.com lists it as International Baseball Academy (Ceiba, PR). I am assuming schools operate a little differently there than here, and his relevant baseball experience came entirely at the academy. Maybe the latter is more important as a guide to his baseball "pedigree", but I'll still list the former as his school, above. He likes to be called JJ, apparently. So I'll go with that. JJ moves up to Cedar Rapids for 2015. At age 21 he is one of the younger players there. It looks like he'll serve as the backup catcher to Brian Navarreto, but at single-A you usually can count on two catchers approximately splitting the playing time. He has some experience at 1B and RF in lower leagues, but Cedar Rapids is pretty well stacked at both those positions, so DH may be the only opportunity manager Jake Mauer will have to get him a little more time at the plate. Fortunately it looks like his bat will fit the DH role well. It's foolish to extrapolate too much from one year of Appalachian League numbers, but I still have JJ marked as one of my 30 Twins prospects to watch in 2015. Major stats sites for him can be found at b-r.com, fangraphs, and milb.com.

Felix has gotten off to a fantastic start at Cedar Rapids. He started the April 13 game versus Beloit and limited them to 2 hits and 2 walks in 7 innings of shutout ball, with 10 strikeouts.

Felix De Jesus (Estevez) Jorge Born: January 2, 1994 (age 21 this season) Birthplace: Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic Signed as an international free agent 2010, $250K Height: 6' 2" Weight: 170 Position: Pitcher Throws: Right Bats in theory: Right Pitching arsenal: fastball (mid-90s), curveball, change http://www.milb.com/assets/images/4/2/4/89136424/cuts/jorge_pic_whtrhiaq_62yu7umy.jpg There was initial confusion about this pitcher's name when bloggers began writing about him. Some had him as Felix Jorge while others had him as Jorge Felix. The major sites (b-r.com, fangraphs, milb.com) are in agreement that his first name is Felix and his last name is Jorge. Felix spent his first two professional years in the relatively low-pressure environments of the Dominican Summer League and the Gulf Coast League, and he put up good numbers. In 2013 the slender righty moved up to Elizabethton in the rookie-designation Appalachian League. There he pitched 61 innings in 12 starts, impressing with 72 strikeouts, and he kept runners off the bases sufficiently to result in a 2.95 ERA for the season. His performance and potential was noticed by those who compile rankings of Twins prospects, propelling him to top-20 status heading into 2014. He was duly promoted to single-A Cedar Rapids for 2014 and the season started off for him with a "bang". As in, "something went terribly wrong". He pitched one hitless inning of relief, then made 8 starts, only two of which could be remotely termed "quality". He gave up the longball at an alarming rate, baserunners were plentiful, and the runners were scoring. By late May he had been relegated to the bullpen. All in all, his strikeouts were down to around 5 per inning, he allowed almost 2 hits+walks per inning, and there were 9 home runs in only 39 innings - a combination which led to an unsightly ERA of exactly 9. Felix was sent back to Extended Spring Training at the beginning of June, to wait for Elizabethton's 68-game season, in effect a demotion. Something good happened during this period, because at Elizabethton he looked like a different pitcher - or maybe it was a different pitcher who had been in Iowa and now we had the real Felix Jorge back. Pitching in mainly 5-inning stints, he didn't give up a single run until his fourth game, and didn't give up a home run until his 10th start. All in all, he re-established a good strikeout rate of 8.3 per 9 innings, allowed barely more than a baserunner per inning, and compiled an ERA of 2.59. Felix Jorge begins 2015 at Cedar Rapids once again. Despite his putrid showing there last year, he is on my list of 30 prospects to watch this season, and I was happy to be able to "adopt" him here. Here is his page from last year, containing lots of good insights.

Can't hit, can't pitch, and can't field is no way to go through life, son. http://i0.wp.com/www.themovies.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Animalhouse1257.jpg

This is exactly when I happened to tune in. Not impressive. http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view1/3313077/abe-simpson-o.gif

It's a continuation of what could be observed all spring in Ft Myers. Not a matter of hitting the ball on the nose but it goes right at a fielder, he is swinging at balls in the dirt. It's still a relatively small sample to comment from, and it's probably something that players work out on their own all the time. Nevertheless I choose to be a little concerned.

Aaron, the older brother of Moses. So famous, people don't even mention his last name anymore.

I had him ridiculously high in my list of high-ceiling hitters in my blog here a few weeks back. Since nobody took him in the Adopt-A-Prospect project, I grabbed him there too. Sounds like we have a cheerleader squad for him here.

Good decision, good execution.

"Why, Pelfrey?"

Congratulations on making my Mr Hilter post the second most tasteless of the afternoon.

If she'd have you, yeah.

4-4, end of 4. That should be an ERA of 4, right?

http://i.imgur.com/CHdtQo0.jpg

Like this?

Halsey, did you see Plouffe's DP play cutting off a run?

Herrmann needs to improve where he sets his mitt. The ball is arriving nowhere near it.

Distance traveled at the speed of light rather than 88 ft/sec would seem a good start.

"Felt sorry for the baseball," on that HBP. LOL.

Woah, tough crowd.

The batter called time.

damage How's that?

Yes. -- Chief