The Burlington Royals roster is by far the most exciting of the short season teams, but the other two teams have some players of interest as well. A look at some of the better prospects and some sleepers that I have identified.
First the position players for Idaho Falls, and we'll start with OF Hilton Richardson. The Washington native is a big athletic kid that physically resembles Grady Sizemore. He's still a work in progress but has plenty of tools. Unlike some of the other athletes in the system like Jarrod Dyson, Adrian Ortiz, and Pat Norris, Richardson has the ability to knock the ball into the gaps and even over the wall. My other two position players to follow are both catchers -- Salvador Perez and Ben Theriot. Perez you have probably heard about before on here or elsewhere. He ranked #22 on my winter rankings. After struggling pretty badly in Burlington, IA for the first part of the season, Perez was reassigned to Idaho Falls. Perez has size and patience at the plate with a gap-to-gap approach. Look for him to finish the year with the Chukars and try again at Burlington in 2010. Theriot was the Royals' 9th round pick this year out of Texas State. He gunned down a stunning 75% of runners that tried to steal against him in his junior season, thanks to quick feet, a quick release, and a solid average arm. He takes pitches at the plate and prefers hitting the opposite way. As a catcher who plays good defense and bats from the left side, he profiles as a Major League backup, perhaps similar to Gregg Zaun.
Now on too the pitchers for the Chukars, starting with 2009 6th round pick Cole White. The pitcher from the University of New Mexico throws up to 97 on occasion and supplements it with a hard slider. He profiles as a reliever because he lacks feel for a changeup or a curveball, but could move quite quickly when the command starts to come around. After missing all of 2008 with Tommy John surgery, Bryan Paukovits is back and trying to return to form. Paukovits is a massive human being at a towering 6-foot-7 and nearly 250 pounds. He throws hard and has a promising curveball, but has a ways to go in refining his command. One of the sleeper picks here is this year's 12th round selection, Nick Wooley from William Woods University. Wooley has a slight frame at 6-foot-3 and only 160 pounds, but has a fastball that touches 92 and also has an excellent curveball. He'll need to put on some pounds to hold up as a starting pitcher, but is a guy that could seemingly come out of nowhere at some point.
On to the Arizona Royals position players...and there's not much. Partially because of the Royals college oriented draft class this year, and partically because of the lack of major talent coming up from Latin America. The most interesting position player is a major project in 2009 10th round selection 1B Geoffrey Baldwin. He's a lanky 6-foot-5 kid from Colorado with some power potential. But his swing is quite ugly, he actually swings off his front foot so he has trouble with anything that's not straight. So don't look for him to be moving up quickly any time soon. Athletic outfielder and 2008 sixth round selection CF Alex Llanos is returning for another campaign in Arizona. He's a good defensive player and has some offensive upside including good bat speed, but is still learning to hit and have better control of the strike zone. Last two players that are interesting are catchers Mauricio Matos and Edul Escobar. Matos is a skinny kid from the Bronx who has good catching tools and makes contact at the plate, but really lacks power at this point in his career.
Similar to the position players, the Royals pitchers in the Arizona League aren't anything to brag about. The past couple seasons, the team has been flush with pitching talent thanks to the high ceiling high school pitchers taken early in the draft. That wasn't the case this year, as the first high school pitcher selected was in the 14th round (and he hasn't signed yet). Therefore, half the roster is constructed of late round selections and NDFA's, with some Latin America signings filling in the rest of the roster. The top Latin arm this year is likely Willian Avinazar, a tall, slender right hander. I haven't a scouting report yet, but there were rumblings last year that he was the top arm in the Dominican academy. Lefty Claudio Bavera was a 33rd round selection this year, he's only 5-foot-10, but he's got an interesting mix of offspeed pitches and could fool less advanced hitters. Right hander Luis Ortega was a minor league rule V selection after pitching last year in the Dominican League for the Nationals, so maybe there is something there. See? Not much pitching here.
Next we'll look at how our high priced international talent is faring from the past couple years, and then a look at some prospects with helium.
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