Here are the latest top prospect promotions of note:
- The Red Sox have announced that first baseman Sam Travis has been called up for his first taste of the majors. The team demoted righty Hector Velazquez to create roster space. Travis, 23, missed much of last year with a torn ACL. He has hit well in 139 plate appearances this year at Triple-A, though, slashing .286/.353/.452 with four home runs while taking 13 walk against 24 strikeouts. Travis, a right-handed hitter, was taken in the second round of the 2014 draft out of Indiana University — where he was a teammate of young Cubs outfielder/catcher Kyle Schwarber — and currently rates third among Red Sox prospects in the eyes of MLB.com.
- Meanwhile, the Padres will get their first look at interesting pitching prospect Dinelson Lamet, per Craig Mish of Sirius XM (Twitter links). He’ll start on Thursday, per the report. Lamet, 24, has shown well in his first full attempt at the highest level of the minors. After streaking through the system last year, he has started the current campaign with 39 innings of 3.23 ERA ball on the back of 11.5 K/9 against 4.6 BB/9. He opened the year rated tenth among Padres’ prospects, according to MLB.com, which noted that his ability to improve his command will likely dictate whether he can stay in the rotation for the long run.
Congrats to Dinelson Lamet! Nothing makes a rookie look better than debuting vs the Mets…
Well his name is pronounced La-Met according to his Baseball Reference page.
NOT SO FAST! He struggles vs lefties and the Mets lefties are mashing right handed pitching at the moment. However, idk if this game gets in, its POURING here in NY!
Lamet’s debut is pretty important in my opinion, he is the first pitcher that was fully developed by the Padres in a while Peavy, Latos and Colin Rea are the only guys that comes to mind in the last 8-10 years that was actually drafted and developed by the organization, to later graduate to the big leagues and stick in the rotation. The last 30 or so full time starting pitchers the Pads have had are all transplants from other organizations:
James Shields
Tyson Ross
Andrew Cashner
Ian Kennedy
Clayton Richard
Luis Perdomo
Drew Pomeranz
John Garland
Aaron Harang
Edinson Volquez
Edwin Jackson
Robbie Erlin
Trevor Cahill
Jered Weaver
Jholys Chacin
Chris Young
And the list goes on…
You make a good point. Some other homegrown prospects we might see this year on the Padres — Walker Lockett, Michael Kelly and Kyle Lloyd.
I actually thought (and the rumors suggested that) Lockett would get the call first. After rocketing through the system last year, it looks like Kelly has taken a step back; Lloyd is only in double A, and I’m not sure the padres are in a position to have prospects skipping levels.
Of course, they’re all basically just seat warmers for that stud rotation in Lake Elsinore – Quantrill, Lauer, Lucchesi and Morejon
Lockett looked more likely cuz he’s already on the 40. But we have space on the 40 and Lamet would have to be added after the season is over anyway.
hey dude
Cory Luebke was drafted and developed by SD. He only had the one good year before getting hurt though. Looking forward to Lamet though.
Colin Rea didn’t “stick in the rotation”. He was barely there, and then got traded while hurt.
Incorrect. He came up in 15′ and had 6 starts, coupled with 19 from last year. So 25 starts in 2 years is “Barley there”? 135 innings.. He would be in Miami’s rotation as we speak if he was still healthy, but he is not, he is back in the Padres organization which he would the number 1 or 2 starter if he was. So yes, he did stick in the rotation and he will be back in it as soon as he is healthy in 18′.
Tim Stauffer was also drafted and developed by the Padres, and he ended up having a decent, if unspectacular, career. But I too am interested in seeing how Lamet handles his first taste of big league action.
Considering the bar is set at “be better than 2017 Jared Weaver” he should be fine.
In that case, I guess I should be expecting a call from AJ lol
While I was reading this comment Weaver just gave up two more homers.
Chacin just went into the clubhouse after getting yanked in the first and removed his mask, it has been confirmed that Jered Weaver was under that mask.
I kind of wanted to see how many homers Weaver would give up if he’d gotten 30 starts. He would have easily cleared Blyleven’s record.
I feel like this is what the Padres should be doing this year – play the young guys. Yeah, they’re going to lose, but it would be much more fun to watch guys like Margot and Lamet and Hedges. Heck, even Cordoba has been interesting. A lot more fun than watching the likes of Erick Aybar and Ryan Schimpf and Yangervis Solarte and all those bad starting pitchers.
Agreed. Phil Maton can be added to the list of youngsters that should be up seeing what he can do at the MLB level as well. One guy I am pretty intrigued by as well is Christian Villanueva. If Solarte and Schimpf continue to struggle like they are, Villanueva is going to earn a chance to come up and show what he can do. It wasn’t long ago that he was a top prospect along with Baez, Contreras, Russell and Almora Jr and company, Chicago just ran into roster squeeze and couldn’t keep him, the guy hit 25 homers in AA two years ago so he is someone to keep and eye on, not to mention he has been batting cleanup for El Paso the last couple of weeks.
Villanueva was never talked about along the same lines as those guys, get real.
Yes he was,
From MLB.com May 2015:
Top 20 Cubs prospects.
(2 years ago)
Kris Bryant
Javier Baez
Addison Russell
Albert Almora
Jorge Soler
C.J. Edwards
Kyle Schwarber
Billy McKinney
Arodys Vizcaino
Pierce Johnson
Dan Vogelbach
Victor Caratini
Jeimer Candelario
Eloy Jimenez
Jen-Ho Tseng
Gleyber Torres
Paul Blackburn
Corey Black
Jefferson Mejia
Christian Villanueva
At last, Christian Villanueva re-emerges on a Cubs list after a rough 2014 season. Prior to this year (and the continued influx of talent ahead of him), Villanueva was right there in the 8 to 12 range for the Cubs, given his elite glove at third and his power potential. Since a midseason demotion back to AA, the good news is that Villanueva’s lofty K rate has come way down to an excellent 15.8%. The bad news is that his numbers, on the whole, have not rebounded. That’s partly thanks to a BABIP that is down in the .260s at both AA and AAA (he was previously a .300 to .320 guy), but also partly because the power he flashed last year simply hasn’t been there this season. There’s still time for Villanueva to right the ship – he’s just 23 – but the 40-man spot he currently occupies could give the Cubs some tough choices this offseason.
So you, get real.
Gammons comparing Travis to Goldschmidt. Does he have no shame? Lol
I watched Sam Travis a lot in college, because I live in Bloomington. The dude can really hit. On that team I actually thought he was better than Schwarber, at least in terms of pure hitting skill. Schwarber was just more of a huge raw power guy.
Even schwarber isn’t Goldschmidt no matter what the media tries to convince you otherwise. Have some respect.
Scouts/talent evaluators have been comparing Travis to Goldy for a couple of years now…Gammons is just the latest to parrot the thought. Nothing new.
Logan Allen is the name to remember from the Kimbrel trade. Saw him in person. So good. Great delivery, easy 94 with a hammer curve.