Back in the early days of this blog we picked up a cheap box of 2008 Bowman Chrome Baseball. Oh, how young and naive we were back then. (Why yes, we did pick up a case of 2011 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects last year as well.)
Since Bowman is all about the prospect cards, you really have no idea how good your box is for months upon years down the line. Instead of forgetting about these cards and hoping for the best, we decided to actively break our collective hearts as the prospects get picked off in the minors one by one.
By the way, the original name of this post was the Mid 2012 Edition. I guess we got distracted by other matters. Well, let’s revisit our crop and see how many September call ups we got.
We’ll be following up with these guys every few months (or year) or so as an experiment. Here’s our first check in back in May of 2010 and here’s our follow-up in November of ’10, and here’s our end of 2011 update. How much does prospecting really pay off for your average box? Obviously the odds aren’t that good, but it should be fun to see how many drop out and how quickly and how many make the big leagues and if any stick. Stats are up to date as of yesterday.
For batters, I’ll give the line AVG/OBP/OPS (I’ll let you do the math on SLG from there if you want). I’ll also give HR, RBI and SB. For pitchers, I’ll give ERA, current W-L, SV & BB/SO
If the average type stats are worse than before, I’ll highlight in red. If it’s better; green. I’m highlighting the counting stats this time since I’m comparing them to a year ago. If the player jumped rank mid-season, the stats are cumulative when possible.
Jeudy Valdez (Padres – AA) – .225/.273/.637, 12 HR, 46 RBI, 13 SB – currently playing in Arizona fall league
Duke Welker (Pirates – AAA) – 2.29, 2-2, 5 SV, 25 BB/49 K
Johan Limonta (Mariners? – AAA) – .321/.384/.856, 6 HR, 35 RBI, 2 SB – currently playing in Mexican League – may not be affiliaed with a MLB team anymore.
Justin Henry (Red Sox – previously Tigers – AAA) – .300/.372/.729, 1 HR, 38 RBI, 22 SB– currently playing in Venezuelan winter League
Fabio Castillo (Giants – previously Rangers – AA) – 3.54, 4-1, 0 SV, 26 BB/41 K – currently playing in Dominican winter League
Brandon MaGee (Blue Jays – AA) – last played in 2010. Now appears to be out of baseball (not on MiLB.com).
Charlie Furbush (Mariners – previously Tigers – MLB) – 2.72, 5-2, 0 SV, 16 BB/53 K
Jose Vallejo (Astros – AAA; card lists Rangers) – last played in 2011. Now appears to be out of baseball (not on MiLB.com).
Hector Rondon (Cubs – previously Indians – AA) – 1.29, 0-0, 0 SV, 2 BB/9 K – only played in 4 games in 2012 after playing 2 in 2011. currently playing in Venezuelan offseason league
Ernesto Mejia (Braves – Previously Royals – AAA; card lists Braves) – .296/.347/.849, 24 HR, 92 RBI, 10 SB
Rhyne Hughes (Orioles – AA; card lists Rays) – .278/.370/.874, 13 HR, 51 RBI, 4 SB (2010 MLB Stats – 14 Games – .213/.275/.530, 0 HR, 4 RBI, 0 SB – not brought back to majors in 2011 or ’12)
Travis Banwart (A’s – AAA) – 3.85, 9-5, 2 SV, 37 BB/99 K
Anthony Varvaro (Braves – Previously Mariners – MLB) – 2.23, 0-2, 6 SV 24 BB/47 K (MLB Stats – 12 Games; 4 in ’10, 18 in ’11 – 5.40 ERA, 1-1, 0 SV, 9 BB/21 K)
Jhonny Nunez (Mariners – previously White Sox – AAA; card lists Nationals) – 6.57, 2-2, 0 SV, 26 BB/29 K
David Wood (Royals – A) – last played in A in 2009. Now appears to be out of baseball (not on MiLB.com).
DJ Jones (Rays – A) – last played in A in 2009. Now appears to be out of baseball (not on MiLB.com).
Larry Williams (Braves) – last played in High A in 2007. Now appears to be out of baseball (not on MiLB.com).
Steve Garrison (Mariners – previously Yankees – Previously Padres – AA) – 5.13, 6-9, 0 SV, 24 BB/58 K – Played in one MLB game in 2011, pitched 0.2 scoreless innings.
Ivan Nova (Yankees – MLB) – MLB Stats – 28 Games as a starter – 5.02, 12-8, 0 SV, 56 BB/153 K
Jaime Pedroza (Braves – previously Dodgers – AA) – .193/.279/.636, 4 HR, 6 RBI, 1 SB
Zach Britton (Orioles – MLB) – 11 games in the minors – MLB stats – 12 games as a Starter – 5.07, 5-3, 0 SV, 32 BB/53 K
Jake Arrieta (Orioles – MLB) 10 games in the minors – MLB Stats – 24 Games as a Starter – 6.20, 3-9, 0 SV, 35 BB/109 K)
Luis De La Cruz (Braves – previously Cardinals – AAA) – .297/.318/.670, 1 HR, 16 RBI, 1 SB (majority of stats are from High A, only 1 game at AAA)
Alan Farina (Blue Jays – High A) – 5.18, 1-2, 1 SV, 14 BB/24 K
Helder Velazquez (Rockies – High A) – .252/.311/.715, 7 HR, 39 RBI, 4 SB
Danny Brezeale (Braves) – last played in A Ball in 2007. Now appears to be out of baseball (not on MiLB.com).
Bryan Morris (Pirates –MLB; card lists Dodgers) – 46 games at AAA – 2.67, 2-2, 5 SV, 17 BB/79 K – MLB stats – 5 Games – 1.80, 0-0, 0 SV, 2 BB/6 K
Lucas Duda (Mets – MLB) – 25 games in AAA – .260/.327/.723, 3 HR, 8 RBI, 0 SB (MLB stats – 121 games; 29 Games in ’10, 100 in ’11 – .239/.329/.718, 15 HR, 57 RBI, 1 SB)
Eric Barrett (Braves – Rookie Ball) – not on MiLB.com – played in Independent ball in 2010, nowhere in 2011
Mitch Canham (Cardinals – Previously Athletics – Previously Padres – AAA) – .125/.192/.317, 0 HR, 0RBI, 0 SB – only played in 18 games
Ryan Mullins (Twins – AAA) – last played in AAA in 2011. Now appears to be out of baseball (not on MiLB.com).
Yamaico Navarro (Pirates – Previously Royals – Previously Red Sox – MLB) – 66 games in minors – .279/.366/.857 – 9 HR, 35 RBI, 9 SB (MLB stats – 29 Games – 22 games in ’11 – .160/.232/.452, 1 HR, 4 RBI, 0 SB)
Carlos Santana (Indians – MLB; card lists Dodgers) – MLB stats – 143 Games – .252/.365/.785, 18 HR, 76 RBI, 3 SB)
Sergio Morales (White Sox – A) – last played in High A in 2009. Now appears to be out of baseball (not on MiLB.com).
Zhenwang Zhang (Yankess) – apparently the first player born in the People’s Republic of China to sign a MLB contract with the permission of the China Baseball Association – doesn’t appear to have played a game in the minors or majors
Our Autographed Card: Jordan Schafer (Braves – Previously Astros – Previously Braves – MLB) – 5 games in AAA (MLB stats – 106 games – .211/.297/.591, 4 HR, 23 RBI, 27 SB)
Players that made it to the majors: 11 (same, but only 10 currently still there)
Players out of baseball: 10 (up from 8)
Players promoted to next level: 8 (same as last time)
Players demoted to lower level: 2 (down from 4)
First impression – I thought we would have seen more call-ups this year. At least a couple more September additions. Last time I said the diminishing returns are about to start, but I wasn’t expecting progress to fall off completely already.
Second impression – I actually thought there were going to be more people dropping off the face of the baseball earth. Next year. There’s a lot of red up there.
Guys to watch: Fabio Castillo made a huge jump this year. It’ll be interesting to see how far Rhyne Hughes will fall. He was called up in 2010, but now has been demoted all the way down to AA. Alan Farina had a huge drop off as well. He had an ERA under 2 last time. I’m switching my focus from the guys that made it to the majors to the guys that might fall one way or another.
We’ll check in again next year. What are your thoughts now that we’ve done this a few times? Are you as surprised as I am with how many of these guys are reaching and actually impacting the major leagues? Does this make you want to prospect a little on your own? Should we try a box of 2009 Bowman and start the same process to see how the years compare?
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