Deeper Underground - Minor League Report Vol. 3 - June 2036 Wrap up

[Underground]

Well the Underground blog team once again failed to make this a more frequent periodical but are retroactively calling this an "intentional decision" to publish a report following the rookie draft in mid-June. Yeah, sure..

Anywho, we're going to go through each of the Underground minor league teams and discuss any notable player on each roster rather than discuss the performance of the team as a whole.

Crocodile Hunters - Rookie Ball
The team features several strong PEBA prospects and quite a large number of potential tweeners, any one of which might break out developmentally at some point and become a PEBA regular. For now, we'll mostly focus on the higher value prospects.

Fresh off being drafted 58th overall in the draft this year 17 year old SP Laurent Garcia has started three games for the Crocodile Hunters thus far. Unfortunately they have not gone particularly well and he now sports an 0-3 record and has seen a ballooning ERA up to 6.48. The only bright spot thus far is an impressive 11.9 K/9 ratio. However the team itself is quite bad so far and at just 17 years of age there's no sweating his first three starts. Right? Right????

London's 3rd round pick CF Curt Pineau has fared better, batting .286 in his first 13 games with a .308 OBP. Curt also hit his first professional home run in the past week. Overall Pineau has converted about one RBI per every second game started which is solid production. In the field he has yet to commit an error in 109+ innings.

Finally London's 5th round pick CF Samuel Lapthorne has had a decent start as well. Though only batting .200 he has been effective at getting on base, walking 7 times in 13 games and earning a .308 OBP. Lapthorne is essentially diet Pineau in pretty much every way so he will have to compete right out the gate to earn play time and call-ups.

Sledge Dogs - Short season A
Honestly this team is an absolute mess. There's a handful of possible PEBA prospects here but really only one worth writing about.

Despite being just 18 years old, SP Juan Meekss is into his second professional season following his selection at 11th overall last year. Meeks is having about as good a year as he can given the supporting cast, currently sitting at a 2-4 record and 4.72 ERA. Meeks is punching out a respectable 7.0 K/9 as a groundball guy but continues to struggle with his control, walking 3.8 BB/9 which is even worse than last years 3.1 in rookie ball.

Bears - A
The Bears feature two future PEBA stars and a former International FA signing who is at risk of falling away.

SP Antonio Mata was drafted in the 1st Supplemental round in 2033 and into his third professional year. Having struggled in each of this first three seasons he is finally rounding into the player London hoped they were getting and sports a 5-3 record and 2.39 ERA. He is punching out 8.7 batters per 9 innings. He pitched his first ever no hitter on June 14th 2036 and a week later was selected to the NAFTA All-Star Game. Mata would normally be under consideration for a call-up to AA but given the relative performance of both teams Underground management are strongly considering keeping him in A this year, with a chance to jump straight to AAA next year.

London's first pick in this years draft RF Eichiro Nakashima was given the very rare honor of debuting straight to A-ball for London, something nearly unheard of for the franchise. However young Eichiro has responded quite well, currently batting .286/.400/.667 in his first 11 games. Eichiro has already hit 4 home runs in that time as well. Eichiro seems well on his way to moving up the organization next year.

On a more somber note is 3B Juan Cabrera, an international free-agent signed by London all the way back in 2031. Debuting professionally in 2033 he had several successful seasons in lower ball until arriving in Birmingham in 2035. His first year in A ball was decent but unremarkable and ultimately the decision was made to keep him back another year. This year thus far he has cratered as a full time starter, batting just .165/.267/.268. Still 21 years of age there is time for him to recover but with lineup spots always in short supply he risks his stunted development becoming permanant.

Beatles - AA
Only one player on this team worth talking about today, SP Jose Hernandez who stands out as by far London's most impressive scouting discovery ever. Hernandez features the only winning record among SP on this team at 6-4, sports a 2.40 ERA, a 0.96 WHIP, and 8.9 K/9. He was earlier this season named the #21 prospect in the PEBA and was selected to the AA All-Star game in June. Honestly Hernandez is probably days or weeks away from a call-up to AAA where he can experience a winning atmosphere and playoff baseball. There's also a new opening in the rotation there, so....

Rhinos - AAA
Former 8th overall CF Zak Osmond headlines the Rhinos currently having skipped AA completely and moved straight from A to AAA for the 2036 season. Despite that and at just 20 years old he is batting a strong .271/.341/.404. He continues to showcase a well-rounded game, hitting 7 home runs and stealing 19 bases thus far. He has mostly patrolled CF in Leeds but has gotten some time in at LF as well, performing admirably in both spots. Osmond projects to be ready for the PEBA already, but will likely spend the full year in AAA before likely competing for the starting CF job in London for 2037.

Underground - PEBA
And now onto this years surprise thus far. London was put in an interesting position a few weeks back when Troy Rush suffered an injury and was forced out of the rotation. London considered calling up last years 11 game winner Jong-Hoo Im but he had a truly apocalyptic start to the PEBA season this year, thus earning his demotion. London decided instead to give former 11th overall SP Andrew Bevan his first ever shot in the PEBA. Bevan did not fail to impress, firing 7.2 innings of 1 run ball in his debut and picking up the win. In two starts since Bevan has allowed just a total of 2 runs in 14.1 innings and now sits atop a 1.23 ERA after his inaugural three starts. Small sample size for sure, but he also sports a 0.64 WHIP and 338 ERA+ and two of his starts were against playoff teams - Scotland and Kentucky. Needless to say, Bevan has now replaced Rush in the London rotation and is expected to remain with the team - at least until the wheels fall off.

The Underground have one other true rookie worth noting, the other great London scouting discovery RP Jorge Ruiz. Ruiz jumped straight from AA last year to the PEBA this year and has shined. The just 21 year old has a 2.18 ERA out of the bullpen along with a 2-1 record and 3 saves. Ruiz's stellar play combined with a surprising rough start to the season for Norm Batstone allowed Ruiz to supplant Batstone for the coveted 7th/8th inning work spot and he now leads all arms in the London pen with 45.1 IP.

Well there you have it, a brief recap of particularly noteworthy prospects in the London system (and a couple on the big club). We'll focus back on them again in a month or so and will see if any other prospects make names for themselves in the meantime to earn a mention!