Sunday, August 2, 2009

Catching Up: Brett Anderson, David Price, Josh Reddick, Jason Heyward, Brett Cecil, and more -As

I've only got 9 more days until I take my national board exam for dental school, which means that pretty soon I'll be able to spend a lot more time watching and writing about baseball. Until then, it's 12 hours of studying everyday with 30 minutes for lunch, and an hour for dinner.

However, today I've decided to take some extra time off and relax to get my head clear and catch up on missed sleep, so I thought it might be an good opportunity to catch up on baseball as well.

-Over the last year or so, I've stated the case for Brett Anderson, Trevor Cahill, and Brett Cecil being more talented pitchers than David Price, who went into 2009 as the consensus #1 pitching prospect in baseball. I don't think many people listened to my amateur opinions, but I feel that time is finally proving me correct. Despite being a year older than Cecil, and 3 years older than Anderson and Cahill, Price has the highest posted WHIP and ERA of the 4 pitchers. Obviously, things could change, but I think my pre-season #1 pitching prospect (Brett Anderson) is going to look like a very good choice over the next few years.

-I was surprised to see Josh Reddick's name in the Red Sox lineup the other day after hearing his name mentioned in trade talks for weeks. Instead of being traded, Reddick came up and hit 2 doubles and a homerun over the weekend, while also getting a shaving cream pie to the face from David Ortiz. Reddick's a guy with above average power and contact skills, and hitting in the BoSox lineup should allow him to see plenty of good pitches to hit. Good luck to the Georgia native.

-As a Braves fan, it's great to see Jason Heyward at the top of so many mid-summer prospect lists. I'm not sure that he's a better hitter than Jesus Montero right now, but the two are very close, and Heyward has the benefit of being a bit more athletic with above average speed. Both players have put up some absurd numbers this year for their age, and I'm excited to see if their progress thus far carries over into higher levels.

-If you are the Texas Rangers, what do you do with Justin Smoak and Chris Davis? So much potential, yet so little room at first base.

Well, that's it for now. But I'll be back with a vengeance in about 10 days.

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