For the latest player-development features, please see the Top Stories rail on the right side of the Prospects index page. We also recommend the Baseball America Prospect Report as well as the Daily Dish for updates on what happened yesterday around the minors.

On Pace For 62 Home Runs

Marlins slugger Mike Stanton connected for his 15th home run yesterday as part of a 1-for-3 day (including two walks) for Double-A Jacksonville. He had not played since Thursday (when he also homered) after receiving permission to attend a wedding over the weekend. If the 20-year-old right fielder keeps cranking them out at this pace over 550 plate appearances, he'll finish with 62 homers. (No, it is not likely that Florida will keep Stanton at Jacksonville for the entire season.) In case you're wondering, the Southern League record for home runs is 42, which Orlando's Tim Lauder accomplished in 1981.

As for Stanton, he also leads the minors in slugging (.854), while ranking second in extra-base hits (23), total bases (88) and RBIs (33); third in on-base percentage (.481) and fourth in walks (28). [...] Continue Reading »

The Twins have given righthander Kyle Gibson a new challenge, promoting their 2009 first-round pick to Double-A New Britain.

Gibson, 22, had little difficulty in his seven starts in the high Class A Florida State League, leaving the circuit with a 1.87 ERA in 43 1/3 innings. Gibson struck out 40, walked 12 and pounded the strike zone with an outstanding sinking fastball, which is why 86 percent of his outs on balls in play were groundouts.

• When the Red Sox promoted first baseman Lars Anderson to Triple-A Pawtucket a week and a half ago, it didn't figure to be long before they would bring in Anthony Rizzo to take his spot.

The Red Sox made that move today, promoting Rizzo from high Class A Salem to Double-A Portland. Rizzo, 20, hit .248/.333/.479 in 29 games with Salem. He earned praise around the Carolina League for his glovework but perhaps more important was the power he showed, with five home runs and 12 doubles, after going deep just 12 times in 119 games last year between low Class A Greenville and Salem.

Anderson, meanwhile, hasn't slowed down upon his move to the International League—he's hitting .290/.450/.484 in 10 games for Pawtucket. Certainly not bad timing to be a productive first base prospect at the upper levels of the Red Sox system.

• Righthander Deolis Guerra hasn't turned out to be the top prospect some were expecting him to be when he came to the Twins from the Mets in the Johan Santana trade. Yet while his stuff isn't overpowering, he is doing at least one thing well: throwing strikes. Guerra, 21, received a promotion to Triple-A Rochester after posting a 3.07 ERA in 29 1/3 innings over five starts with Double-A New Britain, averaging just 1.2 walks per nine innings.

The Twins also promoted Australian righthander Liam Hendriks from low Class A Beloit to high Class A Fort Myers. Hendriks, 21, dominated the Midwest League with a 1.32 ERA, 39 strikeouts and four walks in 34 innings.

We've changed up our daily prospect coverage ever so slightly to give readers more of what they want, while also providing value to subscribers.

The Daily Dish will continue as a free read, highlighting top performers and touching on other news from around the minors. In conjunction with the Baseball America Prospect Report, this will catch you up with what happened in the minors the day before.

If you've enjoyed the feature-length player development stories we had been running in Daily Dish this April (and all of last season), well those aren't going away. They are, however, moving to subscriber-only territory. You can find them in the Prospect Bulletin category. We also plan to sprinkle in the intermittent Prospect Q&A and Scout's View.

We suggest you peruse the Top Stories rail on the right side of the Prospects index page for a sampling of recent prospect-related headlines, including the aforementioned Bulletins and also Prospect Hot Sheet and Ask BA.

Mike Stanton has hit plenty of home runs, but the home run he hit on Thursday night was one to remember.

We try to focus the Daily Dish on what happened yesterday (or over the weekend in the case of Monday's Daily Dish), but we're going to make one exception here to add a little detail to what appears to be the home run of the year.

Stanton did not play this weekend as he was excused to attend a wedding, but the Marlins 20-year-old right fielder left Double-A Montgomery with a pretty impressive calling card. Stanton's home run on Thursday night was the longest of his career—according to Stanton—and it was one that left observers gasping.

[...] Continue Reading »

By Matt Michael

Syracuse, N.Y.—From his first pitch (a 96-mph fastball for a called strike) to his last (a knee-buckling curve for a called strike three), Syracuse righthander Stephen Strasburg looked like a man among boys in his Triple-A debut against Gwinnett Friday night.

Strasburg was so dominating, in fact, that his pitching line would have been the same if the game had been played on a Little League field, because the Braves didn’t hit one ball in the air.

Strasburg allowed one hit—a seeing-eye single up the middle—in six innings and earned the win as the Chiefs blanked the Braves 7-0 before a Syracuse franchise-record crowd of 13,766 at Alliance Bank Stadium. Strasburg also chipped in two RBIs on a run-scoring single in his first Triple-A at-bat and a sacrifice bunt that plated a runner from third in the fourth inning (though the play was not conceived as a squeeze play).

Of his 18 outs, Strasburg fanned six and recorded 12 groundball outs, most of which were slow rollers or choppers. Not one Gwinnett batter hit a pitch from Strasburg to the outfield, even in foul territory.

"If you hit your spots," Chiefs center fielder Pete Orr said, "it makes it tough on hitters to drive the ball to the outfield or hit the ball in the air." [...] Continue Reading »

The Pacific Coast League has the West Coast covered, with two California-based teams, one in Oregon and another in Washington. The Triple-A circuit also extends as far East as Nashville. So it's not terribly surprising to learn that a PCL game scheduled for tonight has been postponed because the visiting team experienced flight delays.

What is surprising is that game was to pit Omaha against visiting New Orleans, two cities separated by about 815 miles. The Omaha Royals announced the postponement in a press release that reached Baseball America's e-mail inboxes at 5:04 p.m. EST, or three hours before game time. The two teams will play the remaining three games of the series as scheduled, beginning Saturday night.

To make up the lost contest, a doubleheader has been scheduled for July 24, the next time New Orleans visits Omaha.

It's a prospect carousel in the Cubs system today.

In addition to the big promotion of shortstop Starlin Castro from Double-A Tennessee to the big leagues, the organization also promoted righthander Andrew Cashner to Triple-A Iowa and third baseman Josh Vitters to Double-A.

Cashner, 23, dominated the Southern League and leaves the circuit with a 2.75 ERA, 42 strikeouts and 13 walks in 36 innings. He'll join righthander Jay Jackson to give Iowa one of the best one-two punches in any starting rotation in the Pacific Coast League.

Vitters, 20, hit .291/.350/.445 for Daytona in the high Class A Florida State League. He's not going to have a Kevin Youkilis approach at the plate, but Vitters has drawn eight walks in 28 games this year; last year it took him 71 games to get eight free passes.

The Cubs also moved 23-year-old second baseman Ryan Flaherty from Double-A down to Daytona. Flaherty struggled with Tennessee, hitting .183/.286/.254 in 23 games. Flaherty had been splitting time at second base with Tony Thomas, and the move should get Thomas more regular playing time at second. Thomas, 23, is off to a .288/.439/.423 start with the Smokies through 19 games.

If you read Baseball America, you probably know that age is important. All other things being equal a 19-year-old dominating the Midwest League is more impressive than a 24-year-old blitzing through the Southern League. So with that in mind, here are the stats for every teenager in full-season ball. The pitchers are ranked according to ERA while the hitters are sorted by runs created.

It's probably no surprise that Mike Trout is having an impressive start to his 2010 season, but you may not have noticed how few teenagers there are in high Class A and Double-A. Jay Austin, Salvador Perez and Anthony Gose's seasons become more impressive when you put their age in context. And Martin Perez and Jordan Lyles stand out as teenagers already pitching in the Texas League.

The cutoff date is today's date, so any players who turned 20 today (May 6) or before don't qualify for this list. [...] Continue Reading »

We've changed up our daily prospect coverage ever so slightly to give readers more of what they want, while also providing value to subscribers.

The Daily Dish will continue as a free read, highlighting top performers and touching on other news from around the minors. In conjunction with the Baseball America Prospect Report, this will catch you up with what happened in the minors the day before.

If you've enjoyed the feature-length player development stories we had been running in Daily Dish this April (and all of last season), well those aren't going away. They are, however, moving to subscriber-only territory. You can find them in the Prospect Bulletin category. We also plan to sprinkle in the intermittent Prospect Q&A and Scout's View.

We suggest you peruse the Top Stories rail on the right side of the Prospects index page for a sampling of recent prospect-related headlines, including the aforementioned Bulletins and also Prospect Hot Sheet and Ask BA.

De La Cruisin'

You don't see too many pitching prospects in the lower minors pitch in to the ninth inning, especially ones who missed nearly the entire season the year prior due to injury. Indians lefty Kelvin de la Cruz was so efficient that it didn't matter, as he threw eight shutout innings for high Class A Kinston before giving up a two-run homer to Lynchburg right fielder Justin Reed (Reds). The home run tied the game and Lynchburg went on to win 3-2, but de la Cruz was brilliant, allowing two runs (one earned) in 8 1/3 innings with eight strikeouts and no walks. De la Cruz didn't overpower hitters with his velocity, but he mixed three pitches effectively, kept hitters off balance with his changeup, pitched down in the zone and kept the ball on the ground, a good recipe for quick innings.

[...] Continue Reading »

This time: April 27-May 3

Check out the Transactions Glossary for the key to deciphering the various inactive lists presented here.

An asterisk (*) denotes an instance of a player agreeing to terms on a minor league contract with an organization with which he already had a major league agreement.

Arizona Diamondbacks
Traded: SS Rey Navarro to Royals for RHP Carlos Rosa
Recalled: RHP Kevin Mulvey, RHP Daniel Stange, RHP Cesar Valdez
Optioned to Triple-A: RHP Kevin Mulvey, RHP Carlos Rosa
Placed on 7-day DL: C Ryan Babineau, 1B Brandon Allen

Atlanta Braves
Reinstated from DL: RHP David Francis, C Braeden Schlehuber, 3B Samuel Sime [...] Continue Reading »

We've changed up our daily prospect coverage ever so slightly to give readers more of what they want, while also providing value to subscribers.

If you've enjoyed the feature-length player development stories we had been running in Daily Dish this April (and all of last season), well those aren't going away. They are, however, moving to subscriber-only territory. You can find them in the Prospect Bulletin category. We also plan to sprinkle in the intermittent Prospect Q&A and Scout's View.

We suggest you peruse the Top Stories rail on the right side of the Prospects index page for a sampling of recent prospect-related headlines, including the aforementioned Bulletins and also Prospect Hot Sheet and Ask BA. It's your one-stop shop.

Owens Rolls Through Richmond

Pirates lefty Rudy Owens was one of the breakout stories of 2009. A draft-and-follow pick from the 2006 draft, Owens came out of nowhere to go 11-2, 2.10 between two Class A levels and managers voted him the best pitching prospect in the low Class A South Atlantic League. Still, Owens is a pitchability lefthander without an overpowering fastball. Seeing if he could successfully make the jump to Double-A Altoona was expected to be a major test for him. Not so far.

Owens has gotten better with each start and sports an impressive 3-0, 2.83 mark through 28 2/3 innings. He'd allowed just three runs over his last two starts heading into last night's outing in Richmond, but Owens was masterful against the Flying Squirrels. He threw six hitless innings before being pulled with his pitch count at 98. His 11 strikeouts were a career-high and vaulted him to the EL lead with 28 on the year.

[...] Continue Reading »

Major League Baseball announced suspensions today for two minor league players.

Free agent outfielder Ben Harrison received a stiff 100-game suspension for the purchase and use of amphetamines, according to an MLB press release. The 28-year-old spent the majority of last season with the Marlins' high Class A Jupiter affiliate, batting .203/.308/.366 with 10 home runs in 227 at-bats. A Rangers' seventh-round pick from Florida in 2004, Harrison played at the Double-A and Triple-A levels for Texas last season before drawing his release on May 26. The Marlins signed him about a week later.

Phillies second baseman Fidel Hernandez will sit for 50 games after testing positive for metabolites of Stanozolol, a performance-enhancing substance. Signed out of Venezuela in 2004, he batted .278/.307/.319 in 72 at-bats for high Class A Clearwater this season.

The Stephen Strasburg era in Washington got one step closer today when the Nationals promoted the top pitching prospect in the minors to Triple-A Syracuse.

Strasburg, who will make his Triple-A debut on Friday at home against the Gwinnett Braves, has come as advertised since the Nationals made him the No. 1 overall pick last June. Strasburg overpowered Double-A batters in his five starts with Harrisburg, leaving the Eastern League with a 1.64 ERA in 22 innings and a 27-to-6 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

The other impressive part about Strasburg's performance has been his ability to get grounders, a part of his game he showed in the Arizona Fall League last year as well. Strasburg posted a 2.33-to-1 groundout-to-air out ratio with Harrisburg, which means 70 percent of his outs on balls in play have been groundouts.

So even if a hitter has been fortunate enough to make contact against Strasburg, he hasn't been able to do much damage. It's one reason why the only extra-base hits Strasburg has allowed this year have been a pair of doubles.

If Strasburg pitches as expected, he will likely make four or five starts with Syracuse before getting the call to the big leagues at some point in early June. Given what Jason Heyward has done in Atlanta, it would probably be hard for Strasburg to play catch-up to compete for the National League rookie of the year, but he should be the Nationals' best pitcher immediately upon arrival.

We've changed up our daily prospect coverage ever so slightly to give readers more of what they want, while also providing value to subscribers.

If you've enjoyed the feature-length player development stories we had been running in Daily Dish this April (and all of last season), well those aren't going away. They are, however, moving to subscriber-only territory. You can find them in the Prospect Bulletin category. We also plan to sprinkle in the intermittent Prospect Q&A and Scout's View.

We suggest you peruse the Top Stories rail on the right side of the Prospects index page for a sampling of recent prospect-related headlines, including the aforementioned Bulletins and also Prospect Hot Sheet and Ask BA. It's your one-stop shop.

Bowling Green's Pitching Depth

In today's Prospect Bulletin, we highlight two of the more talented arms in low Class A. They belong to Alexander Colome and Wilking Rodriguez, a pair of hard-throwing Bowling Green righthanders. Pitching coach RC Lichtenstein singled out two other Rays pitching prospects worth watching. [...] Continue Reading »

Marlins right fielder Mike Stanton is the undisputed star of the 15-8 Jacksonville Suns, but he's not the only one who is earning some attention.

Last September, Jacksonville shortstop Osvaldo Martinez's career could have ended. Now just six months later, he's having the best start of his career. Martinez has always been considered a defensive specialist, but a .341/.425/.396 average may force everyone to reassess the 21-year-old's potential. [...] Continue Reading »

Dodger outfielder Andrew Lambo has been suspended 50 games after testing positive for a drug of abuse, violating the Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment program. Under the drug of abuse policy a second positive test prompts a 50-game suspension. Lambo, the Dodgers' No. 7 prospect coming into the 2010 season, was hitting .342/.390/.566 in 76 at-bats with two home runs and 13 RBIs for Double-A Chattanooga. He was the Dodgers' fourth-round pick in 2007 out of Newbury Park (Calif.) High. Lambo lasted until the fourth round because clubs questioned his makeup after he was caught smoking marijuana as a high school sophomore.