The Dodgers announced on Tuesday they were promoting corner outfielder Brian Cavazos-Galvez to Triple-A Albuquerque, a move which brings the 24-year-old full circle.

Cavazos-Galvez, who turns 25 on Thursday, was born in Albuquerque and played two years of college baseball for New Mexico, which plays its home games in Isotopes Park. Cavazos-Galvez’s connections to the Isotopes run even deeper than that though. His father Balvino Galvez came up through the Dodgers system in the 1980s and played parts of two seasons (1986 and ’92) for Albuquerque’s Triple-A franchise, known as the Dukes at the time.

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The Diamondbacks today dipped into their enviable stash of pitching depth at Double-A Mobile, though they didn't call up No. 1 prospect Trevor Bauer or top lefty Tyler Skaggs. Instead they added 22-year-old southpaw Pat Corbin to the 40-man roster so that he can take Josh Collmenter's place in the big league rotation. He will oppose the Marlins and Mark Buehrle today.

An athletic lefthander who throws strikes with average stuff, Corbin impressed Arizona decision-makers with a strong spring-training performance that included 20 strikeouts in 21 innings and a 1.00 WHIP. In four starts for Mobile he went 2-0, 1.67 with 25 whiffs and 31 baserunners allowed in 27 innings. That 1.67 ERA ranks third in the Southern League, where Corbin has spent the past two seasons notching fine strikeout (8.0 per nine) and walk (2.3 per nine) rates over 187 innings.

What Corbin lacks in raw stuff compared with Bauer (who's wrestling with a high walk rate this season) or Skaggs (who's two years younger than Corbin), he compensates for with command of the strike zone, plus lateral movement on his low-90s fastball and rapidly-developing feel for his changeup and slider. That pitchability is somewhat unexpected in light of the fact that Corbin didn't first take the mound until 2006, when he was a junior at a Central New York high school. Now he's the first prospect from Arizona's Dan Haren trade to make it to Phoenix. [...] Continue Reading »

The long-awaited big league debut of Bryce Harper will happen on Saturday in Dodgers Stadium.

The Nationals announced on Friday afternoon that they are placing Ryan Zimmerman on the 15-day disabled list and bringing up Harper to replace him on the active roster. Harper had struggled in his 20-game stint with Triple-A Syracuse, but with the big league club getting almost no production from left field, the Nationals decided it was time to bring up their No. 1 prospect. Nationals left fielders are hitting .097/.207/.125 with two extra-base hits (two doubles) this year so whether Harper plays right, left or center, he can at least be expected to produce significantly more power than the players he'll be replacing. [...] Continue Reading »

The Blue Jays plan to promote righthander Drew Hutchison from Double-A New Hampshire to Toronto to make his major league debut on Saturday against the Royals, according to a report on Twitter from Sportsnet's Barry Davis.

Hutchison, 21, has moved quickly since the Blue Jays signed him for a $400,000 bonus out of high school when he slid to the 15th round in the 2009 draft. At this time last year, Hutchison was pitching in low Class A Lansing, but he rose through three levels and finished in Double-A, which is where he had returned to open 2012.

The Blue Jays' No. 9 prospect, Hutchison has moved quickly because he throws strikes and commands his fastball to both sides of the plate. In terms of velocity, his fastball is an average pitch, but it's lively and he can sink it to get ground balls and keep the ball in the yard. His changeup is his best secondary pitch, but he mixes in a slider as well, though it gets mixed reviews from scouts. Even though he throws across his body, it hasn't hampered his command, and because he hides the ball well with his arm stroke, it's tough for hitters to pick up the ball out of his hand, though there is some question among scouts about whether the deception that works against Double-A batters will fly against big league hitters.

Is Hutchison ready now? In a perfect-world scenario, he might stick around the minors a bit longer, since he has barely more than 30 innings of experience at Double-A, though he's performed extremely well in those six starts and is already quite polished for his age. Hutchison is good enough to fit as a back-end starter, the role he's being asked to fill in for now, with perhaps enough upside for a bit more down the road. He won't dazzle anyone with his fastball like his new rotation mate Henderson Alvarez, but like Alvarez, you can expect Hutchison to throw strikes, get grounders and keep his team in the game.

When you see a starting pitcher throw only two innings in a start, there aren't a whole lot of reasons that are good news for the pitcher. It could be because he was injured, or because he was shelled.

But in Tucson RHP Joe Wieland's case on Tuesday night, it was because he got the news every minor leaguer dreams of hearing. After the second inning of last night's start at home against Sacramento, Wieland was told that he's headed to San Diego. In Wieland's first two Triple-A starts, he was 0-1, 3.52 with 11 strikeouts and two walks in 7 2/3 innings.

"Greatest day of my life! My dream has finally come true!!! God is great!!!!" Wieland tweeted after getting the news.

Wieland and lefthander Robbie Erlin were the Padres' pickups in last summer's trade that sent Mike Adams to the Rangers. Wieland doesn't have overpowering stuff, but he throws strikes, can use any of his four pitches (fastball, curve, change and slider) at any point in the count and he holds runners extremely well.

The short-season Eugene Emeralds will have to deal with the loss of a top prospect for the second time in as many weeks, though for more positive reasons than those surrounding Donavan Tate's recent suspension.

Second baseman Cory Spangenberg, the 10th overall pick of the Padres in June's draft, has been promoted from Eugene to low Class A Fort Wayne after a torrid start to his professional career. In 25 games in the Northwest League, Spangenberg hit .384/.545/.535. He led the league in walks (31) and on-base percentage, ranked second in batting average and third in stolen bases (10) and OPS (1.080). He will now look to recreate that level of production for the TinCaps, who sit 12 1/2 games back in the Midwest League's Eastern Division.

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At this time of year, we're talking draft, college baseball, international signings, minor league prospects . . . just about everything but indy ball.

But at Baseball America, independent baseball is never far from J.J. Cooper's mind, and our managing editor has a pretty solid track record when it comes to indy ball guys getting to the big leagues. Suffice it to say that when an indy baller gets signed by a pro club, J.J. always feels a little tinge of pride, whether it's Justin Christian or Edwar Ramirez, or Mike Benacka, or Daniel Nava.

SoxProspects.com and WEEI.com are reporting Nava is getting called up to the majors. In 2007, Nava was the No. 1 prospect on J.J.'s  2007 indy ball top 10. Here's the full top 10 link and the report J.J. wrote back then: [...] Continue Reading »

If you read Baseball America, you've been watching Stephen Strasburg's career develop since he ranked No. 1 (subscribers only) on the New England Collegiate Baseball League Top 10 Summer League prospects back in 2007 and was projected as the Mountain West's best pitcher (subscriber only) heading into his sophomore season. Before his junior season began we explained why he went undrafted as a high school senior and why that was a necessary step in his development. By the end of his junior year, he was any easy choice as our 2009 College Player of the Year (his biggest competition was current fellow big-league rookie Mike Leake) and he ranked No. 2 on this year's Top 100 Prospects list (behind Atlanta's Jason Heyward).

By now everyone is caught up in the Strasburg hype, including us. So  when Strasburg dominated in his big league debut, J.J. Cooper and John Manuel had to talk about it for a special edition of the Baseball America Podcast.

In the podcast, Cooper and Manuel discuss what makes a pitch an "80" on the scouting scale, what this means for baseball in D.C. and why we shouldn't focus too much on projecting where Strasburg will go from here.

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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.

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.

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.

The Rangers couldn't have asked for a better start to Tanner Scheppers' pro debut. Now Scheppers will try to replicate his success with Double-A Frisco in Oklahoma, as the Rangers promoted him to Triple-A today.

Scheppers, a supplemental first-round pick last year, put up numbers out of the Frisco bullpen that look like they were made up: 11 innings, three hits, one run (on a home run), no walks and 19 strikeouts. Sure, it's just six innings, but it's about as overpowering of a six-inning performance as you'll find, with Scheppers striking out 50 percent of the 38 batters he faced while pounding the zone with strikes.

With Neftali Feliz, the Rangers already have one flamethrower in the back of their bullpen. With Scheppers, there's a chance they could add another by midseason.

Two high-profile prospects are heading to Triple-A today, with the Red Sox promoting first baseman Lars Anderson to Pawtucket and the Nationals sending righthander Drew Storen to Syracuse.

Anderson, 22, has bounced back from a rocky 2009 season with a thunderous start to 2010 in his return to Double-A Trenton. Anderson leaves the Eastern League batting .355/.408/.677 in 17 games with a league-best 1.086 OPS.

Storen, the 10th overall pick last year out of Stanford in 2009, has yet to encounter much of a challenge in the minors between his debut last year and his 9 1/3 innings this year with Double-A Harrisburg. Storen leaves the Senators with an ERA of 0.96, one walk and 11 strikeouts.

It shouldn't be long before the Nationals' other 2009 first-round pick, Stephen Strasburg, joins him in Syracuse.

As most of you already know, Madison Bumgarner made his big league debut Tuesday night, pitching into the sixth inning with no decision in the Giants’ 4-3 loss to the Padres. That’s big news, for several reasons.

First, let’s appreciate that Bumgarner has been the best pitcher in the minor leagues the last two seasons—and it’s really not close. The lefthander is 27-5, 1.65 over 273 innings in 2008-2009, with 107 innings coming this year at Double-A Connecticut. Bumgarner has a sterling 256-to-55 strikeout-to-walk ratio overall and gave up just nine home runs in the minors, though he allowed a pair in his debut last night.

While Bumgarner maintained a sterling strikeout rate in the high Class A California League earlier this season, his rate dipped to just 5.8 per nine innings in the Eastern League. The main culprit for that decrease has been the decreased fastball velocity that was on display last night in the big leagues. He threw 76 pitches, according to MLB’s Pitch F/X data, and 48 were fastballs, most of which checked in around 88 mph. [...] Continue Reading »

Aaron Hicks remembers watching a Twins game the day before his high school graduation. He remembers sitting along the field, soaking in the big stage a few days after being selected in the first round of the 2008 draft.

Hicks knew this was where he wanted to be. He was going to do everything in his power to get there, and as quickly as possible.

“It’s definitely my dream to be there,” Hicks said. “I’m pretty sure it’s everybody’s dream.”

Being at the Metrodome might be Hicks’ most memorable baseball moment growing up. But looking into a crystal ball seven years ago, not even he could have predicted his dream. At the time, Hicks hadn’t even played organized baseball. Instead, he was concentrating on a different game with a different stick—golf. [...] Continue Reading »

Orioles
Promoted 1B Brandon Snyder (1st round, 2005) to Triple-A Norfolk after he batted .343/.421/.597 with 10 home runs in 201 at-bats for Double-A Bowie. The 22-year-old led the Eastern League in slugging at the time of his promotion. Drafted by Baltimore as a catcher with the 13th overall pick, Snyder’s days behind the plate were cut short by a shoulder injury. But for the second consecutive season, he’s proving his bat may be advanced enough to allow him to hold down a corner.

White Sox
Promoted RHP Dan Hudson (5th, 2008) to Double-A Birmingham, the third rung of ladder the Old Dominion product has reached this season. Two other members of Chicago’s robust ’08 draft class already have reached Double-A: Gordon Beckham and Jordan Danks. Hudson ranks seventh in the minors with 87 strikeouts after dealing nine of them in his eight-inning Barons debut.

Brewers
Assigned RHP Jake Odorizzi (1st supp., 2008) to Rookie-level Helena, where he’ll try to build on his strong debut in the Arizona League. The upper Midwest’s top amateur prospect last year and the draft’s 32nd overall selection, Odorizzi struck out 19 AZL batters in 21 innings, but showed his inexperience with nine walks and two home runs allowed. [...] Continue Reading »

Baseball America has learned the Padres have promoted their No. 1 prospect, first baseman/left fielder Kyle Blanks, to the big leagues. A corresponding move regarding the 40-man roster was not yet announced.

Blanks, 22, was hitting .283/.393/.485 at Triple-A Portland in the Pacific Coast League, with 12 home runs, nine doubles and 38 RBIs. The 6-foot-6, 285-pounder has shifted in part to left field this season, playing parts of 15 games in left while still primarily playing first base.

Orioles
Promoted RHP Jake Arrieta (5th round, 2007) to Triple-A Norfolk. The 23-year-old made 11 starts for Double-A Bowie, going 6-3, 2.59 with 70 strikeouts, 23 walks and four home runs allowed in 59 innings. He ranked among the Eastern League leaders in ERA and strikeouts.

Red Sox
Promoted OF Aaon Bates (3rd, 2006) to Triple-A Pawtucket after he put Double-A behind him by batting .340/.405/.505 with seven home runs in 206 at-bats for Portland. The 25-year-old started 8-for-20 with a pair of home runs in the International League.

Marlins
Assigned 1B Logan Morrison (22nd D/F, 2005) to Double-A Jacksonville after he missed nearly two months with a small fracture in his right wrist. All is well. The 21-year-old Morrison is 6-for-19 with a pair of doubles and two RBIs since returning to the Southern League on June 11. [...] Continue Reading »

One year ago, shortstop Gordon Beckham was busy leading the Georgia Bulldogs on a run to the College World Series finals. He had set a school record with 28 home runs, which also tied for the NCAA Division I lead. For those reasons, and others, the White Sox made Beckham the eighth overall pick in the ’08 draft.

Following a White Sox loss last night, the organization announced that it was calling up Beckham from Triple-A Charlotte to help contribute to a struggling offense and, in the words of manager Ozzie Guillen, "be in the lineup every day and get a good percentage of at-bats."

The 22-year-old Beckham’s stay in the minor leagues was a brief one. This season, he batted .330/.381/.528 with four home runs and a minor league-leading 23 doubles in 176 at-bats, mostly with Double-A Birmingham. He spent about a week with Charlotte prior to his callup, but that was more than enough time for Knights manager Chris Chambliss to form a positive impression.

"He’s a very talented young man," Chambliss said. "He’s someone who just has a lot of fun on field. [...] Continue Reading »