| 18 March 2010
The Geoff Baker blog today reports that OF Michael Saunders and RHPs Mike Koplove and Levale Speigner have all been moved out of the big camp. Additionally, yesterday RHP Yusmeiro Petit was released and this morning the M’s sent RHP Miguel Celestino to the Red Sox to complete the Kotchman trade. The M’s also released RHPs Jeff Breedlove, Tyler Brundridge, and Terry Engles according to the BA transaction register, while Gerardo Esparza was also released by the Pirates after they picked him up in the minor league Rule 5. Busy busy busy.
Saunders, 23, stopped having much of a shot at breaking in camp with Bradley, Langerhans, and Byrnes all running about. This seems like a shame, because he did hit .310/.378/.544 in half a season in Tacoma last year and then .353/.421/.529 in twenty games in Venezuela in the winter. And yet for some reason I seem to be one of his few remaining backers? Anyway, it was one of the more easy to improve positions after third, where we probably were not going to stick Tui for a full season if we could help it (sorry Tui bakers). Baker notes that the Doc Elliott thinks that Saunders may have the wrong type of strength at the moment, or may be built for the wrong type of strength, it’s hard to tell, but keeping him in Tacoma would be one easy way of keeping tabs on him while he improves on areas like that and hitting left-handers.
Koplove, 33, has a terribly unflattering Gameday photo from his tenure with the Phillies. He also hasn’t pitched more than ten innings in the majors since 2005, while he was still kicking around in the D’Backs org. There’s enough of a sampling there to suggest that he’s able to get ML-caliber hitters out at a passable rate, but his last two seasons in the majors were not as statistically pleasing as the previous two, so I wonder now if he was perhaps “figured out”. I would kind of hope that rather than talk about Koplove maybe getting some time, we end up with Fields figuring things out, but that’s hoping a bit much at the moment.
Speigner, 29, got a lot of attention hereabouts because he ran a 1.10 ERA in Puerto Rico over the winter. He also had something like 17 strikeouts in 32.2 innings, which is not nearly as cool. It highlights a problem Speigner has had since reaching the high minors. His Ks have dropped off from around eight or nine to six, if that, and that doesn’t bode well for future success in his case. We’ll likely see him in a Rainiers uniform for the majority of the season.
Petit, 25, was previously by common acclaim one of the top prospects in baseball. That was about four years ago. Petit racked up incredible K numbers in the minor leagues in part because his deception was so very good, his actual stuff being little to write about, but deception can only compensate for so much and his appearances as a #5 starter have been rather pedestrian. Petit wasn’t making this club. Not with about four other guys fighting him for the fifth spot, all of whom may be pushed out anyway when Bedard comes back. To release him now, early on in camp, was a courtesy so that he could try to find an opening elsewhere.
Celestino, 20, was something of an also-ran in the DSL arms race for a number of years. His first year was weak and he rebounded by displaying much-improved command in his second season, going from a 0.83 K/BB to a 3.13. His first year in Arizona was unexceptional, as he finally started giving up hits and wasn’t showing the same level of command, falling to about halfway between those two marks from earlier. With DSL pitchers it can often be difficult to tell what they’re going to do until they get here and do it, case in point being Pineda, but I would say that Celestino probably did not have similar potential.
Breedlove, 22, is from Muskogee, OK, according to his B-R page. He had nearly nine Ks and less than one walk per nine innings for Peoria last season, and as a college arm, that much could have roughly been expected of him. Breedlove, I would use to illustrate the idea that just because an older player busts up a weak league doesn’t mean that he’s highly thought of or that the organization is going to keep pushing him. There could be other issues involved, he could be injured, he could have off-field stuff, he could have asked for his release, but the caution still applies whatever the circumstances.
Brundridge, 23, is also the only player with his last name in the B-R database. He is also not to be confused with former Rainiers manager Dave Brundage, to whom he is no relation. I’m filling this out because Brundridge’s are truly not worth revisiting.
Engles, 24, is also not to be confused with Bob Engle. Just to make sure everyone is clear on that. I don’t have much to contribute on him either, but mostly because he was only with the organization for a few months after being grabbed in the minor league Rule 5 from the Nationals. I barely know anything about him, but I imagine he’ll latch on somewhere.
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