Ask Baseball America By James Bailey
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June 1, 2000It's that time of year again. Time for Major League Baseball to foist the charade known as interleague play on us. So less than a week after Pedro and the Rocket treated us to one of the best regular-season games in recent memory, we get the Dodgers and Angels locking up in a meaningless exhibition series. Maybe if no one would show up someone would think about calling an end to this madness. So do your part and don't go to any major league games this weekend. Head for a minor league park instead or check out a Super Regional matchup in the NCAA tournament. Or spend your entire weekend boning up on the draft. Speaking of which, if you have any burning draft-related questions, Allan Simpson, Baseball America's founder and editor, will be fielding them in an ESPN chat this afternoon at 3 p.m. ET. So check that out after you finish reading today's column. I noticed that Jack Cust wasn't in the box score for Tuesday's El Paso game. I'm assuming he just got a day off, but I guess it's also possible that he got promoted. Did he? Andy Weisner According to the El Paso Times, Cust sat out Tuesday night's game after leaving Monday's game early due to an accelerated heartbeat. Though he was cleared to play, the team has held him out the last two games as a precautionary measure. Cust has actually been in somewhat of a slump lately, going 3-for-34 over a nine game stretch to drop his average to .293. It's kind of ironic because the Diamondbacks sent Alex Cabrera to El Paso to provide Cust with some protection and Cabrera has been on fire ever since he arrived in town. But suddenly Cust can't find his stroke, even with the best protection in Double-A. Of course, he'll probably snap out of it any time now. Speaking of Cabrera . . . Quite simply, who the hell is Alex Cabrera? I have heard various reports that he's a career minor leaguer brought in to tutor Jack Cust, but, 21 homers in one month? I can find no information on the man anywhere on the net or in numerous books (Age? Home country? Ht./Wt.? Shoe size?). Is he a legitimate prospect or a career Double-A masher? Thanks, Daniel Miers Daniel, the book you need is the Baseball America Super Register. In it you will find career stats and bio info for more than 6,300 players, including Alex Cabrera. Cabrera is a minor league and foreign league veteran who has posted impressive numbers before, but nothing like he's doing right now. With a home run in yesterday's game he moved into second place on the all-time minor league list for home runs in a month with 21 in May, according to Howe Sportsdata. Not bad for a guy coming off back surgery--or anyone else for that matter. Cabrera spent last year with China Trust in the Chinese Pro Baseball League (Taiwan) and played with the Mexico City Tigers for the two seasons prior to that. He originally signed with the Cubs in 1991 out of Venezuela and spent six years in their organization before starting his voyage around the globe. Cabrera is now 28 and has been brought to El Paso not as a tutor for Cust, but more just to give him some protection so that opposing pitchers won't work around him so much. The Phillies did a similar thing with Pat Burrell last year when they had minor league veteran Tyrone Horne hit behind him at Double-A Reading. Horne hit just .267 with five homers and 37 RBIs in 80 games, so Cabrera has been a wee bit more productive thus far. As to his prospect status, it would be nice to see him back at Triple-A before one got too excited. Not that it was his fault he got demoted, as he was batting .317-2-7 in 41 at-bats at Tucson at the time the Diamondbacks decided to send him to El Paso. But still, it's just hard to get a read on what a guy is truly capable of when he's playing below his level. Kind of makes you wonder what Mark McGwire could do in a full Texas League season. Cabrera, by the way, stands 6-foot-2, 217 pounds. The Super Register doesn't record shoe size, so I can't help you out on that one. I was wondering about a couple of A's prospects, one of whom I'm sure most people have heard about now, Adam Piatt. Do you see Piatt moving to the outfield so he can find somewhere to fit in, or possibly being traded? Oakland has a few good outfield prospects with Mario Encarnacion and Terrence Long just to name a couple, so playing time might be tough there, too. Secondly, Jason Hart, a first baseman at Midland this year has gotten off to a great start this year after two strong years in A-ball. He grew up in this area and I followed him while he played at Southwest Missouri State. What do you know about him and what do you think about his progress so far and chances to get to the show? Thanks! Chris Jones Bolivar, Missouri Piatt has played some outfield this year at Triple-A Sacramento and he could show up in the A's outfield at some point, though he's mainly DH'ed and played third base with Oakland so far. In 33 at-bats with the big club he's hitting .303 with two homers and eight RBIs. Hart has certainly proven himself capable of hitting at each level he has played at. Last year at Class A Modesto he batted .305 with 48 doubles, 19 homers and 123 RBIs. He's more than halfway to that lofty RBI total already this season, with a league-leading 62 for Double-A Midland. He's also fourth in the league with a .362 average and second, behind Cabrera, with 17 homers. The problem for Piatt and Hart is that the A's are deep in corner infielders/outfielders and DH types. Piatt isn't going to beat out Eric Chavez at third, so that throws him into the mix with Jason Giambi (1B), Jeremy Giambi (DH), Ben Grieve (LF), Olmedo Saenz (1B/DH) and Matt Stairs (RF). You can throw John Jaha (DH) back into that mix next week when he returns from the disabled list. There have been rumors circulating that Stairs is on the block, but if the A's want to stay in the race this season it seems unlikely that they would trade him considering what he's done over the past few seasons. Sure he's not doing much right now, but he did hit 38 homers and drive in 102 runs just last year. Of course, until someone gets traded, there won't be much opportunity for Piatt or anyone else to break into that rotation. Recently some prospects have shown up on Baseball America reports with the notation that they have been placed on the suspended list, e.g., Nathan Haynes with Anaheim and Jeff Winchester with Colorado. Is the suspended list used for fairly routine stumbles like being late for the bus on a road trip or is this a possible uh oh that all is not well between the prospect and the Organization? Thanks, Tom McCullough It's hard to draw any conclusions based on just seeing a players name on the suspended list, because there can be a variety of reasons for it. One of the most common is the on-field suspension. There have been a few cases where multiple players on a team have been suspended by their league following a brawl. We try to not include those in the transactions, especially if the players have been placed both on and off the suspended list that week. But most times we have no idea why a player was suspended. The teams generally prefer to keep quiet on that subject, meaning the real story rarely gets out. In most cases the suspensions last for just a couple of days and the player is restored to the active roster. According to the rule book, a player may be suspended for up to 30 days, though any suspension longer than 10 days may be appealed to the commissioner's office. I'm wondering how you guys actually go about rating the best prospects in the draft, especially their tools. My question deals especially with Mark Phillips, your No. 7 prospect. When you first came out with the breakdown in January, he was only listed in the 20s as a prospect and not found in the best tools section. I attributed that to the fact that he had not gotten a ton of notoriety, which is fine. But now he has moved up considerably in the eyes of scouts, and I'm wondering why he is not listed as one of the best athletes? I'm biased, because I used to cover him for a local paper from 1997-1999. But do you guys realize that an ACC college wanted him as their QB? And he was polished enough to do it, I'm positive. Or that he not only was recruited as a pitcher, but as a left fielder. He hit over .500 last season and is hitting over .600 this year. He has lettered in basketball as well for three years. In other words, I've got to think he's one of the three best athletes in this class. How did Mr. Simpson come up with his list? Michael Sadowski Scranton, PA You're right in that much of the rankings come from Allan's discussions with scouts, college recruiters, etc. One thing you have to keep in mind, however, is that three is a very small number. There are players all over the country who are the best athlete in their city, county, state, etc. Not to undermine what Phillips has done, but there are a lot of guys out there who are two-sport athletes with great talent. Almost all of the great high school pitchers play another position in addition to anchoring their staff's rotation. And to say that he's the best athlete among baseball players in the state of Pennsylvania would be a pretty good claim already. Now figure there are 49 other states and it gets tough to whittle that list down to three. Really, without stacking everyone up at some kind of NFL-type scouting combine, it's tough to pick the three absolutely best for any of the categories on our Best Tools lists. But Allan has an amazing number of contacts and judging from the people he's talked with, he came up with the short list of Rocco Baldelli, Skyler Fulton and David Espinosa as the top three athletes among this year's high school crop. If you want to ask Allan just where Phillips fell in that list, head for the ESPN chat and send him your question. Directory: mlb mlb -> By Ken Gurnick mlb -> Los angeles dodgers clips mlb -> 2010 – What’s the name of the umpire whose errant call cost the Tigers’ Armando Galarraga a perfect game in 2010? (Jim Joyce) gabp mlb -> Wednesday, September 23, 2015 headlines: Verrett stumbles in the fifth as Mets lose to Braves 6-2 mlb -> All-Star History In what city was the first All-Game played? 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