Ask Baseball America By James Bailey
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May 25, 2000We've had a bit of a reunion down here over the past 24 hours. Long-time BA readers should remember Jim Callis, who was our fearless managing editor for a long stretch up until about three years ago. Well, he's coming back to work with us, basically replacing David Rawnsley. He now lives in the Chicago area and yesterday made his first return to Durham since he left in 1997. Our national writer Alan Schwarz, who is based in New York, also came to town yesterday. It's been a lot of fun to see them again and we're all excited here about what's going on and what having Jim back in the picture will do for the magazine and Web site. If you want to welcome him back to the fold, you can reach him at jimcallis@baseballamerica.com. Before long I think you'll be seeing a lot of his work up on Baseball America Online. In the meantime, here's some Ask BA to chew on. And it would have been up sooner if we didn't all go out to lunch with Jim and Alan, so blame them for the late posting today. Hi, I was wondering how Aubrey Huff and Danny Ardoin fit into their teams' plans. Both are hitting in the .340s in Triple-A. The A's backup catcher is hitting under .200. It seems like Tampa Bay has Huff's position and the DH filled though. Thanks, Dave
Ardoin is hitting .344 with 13 doubles, four home runs and 28 RBIs at Sacramento, so he's certainly hit enough to catch Oakand's attention. Sal Fasano's not exactly setting the world on fire as the backup backstop in Oakland, but he does have more experience. With Ramon Hernandez as the starting catcher, Fasano's experience probably works in his favor over Ardoin. The A's might also prefer for Ardoin to play every day and not catch just two times a week like he would as a backup in the big leagues. My question concerns Winston Abreu. He had a great year last season after overcoming arm problems. But why hasn't he pitched this year? Also, can you give me a run down on any foreign players the Braves have signed this year? La09lakers@aol.com Abreu has been on the disabled list at Double-A Greenville since pitching four innings in his first start of the season. He's feeling a twinge in his shoulder and is basically out for precautionary reasons. There doesn't seem to be anything seriously wrong with him as far as the Braves can tell, but until he says he feels okay they can't really run him back out on the mound. The big foreign signing recently for the Braves was Cuban catcher Brayan Pena, who reportedly received a $1.25 million bonus. Pena, 18, defected last year at a tournament in Caracas, Venezuela, as a member of Cuba's junior national team. He's been assigned to extended spring training and will likely report to the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League. Prior to their six-month ban on signing Dominican players, the Braves also signed 16-year-old shortstop Franklin Infante for $375,000, which is the highest bonus the Braves have ever paid out to a Dominican player. That was in late February. He is in extended spring training and will most likely play in the GCL this summer. What is the status of Adrian Hernandez? There was a lot of news about him prior to the season, but I do not remember hearing if he actually signed with anyone. Is he just not as good as clubs thought or is he asking for too much money? J. D. Farr Hernandez is working out at Yankees extended spring training. They are waiting for the federal red tape to get worked out before he can officially sign and be assigned to a team. He agreed to a four-year $4 million contract with the Yankees in April. Does Tampa Bay have any plans to promote Josh Hamilton this season? The main reason I ask is that we plan on being in Savannah on July 3-6 when the Sand Gnats play the RiverDogs. I'd really like to see Hamilton, Carl Crawford and Neal Frendling take on Hank Blalock and Ryan Dittfurth. Is there anything else in this series we should look for? Any chance of it being a sellout on the 4th of July? Any chance you'll be there? Bruce Norlander Minneapolis, MN I would guess a lot of these guys will be promoted at the midway point of the Sally League season, which is about a month from now. Their all-star game is June 20; after that the second half starts. It's very common for players to get promoted from low A to high A at the midseason break. All the players you named are good candidates for promotion, too. In fact, I'd be kind of surprised if Hamilton and Crawford were not promoted. There's a good chance of a great crowd on July 4, but I'd be shocked if Savannah ever sold a game out. They list their capacity at 8,000, which is the largest of any Sally League park. Savannah is a far spot from Durham, so you probably won't see me there on July 4. I do plan on heading down to the Sally League all-star game next month, though. That's in Charleston, S.C. There will be plenty of great prospects on hand, too. We're kind of lucky around here, because in one day (June 20) there will be three all-star games within a reasonable distance of BA World Headquarters. We're fanning out to the California League-Carolina League game in Kinston, N.C., and the Southern League game in Greenville, S.C., as well as the game in Charleston. A couple of weeks later we'll be in attendance at the Double-A and Triple-A all-star games, as well as the second annual Futures Game. I'm heading to Rochester for the Triple-A game, myself. So within a span of a few weeks, we should get to eyeball top prospects from every full-season league except for the Florida State and Midwest leagues, and of course, we'll have our league correspondents at those. It will be a prospect feast, but first we've got to get through the draft. Okay, I know we've been getting a lot of Brewers questions here lately and some people might be kind of wondering what's up with that. Well, it's mostly coincidence that there have been several interesting questions come in recently that have been about the Brewers. But there's a little more. I don't consider myself a big Brewers fan, but I can feel a little kinship to those who do, as I grew up a diehard Mariners fan, back in the days of Jim Maler, Dave Edler, Manny Sarmiento, etc. There's something to be said for fans that will stick with a team in the down times. You know there is absolutely no one out there that's a "bandwagon Brewers fan." They have no bandwagon. Maybe in a few years, with a few breaks, there will be a reason for the bandwagon fans to start crawling out of the woodwork. But the folks who are sending in Brewers questions now--you know they're true blue Brew Crew. Plus, the Brewers are always helpful when I call them with a question. So here goes yet another Brewers question. Hi, thanks for all the great columns about minor league baseball and the Brewers especially. The Crew seems to get a lot of fan interest in their minor leagues, even with their current shoddy condition. I have three questions. First, I recently read the Brewers signed their fifth-round choice of 1999, Dustin Lansford. I know very little about him; why did he decide to sign so late and what will he bring to the Brewers? Secondly, what happened to Ruddy Lugo, the highly athletic kid from Brooklyn? He pitched in the Pioneer League last year but I haven't seen anything from him since. He is supposed to be able to play shortstop very well as well as pitch, is it possible he is in extended spring training learning how to play short? Finally, I was wondering how many organizations have brothers playing in their system? Matt and Jason Childers are the only ones I know of right off hand. Thanks for the info and keep up the good work. Toby Harrmann Lansford signed as a draft-and-follow after finishing his season at McLennan (Texas) JC. He reported to extended spring training on Monday, but has yet to appear in a game. A 6-foot, 175-pound righthander, he throws the usual assortment of fastball, curveball, changeup. He's likely to begin his career in the Rookie-level Pioneer League. Lugo is also likely to head for the Pioneer League when their schedule starts next month. He is still pitching, and threw three scoreless innings in his last appearance in extended spring action. As for the brother acts, off the top of my head I can think of a few. The Cromer twins in the Devil Rays organization are both 6-foot-4 lefthanders who played at Rookie-level Princeton last year. Nathan was a 10th-round pick in last June's draft and Jason went a round later. White Sox second baseman Ray Durham's younger brother Chad plays at Class A Burlington, in the Sox system. Calvin and Kelvin Pickering both play in the Orioles organization. Kelvin was a 35th-round pick last year. 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