4th Trade of the Offseason

This trade is maybe the most interesting one of the off season so far.

Pro Bowlers Get
OF Lorenzo Cain

Heroes Get
OF Aristides Aquino

In this trade the Heroes traded away there top MLB bat for a low level prospect.. what give?

Aristides Aquino is man on the rise while he has high level bust chance he also has that rare star upside. Was named the #1 prospect in the Pioneer league this off season and for good reasons he has 5 tool package and its starting to play in games. Comments during BA's league chat...

jason (atlanta): arisitide aquino is a legit 5 tools guy?
Bill Mitchell: All five of Aquino’s tools are at least average now, with raw power and arm being the carrying tools. He’s only an average runner now and may slow down as he gets bigger, but he’s still a pretty instinctual runner. The ability to hit for average took a leap forward this year because of improved pitch recognition; continued development of that skill will be key as he moves into full season ball.

mike (utica, ny): Where would aquino rank in the appy league and was this league down in general?
Bill Mitchell: I haven’t seen too many of the Appy top 20 players, although I expect to watch the Burlington guys in instructs within the next week, but I’m sure that Aquino would rank somewhere in the top five. The Pioneer League was somewhat weak this year although it’s hard to compare with the Appy League because of the presence of more older college players in the Pioneer League.

Deywane (Memphis): Does Aquino have the upside to be a star?
Bill Mitchell: I was hesitant to use the Vladimir Guerrero comps that I kept getting on Aquino because that’s a lot to put on a kid who hasn’t yet made it to full season ball. He’s got the tools, the aptitude to make adjustments and the physicality. Yes, the upside is there, but he’s a very long way from the big leagues. As I said in a response to an earlier question, the bust potential is higher for players like Aquino. Let’s instead just sit back and watch how he develops.

Trade Three of the off Season

Your Mom Gets
Danny Espinosa

for

Kelly's Heroes gets
2016 9th round pick

Another player that is not in the long term plans that needs to be cleared alway to make roster room to keep all the prospects in the system.

Heroes in the AFL Notes

Oct 15th
Mark Appel, RHP, Astros (Salt River): 4 IP, H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K. Reports this fall match much of what we all saw in the second half of the season in Double-A, and he’s carried that strong effort over into the Arizona Fall League. Despite his first-overall draft pick status, Appel projects more as a mid-rotation starter than an ace. That’s not a disappointment, however: If a mid-rotation starter is what he becomes, the Astros should be quite happy with their selection. With starting pitchers becoming quite expensive these days, six years (and potentially more) of Appel’s services are an attractive feature, even if it’s not what the Astros thought they’d be getting.

Tim Anderson, SS, White Sox (Glendale): 3-4, 2 R, 2B, K. I’ve been naturally wary of Anderson because of his extreme K:BB split (68-to-7 this year), but he continues to hit at every level, which helps mitigate my concerns. He’s supremely talented, but still quite raw, and missing time this year due to a wrist fracture certainly didn’t help. He’ll need all the experience he can get in the desert this fall, but if he can refine his approach at the plate even slightly, he looks poised to make an impact.

Miguel Almonte, RHP, Royals (Peoria): 2 1/3 IP, H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K. A good changeup can miss a lot of bats, and that appears to be what’s happening against Almonte in the AFL. He struggled in Wilmington this year, but good fastball velocity and a plus changeup suggest that the results should have been better. He’s still just 21 and his peripheral stats suggest that he should have been better this season than he was, as does his stuff. Success this fall should set him up well for a jump to Double-A next year.

Return of the Trade

Its been a year or so since I have posted trades I have made on the site but going to start it up again...

First trade this off season

Rolling Goats get
SP Alberto Tirado
SP Erik Johnson
3B Matt Skole
8th rd pick 2015

for

Heroes Get
1B Ike Davis

*this move was a player dump, all three prospect have talent and in a perfect world would have kept all three to see the final product but with a limit to minor league space and 12 of the top 20 picks coming in some fringe guys will have to go. Tirado and Johnson were both top 100 last year (Tidado just BP) but both had bad years. Ike Davis is a piece of the final product, but with no 1B on the roster next year should be nice short term stop gap with a little upside (in 2012 hit over 30 HR)

the second trade so far this off season was

Kelly's Heroes get
2015 8th round pick (#123)

Your Mom get
DH Corey Hart


*A low risk move by Ray, Hart has played just 63 games over the past two season while posting .203avg 6HR but if you go back to 2012 he posted .270 30HR. While in rebuild mode Hart offered little in long term value and moves like this are needed to stream line the roster.

Final Updated Hero top 20 league report

International League
C Christian Betencourt 10th
SP Trevor May #17

PCL
SP Mike Foltynewicz #12
OF Stephen Pricotty #13

Southern League
SP Robert Stephenson 4th

Texas League
SP Alex Gonzalez 5th

Carolina League
SP Sean Manaea 5th
SS Tim Anderson 8th
SP Alex Gonzalez 10th
SP Miguel Almonte 16th

Cal League
SP Lance McCullers 20th

Midwest League
SS Willy Adames 5th

App League
SP Matt Smoral 7th

Northwest League
SS Franchy Cordero 7th

Sal League
SP Lucas Giolito 1st
OF Raimel Tapia 12th

New York Penn League
SS Amed Rosario NYM 3rd
C Luis Torrens NYY 4th

Pioneer League
OF Aristides Aquino Cin 1st
SS Sergio Alcantara Arz 9th

Arizona League
SP Ricardo Sanchez 16th

GCL
3B Rafael Devers 1st

2014 Hero of the Year

The Hero of the year for the 2014 season was not hard to pick and while the rebuild effort sold most everyone that wasn't nailed down, Lorenzo Cain finished in the top 2 in several stats including hits, runs, rbis, avg, ops, and SBs. The race for Hero of the year might have been closer had not for the trades of Casey McGehee, Seth Smith, and Chris Carter during the season.

Past Winners
2007 3B David Wright .325avg 30HR 107RBI 34SB .963OPS
2008 2B Dustin Pedrioa .325avg 17HR 20SB 83RBI 117Runs .869OPS
2009 1B Price Fielder .299Avg 46HR 141RBI 1.014OPS
2010 3B Ryan Zimmerman .307avg 25HR 85RBI 85Runs .894OPS
2011 2B Dustin Pedrioa .307avg 21HR 91RBI 102Runs 86BB 26SB .861OPS
2012 1B Prince Fielder .313avg 30HR 108RBI 83Runa 85BB .940ops
2013 1B Joey Votto .305avg 24HR 73RBI, 103Runs, 135BB, .926OPS
2014 OF Lorenzo Cain .301avg 5HR 53Rbi 55runs 28SB .751OPS

BA all Rookie Team

Two Heroes landed on the all rookie team posted on Baseball America

OF Kevin Kiermaier • Rays

Kiermaier entered the season with a reputation as a contact-, speed- and defense-oriented center fielder, but he exited 2014 as the Rays’ team leader for slugging (.450) and OPS (.765), making him one of the underachieving club’s few bright spots. Among rookies, only corner players Jose Abreu, C.J. Cron, Mike Olt and George Springer had a higher isolated power (.187) than the 24-year-old Kiermaier this season, and he continued to show plus defensive ability in both center and right field.

AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS AVG OBP SLG
331 35 87 16 8 10 35 23 71 5 4 .263 .315 .450

SP Yordano Ventura • Royals

One of the youngest starters in the majors at 23 years old, Ventura logged the most innings by a rookie starter (183) by a wide margin, and he ranked 10th in the American League ERA race (3.20). He kept firing upper-90s heat during the Royals’ playoff run, and only the Angels’ Garrett Richards, among starters with 100 innings, threw a faster fastball than Ventura, who averaged 96 mph. Just as much as the pure velocity, though, Ventura’s continued improvement to his control and secondary stuff have made him a complete pitcher.

W L ERA G GS SV IP H R ER HR BB SO SO/9 WHIP
14 10 3.20 31 30 0 183 168 70 65 14 69 159 7.8 1.30

2014 Kelly's Ace of the Year

Congrats to Yordano Ventura, RHP: Generously listed at 6-0, 180 pounds, Ventura is the epitome of the small-bodied hurler but there is nothing little about what comes out of his hand. The Dominican averages 97 mph on the fastball while sprinkling in three other offerings. After never pitching more than 134.2 innings prior to 2014, he’s held up well in 183.0 innings to date but it will be interesting to see how he’s handled if the Royals make it into the playoffs. This maybe the 1st of many for Ventura.

Winners of this award:
2007 Roy Halladay 16-5 3.71era 225Inn 139K's
2008 Franciso Rodriguez 2-3 2.24era 68inn 77K's 62SV
2009 Roy Halladay 17-10 2.79era 246Inn 206K's
2010 Trevor Cahill 18-8 2.97 era 196.2Inn 118K's
2011 Ervin Santana 11-12 3.38 228.2inn 178k's
2012 Jim Johnson 4-2 2.49era 68.2Inn 41K's 51SV
2013 James Shields 13-9 3.15era 228Inn 197K's
2014 Yordano Ventura 14-10 3.20era 183Inn 159k's

#1 Sal League SP Lucas Giolito

SP Lucas Giolito named #1 player in the Sal league, 2nd Hero so far to be named #1 in there league.

Others Heroes named to league top 20 since the last top update are

SP Matt Smoral #7 in the App League

SS Franchy Cordero #7 in the Northwest League

OF Raimel Tapia #12 in the Sal League (side not on this one, on the chat they said they would not be surprised if this league has 12-13 top 100 player, so that 12th ranking is very good for this loaded league.)

Thats 8 Heroes in 7 leagues so far.

More BA League Call Outs

The New York Penn League's top 20 prospect featured 2 Heroes near the top

At #3 it was SS Amed Rosario NYM
At #4 it was C Luis Torrens NYY

Over in the Pioneer League's Top 20 another Hero cracked the top 10

At #9 SS Sergio Alcantara Arz

And in the Arizona League the Heroes posted

At #16 SP Ricardo Sanchez, though this was not much of a highlight though the 17 year old would be higher due to being the top SP on the last years IFA market, plus he posted some really good numbers