Jayhawks in the Minors - 8/14/10

The H/T goes to Walshdollar today for keeping us current on Jayhawk baseball in the pro's.  Nice work, got picked by SB Nation KC as an editors fav.  Also, in general great to see all the fanposts and fanshots around here the past two days.  If you've got something to say...say it, that's what this place is for.  Thanks to all. 

-Owen K

Hey guys. In an effort to get more interest in the Jayhawk baseball program, I thought it would be interesting to see how some of our more talented guys are doing in the minors. So far I've been keeping up on the stats for all of our players drafted in 2010 and a couple more from the year before. If there are any other players you might know about let me know and I can add them to the list.

Rookies - Travis Blankenship, Robby Price, and Cameron Selik were the only seniors drafted in 2010. Brian Heere and Tony Thompson both made the early jump to amateur status. T.J. Walz and Brett Bochy were also drafted but I can't find their stats anywhere so I assume they made the choice to finish out their time at college. All of the players are currently playing in Class-A Short Season. Expect most of our guys to start getting a real shot at low-A next year unless there's not enough room because they're all doing reasonably well.

Travis Blankenship: Class-A Short Season New York-Penn League, Tri-City Valleycats (Houston Astros) Year One

Drafted in the 31st round, 933rd overall, Blankenship has been reliable in the same role he was as a Jayhawk, middle relief pitcher. He had an ERA around 5.00 as a Senior so it's safe to assume he's benefiting from playing in a woodbat league. Most of our pitchers are performing very well without having to deal with the extra pop from the aluminum bat.

Robby Price: Class-A Short Season New York-Penn League, Hudson Valley Renegades (Tampa Bay Rays) Year One

Robby's been the MVP of the Jayhawk rookies through 40 or so games of Short Season ball. So much so that LJWorld wrote an article about his success. He's cooled down since then (maybe the fame went to his head?) but he's by far the most promising pro-prospect due to the position he plays (2B) and his unique mix of power and speed.

Cameron Selik: Class-A Short Season New York-Penn League, Vermont Lake Monsters (Washington Nationals) Year One

via 2.bp.blogspot.com

Nothing special from Cameron. He's been an average middle relief pitcher for the Nats. My guess is he just doesn't locate as well as he needs to because his stuff is good enough to be successful at this level. He hasn't pitched a lot of innings so if he can string together a couple of strong performances that ERA could shrink pretty fast.

Brian Heere: Class-A Short Season New York-Penn League, Mahoning Valley Scrappers (Cleveland Indians) Year One

via thecollegebaseballblog.com

A good guy to root for. Aside from earning points for doing the I-have-to-pee dance betweeen pitches, he grew up in L-Town and even brought a state championship to LHS Football as the quarterback. His OBP is the only saving grace for him so far. He needs to hit the weight room and bump up the slugging a couple hundred points or so.

Tony Thompson: Class-A Short-Season Northwest League, Vancouver Canadians (Oakland A's) Year One

via www.baseballrumormill.com

He's strong enough that he'll always hit for decent power. His average will probably never be high and he has literally no speed at all. I'm not sure if he can stick at third but my guess would be no. He could be valuable if his bat is strong enough to carry him as a DH or possibly 1B.

There's quite a few other Jayhawks in the minors I'm sure but as this list has already gotten way longer than I ever intended it to be, I'll leave you with what I think are our most promising second year prospects.

Shaeffer Hall: Class A Advanced Florida State League, Tampa Yankees (New York Yankees) Year Two

via assets.sbnation.com

Paul Smyth: Class A Advanced California League, Stockton Ports (Oakland A's) Year Two

via gotmilb.mlblogs.com

Both guys started their careers in the Class A Short Season League as well and were quickly promoted to low-A. After dominating their respective leagues both were promoted to high-A in just their second season. Smyth is the closer for his team and Hall (who threw a no-hitter at KU) is one of his teams best starters. They both have outstanding K/BB ratios, have relatively high ground ball/fly ball ratios and it will be fun to see how these guys progress.

There you have it. I'll try and give you an update every now and then with the stats from the previous post to show how they improved ... or how they're failing. If you have any suggestions for making this any better please tell me cus this is my first shot at a post on SBNation.