Just wanted to drop a quick note to point out a fledgling Royals blog in pretty much the same vein as the Pipeline. Royals Prospects has started and "Victorious Secrets" is posting daily updates on the action in the AFL and Hawaiian Winter League from the Royals' perspective. Give it a look, it's worth the time.....
23 October 2008
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Kyle Martin didn't seem to have this strike out problem in Burlington. Mertins seems to be following suit. Kyle only struck out once every 5 ab's in Burlington. In Hawaii, it's once every 3. What's your take on this? He leads his team in many offensive categories and leads the league in HR's, TB's, 2nd in SLG. Tied for 4th in RBI with Mertins. Is he just swinging for the fences and getting lucky? Is this just an Hawaiian Funk? I just can't make much sense of it.
On another note...is there a power corner outfielder in Japan you think the Royals might give serious consideration. And does this player have ties to Hillman???
Martin showed better pop this year. I think the K rate is probably a mix of free swinging a little more and probably some tough pitching in Hawaii, to some extent. MLB teams aren't sending their scrubs to Hawaii for more work, they're sending their more promising prospects, to some extent. Mertins and Martin also played in some pitching-favorable leagues this season, so it's probably somewhat of a normalization there in Hawaii where it might favor hitters a bit more.
As to the Japan question, I haven't heard of any hot commodities position-wise over there looking to come over this offseason -- the two I have heard of are the pitching stud Yu Darvish, who will surely be out of the Royals' price range, and that prospect kid who hasn't even hit the majors over there yet. Can't remember his name off the top of my head. Slugging over there also doesn't necessarily mean slugging over here, too, as we've seen examples of. Atsunori Inaba is the Fighters' big slugger but he's 36 and makes pretty good money over there. I doubt he'd come stateside just to play for the Royals and Hillman.
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