Oakland Athletics Top-15 Prospects of 2010, No’s 6 – 15

ALSO SEE – Athletics Top Prospects, No’s 1 – 5

Grades are based on a prospect’s projected value over the course of his career and how likely it is that prospect will fulfill his projected value. Various factors are accounted for including upside, red flags, actual performance, and closeness to the majors. See the 2010 Prospect Primer for more information as it relates to prospect grading and philosophy.

Hitters must have 100 or fewer Major League ABs to qualify for this list. Starting pitchers must have 50 or fewer Major League innings to qualify for this list. Relief pitchers must have 25 or fewer Major League innings to qualify for this list. Ages are listed as of May 1st, 2010. Levels are based on the highest level in which a prospect played in 2009. All grades are subject to change based on any new information I receive before the season starts.

If you need to reach me in any way, please contact me via e-mail or post a comment at the bottom of the page and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible. The first two prospects are available for everybody to read.

› Only Premium Members can view each scouting report. Click here to become a Premium Member

Player Grades
Fastball – 50 Now | 60 Future
Curveball – 40 | 55
Change-Up – 45 | 55
Control – 40 | 55
Command – 35 | 55
Pitchability – 35 | 55
ETA – 2015 (complete guess)
Final Grade – B-

Body Type – A loose and gangly frame with a ton of projection

Stuff

Based on reports from his Winter Ball appearances, Ynoa’s fastball is in the low – mid 90′s with the potential for more. He’s shown an inconsistent, but sometimes quality breaking ball with tight spin, and a change-up that could be plus when it’s fully developed. The change-up is said to have a slight cutting action.

The bottom line, however, is that there is very little information about the exact quality of his stuff. Because he didn’t pitch last year, it makes it that much more difficult to get a feel for it. That being said, we do know this: Ynoa has three pitches that all project to be above average or better.

Injury

Ynoa missed all of last year with inflammation in his elbow and the A’s erred on the side of the caution. It was a small set back for the highly touted Dominican-born pitcher, but I don’t think I’ve heard anybody voice real concern over his future.

Mechanics

This video was shot last year, so there might be a couple things he’s changed since. He’s got a pretty clean delivery. I like how he leads with his hips in an effort to build up momentum.

One thing I can see Ynoa doing as he gets older, stronger, and fills out his frame is him going to a little more power-based delivery…more compact, a little quicker in tempo, a slightly later hand break perhaps.

Notice the length of his arms and legs…the benefit of having longer limbs is that he releases the pitch closer to homeplate than a normal sized pitcher would. Ynoa’s height may cause him problems in repeating his delivery, but he’s widely praised for his athleticism and coordination and those skills should allow him to consistently repeat his delivery.

One area that I could see him cleaning up a bit is his front side mechanics…get that glove a little more out in front of the chest instead of over to his side and that will make it easier to keep that front shoulder closed.

It looks like the A’s are going to be very patient with their prized pitching prospect and rightfully so. It’s likely going to take him some time to work his way through the organization.

Best Case Outcome – No. 1 starter — he’s a huge risk obviously, but scouts seem to be universal on his ultimate upside

More Likely Outcome – Too soon to say…more data is needed

Player Grades
Contact – 50 Now | 60 Future
Power – 40 | 40/45
Discipline – 50 | 55
Speed – 50/45 | 50/45
Defense – 50 | 50
Arm – 55 | 55
Instincts – 55 | 55
ETA – 2010
Final Grade – B-

For an extended look at Adrian Cardenas, click here

Body Type – Not a big guy…somewhat stocky

Scouting Report

Cardenas’ main strength is his ability to hit for average. He’s got wonderful hand-eye coordination that allows him to consistently square up on balls. Good bat control allows him to pepper line drives to all fields. It’s easy to envision him being an above .300 career average hitter.

However, after his promotion to Triple-A Sacramento, it looked like he wasn’t seeing the ball particularly well. His timing looked off and he wasn’t consistently squaring up on balls. His approach remained the same, but he wasn’t making the same kind of contact. Many of the line drives he hit in Double-A became ground balls and as result, his average fell off significantly.

His patience at the plate is solid, but he’s not a walk machine and his power hasn’t really developed much over the past couple years. He’s sorta stagnated a bit. There are a couple reasons for this…

1. Cardenas isn’t a projectable or real physical player…he is what he is

2. Cardenas has more contact oriented approach and you don’t see him drive balls too often

3. Cardenas’ swing doesn’t incorporate much of his lower body. He takes a small stride forward, while moving the torso simultaneously back to create plenty of torque. He then uses his quick-twitch muscles in his forearms to accelerate the bat with minimal load. Because his swing doesn’t really incorporate his lower body and relies more on his upper body to generate power, he doesn’t have better than gap power.

Now, the biggest reason for my lower rating of Cardenas is the recent news that Oakland will move Cardenas off of second base to third. Cardenas has more value as an offensive oriented second baseman. He gets lost in the shuffle of the big bats at third base with the move. Using the chart whipped up by Kevin Goldstein to show what this move means for Cardenas offensively…

POS – Bad | Average | Good | Elite

2b – .702 | .762 | .820 | .862

3b – .718 | .805 | .902 | .958

So Cardenas has an upside of a “good” second baseman with the move to third base puts upside to around the level of an average third baseman, which doesn’t sound too great to me.

Best Case Outcome – Above average second baseman or average third baseman

More Likely Outcome – Slightly better than average second baseman or a below average everyday third baseman

Brief Rundown on Prospects 8 – 15

8. Max Stassi, C – High upside catcher that can rocket up this list next year, but for now we’ll wait until he gets more professional ABs

9. Tyson Ross, RHP – Like his peripherals and quality of his stuff, but I’ve hated his mechanics since I first saw them a couple years ago…I’m skeptical of his ability to remain a starter

10. Ian Krol, LHP – Surprised? You won’t see Krol ranked this high by most other publications because he has very little track record due to being suspended as a high school senior. But Krol is somebody with the potential for three average or better pitches to go along with good command and an excellent feel for pitching. In addition, his mechanics and athletic ability give Oakland’s developmental team a lot to work with — and they have an excellent track record in working with young pitchers

11. Josh Donaldson, C/1b/3b – Solid offensive catcher with great plate discipline…value is really tied to position, so he needs to stay at catcher

12. Corey Brown, OF – Not a big difference between Grant Desme and Brown. Why the gap in rankings? I expand on that in Brown’s scouting report

13. Sean Doolittle, 1b/OF – Injury cut into his development here…rated here because he doesn’t have the positional value a bunch of prospects rated ahead of him have

14. Fautino de los Santos, RHP – Candidate to fast track through the system out of the bullpen because of past injuries and age

15. Anthony Capra, LHP – Back of the rotation potential with plus change-up, decent fastball, and better command than control

› Only Premium Members can view each scouting report. Click here to become a Premium Member

To read the scouting report on Anthony Capra, you’ll need to subscribe to the FREE Baseball-Intellect Newsletter by using the form below:

For readers already using an RSS feed for site updates, you can skip the updates and sign up for just the content that does not appear on the main site by clicking here.

Other C+ Prospects

16. Pedro Figueroa, LHP – A little old for his league, didn’t really post overwhelming numbers, and battled inconsistent command, but he’s a lefty with a low – mid 90′s fastball and a couple decent secondary offerings to go with it

17. Justin Marks, LHP – I honestly don’t have a lot of information to go on here, but I do know he’s a third round pick out of Louisville and he’s a command lefty with four solid, but not great offerings…missed bats and kept the ball on the ground in college…a guy to watch next year

18. Brad Kilby, LHP – Fantastic season for Oakland last year, though he probably was pitching over his head…deceptive delivery makes it extremely tough to center the ball against and spots his fastball well to both corners

19. Arnold Leon, RHP – Solid fastball, improved curveball put him on the prospect map…struggles with lefties, so he might be better out of the bullpen, but he has was actually better as a starter than as a reliever last year

20. Ben Hornbeck, LHP – Sleeper for next year put up big time numbers in A+ Stockton…how his stuff translates to higher levels is still a question mark

21. Mickey Storey, RHP – Came out of nowhere and stormed through the system with ease…has control of a deep repertoire of pitches

22. Connor Hoehn, RHP – Sleeper for next season…see the extended scouting report

C/C+ Prospects

23. Sam Demel, RHP – Another reliever in the A’s system…struggles with command, but has good stuff

HONORABLE MENTIONS (in no particular order) – Jason Christian (3b/2b) | Jeremy Barfield (OF) | Rashun Dixon (OF) | James Simmons (RHP) | Henry Rodriguez (RHP) | Shane Peterson (OF) | Clay Mortensen (RHP) | Dusty Coleman (SS) | Kenny Smalley (RHP) | Ryan Ortiz (C) | Matt Sulentic (RF) | Eric Sogard (INF)

I’ll lastly add, about Henry Rodriguez…two seasons facing Double and Triple-A competition, and he walked 20.5% and 18.4% of the batters he’s faced…and he also had a BABIP a gainst of .405 and .378…command is horrendous. Tremendous arm, but man, he needs to find a semblance of control.

If you enjoyed this article, please consider subscribing to my RSS feed for updates for when new content is posted.

You can also get updates sent straight to your inbox in addition to extra prospect reports, the reader mailbag, and more by using the form below to sign up for the free Baseball-Intellect Newsletter. Your e-mail will never be shared or sold:

For readers already using an RSS feed for site updates, you can skip the updates and sign up for just the content that does not appear on the main site.

Keep in mind that to read the scouting reports for each team’s No. 15 rated prospect, you must be a member of the Newsletter.

ALSO SEE – Oakland Athletics Top Prospects , No’s 1 – 5

UP NEXT – Seattle Mariners Top Prospects, No’s 1 – 5

Other References and Resources Used for This Article – First Inning and Minor League Splits