== And now we dive into the Spec66 ===
We decided to expand our prospect listing to 100 this year. We’ll have a Top 40 (ranked), the 26 in the Mix (alphabetical 41-66) and we’ve already revealed 34 More (The Watch List) by position. It’s all linked on the “MB100” page, which is always at the top.
And we just covered a few minor-league statistical basics in our last post.
We’ll do most of the list in small bunches, but the very top will each get their own post.
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Travis Witherspoon | OF | 2014 age: 25 | RH
Traditional Hitting Stats
Year | Age | Lvl | G | PA | AB | H | 2b | 3b | HR | BB | K | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS |
2009 | 20 | Rk | 63 | 233 | 207 | 47 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 11 | 64 | 0.227 | 0.281 | 0.391 | 0.673 |
2010 | 21 | Rk | 71 | 323 | 288 | 89 | 11 | 3 | 10 | 24 | 73 | 0.309 | 0.365 | 0.472 | 0.837 |
2011 | 22 | A-A+ | 118 | 524 | 472 | 118 | 20 | 4 | 13 | 41 | 117 | 0.250 | 0.316 | 0.392 | 0.708 |
2012 | 23 | A+-AA | 121 | 541 | 478 | 128 | 19 | 7 | 13 | 57 | 106 | 0.268 | 0.350 | 0.418 | 0.768 |
2013 | 24 | AA | 129 | 514 | 448 | 96 | 18 | 3 | 11 | 55 | 118 | 0.214 | 0.299 | 0.342 | 0.641 |
Spectometer Analysis
Year | Age | Lvl | HR% | BB% | XBH + BB% | ISO | K% | PSA+ | Conv+ | Comp |
Age Arc | Slugger > 4% | Goal > 8.5% | Goal > 19% | Goal > .200 | Goal < 20% | Strong Prospect > 100 | ||||
2009 | 20 | “+1” | 2.58% | 4.72% | 11.59% | 0.164 | 27.47% | 29 | 51 | -20 |
2010 | 21 | “+2” | 3.10% | 7.43% | 14.86% | 0.163 | 22.60% | 66 | 72 | 38 |
2011 | 22 | “+1” | 2.48% | 7.82% | 14.89% | 0.142 | 22.33% | 66 | 68 | 34 |
2012 | 23 | “+1” | 2.40% | 10.54% | 17.74% | 0.150 | 19.59% | 93 | 81 | 74 |
2013 | 24 | “+2” | 2.14% | 10.70% | 16.93% | 0.128 | 22.96% | 81 | 64 | 45 |
The Mariners plucked Witherspoon out of the Angels organization when he was placed on waivers. He later cleared waivers when taken off the Seattle roster, and was outrighted to the minors.
We can immediately see that Witherspoon has been rather old for his levels, and hasn’t put up the kind of numbers that would make one consider him a likely success in the majors.
That being said … the Spectometer does not take defense or baserunning into account, and that’s where Witherspoon earns his stripes. He’s a true center fielder, and he’s swiped 140 bags in his minor-league career.
He does have enough patience and power to warrant some attention as a speedy center fielder, and that was enough to bump Leon Landry, who did not play center much at all. Witherspoon’s 2012 season was his best, and demonstrated a decent amount of promise.
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Grady Wood | Reliever | 2014 age: 24 | RH
Traditional Pitching Stats
Year | Age | Lvl | W | L | ERA | G | SV | IP | H | HR | BB | K | WHIP | H/9 | HR/9 | BB/9 | K/9 |
2012 | 22 | SS-A | 4 | 0 | 2.17 | 17 | 2 | 37.1 | 29 | 0 | 15 | 35 | 1.18 | 7.00 | 0.00 | 3.60 | 8.40 |
2013 | 23 | A A+ | 4 | 5 | 3.78 | 51 | 7 | 81 | 69 | 5 | 35 | 69 | 1.28 | 7.70 | 0.60 | 3.90 | 7.70 |
Spectometer Analysis
Year | Age | Lvl | HR% | BB% | XBH + BB% | ISO | K% | PSA+ | Conv+ | Comp |
Age Arc | Goal < 1% | Goal < 6% | Goal < 14% | Goal < .100 | Goal > 20% | Strong prospect > 100 | ||||
2012 | 22 | “+3” | 0.00% | 9.43% | 12.58% | 0.036 | 22.01% | 113 | 124 | 137 |
2013 | 23 | “+2” | 1.43% | 10.03% | 16.91% | 0.114 | 19.77% | 87 | 99 | 86 |
You can see that Wood was very strong in 2012, albeit against younger competition, but he was coming out of a junior college in Oregon, not a major conference college program.
He kept things going nicely at Low-A Clinton (still against younger guys) before getting roughed up somewhat at High-A High Desert. Of course, the latter is to be expected, and was also his first time against more experienced hitters.
Outside of the desert, Wood has been very effective at keeping the ball in the yard and not yeilding much damage (despite a fairly high walk rate). Those are good traits for a reliever, and he’ll have a shot moving forward.
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Jacob Zokan | Starter | 2014 age: 23 | LH
Traditional Pitching Stats
Year | Age | Lvl | W | L | ERA | G | SV | IP | H | HR | BB | K | WHIP | H/9 | HR/9 | BB/9 | K/9 |
2013 | 22 | A–Rk | 5 | 3 | 4.02 | 13 | 0 | 56.0 | 52 | 7 | 13 | 59 | 1.16 | 8.40 | 1.10 | 2.10 | 9.50 |
Spectometer Analysis
Year | Age | Lvl | HR% | BB% | XBH + BB% | ISO | K% | PSA+ | Conv+ | Comp |
Age Arc | Goal < 1% | Goal < 6% | Goal < 14% | Goal < .100 | Goal > 20% | Strong prospect > 100 | ||||
2013 | 22 | “+3” | 3.07% | 5.70% | 15.79% | 0.180 | 25.88% | 120 | 93 | 113 |
Fear the Zokan! Low walks, high strikeouts, and a lefty — good combination.
Zokan came out of mid-major College of Charleston, and was solid across the board in Everett, except for coughing up seven home runs in 10 appearances. It may have just been bad luck, but he’ll have to show improvement there.
Otherwise, he’s a guy who could fit as a starter or reliever if he continues his success against more experienced hitters.
RE: Zokan.
I tend to give a LH pitcher a bit more leeway on the age-arc. It always seems to take them longer to get sorted out. The K/9 is good, the BB/9 is good, but the ISO and HR% are bad. Park effect?
Six of the seven were given up at the three most HR-friendly parks in the NW league. MiLB’s park effects chart shows Everett to have the highest HR rate in the league by an order of magnitude. Based on 1.000 being neutral, Everett is 2.039, Salem is 1.303 Spokane is 1.391. The seventh was at Boise, where it’s as close to neutral as you can get, 1.022. The only away ballpark he pitched at that is below average at giving up the dinger is Hillsboro, and that park is closer to 1.000 than any of the others where he didn’t pitch.
So… bad luck, or not getting the ball down in the zone?
Seven home runs in 10 games has got to be partially bad luck, especially since he was sharp in other areas. But there was probably also some kind of flaw there.
Great input on the parks. Thanks Brent!
If you’ve never been to Aquasox park, go to Google maps and input 3802 Broadway, Everett WA. Set it for satellite view. Then go close enough that you can see the park shape. If the right-center power alley is more than 320 feet I’m a heffalump. There’s no way to “pitch away from danger” there.