Future Redbirds

The City: Johnson City, TN. Population 55,469. Fun factoid(s) about Johnson City: During the 20’s and with prohibition in effect, Johnson City got the nickname “Little Chicago” due to it’s connection with bootlegging activity and the infamous gangster Al Capone. It’s been said Capone had a part-time home Johnson City. Renee Zellweger’s ex-husband and country music star Kenny Chesney also hales from Johnson City. He had her at hello. For about 4 months.

The Ball Park: Howard Johnson Field built in 1956. Not named after the HoJo hotels, nor for the ex-Tiger and Met. It’s likely just named after someone in the Johnson family who founded the town. And you think Tal’s Hill in Houston can make things a little interesting/obnoxious? Getta load of this. That’s a 15 foot bank in front of the right field fence. The dimensions of the field are 330 to left, 430 to dead center and 330 to right. It favors the hitters rather heavily, even as far as being called the “Coors Field of the Appy League”. According to Baseball Prospectus, the Park Factors were 1.013, 1.032 and 1.057. So it really ain’t Coors, but it’s not the “Petco of the Appy”, either. The stadium’s capacity is 3,800, but they only drew an average crowd of 719 fans per game, 9th in their league.

The Team: The team finished 2nd to last in the West Division of the Appy league with a .500 record, going 34-34. But looking at their runs allowed and runs scored they could’ve faired worse. They scored 314 runs but allowed 364, so their record could’ve been 29-39 when you do the math. The team batted only .244/.315/.370 as a whole and the pitching staff combined for a 4.35 ERA. Hey, it’s just Rookie League, it’s where the team put its late-rounder college picks and its kids out of high school, so whatever.

The Players: I’ll start with the hitters here: Isaias Garcia led the league in batting average, hitting .339 in 192 at bats. Garcia also finished 3rd in slugging (.510) and in OPS (.906). Before you get too excited, keep in mind he’s not an 19 year old guy out of high school putting up these sort of numbers, he’s a 22 year old out of U of Houston picked in the 34th round this year. But because he’s shown some sock and he plays second base I suppose he’d be one to keep at least half an eye on. Brandon Buckman is another 22 year old college kid, he’s out of Nebraska and had a good debut. He finished tied for 4th in HR’s (8) and 4th in total bases (110). Buckman was selected in the 19th round and is a big dude at 6′5″, 225. He’s a lefty and plays first base…sounds a little Duncan-esque…Christian Reyes is a 20 year old catcher with a .521 slugging % in 121 AB’s. You gotta like that coming from the catcher position. Wil Pujols…you know, Albert’s cousin..he’s not going to get confused with Albert any time soon. Or ever for that matter. It was his 2nd season of rookie ball and he mustered .202/.254/.229 over 109 at bats and he looks to be headed down the Ozzie Canseco career path to fame. Or worse. And to think Albert was picked in the 13th round, will young Wil was picked in the 6th.

However, the hitter I’m most excited about is 18 year old Jonathan Edwards. Selected in the 14th round in 06, this guy is a beast of a kid at 6′5″, 230. He had an Isolated Power of about .200. According to some club sources he actually runs well for a big guy and has a good outfield arm. Bookmark him.

Other hitters worth a mention-Daryl Jones was recently ranked the 6th overall prospect of the league by Baseball America. Jones was a 3rd round pick in the 05 draft after turning down numerous football and baseball scholarships, being sought after by the likes of Georgia Tech, Nebraska, Stanford, Rice and Texas A&M. He played WR in high school, but chose baseball and did eeokay for a 19 year old, hitting .248/.335/.409 with 5 steals between rookie ball and A ball. Because he’s an outfielder with some wheels, he’s getting comps to Kenny Lofton. Lofton wasn’t a fast starter either, but he took off as a hitter when he was 22 year old in the Sally League. Jones has youth on his side, but there’s no telling which way he goes.

Shortstop Tommy Pham was regarded as a potential 3rd round pick by some experts, but questions remained about his sign-ability as he had committed to playing college ball at Cal-State Fullerton. The Cards took a gamble by drafting him at the 16th round, and it payed off. Pham was hitting for a .940 OPS in the month of June but fell off over the next two months, mostly due to a strained groin, which cost him some playing time and he wasn’t right upon return. In 54 games he committed 22 errors, so he may need to find somewhere else in the field to play. He’s got a strong arm, as he pitched in high school (hitting the low 90’s mind you), but he’s just not accurate. He stole 12 bases and posted a .664 OPS to finish the season.

As for the pitchers, there’s a couple worth paying attention to. Tyler Herron was a first round supplemental pick in 2005 out of high school. He didn’t pitch well in 05, allowing 11 homers in 50 innings to go with a 5.62 ERA. This go round he cut down his homeruns to 6 in 62 innings, striking out 54 to go with a 69 hits and 22 walks. He’s a lefty with a fastball that touches the high eighties and has a good curveball. The club expects his velocity to increase with work and age. Herron was later promoted to the Spikes where he started one game. The other guy really worth watching is Blake King, who I plan to have a write up as a player profile later as the top JC Cardinal prospect. Stay tuned for that.

Oh, by the way…if any of you reading this have seen some of these players live, feel free to drop in your observations or amateur scouting reports in the comments. Love to hear from ya.