Baseball America has it’s list of minor leaguers filing for free agency, and one name really stands out:
2B Tony Granidillo of the Boston Red Sox. He actually was a Cardinal at one time. He was taken in the AAA portion of the 2004 of the Rule 5 draft. After getting into the Boston system, he really improved his hitting. He is only 23 and played very well at the A+ Lancaster, hitting .326/.411/.492 over 517 plate appearances. Some of that looks a little fluky, he did post a .368 BABIP. Soxprospects.com has his scouting report:
Granadillo can play both second base and third base adequately, but his range isn’t outstanding at 2B. Excellent plate discipline and above average power for a middle infielder. Hits lefties at a slightly better clip. Seems to have really taken to Boston’s hitting philosophies, as he has improved his game every season with the organization.
I’m not crazy about the lack of range, but other then that he sounds like another Jose Martinez with walks. Here’s hoping the Cardinals bring him back into the fold. Here’s a video of him hitting a nice little single. Looks like he has a pretty good stroke. If they pick him up, he would certainly make the “system at a glance” spreadsheet I have on the left.
As for the Cardinals, their minor league FA’s are Hugo Castellanos, Chris Russ, Julio Sanchez, Mike Smith, Troy Cate, Chris Narveson, Mike Venafro, Danny Ardoin, Ryan Christianson, Brian Esposito, Tagg Bozied, Juan Richardson, and Rico Washington. No big losses there. Cate had an interesting comeback story last year but didn’t do well in AAA. It’s also pretty sad to see Narveson never live up to his potential in a Cardinal uniform, best of luck to him wherever he may land.
Scott Seabol, John Gall, Shaun Boyd, Junior Spivey, and Ricardo Rincon are also names on the list of FA’s that made me crack a smile.
Some 4A talent I wouldn’t mind seeing the Cardinals take a flyer on: RP Steve Andrade, RP Jeff Bajenaru, SP Ezequiel Astacio, RP Mike Koplove, SP Jesse Foppert, C J.D. Closser, SP Ben Hendrickson, SP Brian Bass, 2B Jason Bourgeois, OF Jorge Piedra, 1B/LF Val Pascucci, LHP Brandon Claussen, OF Joe Borchard, RP Travis Hughes, SP Dewon Brazelton, OF Tim Raines, LoogY Ron Flores, (Randy’s brother) and RHP Joshua Miller. For more discussion on this, lawless has a diary on this subject @ VEB. (edit) add Brooks Conrad to this list.
Suddenly, I’m in the mood to go to the Dollar Tree.
Filed under: Freely available talent
erik
azruavatar
fewgoodcards
roarke49
theredbaaron
Is JD Closser good enough to be a backup C for an entire season? We are looking for one right now and it wouldn’t be a bad idea to grab him for Memphis just to have him around in case. Also Ron Flores, how often do you get two lefties in one family? And is he at least as good as Randy?
Eric, i’m 100% with you on Granadillo. He fits our system’s biggest weakness which is middle infield. He’s played 2B, 3B, and SS in the minors. He would probably start in Springfield but could be at Memphis by the end of the year. We’d then have to put him on the 40 man roster next winter to keep him but he’d still only be 24 and have 3 options remaining. I think we need to sign a LH pitcher for AAA (in case we need one to call up - there is no one currently ready). We also might need to sign a AAA 1B if they think Hamilton is not ready (unless they want to go with Ferris
).
I’ve never seen (or hear of) Granadillo, but I wouldn’t get too excited about a 23-year-old’s numbers in A-ball during a season when he hit 50 points higher than expected on BABIP.
Yeah, he’d give us depth, and he’s got great bat control, but still…
Anyone know what happened to his age-21 season?
Joe
Erik-
Shoot me an email at contactwill@gmail.com. I finished a future redbirs drawing. I am not too happy with it, but I got an idea for a better version…
BJM
He was 21 years old for most of the 2006 season (birthday is August 10) in AA Greenville in the Southern League.
.280/.357/.451/.808
Greenville slightly favors hitters (2004-2006 / 2007 stats):
R - 1.04 / 1.02
H - 1.03 / 1.01
2B - 0.97 / 1.00
HR - 1.08 / 1.07
BB - 1.02 / 1.01
SO - 1.04 / 0.96
(source: 2007: http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/oracle/discussion/2007_minor_league_park_multipliers/; 2004-06: http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/oracle/discussion/minor_league_park_factors_2006/)
In general, his line drive percentage has been going up while his strikeout rate has been dropping and his walk rates has remained pretty steady.
His overall minor league stats:
* http://firstinning.com/players/Tony-Granadillo-a/
* http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/G/Tony-Granadillo.shtml
U, thanks. Firstinning.com has him skipping age 21… He goes from age 20 to 22. Didn’t know if he was a belated member of Age-Gate.
OK, so he was 22 last year, rather than 23. That makes him about 10 degrees more interesting.
Also interesting that after hitting .280 / .357 / .451in ~500 plate appearances as a 21 year old at AA, he was sent to A+ for another ~500 PA the following season. Anyone know the story?
I’m not sure I really have an opinion either way on Granadillo (although that’s a pretty sweet last name) but I do want to point out that Lancaster is one of the most severe hitter’s parks around.
Actually, Baseball Cube had it wrong, which is where I got the info about Greenville being AA. Greenville is actually an A league team. Portland is Boston’s AA affiliate.
hi erik–checking the links on the mlfa you listed and it seems hendrickson, hughes, and bass have pretty good numbers in terms of hits/inning and k/bb. know any more about why they are being cut loose?
thanks for the insight
sportsman, i don’t really have anything insightful. hughes is 29, hendrickson has been given shots and never has been ever to carry over his game in the pros yet and i don’t know much about bass. but yes, they do have good k/bb ratios, which is what led me to list them.
I went to a couple of Jethawks games this season (the park is 20 minutes from my house) but I just can’t remember anything about this kid. Azruavatar already pointed this out, but you really have to keep in mind that Lancaster is in the high desert, and baseballs do CRAZY things there. The wind randomly gusts 50+ mph and can cause a fly ball to jerk left or right 15 feet in the last 2-3 seconds of flight, not to mention the dust clouds that come through, so scores at Jethawks games can be very high. Home run totals are also inflated because of the wind, especially for lefties.