AL Rookie Roundup

Jason Michael Barker

When I sat down to write this, I had it in my head that there was a terrific crop of rookies in the American League. Looking over team rosters, however, I'm just not seeing it -- at least in terms of players who are producing right now. There are certainly some good young players with impressive minor league track records, but for whatever reason they haven't yet produced at the major league level.

Out west, two players everyone was watching coming out of spring training -- Carlos Peña and Hank Blalock -- have yet to live up to expectations. Peña got off to a tremendous start by homering four times in his first seven games, but has cooled off considerably since then. What is encouraging, though, is that his patience has improved as the season has progressed. After walking seven times in 87 April at-bats (not a horrible mark to begin with), he has already walked eight times in 23 May at-bats.

Really, all Peña is missing right now is batting average. Even with his .227 mark he's still posting a .455 slugging percentage, and his 15 walks in 110 at-bats are well above the ten percent threshold. Further, his seven homers as of this writing find him on pace for 31 over the course of a full season, and he's among the league leaders in pitches seen per plate appearance. Peña hit .284 in over 1600 minor league at-bats, so it's not unreasonable to think he'll resume hitting for average sooner than later.

In Texas, Blalock's .200/.292/.310 start got him a ticket to AAA Oklahoma. Personally, I would have stuck with him unless there was some obvious flaw in his game that could be easily addressed in the minors. If the Rangers think they have a shot at winning this season, however, then sending Blalock down in favor of a more productive player is certainly defensible.

Besides, this might be best for everyone involved. The Rangers can play Herbert Perry -- a decent hitter when he has gotten a chance -- at the hot corner for the time being. Blalock gets to build his confidence by mashing AAA pitching, and the fans in Oklahoma no longer have to watch Ed "E5" Sprague take the field.

Speaking Blue Jays third basemen, Toronto has a rookie manning the hot corner who is off to a good start in 2002. I didn't think much of Eric Hinske when he came over from the A's as part of the Billy Koch deal, but so far he's hitting .305/.375/.523 and playing more or less every game. He has shown a better walk rate (15 in 128 at-bats) than he did in the minors last season, and has hit 13 doubles to go along with his five homers. I suppose why they don't pay me the big bucks.

In Kansas City, lefty Jeremy Affeldt parlayed seven strong April relief appearances (2.60 ERA in 17.1 innings) into two starts in May. He has pitched well as a starter, giving up just two earned runs, but unfortunately has only been able to pitch four innings each time out. Obviously teams are looking for longer outings from their starters, so he'll have to work on getting himself stretched out, so to speak. In any event, Affeldt has performed admirably considering he skipped AAA and doesn't light up the radar gun.

That's about it, folks. Sure, there are other rookies on rosters in the American League, but they're either not contributing or just not all that interesting. Dustan Mohr got off to a good start in Minnesota, but he's already 25 and is really just holding right field for another month or so until Michael Cuddyer is healthy and ready to go.

Detroit's Jeff Farnsworth, a Rule 5 selection, has been about as average as you can get -- 4.50 ERA, 14 hits and 6 strikeouts in 12 innings. His batterymate Mike Rivera, who mashed 33 homers at AA last season, is off to a horrid .233/.273/.370 start with just three walks in 73 at-bats.

Then there are the Devil Rays, they of the three Rule 5 picks (four if you count DL'ed Kevin McGlinchy). Moving down the roster... Steve Kent was expected to get left-handed batters out, but so far they're hitting .316/.364/.526 against him, and he's walking a batter just about every other innings. Former outfielder Jorge Sosa has a string of five consecutive scoreless innings going for himself, and has pitched much better since getting torched in the early going. Control is a big key for him; he has only walked one batter during that stretch.

Then there's young infielder Felix Escalona. The best thing you can say about him is that he's playing more than Seattle's Rule 5 infielder, Luis Ugueto, but that's not saying much. Escalona has managed just a .212/.250/.273 line so far and is clearly overmatched at the plate. The Devil Rays deserve some credit for trying to take full advantage of the Rule 5 draft, and at least they've given him 33 at-bats so far, but this sort of thing really isn't a good way to develop prospects.

Speaking of Ugueto, he continues his quest to finish the season with more runs scored than at-bats. Because he's a pretty good basestealer, the Mariners have taken to using him as their top pinch-runner though he rarely gets a chance to bat. As a result, he has scored nine runs on the season despite only nine at-bats and just one hit.

Finally, the M's do have one young pitcher worth watching, though he has only worked three innings since being called up. When Jeff Nelson went on the disabled list last week, Seattle called up right-hander Rafael Soriano, the top pitching prospect in the organization. At the time, he was 2-3 with a 2.63 ERA at AA San Antonio, having allowed 28 hits and 13 walks with 40 strikeouts in 37.2 innings.

In his major league debut Friday, he three primarily fastballs and was clocked as high as 96 MPH on the Safeco Field gun, generally believed to read 2-3 MPH high. Soriano does throw hard, however, and features a very good slider to compliment his fastball. Whether he winds up a reliever or a starter depends on how his changeup develops. Against the Red Sox, he worked three innings of scoreless relief, allowing two hits and striking out one. Nelson is going to be out for 4-6 weeks, so Soriano should be up for awhile -- watch him.

about the author

Jason Michael Barker is no rookie -- at least not in these parts. He's no proven veteran either, though, so if you write to jmb@strikethree.com asking for veteran leadership he's likely to suggest Peter Gammons or at the very least Greg Vaughn.

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