Quick Tour of the Farm

Inspired by this insightful interview with Top Prospect Kyle Drabek, here's an off-day tour of the farm system and some players to keep your eye on:

2009 First Rounder Chad Jenkins, pitching for Lansing, has a 3.04 ERA over his last 4 starts with only 4 walks against 25 strikeouts over those 26.2 innings; Reliever Matt Wright has 23 strikeouts in 13 innings, but keep in mind he's 23 years old;

Lansing 3B Mark Sobolewski is hitting .359 over the last 10 games, shortstop (and 2009 draftee) Ryan Goins has a .316 BA over those same games with seven walks to boot;

At Dunedin, big 1B Mike McDade is schorching a .421 batting average in his last 10 games; one time first rounder Kevin Ahrens is showing some signs of life, hitting .261 in his last 6 games, but he has a lot more proving to do;

2007 Alan Farina is showing his first signs of life as a pro, striking out 19 in 14 2010 innings with a 2.57 ERA - like Wright he's a bit old for the level but not extremely so;

My man Brad Emaus homered and walked twice tonight and his OPS for the year is still an impressive .956; Pitcher-turned-outfielder Adam Loewen has found a groove over the last 10, hitting .294 with a .959 OPS;

The aforementioned Kyle Drabek has found a groove in his last 4 starts, posting a 2.59 ERA and striking out 7 in each game;

Non-prospect Jarret Hoffpauir (playing second earlier and now third in Las Vegas) has cooled a bit over his last 10 (striking out 7 times after not striking out once in the first 22) but I'll tip my hat here since I didn't mention him before; David Purcey is still learning but he has an 18/8 K/BB rate in the last 11.2 innings (over his last 10 games) so there's hope despite his 5.4 ERA over that span; and to end on a not-so-encouraging update: Jesse Carlson gave up SEVEN runs in 2/3 of an inning in his last outing, thankfully for his ERA only one of those was earned - still, it's odd in that he has only walked one (while striking out 14) in 16.1 innings, but he's also given up 26 hits and 10 earned runs. The original assumption that he'd be along shortly has gone by the wayside.