-P- John Perrotto reports the Rockies are the "most likely" team to trade for Ian Snell. Beyond a chuckle at the possibility that Jim Tracy has some input into what players the Rockies will acquire (and seriously, how does Tracy continue to convince organizations that he knows what he's doing? Hypnotism?), I'm not sure what to make of this. Trading Snell would be selling low, which is only wise if you're convinced you haven't reached bottom yet. According to Perrotto, "some in the organization" are ready to just dump Snell and his contract. Snell has been awful for two years running and probably isn't the type to listen to coaching, but I'd be inclined to give him every opportunity to shape up before shipping him out, since the money (about $6 million for the rest of this year and next) really isn't much. I think I might breathe a sigh of relief if he left, though.
-P- I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's time to stop pretending Danny Moskos can be a starter. It's been a few weeks since he's had a truly awful start, but still: 26 strikeouts and 25 walks in 64 innings? That's atrocious. He's 23. Put him in the bullpen.
-P- I have little to add to the Post-Gazette's Top 10 prospects list, which is pretty good. I'll probably post a longer list of my own after the draft pick signing deadline. Just a couple quibbles with a couple of the picks at the bottom, though: at this point, I'd probably leave Neil Walker out of my top ten. He's now had a full season and a half in which he's been downright terrible, and at his age he really needs to be performing. He'll have to improve a great deal to have even a palatable OBP in the majors, and he's shown few signs of improvement since 2007.
Also, the more I think about it the more I think Calvin Anderson isn't a prospect. An interesting minor leaguer, yes. A prospect, no. He's striking out five times as often as he walks, and his OPS has decreased each month, probably as pitchers have figured out they don't have to throw him anything in the zone.
In place of Walker and Anderson (who were both on the periphery of the Post-Gazette list anyway), I'd submit Ronald Uviedo and Rudy Owens for consideration. Both have struck out nearly a batter an inning as starters at age-appropriate levels. Owens, especially, has quietly been very consistent.
-P- Someone mentioned the performances of the Domincan and Venezeulan Pirates teams the other day. I'm reluctant to comment much on these teams, both because they've played only a handful of games and because it's just about impossible to interpret DSL and VSL stats because the players are so far from the majors. Whether a 17-year-old like Roberto Espinoza can make it to the big leagues is a question I couldn't even begin to answer without the help of a scout.There have been a bunch of interesting performances, though, particularly on the VSL team.