Via Jen Nevius

After going 2-12 with a 4.97 ERA in 2010, he returned to High-A Wilmington in 2011 and went 11-10. He still allowed too many hits (152 in 135 innings) and walked too many (53).

Melville’s 2012 season was a bust, as he spent the majority of it on the DL. He started the season in Double-A and made six appearances (five starts). He allowed 27 hits in 23.1 innings. He walked 15 and struck out 19. He then reappeared in August with Low-A Kane County. There, Melville made just two starts before being shut down again. With the Cougars, he walked three while striking out four over six innings. He was supposed to make up some innings in the Arizona Fall League, but was replaced just as the season was about to start.

Melville’s fastball is a plus pitch but he doesn’t always command it or throw it was conviction. Scouts believed he can get better if the Royals allow him to throw a slider and two-seam fastball (he did throw a slider late in the 2011 season).

Melville can be regularly seen in the community with whatever team he is playing for. He was awarded the Matt Minker Award in 2011 by the Carolina League, honoring the league’s player who does the best job of serving his community. Melville also was honored by the Royals with the Mike Sweeney Award, which is given to the player who most represents the Royals organization.

I’m not sure what’s next for Melville. First, he obviously needs to get healthy. Then he needs to get a better feel for his pitches. Maybe a move to the bullpen will help? My guess is, he’ll drop out of the BA rankings for the 2013 season and may return to High-A to start the season (if he’s healthy).

*The youtube video is from farmsystem and taken during spring training in 2010.

Veteran Doug Davis courtesy of Minda Haas (Royal Blues)

It was a matchup of Doug Davis against former Storm Chaser Sean O’Sullivan and O’Sullivan won the battle. Davis allowed three runs on seven hits and two walks over seven innings. He struck out eight, but allowed two solo homeruns. O’Sullivan allowed just one run on four hits and three walks over seven innings while striking out six.

The Storm Chasers lone run came via Mitch Maier‘s 4th inning solo homerun. Anthony Seratelli went 2-for-3 in the loss. In case you were wondering, Johnny Giavotella did not play.

NW Arkansas‘ game in Midland was postponed due to bad weather. However, the Naturals were eliminated from the postseason, as Springfield beat San Antonio.

Where did all of Wilmington‘s offense suddenly come from (and where has it been all season)? They scored ten runs in the 2nd inning and cruised to an 11-1 victory over Lynchburg. The Blue Rocks hold a 2.5 game lead over the Hillcats for the second half Northern Division title (the Hillcats won the first half).

The Blue Rocks collected 12 hits, but just three doubles, so they singled the Hillcats to death and capitalized on three Hillcats errors. Five Blue Rocks hitters had multi-hit games.

Matt Ridings was the beneficiary of all that offense, though he didn’t need a whole lot. He allowed an unearned run on three hits and a walk over seven innings. He struck out seven.

Kane County and Clinton took their scoreless duel into the 10th inning when the LumberKings scored two runs. The Cougars got a run in the bottom of the 10th inning on Justin Trapp‘s solo homerun (he went 3-for-5). However they could not complete the comeback and lost 2-1.

Remember Tim Melville? He started for the Cougars in his return from the DL (where he has spent most of the season) and allowed just one hit and two walks over four innings. He struck out four. Andrew Triggs followed with four perfect innings of relief with four strikeouts.

Bubba Watch: Bubba Starling went 1-for-4 with two strikeouts in Burlington’s 5-1 loss to Greenville. Playing shortstop for the Astros (in just his sixth game), the top pick in this past June’s draft, Carlos Correa, went 2-for-4 with a homerun.

The wacky Puffy Taco mascot of the San Antonio Missions AA Baseball team

The first thing you need to know about the Naturals’ road trip to San Antonio is that they were confronted with possibly the wackiest mascot in baseball.  Nuttier than the Flying Squirrel in Richmond, VA; loonier than the Lansing, MI Big Lug Lugnut; much cuter than Gnate the Sand Gnat of Savannah; and equally as crazy as the Sushi Rolls of Vancouver, Canada.  You’ll almost never see him on a list of the most off-the-wall minor league characters, but I’m smitten with the mascot of the San Antonio Mission’s (the AA affiliate of the San Diego Padres), the Puffy Taco and his trusty companion, Ballapeño.  And don’t forget their best friend H.E.Buddy, the grocery bag mascot (yes, grocery bag) from the dominant local grocery store chain H.E.B.

Once you get past the kitschy trappings of minor league baseball, they actually play some fun games that are meaningful – at least to the players and the fans of players with high potential that we expect to eventually see in the majors.   And that’s the reason you’re reading this story right now.

I wish I could give you a sunshine and roses report of the Naturals performance, but that wouldn’t be the truth.  So, what I’m going to do is offer you is my list of “takeaways” from the game, both good and bad.

Here’s my first takeaway, and you aren’t going to like it.  Will Myers was not impressive.  Not at all.  I only saw him play one game, but he looked completely lost at the plate and nothing like the guy who tore up the Arizona Fall League a few months ago.  In the first inning he struck out swinging on 3 pitches (and looked bad doing it) immediately after the first two batters of the game hit solid singles up the middle and we needed him to move the runners.  In his second at bat he popped straight up to the catcher.  He struck out again in another at bat.  The only hit he received in 5 at bats was against a pitcher who was on the ropes, following a long delay and a coach’s visit to the mound, he squirted a broken bat single over the second baseman’s head.  Not an impressive day’s work for Mr. Myers.

The Naturals Christian Colon waits for a pitch while Wil Myers looks on from the on deck circle. April 9, 2012 CREDIT: Alan Barrington

On the other hand, on this particular day Christian Colon looked every bit the player and leader the Royals selected him to be.  He was 4 for 4 at the plate, and every hit was a ringing line drive.  He turned two nearly identical outstanding defensive plays in the field, running hard to his right, backhanding a ground ball before it could escape into left field, and throwing back across his body to force a fast runner at second base.  When Tim Melville, the Naturals starting pitcher, threw five straight balls to begin the game, Colon didn’t wait to act.  He showed leadership on the field, called time out and went to the mound alone to calm Melville down.  It must have worked, Melville didn’t give up a run and only allowed 3 hits, 1 walk (the first batter of the game), and 6 strikeouts in 5 innings pitched.

Colon stole second, only his first stolen base of the season, but when I describe the play I think you’ll agree he needs to make more attempts.  After he stole second base, he stood up and I probably could have counted three Mississippi’s before the ball arrived from the catcher.  Colon got an absurd jump on the pitch and made the Mission’s battery look like they were chasing shadows.

One other thing about Christian Colon – Baseball Reference says he’s 6’ 1” tall.  I didn’t take a measuring tape onto the field, but he doesn’t look anything close to that in my opinion.  But if you think his size might indicate he isn’t tough, consider this – He was hit by a pitch, and I don’t think he made any attempt to move out of the way.  Christian ended the night reaching base five times in five at bats.  I love the toughness and the willingness to do anything necessary to get on base and give his team a chance to win.

The Naturals starting pitcher Tim Melville warms up prior to the game. April 9, 2012. CREDIT: Alan Barrington

Tim Melville started the game on the mound for the Naturals and I didn’t know much about him before the game.  But this week I learned he knows how to mix his pitches and can make the opposing hitters chase balls in the dirt.  Unfortunately, I didn’t find the radar gun readout in the stadium until late in the game (it was lost in the sea of advertising signs on the outfield wall), so I don’t know how fast he was throwing, but he was definitely fooling people and pulling the string on occassion.

I was very impressed with the defensive play of light hitting second baseman Sharlon Schoop.  He made a fantastic play moving hard toward the right field line, throwing himself into a headlong dive, and came up firing a bullet to nail the runner at first.  It was “Frank Whitesque” and the best defensive play of the night.  However, I wish I had positive comments about the rest of his game.  He wandered two far off second and was nearly picked off by a snap throw from the catcher.  (How embarrassing would that be to get picked off second by the catcher?)  He struck out on a ball that was nearly over his head which got the crowd excited and a few of the drunk Missions fans sitting near me taunted him with a few choice words on his walk back to the dugout.  I considered joining them.

A few more miscellaneous notes:

• Melville was replaced on the mound by Elisaul Pimentel.  Pimentel got rocked and only lasted 2/3 of an inning.
• Catcher Ryan Jenkins did a good job of going with a tough pitch and poking it up the middle for a base hit to drive in 2 runs.
• Third Baseman Kurt Mertins laid down a picture perfect sacrifice bunt to move two runners, then hustled down the line and beat the throw to first on an error to load the bases.
• Edinson Rincon let a ball play him in left field.  He ran in to field a ball that was about to land in front of him, thought of diving for it (I think he could have gotten to it if he had committed rather than hesitating), changed his mind and backed off.  The ball bounced past him, but he was able to get it back to the infield before the runner could advance to second.
• Some of the guys I really wanted to see didn’t make it into the game: Promising pitchers Chris Dwyer, Noel Arguelles, Jake Odorizzi, and catcher Ben Theriot.  And of course, pitcher John Lamb is still recovering from surgery so it will be a couple more months before anyone has a chance to see him play.

Noel Arguelles, the only Naturals player on the Royals 40 man major league roster. April 9, 2012 CREDIT: Alan Barrington

This team doesn’t appear to be full of superstars in-waiting as the Naturals of the past two years have been.  But there is talent here that the fans of Northwest Arkansas will enjoy watching this Summer, and in particular a pitching staff that has the ability to completely shut down the opposing team on any given night.  Maybe I’ll get lucky and see some of those guys take the mound the next time I get to see the Naturals play.

Thanks for visiting Kings of Kauffman. You can stay current on all the Kings of Kauffman content and news by following us on Twitter, Facebook, or by way of our RSS feed.  You can also send your questions to our mailbag at KoKMailbag@gmail.com and follow Alan Barrington on Twitter to be notified each time he posts a story and receive his incredibly insightful sports commentary.

There won’t be much suspense as to who we’ll cover, as the plan is to go back down the top 25 from before the season started. To get a sneak peak at the order, you can go back and read our rankings right now.

This means that we’ll start out reviewing our #25 prospect entering 2011, right-handed pitcher Tim Melville.

Read the original prospect profile on kingsofkauffman.com (share this clip)

(more…)

Hello again! For the last month I’ve been standing on the banks of Lake Kauffman. From time to time I’ve dipped my toes in the water but have been unable to take the plunge and publish my first article here since November 11th of last year. Now, things have changed.

As you have read, Jeff Herr has moved on to head up our network’s KU coverage over on Through the Phog. His departure leaves a gap in the minor league coverage on this site, but if you’re a long time reader of Kings of Kauffman you may remember my days as this site’s lead. You may also remember that I spent a lot of time writing about prospects and the draft. Since leaving KoK, my nomadic writing tendencies have taken me to several sites, but at all of my stops I’ve tried to work in coverage of the minor leagues as it has always been a facet of the game that I love to follow and write about.

With the launch of Seedlings to Stars just over a month ago, I’ve been able to hone my content focus more fully to minor league coverage. So when Jeff notified us that he was leaving KoK and S2S to take a lead position, it seemed natural that I pick up the baton and carry forward the weekly minor league feature here on this site. (more…)

 

 Here is your weekly minor league update.  It was a decent week for the affiliates as we are starting to see the emergence of some younger players like Yordano Ventura and Cheslor Cuthebert and the re-emergence, if you will, of Will Myers.  Here is where they stand:

Kane County – 27-39 (7th place)

Wilmington Blue Rocks – 34-31 (2nd place)

Northwest Arkansas Naturals – 32-20 (2nd place)

Omaha Storm Chasers – 37-30 (1st place)

(more…)

Rankings:
~ Baseball America #14
~ Kevin Goldstein NR in top 20
~ Royals Review #17
~ Scouting Book #13
~ John Sickels #15 – C+
~ Kings of Kauffman 2010: #6
(more…)

We knew that was coming back around July.

But Jim Callis responded to an interesting question, and his answer was surprising. Not in a bad way but more in that “Wow. I…can’t believe I hadn’t noticed that before” way.

First, the question itself:

(more…)

Tim Melville checks in at #6 on the 2010 Kings of Kauffman prospect list. (more…)

As Royals fans we’ve seen some bad bullpens in the last 15 seasons but this one just defies explanation.  The good news is that they cannot collectively pitch any worse as a unit than they have in the first six games.  I don’t believe it is possible, and if I did I would have to check out on this team to maintain my sanity.  When it comes to the bullpen, things should and will get better.  I have to believe that.

The bad news is that while the bullpen should “improve” the rotation doesn’t figure to maintain their current pace for very long.  We also can’t lose sight of the fact that the offense ranks 21st out of 30 in terms of runs scored with 23.  The baserunning, thanks to the stylings of 3B coach Dave Owen, continues to be an absolute joke.  The defense may be slightly improved, not ready to make an official determination on that, but still has a long way to go.

Before I launch into some links, get back on the bright side of things for just a minute.  The Royals 23 runs scored gives them 10 more than the Houston Astros have scored in their first six games.  That’s right 6 games, 13 runs for Houston and they also have the 30th ranked farm system so Astros fans can’t even derive much hope for the future from their prospects.  In our neck of the woods, Eric Hosmer is putting the Carolina League on notice that his vision has been restored.  Put that in your pipe and Smoak it.

~~~~~

Royals Kingdom:  We’ve Got 159 More of These to Go … Great.

FanGraphs: Hochevar Throwing Gas

Tangled Up In (Royal) Blue: Did I Hear Someone Tell A Lie?

Kansas City Star: Royals to open 2010 season with $70.1 million payroll, which as Bob Dutton points out in the piece is just about what the team paid out last season.

Royalscentricity: The Royals Hate Mike Aviles and Mitch Maier and yesterday’s instant classic Luis Mendoza – Royal Killer.  On the first note, the Royals hate Mike Aviles so much that he was optioned to Triple-A today to make room for Gil Meche.  Apparently Luis Mendoza is too valuable* to lose so the team will roll on with a 3 player bench comprised of Maier, Pena, and Bloomquist.

*I just let out a sad chuckle as I wrote that.

I know Wee Willie is a “super utility” player, but he can only be in one place at one time.  Speaking of Mendoza, I will echo Josh’s sentiments on Luis’ ability to pitch in the major leagues.  I’m not ready to fire everybody, but Trey Hillman and Dave Owen can sure as heck pack their bags.  Those moves are both about 9 months overdue.  As far as our overly sensitive and embattled GM is concerned, I’ve always believed that any person in that position should be given 5 years to build and develop an organization.  Based on Dayton’s performance with the major league roster, I’ve already taken a half a year off that, meaning he should be fired after this season (contract extension be damned).  I don’t know what needs to happen for Moore to save his job between then and now, but jettisoning the Trey and Owen show would be an excellent first step.

J.J. Cooper (Baseball America) published a list of the ten youngest players in each full season league of the minors.  In the Carolina League, the Wilmington Blue Rocks claim three of the ten spots with Eric Hosmer, Tim Melville, and the youngest of the league, Salvador Perez.  Omaha, NW Arkansas, and Burlington didn’t have any players make the list in the Pacific Coast, Texas, and Midwest Leagues respectively.

Dave Cameron (FanGraphs) takes a look at what makes a good organization.

Ben Nicholson-Smith (MLB Trade Rumors) examines the value of super-two status.

Mat Germain (Jays Journal) had some Dana Eveland notes from yesterday.  I bring this up here because I profiled Dana Eveland in a Market Fresh post back in early February and came to the conclusion that the Royals should have worked to get their hands on him.  Instead he found his way to Toronto when the Jays acquired him from the Athletics for cash or a player to be named later.  Right now, outside of Gil Meche’s start today, the Royals rotation is humming along rather well, but you can never have enough pitching.

~~~~~

I hope everyone had a great weekend!