The Prospect Watch

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In this series we will be creating 5 fictional prospects, 2 from ages 16-17 and 3 from ages 18-21. Everything about them other than their age will be randomized, and we will watch them throughout their careers.

Each year after the first, we will create 3 new fictional prospects, 1 from ages 16-17 and 2 from ages 18-21, and continue to follow them as well.

2015's Class:

17 year old high school CF Dave Allen, 23 potential (out of 80)

18 year old high school SP Robby Chung-ChingHuang, 20 potential

16 year old high school 1B Josh Miller, 21 potential

16 year old high school SS Rodrigo Román, 21 potential

20 year old college CF Norm Weichen, 21 potential

All players went undrafted in the 2015 draft and will return to school.

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The Cleveland Indians swept the Padres in 4 games to win the 2015 World Series.

AL ROY: Allan Dykstra (Rays)

NL ROY: Jace Peterson (Braves)

AL Cy Young: Cody Allen (Indians)

NL Cy Young: Craig Kimbrel (Padres)

AL MVP: Mike Trout (Angels)

NL MVP: Adam Lind (Brewers)

Up next: We look back at our prospects' years in school, and also get our first look at their player pages

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[January 3rd, 2016]

17 year old high school CF Dave Allen wore #14 at Brandeis in New York, NY, where the competition level is average. He hit 2 HR, 30 RBI, .435/.508/.609 in 26 games and 115 AB. His WAR was 2.2 and he had 18 steals. His potential is now 21.

19 year old high school SP Robby Chung-ChingHuang wore #4 at Palo Verde in Las Vegas, NV, where the competition level is average. He went 12-0 with a 1.44 ERA, a 0.94 WHIP, and 158 strikeouts in 16 starts and 131 IP. His WAR was 6.3 and his potential is now 20.

17 year old high school 1B Josh Miller wore #6 at Service in Anchorage, AK, where the competition level is average. He hit 5 HR, 32 RBI, .440/.496/.710 in 23 games and 100 AB. His WAR was 2.1 and he hit 12 doubles. His potential is now 21.

17 year old high school SS Rodrigo Román wore #1 at Freehold Boro in Freehold, NJ, where the competition level is average. He hit 4 HR, 29 RBI, .440/.504/.651 in 25 games and 109 AB. His WAR was 2.2 and he stole 11 bases, hit 2 triples, and scored 38 runs. His potential is now 21.

20 year old college CF Norm Weichen wore #45 at Minnesota State CTC, where the competition level is poor. He hit 3 HR, 24 RBI, .303/.386/.394 in 40 games and 175 AB. His WAR was 1 and he stole 33 bases. His potential is now 21.

Up next: Our first look at player pages

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[January 3rd, 2016]











Up next: We introduce 3 new prospects!

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Before we introduce our new prospects it is worth noting that Ken Griffey Jr. was inducted to the Hall of Fame on his first ballot with 96.8% of the vote.

Now for 2016's class, created on opening day:

21 year old high school (oh god) left handed SP Jake Blake had a 2.12 ERA and a 4.5 ERA in 16 starts and 123 inning this year at Teaneck in New Jersey, where the competition level is average. His potential is 20.

18 year old high school C Chris Lowe hit 1 HR, 25 RBI, .413/.487/.500 in 24 games and 104 AB at Durango in Las Vegas, NV, where the competition level is average. His WAR was 1.5 and his potential is 21.

20 year old college SP Bob Williams had a 2.62 ERA, a 2.9 WAR, and 122 strikeouts in 16 starts and 110 IP at Mississippi, where the competition level is great. His potential is 29, and while this doesn't sound great, he is our best prospect yet.

Up next: The draft. We had no players selected last year, will that change this year?

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Exciting news here after the 2016 draft as players from both the 2015 and 2016 classes have been picked by major league teams.

With the 23rd pick in the 4th round (124th overall), the Philadelphia Phillies selected SP Bob Williams. He will must negotiate a contract with his team.

With the 2nd pick in the 12th round (343rd overall), the Chicago White Sox selected SP Robby Chung-ChingHuang. He must negotiate a contract with his team.

With the 24th pick in the 31st round (935th overall), the Oakland Athletics selected 1B Josh Miller. He was sent straight to the Athletics' Arizona Rookie League team, where he will have a lot of competition for playing time.

With the 11th pick in the 32nd round (952nd overall), the Washington Nationals selected SS Rodrigo Román. He, like Miller, was sent straight to the Rookie League and will have lots of competition for playing time.

CF Dave Allen, SP Jake Blake, C Chris Lowe, and CF Norm Weichen will all return to school.

Next up, we sim to the draft pick signing deadline to see if Williams and Chung can reach deals with their teams. We will also take a look at the draftees player pages. From this point forward player pages will only be shown once a player has been drafted and signed with a team.

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On June 30th, 2016, SP Bob Williams signed a minor league contract with the Philadelphia Phillies and received a $260,000 signing bonus. He will be the #1 starter for the Phillies' Rookie League team.

However, Robby Ching-ChungHuang failed to sign with the White Sox and will reenter the draft next year.

Now we look at the player pages of SS Rodrigo Román, SP Bob Williams, and 1B Josh Miller.







Next up, we check back to see how Román, Williams, and Miller are performing in rookie ball.

[xepicx2729]

Interesting series. Will be following.

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August 1st, 2016

After one month in rookie ball, 17 year old SS Rodrigo Román has not yet been given the opportunity to play. His team, however, is playing well without him, and is currently in first place.

20 year old SP Bob Williams has started 6 games so far and pitched 27.2 innings. He has an 0-1 record, a 3.25 ERA, and 25 strikeouts. He has not thrown more than 5.2 inning so far this season. His best performance so far was on July 19th when he struck out 10 batters in 4.1 innings. His team is not playing well and is in last place.

Like Román, 18 year old 1B Josh Miller has not yet gotten the chance to play, but his team is one game above .500 and in 4th place out of 5 teams in a tight division.

Now we take a look at the records of the major league teams that our players are associated with.

Rodrigo Román's Nationals are 54-45, a half game behind Bob Williams' first-place Phillies, who are 54-55.

Josh Miller's Athletics are 49-51, third in the division and 10 games out of first. They are also 5 and 1/2 out of the wild card.

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End of season check-in for our three rookie-league players.

SS Rodrigo Román played in 2 games and did not get a hit in 3 AB for the playoff-bound rookie league Nationals. Perhaps he will get another opportunity in the playoffs.

SP Bob Williams finished the season with an 0-2 record, a 4.24 ERA, and 56 strikeouts in 12 starts and 57.1 IP. A bad outing on August 17th in which he allowed 6 runs in 4.2 innings brought he ERA up significantly. Without that game, his ERA would have been 3.61. The rookie league Phillies finished in third place out of four teams in their division.

1B Josh Miller did not get the chance to play this year for the rookie league Athletics, who finished 3rd out of 5 teams in their division with a 27-29 record.

Postseason report:

The Nationals swept the Tigers to win the championship in the Gulf Coast Rookie League, but Román did not have much to contribute to the victory. He played in one game in the first round of the playoffs and did not have an at bat.

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MLB End of Season Update:

Josh Miller’s Oakland Athletics finished 6 games below .500 and did not make the playoffs

Bob Williams’ Philadelphia Phillies were eliminated in the Wild Card Game in a 4-0 loss to the Chicago Cubs.

Rodrigo Román’s Washington Nationals won the World Series 4 games to 3 over the Twins.

AL ROY: Jorge Alfaro (Rangers)

NL ROY: Corey Seager (Dodgers)

AL Cy Young: Chris Sale (White Sox)

NL Cy Young: Clayton Kershaw (Dodgers)

AL MVP: Josh Donaldson (Blue Jays)

NL MVP: Jason Heyward (Cardinals)

Manny Ramirez was inducted into the Hall of Fame with 92.7% of the vote in his first year on the ballot.

Prospect News:

The OSA gave SP Robby Chung-ChingHuang a 66 potential rating in their latest scouting report. Chung was drafted by the White Sox in the 12th round this year but could not reach an agreement with the team. The 20 year old LHP will be attending UC-Irvine for college, where the competition level is average. He went to high school at Palo Verde in Las Vegas, NV. He will be entering the next draft.

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2017’s Class:

20 year old college SS Ron Chkheidze, 22 potential, goes to school at Louisville, where the competition level is great. He has a 1.5 WAR in the 2017 college season.

18 year old high school SS Cliff ‘Dagger’ Caldwell, 21 potential, goes to school at Burges, in El Paso, TX, where the competition level is average. He has a 2.2 WAR in the 2017 high school season.

20 year old college C Danny Holmes, 21 potential, goes to school at Texas, where the competition level is great. He has an 0.7 WAR in the 2017 college season.

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PREDRAFT HYPE!!!!

One month before the draft, SP Robby Chung-ChingHuang, whose potential according to the OSA is now 73, is projected to be drafted in the middle of the first round. He has been performing well at UC-Irvine, where he has gone 9-4 with a 3.05 ERA and a 2.8 WAR in 16 starts.

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Draft Results:

With the 6th pick in the 3rd round (71st overall), the Houston Astros selected SP Robby Chung-ChingHuang. He must negotiate a contract with his team.

With the 5th pick in the 9th round (251st overall), the Houston Astros selected SS Ron Chkheidze. He was sent to the Orange Astros rookie league team, where he will play 3rd base or shortstop every other game and will play at 2nd base every 4th game. He will also be the number 2 pinch hitter and pinch runner on the team.

With the 26th pick in the 26th round (782nd overall), the Washington Nationals selected CF Dave Allen. He was sent to join his fellow class of 2015 member Rodrigo Román, who has been converted from a shortstop to a 3rd baseman, on the Nationals rookie league team, where he will struggle to get playing time.

All undrafted players will return to school.

[phillyboy19]

This is cool, surprised Ching-ChangHuang fell that far.

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Bad news in early June.

On June 7th, the Washington Nationals organization released 18 year old third baseman Rodrigo Román.

18 year old Josh Miller, who has converted from first base to third base, was released by the Oakland Athletics organization on the same day.

On June 10th, SS Ron Chkheidze, who was recently drafted by the Houston Astros in the 9th round, was diagnosed with a strained hamstring and will spend 5 weeks on the DL. He has gone 2 for 11 in 4 games thus far with the Houston Astros Orange rookie league team.

The good news of the month:

21 year old SP Bob Williams will once again be the #1 starter for the rookie league Phillies. He was 0-2 with a 4.24 ERA in 12 starts for them last year.

On June 30th, 3B Rodrigo Román signed a 1-year minor league contract with the Tampa Bay Rays organization and will play for their rookie league team. It does not look like he will not get much playing time.

On July 1st, 3B Josh Miller signed a 1-year minor league contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates organization and will play for their rookie league team as well. He will start every 7th game at 1st base vs both righties and lefties and when the starting third baseman is tired vs lefties.

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Originally Posted by phillyboy19

This is cool, surprised Ching-ChangHuang fell that far.

I was surprised too, there were a lot of starting pitchers with lower potentials drafted in the first and second rounds. Maybe team scouts know something the OSA doesn't.

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July 6th, 2017

On July 5th, Robby Chung-ChingHuang signed a minor league contract with the Houston Astros organization and received a $340,000 signing bonus. He was sent to the Astros' rookie league team (not the same one as Chkheidze; Chung is a level higher), where he will be the #5 starter.

Player pages of all our professional players:

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August 1st, 2017

Time to take a look back at the month of July for all of our prospects.

CF Dave Allen

So far this year Dave Allen has played an inning at CF for the Nationals' rookie league team. He has not gotten any plate appearances, but he did play well in the field with his only opportunity.

Allen is currently 19 years old, wears the number 34, and has a 21 potential rating.

3B Rodrigo Román

Roman, like Allen, has not gotten any opportunities at the plate for the Rays' rookie league team, but he has gotten opportunities in the field. He has played a total of 21 innings at 2nd base so far this year. He has made one error this month, making his fielding percentage .883. His range factor is 2.14, his zone rating is -0.4, and his efficiency rating is .884, making him a below average fielder.

Román is currently 18 years old, wears the number 60, and has a 21 potential rating.

3B Josh Miller

Josh Miller has not done well for the Pirates' rookie league team. In 26 AB, he is hitting .192/.241/.423 with 1 HR and 2 RBI. He has struck out 8 times. As a result, Miller has lost his spot as a top bench player and backup third baseman and first baseman. With such a crowded roster, anyone who can get any opportunities to play must make the most of them, and Miller did not do so.

Miller is currently 19 years old, wears the number 15, and has a 21 potential rating.

SP Bob Williams

In 7 starts and 35.2 IP for the Phillies' rookie league team, Bob Williams has a 2-1 record, a 4.54 ERA, 29 strikeouts, a 1.37 WHIP, and a 0.6 WAR that already matches his WAR last year. Williams' HR/9, BB/9, and K/9 are all down significantly from last year and his WHIP is almost exactly the same. He is projected to strikeout 55 batters this year, one less than he did last year. He is projected to have a 1.1 WAR by the end of the year, which is .5 higher than he had last year. The only area where he is really doing worse than last year is his ERA, which was 4.24 last year.

Williams is currently 21 years old, wears the number 17, and has a 22 potential rating.

SS Ron Chkheidze

Chkheidze, finally back from his hamstring injury, played 12 games for the Orange Astros in the Dominican Rookie League. He had 36 AB and hit 0 HR, 2 RBI, and .139/.262/.139. You would expect these bad results to result in bad things for Chkheidze, but instead he was promoted to the Gulf Coast Rookie League Astros team and will spend time starting at 2B, 3B, and SS. So far in the Gulf Coast Rookie League he has gone 2-4 with a solo homer and a single in two games.

Chkeidze is currently 20 years old, wears the number 12, and has a 21 potential rating.

SP Robby Chung-ChingHuang

Our prospect with the most potential has arguably performed the worst out of the six players. In 5 starts for the GCL rookie league Astros he has pitched 19.1 innings. He has a 9.78 ERA, a 2.28 WHIP, and his struck out only seven batters while he has walked 12. His WAR is -0.2.

Chung is currently 20 years old, wears the number 7, and has a 73 potential rating.

Team Records

Washington (GCL) Nationals (R, WAS): 17-14, tied for 1st place

Tampa Bay (GCL) Rays (R, TB): 16-15, 2nd place, 3 GB

Pittsburgh (GCL) Pirates (R, PIT): 13-17, 4th place, 3 1/2 GB

Philadelphia (GCL) Phillies (R, PHI): 17-14, tied for 1st place

Houston (GCL) Astros (R, HOU): 25-6, 1st place

MLB Team Records

Washington Nationals: 54-44, 2nd place, 6 GB, 1st in Wild Card race

Tampa Bay Rays: 43-57, 5th place, 10 1/2 GB, 9 1/2 GB Wild Card

Pittsburgh Pirates: 53-45, 2nd place, 7 1/2 GB, 2nd in Wild Card race

Philadelphia Phillies: 48-51, 4th place, 12 1/2 GB, 5 1/2 GB Wild Card

Houston Astros: 48-50, 4th place, 11 GB, 3 1/2 GB Wild Card

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September 3rd, 2017

The regular season has ended for the rookie leagues, and it is time to take a look at what our prospects have done since August 1st.

CF Dave Allen

Allen has not gotten any opportunities to play since we last checked on him.

Allen is currently 19 years old, wears the number 34 for the Washington (GCL) Nationals (R), and has a 21 potential rating.

3B Rodrigo Román

Román has gotten 2 hits in 6 AB this year, both singles, and 1 RBI. All of his other playing opportunities have been in the field, either at 2B, SS, or CF. He played well at SS and CF, but was slightly below average at 2B, where he got most of his opportunities.

Román is currently 18 years old, wears the number 60 for the Tampa Bay (GCL) Rays (R), and has a 21 potential rating.

3B Josh Miller

Miller has not had any more playing opportunities since blowing his chance last month.

Miller is currently 19 years old, wears the number 15 for the Pittsburgh (GCL) Pirates (R), and has a 21 potential rating.

SP Bob Williams

In the month of August, Williams started 5 games, pitched 30.2 innings, struck out 27 batters, and had a 1.76 ERA and a 5-0 record, which was good enough to win the GCL Starter of the Month Award. On the season he is now 7-1 in 13 starts and 71.1 IP, with a 3.41 ERA, 60 strikeouts, and a 1.3 WAR. It will be interesting to see if this performance will earn the former 4th round pick a promotion next season.

Williams is currently 21 years old, wears the number 17 for the Philadelphia (GCL) Phillies (R), and has a 22 potential rating.

2B Ron Chkheidze

Chkheidze, who has been converted from SS to 2B, is hitting .203/.277/.284 with 1 HR, 8 RBI, and a -0.3 WAR in 74 AB. Although he is very unhappy with his own performance, his team is still giving him a lot of playing time, particularly against righties, although he has not been much better against righties than he has been against lefties.

Chkheidze is currently 20 years old, wears the number 12 for the Houston (GCL) Astros (R), and has a 21 potential rating.

SP Robby Chung-ChingHuang

Chung-ChingHuang has been bad. That's really the only way you can put it. There was nothing encouraging about any of the 11 games he started this year as he compiled a stat line that consists of an 8.44 ERA, a 1-7 record, 21 walks, 22 strikeouts, and a -0.2 WAR in 48 IP. He will, however, be given the opportunity to redeem himself in the playoffs. Hopefully he can turn it around.

Chung-ChingHuang is currently 20 years old, wears the number 7 for the Houston (GCL) Astros (R), and has a 73 potential rating.

Team Records

Washington (GCL) Nationals (R, WAS): 30-29, 3rd place, 4 1/2 GB, 4th place Wild Card

Tampa Bay (GCL) Rays (R, TB): 29-31, 3rd place, 3 GB, 1 1/2 GB Wild Card

Pittsburgh (GCL) Pirates (R, PIT): 28-32, 4th place, 6 GB, 2 1/2 GB Wild Card

Philadelphia (GCL) Phillies (R, PHI): 29-31, tied 2nd place, 5 GB, 1 1/2 GB Wild Card

Houston (GCL) Astros (R, HOU): 39-21, 1st place

MLB Team Records

Washington Nationals: 69-59, 2nd place, 5 GB, 1/2 GB Wild Card

Tampa Bay Rays: 58-71, 3rd place, 17 1/2 GB, 11 1/2 GB Wild Card

Pittsburgh Pirates: 68-61, 3rd place, 11 GB, 2 GB Wild Card

Philadelphia Phillies: 65-65, 3rd place, 9 1/2 GB, 5 GB Wild Card

Houston Astros: 67-61, 4th place, 7 GB, 2 GB Wild Card