New York-Penn League
- Aberdeen IronBirds beat the Brooklyn Cyclones 2-1 Tuesday. 3 2009 draftees played for the Cyclones. 1B Sam Honeck had a 4th inning single to go 1 for 4. SS Robbie Shields had a 5th inning single to go 1 for 3. P Brandon Sage threw 2 scoreless innings of relief, allowing 1 hit while striking out 2. Sage has a 0.64 ERA in 14 innings, all in relief, so far this season. For more see the game story, box score and recap. Be sure to check out Wes Wrenn’s latest blog entry.
South Atlantic League
- The Savannah Sand Gnats beat the Greensboro Grasshoppers 11-7 Tuesday. 2009 draftee LF Joseph August continued his turnaround with 4 hits in 4 at bats, scoring 3 runs. After starting out 5 for 46, August has 6 hits in his last 7 times up and has raised his average to .208. For more see the game story, box score and recap.
Reese Havens (photo by mrzeising)
Since only 2 of the 4 teams that are normally covered in Draft & Follow played yesterday, we’ll take advantage of the extra time and space to take a look at another Met prospect.
Baseball America ranked (interestingly enough their rankings are done by Adam Rubin of the Daily News) the Mets Top 10 prospects prior to the season and # 8 was SS Reese Havens.
- Havens was selected 22nd overall in the 2008 First-Year Player Draft.
- He made his professional debut with the short season A ball Brooklyn Cyclones in 2008.
- In 23 games, Havens batted .243 over 85 at bats. He had 6 doubles, 2 triples and 3 home runs. He scored 13 runs and drove in 11. He had a 27/11 strikeout to walk ratio. His OBP and SLG were .340/.471.
- For 2009 Havens was promoted to St. Lucie. In 60 games there so far this season he is batting .233 with 11 doubles, 1 triple and 9 homers in 219 at bats. He has scored 30 runs and driven in 31. His strikeout to walk ratio is 47/36. His OBP and SLG are .355/.416. In his last 10 games he is batting .267 with 1 home run and 3 RBI.
- Tim Bontemps of the NY Post discusses Havens in going over Tony Bernazard’s tenure as VP of Player Development.
- Dewey Finn of Minor League Ball puts forth that not only is Havens a better IF prospect than Adrian Cardenas, but that he projects as a “poor man’s Chase Utley.” The many comments on that post are particularly heated and interesting.
- Pedro Martinez recently hit Havens with a pitch during a rehab start.
- In an Adam Rubin article at the Daily News, an anonymous scout is quoted as saying Haven’s “swing is too long and he’s out of place at shortstop.”
6 comments
CaseStreet
7/29/2009-11:35am at 11:35 am (UTC -4)
Man, Wes’ posts are just too funny. His latest one is a must read.
GravediggerHebner
7/29/2009-11:38am at 11:38 am (UTC -4)
Agreed. I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again: they REALLY picked the right guy to do this.
CaseStreet
7/29/2009-11:58am at 11:58 am (UTC -4)
would be cool to get his as a guest writer. Maybe an end of season wrap-up or something like that.
CaseStreet
7/29/2009-11:58am at 11:58 am (UTC -4)
*him
stickguy
7/29/2009-12:21pm at 12:21 pm (UTC -4)
havens is another interesting guy that needs a few tweaks, and to actually stay healthy and on the field.
Entirely possible if he can do that, he makes a major jump next year like Davis is doing now.
Supposed to have the glove for 2B, and he has certainly shown some power. And lord knows, we could use that!
GravediggerHebner
7/29/2009-12:25pm at 12:25 pm (UTC -4)
I’ve never seen him play, but based on what I’ve read I agree that 2B seems the place. Given that he’s just in A ball now, if he follows a fairly normal progression through the system he should be ready to step in just as Castillo’s contract expires.
I’m sure you are hoping for sooner than that. But IMO get Havens through A this year, AA in 2010 and AAA in 2011 and he should be able to displace Castillo at just about the time when he’ll be leaving anyway.