5/7 Gameday Thread: It's The Nick & Niko Show For Portland

A-ball basestealers are 37-0 against Hickey this season. Is there really a world where he catches in the big leagues? He's hitting enough to be a legitimate prospect on the other end of the defensive spectrum. It's not costless to keep him back there, he has a history of getting dinged up and you're taking experience away from him at a position he might actually play in the majors.

And in the middle of that he got a 40-man designation that few people were expecting, which makes me think the team sees something there that's... more than what the good folks who run this site see. ("Ceiling of an emergency up-and-down utility type" seems awfully bearish at this point.)

Niko is Above the Law.

Mayer with another home run!

I know there's probably no rush and in the end 65 vs 70 games at AA is whatever but being a semi impatient guy whens Mayer gonna get promoted?

I say this half jokingly.

Marcelo a triple away from the cycle after 3 PA

He caught up to Meidroth’s OPS in a hurry.

Davis Sharpe now pitching for Akron, while Sterling Sharp still pitching for Portland, had me confused for a moment

No one in the org is going to publicly criticize Hamilton’s defense

No one thought David Eckstein had the arm for shortstop. However, it sounds like the rest of his defensive package was ahead of Hamilton, and cherry picking a single anomaly out of a large pool of guys who couldn’t cut it is unhelpful.

I don’t doubt Ian’s many, many looks at Hamilton; is a team currently using Kiké, Valdez and Dalbec as its 2B/SS mix really going to be that averse to trying Hamilton when they deem him ready?

It's fine to hold tight to your own views of a prospect and eschew the narrative consensus - I thought Lars Anderson was going to be a star... oops 🤷🏽

Most, if not all, prospect sites have David Hamilton as an up-and-down player at best.

You both could be right about him - and the entire prospect analysis industry (including Sox Prospects) could be wrong. That's the fun of following the individual players.

But at the end of the day, most prospects will not make the show - especially non-blue chip types.


Mlb Pipeline:
"Hamilton's offensive focus should be getting on base to wreak havoc with his speed, yet instead he tries to turn on and launch balls far too often. A left-handed hitter, he draws a decent amount of walks but strikes out too much for a player with his quickness and below-average strength. He does have some mild pull power, but it will be difficult for him to achieve regular playing time in the big leagues unless he overhauls his approach."

Prospects Live:
"Speed is his calling card, and there’s a role in the organization for this kind of player. He has the absolute ceiling of a utility
player, but his bat probably won’t allow him to reach that level of impact. He looks like a bench or up/down piece who can be used for his
speed."

Kevin Goldstein* (Fangraphs 2022):
"Hamilton is a small infielder who looks to draw walks, make contact and run. He makes good swing decisions and tends to put the bat on the ball... He covers plenty of ground at shortstop, but his fringy arm leaves him exposed at times. Hamilton is a grinder with some tools. He has a floor as a nice bench player with some late-inning utility on the base paths."

Prspects 1500:
Limited MLB ceiling

Roman Anthony is back in the Salem lineup.

Glad they were able to get the game in, and got the added bonus of seeing Anthony.

Anthony looked like he was in midseason form, all three of his hits were great swings and he looked comfortable in there after the extended break. Pulled the one shown above but went with the pitch to left and left-center for the other two hits. He did make a baserunning error after the hit above by trying to go to 3rd on a Bleis groundout to 3rd... easy tag.

Bleis looked better today. He avoided chasing some good sliders right off the plate and got a walk and a hit out of it. He had a nice throw from RF to 3B to catch a runner going from 1st to 3rd. The only blemish today was on a pop up to 3B in foul territory he tried tag up at 3rd to entice a throw... little did he realized the SS snuck in behind him and the 3B picked him off easily.

I liked what I saw from Noah Dean but he's got a ways to go to be on the radar. Velocity on the stadium gun topped out at 93-94, but he lacked command. It was good for him to get a zero up on the board though. His pickoff move was very good early on, got two men out at 1st to avoid any damage.