The trickle of mid-season minor league promotions has picked up pace. Remember Ryan Rohlinger, the kid in spring training who got everyone abuzz with a couple excellent games? He’s just been bumped up to AA Connecticut from High-A San Jose, where he had a decent first half but nothing spectacular. He’s also not a kid. He turns 25 in October, which means he’ll probably continue to move quickly if he handles high-minor pitching.
A more surprising promotee is Matt Downs, San Jose’s second baseman who has jumped all the way to Fresno. Just turned 24, he’s also on the fringes of prospecthood, too old to be taken seriously in the Cal League. To keep perspective, remember that Eugenio Velez was the Low-A Sally League MVP in 2006 at the age of 24. He’s now 26 and just figuring out AAA.
But with a strong showing at Fresno, Downs’s age and level would suddenly make more sense. An offensive-minded 24–year-old second baseman in AAA isn’t a bad thing. There are lots of ifs, of course, and that two-level promotion is a tough assignment, but he got off to a good start with a single and double last night.
Add these guys to the promotions of Ishikawa, Mooney and Sandoval that we noted yesterday, and what does it all mean? Do the Giants suddenly have a bunch of good-looking surprises on their hands? Hardly. Sandoval is the only one well ahead of the curve. The rest are on the Rawhide track: head ‘em up, (have a look), move ‘em out.
I haven’t heard this from any Giant brassmember, but I’ll bet it’s part of a grand plan to sweep out the shed, see what’s good for kindling, keep a couple pieces, and call the rest deadwood. (Sorry, I’ve got smoke in my eyes and fire on the brain as we get ready to pack up the Malomobile and head into northern forests.) The Giants need to find out now, and by “now” I mean within a year or so, how these guys might help the big squad. Twenty-five–year olds in A-ball just gum up the works, so put ‘em in AAA instead of minor-league lifers like Scott McClain and Justin Leone, from whom the Giants apparently don’t expect any big-league contribution. (Otherwise you would have seen one of them get a shot at first or third this year.)
It would be lots of fun to sneak into the player development office and see the org charts. Will the Giants move up their younger guys, too? If so, perhaps Downs’s promotion clears a San Jose spot for Nick Noonan, last year’s first-round pick who is putting together a nice season in low-A Augusta. I don’t think Angel Villalona, who despite struggles in low-A remains a top-50 prospect (#29 on this mid-season list), is moving anytime soon.
Should the Giants aggressively promote Noonan, Bumgarner, and other recent draft picks who are doing well? Who among the older “prospects” looks promising? Discuss.
(Photo from law_keven used through a Creative Commons license.)
