Top 8 Mahoning Valley Prospects from 2009

1. Jason Kipnis – This pick may come under a lot of critcism, but let’s face it: The guy was a second round draft pick and has high expectations. While many scouting reports say he’s average in nearly every category, I saw a lot of potential from him. He’s a very patient hitter and finds ways to get on base. He was a hitting machine in the New York Penn League. Sure, he should have performed well in the league because of his age/college experience, but he didn’t disappoint. I’m very interested to see how he performs in his first full season next year. This will give us a true scope of his potential.

2. Clayton Cook – While he’s still a bit of a project at a young age, if he can continue to improve each year, he’s going to be a scary prospect to watch out for. He’s not going to blow you away with a mid-90s fastball, but when he can control is off speed pitches, look out. That’s one thing I did notice about Cook while seeing him five times this year – when he was on, he was lights out. But, if he didn’t have good command of his off speed and had to rely on his fastball, the wheels came off fast. If he can develop another pitch, have better command and consistency, and gain maybe 2 MPH on his fastball, Cook will be moving our prospect rankings fast.

3. Marty Popham – While talking to Marty on various occasions, I’ve come to see that he’s always looking for ways to get better and is a hard worker. He dominated this year, finishing second in the league with 83 K’s, while only allowing 10 walks, 1.13 WHIP, 2.76 ERA, while going 6-1. However, towards the end of the year, he was losing some gas in the tank. He did allow 75 hits in 75 IP, so take that for what it’s worth.

4. Jordan Henry – Jordan is what I’d like to call a “diamond in the rough”. He proved to be a solid lead off hitter for the Scrappers this season. He lead the team with a .286 AVG, but for most of the season, it was above .300, but like some of his teammates, began to run out of gas towards the end of the season. He’s also a patient hitter, who walked 49 times and only struck out 37 times. He’s a great base stealer; stealing 22 and only being caught once. He had a .408 OBP, which is great. Henry also needs to add some muscle, but he’s someone to watch out for.

5. Kyle Bellows – Bellows was injured towards the end of the season, so I only saw him during the beginning and middle of the season. He has a great glove all around; good range and strong throwing arm. The Indians attempted converting him to third, but it seemed to me he was more comfortable at short. He still needs to improve at the plate, so we’ll see how far it carries him.

6. Greg Folgia - For how late he was drafted, he certainly opened a lot of eyes. He had a good season with the Scrappers, though I'm not completely sold on him just yet.

7. Jason Smit – Smit is a very interesting prospect, in my opinion. He’s still young and needs to build more muscle, but the ball explodes off his bat. One of the problems I’ve noticed is his swing is still a bit long at times, which causes him to strike out a good number of times. He got off to a great start and towards mid to late season, he slowed down a bit and was injured. Once he came back from his injury, he looked the same way he did at the beginning of the season. Smit also has a pretty good glove; covers a lot of ground in the OF and on numerous occasions, made some phenominal diving catches. I’m not really sure what to make of Smit yet.

8a. Cory Burns - It was tough making a decision here, so I'll put it as a tie for 8th. Burns was lights out all season long. He was easily the most reliable late inning reliever the Scrappers had. Hitters only hit .157 off him, while managing to have a 1.93 ERA. The true stat that backs up my claim of "lights out" is 18 hits in 32.2 innings. A reliever in my top 8 seems silly, but I think Burns has some big time potential.

8b. Brett Brach - This may come surprising that I ranked Brach so low. He had one of the best ERAs of the league (2.19), and held hitters to a .215 AVG against him. I'm very high on Brach, don't get me wrong, but, like I mentioned with Cook, Brach is also young and has some quarks to work out in order to be successful moving forward.

Honorable mention goes to Jesus Brito. He doesn’t have the best plate discipline yet and isn’t a future gold glove winner. His bat gives him a lot of potential, but I’m not ready to consider him a true prospect just yet. On a side note about Brito, pre-game for game three of the championship, a few children wanted Brito’s autograph and he kept walking. When he gets closer to the dug out and a woman asks for his autograph, he stops and gives it to her. That ticked me off. He’s not going to earn many fans by doing that.