The calm.
It’s been a week and a half since the last report that didn’t involve trade rumors or the Bound Edition, and that’s the nature of mid-November, as the baseball world converges on the (just-completed) GM Meetings, where club officials lay the groundwork for possible deals over the next four weeks, generating lots of speculation — and don’t get me wrong, we all love the hot stove, but there’s little news to report and few developments to break down. It’s all good; soon enough the pieces will start moving.
In the meantime, thanks for the outstanding first couple days of book sales. We’re also in the process of planning a book release party, where we hope to have an autograph panel featuring current and former Rangers players . . . as well as a club field reporter. Details on that soon, once it all comes together.
For those new to the book, it includes all 150+ Newberg Report entries from the last year of Rangers baseball, plus a huge front section of new material focused strictly on the organization’s farm system. In that section is the 40-Man Roster Conundrum, in which I break down the Rangers’ roster crunch headed toward the Rule 5 Draft and predict who comes off the roster and which prospects are added four days from now; a ranking of the best tools in the Rangers system in 41 different categories (along with recognition of the Player of the Year and Pitcher of the Year in the system, plus predictions on the Breakout Player and Breakout Pitcher for 2015); and a ranking of the top 72 Rangers prospects, with a write-up on each of them.
Here are a couple samples of those 72 player features, one an internationally signed 19-year-old outfielder whom I have ranked number four in the system, the other a 22-year-old former 14th-round pick whom I have at number 11 overall (and fifth among pitchers), both of whom finished the 2014 season in Frisco.
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Nomar Mazara, OF (Number 4 overall) (International free agent/2011)
“Beyond the tools and progress Mazara has made with them this season, the promotion [from Low A to AA] presents major clues regarding his makeup. It’s a stamp of approval that Mazara is mentally ready to handle an accelerated assignment to finish out the year, one that will see him face older and more experienced competition.” — Chris Mellen, Baseball Prospectus
“Frighteningly talented. . . . Don’t think he’s that far off.” — Keith Law, ESPN
To get a sense of how huge 2014 was for Mazara, coming into the season the folks at Baseball America ranked him as the number 24 prospect in the deep Rangers system. At the end of the minor league season, ESPN’s Keith Law pegged him number eight in his Prospects of the Year rankings — in all of baseball. After hitting .236/.310/.382 for Low A Hickory in 2013 (albeit as one of the South Atlantic League’s youngest players), Mazara — who signed for a record $4.95 million bonus out of the Dominican Republic in 2011 — was sent back to the Crawdads to begin the 2014 season and got off to an ugly start. One week into May, the 19-year-old was hitting .189/.281/.274. To say something clicked for Mazara at that point — when he ditched a pronounced Sierra-esque leg kick and implemented a toe-tap timing mechanism — would be grossly understating what happened. Over the next three months he hit .291/.385/.541, and was so locked in that the organization decided in early August to have him skip the step that Rougned Odor and Luis Sardinas and Joey Gallo and Jorge Alfaro and Lewis Brinson and Nick Williams had been assigned to take before him. Like Jurickson Profar two years earlier — and at the same age — Mazara leapfrogged Myrtle Beach and went straight from Hickory to AA Frisco. The move to AA is generally considered the toughest in the sport, next to the jump to the big leagues, and that’s the case even without the challenge of a two-level jump. Mazara got 97 plate appearances with the RoughRiders — as the league’s youngest player — and he raked. He hit .306/.381/.518, with 11 extra-base hits in 24 games, and controlled the strike zone as effectively as he had done against Low A pitching. (One club official says he “sees the ball out of the hand as early as anyone in our system.”) Mazara earned an opportunity to play for Licey in the competitive Dominican Winter League, a remarkable achievement given that this is a player who won’t turn 20 until after the 2015 season is underway, and he responded early, hitting .450/.522/.700 over his first 10 Tigres games. The Rangers rave about Mazara’s maturity and quiet confidence, and while they probably won’t go public with the Jason Heyward comparisons (complete with the classic right fielder’s arm, if not the range), there are those in the industry who will. If 2015 goes nearly as well as 2014 did for Mazara, he may get to the big leagues as quickly as Heyward did himself.
Andrew Faulkner, LHP (Number 11 overall) (14th round/2011)
“Though I haven’t seen everyone in the organization, it’s safe to say for me that he’s probably the most improved player in this organization. In every aspect . . . fastball command . . . a breaking ball that has come leaps and bounds . . . realizing and understanding himself and what he can and can’t do . . . and being able to use that to be aggressive to hitters and get them out.” — Steve Mintz, Pitching Coach, Myrtle Beach Pelicans
In a system relatively light on left-handed pitching, Faulkner placed himself squarely on the radar with a breakout season in 2014. While the Pelicans’ strong 82-56 season was highlighted by an offense that featured Joey Gallo, Jorge Alfaro, and Nick Williams early on, Faulkner carried the club’s rotation and forced a promotion to Frisco along with his more heralded teammates. The 21-year-old was named the best pitching prospect in the Carolina League by Baseball America, after going 10-1, 2.07 with 100 strikeouts and 31 walks in 104.1 innings, while limiting hitters to a .228/.288/.339 slash line with command of a fastball-split-curve-change mix. He didn’t allow a home run until his final Class A appearance, going a minor league-leading 101.1 homerless innings to start the season. After that final Pelicans start, which capped a six-game run in which he went 6-0, 0.79 and held opponents to a .174/.213/.298 line, Texas moved the 2011 14th-rounder to Frisco, where he was less effective (2-4, 4.99) but still put up respectable peripherals for such a young pitcher. His 9.7 strikeouts per nine innings with the RoughRiders was his best rate since his eight-week rookie-level debut in 2011, and the Texas League managed to hit just .237/.313/.373 off him. Though some believe Faulkner could end up as a power lefty in late relief, he’ll return to the Frisco rotation in the spring (with the development of his breaking ball priority one), heading into his final season before he’ll be a 40-man roster consideration — assuming he doesn’t force his way to Arlington before the winter arrives.
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As always, I’m happy to answer any questions you have about the book that aren’t covered here.
And pretty soon we’ll have some Rangers news to talk about.