Tuesday 26 March 2013

Yasiel Puig, and Intentional Walks in the Arizona Rookie League


            On Tuesdays episode of Effectively Wild, hosts Ben Lindberg, & Sam Miller brought up the fact that Yasiel Puig was one of the 21 intentional walks issued in the Arizona Rookie League last season, and posited that a blog post about who the others were would be a good idea.  Well, ask and ye shall receive.  I had planed to go through and find the game situations where these walks were issued, but due to a time crunch, that isn’t possible at this point.  I may go back and further look up these, but at this time that just won’t be happening.

Without further ado, here are the players who were got issued free passes, sorted by team.

Texas Rangers
Joey Gallo – Age 18 – 3B – 1st Round Pick – #10 rated prospect by BP
Janluis Castro – Age 18 – 2B/3B – 16th Round Pick
David Lyon – Age 22 – C – 34th Round Pick
Nick Williams – Age 18 – OF – 2nd Round Pick

Arizona Diamondbacks
Stryker Trahan – Age 18 – C – 1st Round Pick – #6 rated prospect by BP
Phildrick Llewellyn – Age 18 – 1B – 13th Round Pick
William Castillo – Age 19 – 2B/3B –
Anderson Bolivar – Age 19 – C –

Los Angeles Dodgers
Yasiel Puig – Age 21 – OF – International Signing – #1 rated prospect by BP
Justin Chigbogu – Age 17 – 1B – 4th Round Pick
Sean O’Connell – Age 20 – C/P – 15th Round Pick

We’re going pause for a moment, because Sean O’Connell’s 2012 batting line is really something to behold. 


            If you click the above Baseball Reference page you’ll see that Mr. O’Connell is a catcher who has converted to pitching this season.  However he received one plate appearance all season, and was intentionally walked in the single plate appearance. I'm guessing that has to be the first time in baseball history someone has been intentionally walked the one time he picked up a bat.  Very odd.


            Above is said game where he got the plate appearance.  The starting catcher was pinch run for in the 9th, so O’Connell came in defensively, and was then intentionally walked in the 10th.  Really strange.

            This game gets even stranger, if that’s possible.  The intentional walk to Justin Chigbogu listed directly above also occurred in this game, in the top of the 9th.  Go read through the play-by-play of the last couple innings of that game.  It’s a very odd game indeed.

Cleveland Indians
Dorssys Paulino – Age 17 – SS – International Signing – #2 Prospect by BP
Tyler Booth – Age 19 – OF – 13th Round Pick
Nelson Rodriguez – Age 18 – 1B – 15th Round Pick

San Francisco Giants
Shilo McCall – Age 18 – OF – 9th Round Pick
Hector Mercedes – Age 20 – OF – International Signing (Non-prospect)
Randy Ortiz – Age 19 – OF – International Signing (Non-Prospect)

Oakland Athletics
Matt Olson – Age 18 – 1B – Supplemental 1st Round Pick
Luis Baez – Age 21 – 3B/OF – International Signing (Non-Prospect)

Seatle Mariners
Rich Poythress – Age 24 – 1B – 2nd Round Pick (On a Rehab Assignment)

Cincinnati Reds
Ronald Bueno – Age 19 – SS – International Signing

This is presented without any analysis.  Just it was a piece that was requested by a show that I enjoy, so I figured I'd pitch in.  There may be more added to this project in the future, or this could be it.

As always, you can follow me on Twitter @Mentoch.  

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