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 – 1^st Round Pick – #10 rated prospect by BP

Janluis Castro – Age 18 – 2B/3B – 16^th Round Pick

David Lyon – Age 22 – C – 34^th Round Pick

Nick Williams – Age 18 – OF – 2^nd Round Pick

Arizona Diamondbacks

Stryker Trahan – Age 18 – C – 1^st Round Pick – #6 rated prospect by BP

Phildrick Llewellyn – Age 18 – 1B – 13^th 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 – 4^th Round Pick

Sean O’Connell – Age 20 – C/P – 15^th Round Pick

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

http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=oconne002sea

            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.

http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=milb&t=g_log&gid=2012_08_26_dodrok_cinrok_1

            Above is said game where he got the plate appearance.  The starting catcher was pinch run for in the 9^th, so O’Connell came in defensively, and was then intentionally walked in the 10^th.  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 9^th.  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 – 13^th Round Pick

Nelson Rodriguez – Age 18 – 1B – 15^th Round Pick

San Francisco Giants

Shilo McCall – Age 18 – OF – 9^th 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 1^st Round Pick

Luis Baez – Age 21 – 3B/OF – International Signing (Non-Prospect)

Seatle Mariners

Rich Poythress – Age 24 – 1B – 2^nd 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.