FFA Week of August 21st – 27th

Phil Gurnee ♦ August 27, 2017 ♦ 1 Comment

Farm Factory Award for the week of August 21st – August 27th had plenty of competition running the gamut from an 18-year-old up and coming prospect to a 28-year-old journeyman minor leaguer who is having the hottest stretch of his minor league career.

The Contenders;

Scott Barlow – AA/Tulsa – Barlow pitched a brilliant game going seven innings, three hits, two earned runs, one walk, and ten strikeouts. Barlow has been fantastic at AA/Tulsa but did struggle when promoted to AAA/OKC earlier in the summer.

Matt Beaty – AA/Tulsa – Beaty collected a hit in every game this week, but the main reason he is here is that he won the Texas League Player of the Year award which is pretty cool.  

I’ve always liked left handed hitting 3rd baseman and no one seems to have him on their radar so this award was kind of surprising.  Craig Minami pointed out that if Edwin Rios had not been promoted he probably would have won this award. They are both 3rd/1st players, but I have zero idea how Beaty is defensively at the corners.

Quincy Latimore – A+/Rancho – Quincy had quite a game last week hitting two home runs and collecting eight RBI but he’s not all about that one game.  I skipped Quincy last week because he is a 28-year-old outfielder playing in the California league but he has been killing it. I just wanted to mention him, but I can’t let someone that old take an award that is meant for prospects, and Quincy simply isn’t.  He’s in the California League because he couldn’t hit in AA/Tulsa. I’m not even sure why he’s in the Dodger organization. But he is tearing the cover off the ball.

DJ Peters – A+/Rancho – DJ Peters won the California League MVP Award for 2017.  He is not up for the weekly award but I wanted to get this not out there. DJ has hit 24 home runs, but has also struck out 182 times. I can’t imagine anyone has ever won the California League MVP who led the league in strikeouts.

Connor Wong – A/Loons – Connor Wong had a heck of a week and Baseball America noticed. Twice in the same week, he made the daily write-ups.

Early in the week:

Connor Wong, c, Dodgers. Another 2017 draft pick, Wong, a third-rounder, also had a big night Monday. The Houston alum was 3-for-4 with two doubles and a homer as low Class A Great Lakes beat Fort Wayne (Padres) 5-3. Wong is slashing .257/.321/.471 in low Class A and after playing a multitude of positions in college has exclusively been a catcher in pro ba

Later in the week:

Connor Wong, c, Dodgers. Wong, a third-round pick out of Houston, is in the midst of a power surge. He clubbed two Saturday in Great Lakes’ 5-4 win over Dayton (Reds) and has five homers in his past seven games. Wong is known for a versatile skill set and his ability to play multiple positions will be an asset.

For the week, Wong was eight for fifteen with three home runs.

Riley Ottesen – A/Loons – 2017 5th round pick made his 3rd start for the Loons count going four innings, three hits, zero earned runs, zero walks, and eight strikeouts.

Melvin Jimenez – A/Loons –  Melvin just turned eighteen a month ago, and is already raising eyebrows in the Midwest League. He isn’t pitching a lot of innings but he is dominating when he does pitch. Last week he only got eight outs but got six of them via the strikeout without giving up any hits. Over his last two outings, he has gotten sixteen outs, with eleven of them coming from strikeouts while giving up zero runs and just two hits.   Fangraphs has talked about him a few times, here and here.

The Dodgers’ 17-year-old, 6-foot righty Melvin Jimenezhas been up to 97 and is also flashing a plus breaking ball.

Any information on Dodgers RHP Melvin Jimenez? 6’0″, 170 lber out of DR in the Midwest League who *just* turned 18. Was in the DSL All-Star Game last year but didn’t come over for Instructs. Was in the AZL for all of 11.0 IP this season before his promotion to Great Lakes. From his last start, he’s a fastball/curve guy, didn’t see any changeups, but the curve looked impressive. Thoughts on a pitcher so young (he’d be starting his senior year of high school this coming fall) making it to full-season A-ball in his second season?
Eric A Longenhagen: 93-96 in AZL before promotion, have heard he’s touched higher than that. Below avg height and command, scout I spoke to only saw curveballs too. Relief risk, but the stuff is good.

And the winner of the Farm Factory Award for the week of August 21st – August 27th is….

Connor Wong

Other Minor League Notes:

Walker Buehler and Keibert Ruiz win Dodger honors as minor league players of the year