Archive for zach lee

In Chattanooga, Top-100 prospects Yasiel Puig and Zach Lee debuted against a Huntsville (Brewers) team with few prospects of note. On paper, both excelled with Puig reaching base in three of four plate appearances and Lee surrendering just one earned run across four innings of work. There’s a reason scouts don’t write reports from box scores though. While each impressed, both prospects still have work to do before the Dodgers come calling.

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The Dodgers will trot out a formidable wave of big league talent to take on the National League West in 2013 but the strength of the major league club comes at the expense of the minor league system. The organization has flipped its home-grown talent to acquire the likes of Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, and Hanley Ramirez. The new draft and international free agent rules will affect LA’s ability to over-pay for amateur talent but the club showed the ability to work within the new guidelines and had a solid 2012 amateur draft.

#1 Zach Lee (P)

Lee, 21, is an athletic pitcher who’s still learning to channel his raw skills to the mound and he doesn’t dominate as much as expected. The right-handed Texan split 2012 between high-A and double-A pitching a total of 121 innings.

He walked just 32 batters, displaying above-average control for his age, but also struck out just 103 batters because his secondary stuff – curveball, slider, changeup – has yet to fully develop. He offsets his lack of Ks with above-average ground ball numbers. A former star high school quarterback, Lee has moved quickly through the system and may need to spend all of 2013 in double-A before his ticket to L.A. is punched. Read the rest of this entry »

Christian Bethancourt, C, Atlanta Braves
Current Level: AA
2012 Top 15 Prospects Ranking: 7th
Current Value: Down

This past off-season I spoke with a front office person who had very glowing things to say about Bethancourt – especially on defense. The backstop is continuing to impress observers with his play in the field in 2012 but his offense has been MIA at the double-A level. Bethancourt is hitting a modest .257 and both his on-base percentage and slugging percentage are below .300. His OPS sits at .557. With just three extra base hits on the year (all doubles), the Panama native hasn’t shown any improvements in the power department as the year has progressed with just one of those extra baggers coming since the end of April. Still just 20 years old, Bethancourt has a lot of time to turn things around and Atlanta will almost certainly pick up veteran catcher Brian McCann’s 2013 option ($12 million).

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