Bumpers
Catcher Nelson Fleming was a scouting discovery signed 7/24/54 out of Israel. He was 4/4/4/6/4 in January 2055 but has bumped to 4/5/5/8/5 as of the April 2058 Development report. He has gone from 20 POT to 25 POT in limited time on the field over three seasons in Gaylord at the rookie level.
GM Jim Walker said of Fleming, “This kid has made some improvements without much playing time. We’ll give him more time at San Juan to see if he’ll blossom into something.”
3B Abdul Latif Qadir was a scouting discovery signed on 5/26/2054 out of Pakistan. He was 4/4/5/6/5 in January 2055 and has bumped to a 4/4/6/6/5 as of April of this season. He played sparingly in 2057 at Short A San Juan and will get another year there to improve. He has excelled at 1B but will be tried out in left as well as some time at third.
Walker said, “His eye potential has bumped but he has also improved his current power, gap, and eye to show that he is progressing. More at bats in San Juan and with some success, a move to Medford.
SS Miguel Lopez was drafted by Hawaii in Round 4 of the 2056 Draft. He was 5/5/3/6/5 in January of 2056 but dropped a point of contact by January of the next year. In January of ’58 he bumped that contact back up a point while also adding a point to his eye. He is currently 5/5/3/6/5 from both sides of the plate and plays short, second and third. He’ll repeat A ball this season but will probably get a move to AA after this year’s draft.
“This is just someone to keep an eye on for the future.”, said Walker.
RP Eugene Belesis was a round 19 draft pick for Hawaii in the 2056 draft. He was a 5/3/4 pitcher for the Eastern Europe Kings. He played two seasons in rookie level Gaylord making 27 appearances over those two seasons. He has improved two points in stuff and two points in movement and is now sits at 7/5/5.
Walker said, “I’m moving him up to San Juan and give this guy a shot at more work. He is a leader and has good work ethic but is a little dense. Maybe they will count each other out.”
Lumpers
3B Dan Fallon was drafted by Hawaii in the 8th round of the 2053 Draft. He was 3/6/1/5/4 after the draft then bumped to a 5/6/2/6/5. He has fallen off at age 25 in AAA Death Valley and has lost a point of gap, power and avoid k. His defense is still playable, but he has faded at an early age is falling out of favor with the team and is now on the trade block.
Walker said, “Meh.”
LF Lucio Rodriguez was drafted by Hawaii in round 3 of the 2055 draft with ratings of 6/6/6/6/6 and was almost developed. He began his minor league career in A Medford and played 87 games there for the 2055 season then moved on to AA Carson City for just 50 games and 216 at bats. He improved a point of contact and put up 1.1 WAR in a short amount of time and was moved to AAA. His tear continued in Death Valley in ’56 and did even better in ’57 ending with a September callup to the big club. He lost a point of contact in February of ’58 then was injured during spring training and has been on the shelf for a few weeks.
The GM said, “Maybe not a true lumper but this bears watching. We'll see what he does with another year at AAA.”
