Baseball America’s John Manuel:
On the current roster, Smoak has emerged as the team’s star, with nine home runs to set a USA Baseball record. The switch-hitter out of South Carolina was a high school teammate of Orioles rookie catcher Matt Wieters and is on track to fulfill the athlete development model that USA Baseball dreams of. He played for the college national team in 2007, is on the team now as a minor leaguer and seems destined to suit up in a WBC down the line.
…
Cuba’s five-tool center fielder, 23-year-old Alfredo Despaigne, has matched Smoak home run-wise. He’s part of the surprising reality: Contrary to its reputation, Cuba has plenty of hitting talent but not enough pitching.
Stats: .375/-/.681 with 61 BB/45 K and 32 HRs in 328 ABs in Cubas’s 48th National Baseball Series. Here’s his picture.
Peter Bjarkman’s blog has much more.
[...] performance, I think teams would be wiser to save their money and invest big money on players like Alfredo Despagne and Yulieski Gourriel if they [...]
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Thanks for the link!
Comment by The Wizard — October 16, 2009 @ October 16, 2009 1:05 pm |