Thought I would just start a thread about the Winter Leagues. Not too much going on in Peoria, but here are some stats from the winter leagues so far...

Durango(Dominican League) 14-25 (.520 avg), 4 stolen bases, 7 rbi

Gallagher(Venezuelan League) 4.56 era, .356 batting average against, 7 k's in 11.1 innings

The rest are peoria guys in the AZL
Hunter-280 avg, 294 obp
Canham-.040 avg (1-25)
Zawadzki-.260 avg, 1 hr
Garrison-5.4 era

I know these numbers don't mean much at all... but man, Durango just hits at every single level. It really doesn't matter where you put him, whether it is in the World Baseball Classic, The Winter Leagues, on the Bench of the Pads, or in the minors. The guy just flat out hits and gets on base, its incredible. I missed some other guys that aren't as interesting, but feel free to add whoever you want. The upper levels of the minor leagues obviously is not our strength, so it is not surprising that we don't have too many big prospects in the winter leagues.

Durango doesn't so much hit as he does touch the ball with the bat and then run like heII. But hey, however you can get on....

Yeah out of his 13 hits only 1 was for extra bases. He's got to learn to drive the ball at least a little bit to keep the outfielders honest.

I'd be interested to see of those hits how many made it out of the infield. He seems like a Juan Pierre type.

"He seems like a Juan Pierre type."

I said that from the jump, right off that bat I compared him with Pierre. If he can show the ability to slap the ball into the alleys he could be a menace, I am a fan of Durango and hope he can make the jump like Cabrera. That would be exciting.

I am a big fan of Durango, having seen him play many times in the minor leagues. you guys are right about him driving the ball, I would like to see a few more gappers so he could just run wild around the bases. I think with experience and good coaching he will learn how to turn on the inside pitch, etc. If you talk to him though, his main goal is to get on first base and he doesn't care how he does it. Once on first he is an absolute pain on pitchers. We saw that briefly with the big club. he only had what, 8 at bats and I remember at least one situation where the catcher threw the ball away when he tried to steal. Regarding his future, I guess next year he will most likely start in center for Portland. I did hear Hoyer talk briefly about him on an interview with a local station here in Boston, and he said he saw Durango in the futures game and a few other times in passing and was is awe of his speed. But I don't think any one is doubting Durango's speed, and I hope he gets his chance. Most of you will disagree with me here, but if I was gm I would think about putting Durango in for Venable against left handed pitching. But we shall see... If he goes to Portland and still hits close to 300 with walks and tons of stolen bases, there wont be much left for him to prove in the minor leagues. Someone will give the guy a shot, and I hope it is us.

He is Juan Piere without the pop. Which isn't saying much.

Funny thing is baseballcube.com actually has Duraango with more power and less speed lol I think the potential is DEF there. Durango DEF has more speed than Peirre!

Juan Pierre has been a very productive major leaguer for years. He is obviously not a power hitter so no one knocks him for that, but his biggest weakness is his outfield arm. Durango has the speed and skill set to hit and steal just like Pierre has done for years. On top of that Durango is a switch hitter and has a MUCH better arm than Pierre, as you all saw in the last game of the season. I don't know about you. but I would take Pierre in his prime any day of the week, even with the bad defense. Especially in the ballpark, where manufacturing runs is a necessity.

He does have a better arm, however Durango is not exactly Vlad out there, his arm has been criticized as well, AVG at best is what I have heard. He needs to improve on his outfield, his base stealing % and again the obvious driving the ball and looking for the gaps. I would not be "shocked" to see him become a very productive player, especially in Petco.

Still, pitching and power wins! The Padres still need another power bat or clutch hitter, really both would be ideal lol

The idea being a balanced team with good speed, good D and power!

Yah I hope he can make the jump too. It would be exciting to see Durango and Cabrera hitting back-to-back. What a menace to opposing pitchers that would be! I swear the first time I saw Durango run, I don't think he even touched the ground, it was like one of those Jesus Christ lizards on air, or a Speedy Gonzales cartoon, just spinning circles in the air, LOL. I think I would bat Durango 9th and Cabrera leadoff.

If we got a real 2nd baseman I'd bat Durango 1 and Cabrera 2.

I think i'd bat Durango 2nd, because of his insane bunting ability. But i wouldn't mind a 1,2 of durango and cabrera. Maybe now that KT is gone the kid will get a chance and we won't have to hear every single week from our gm's mouth how well Ced Hunter is progressing, without even a mention of Durango.

I like Durango leading off because he is the better player at getting on base, is faster, and Cabrera has more power.

As to whether Durango is better at getting on base than Cabrera, that is a very debatable point. Durango's AB's in the big leagues is too small to make an accurate comparison. You don't want to put the pressure of being a leadoff or #2 hitter on a rookie, that's why I would bat him 9th. You take the pressure off him while still utilizing his speed coupled with Cabrera's. If he shows considerable talent like Cabrera did, you can consider bringing him to the top of the order, or maybe sophomore year, but you don't want to start him off there, especially when he would probably be in more of a utility role to start off.

He has a career minor league OBP of .414 and walked more this year than he struck out. It's no secret that this kid knows how to work the count and get on base. Everth is a career .384 OBP in the minors. I wouldn't mind if he started in the 8th or 9th spot to get comfortable. Although he looked pretty comfortable in the majors in his short time this year. It may not be necessary.

What I'm saying is Durango has had a lot of time in the minors but not much in the majors and the numbers don't always equate from minors to bigs, whereas Cabrera has proven he can play at this level but where his ceiling is is hard to tell because he hasn't had much time in the minors to gage his potential. Durango has very litlle 'pop' in his bat, contrary to what field039 believes, (IMO neway). Durango has shown he can run to first faster than most minor leaguers can get to an infield dribbler and throw it over to first bag, but he hasn't shown he can hit major league pitching with consistency. Not saying he can't or won't, just that Cabrera is more proven in my eyes.

"Although he looked pretty comfortable in the majors in his short time this year. It may not be necessary."

Man, everyone seems to want to rush this kid here... I think what Cabrera did is so rare that the chance of repeating it with Durango seems very remote... but hey what do I know, I didn't think Cabrera had a prayer of making it up here, especially after I saw a couple of ST games....lol

But before we call Cabrera an unqualified success I want to see how he performs in his sophomore season. I am a big believer that pitchers will adjust.... I kind of think that one of the things that helped Cabrera get around that a little this year was that he got hurt and was out and teams forgot about him and advance scouts weren't seeing him... Teams will pay more attention to him in 2010 so it will be him who has to adjust to the adjustments they make on him...

As I have stated before I think one of the biggest values of progressing through the minors is that the higher you go the better teams and pitchers are at adjusting to hitters and that's where hitters learn to make their own adjustments.... AAA is extremely valuable in that regard in that pitchers there no how to adjust better than they do in AA and A ball...

That is one of the chief reasons I am generally against rushing players and skipping levels

I'm all for giving Durnago some AAA AB's. It's not exactly the same situation as Cabrera. Moving someone up from low A is a little different than AA. A lot of players skip AAA.

I a getting less and less fond of the idea of brining guys up, before they are fully developed. Assuming he is going to be a good player, they will control him for six years. Why waste the first two?