Smoak Promoted to AAA

The Rangers have promoted top prospect, Justin Smoak, to AAA and this makes it clear that he will see time in the majors this season. The Rangers have been using Blalock at 1B with Andrew Jones serving as the DH. Spo far this season Smoak is hitting .339 with 8 HRs and has shown great plate discpline with 40 BBs and only 36 Ks. Smoak is still having trouble hitting LHP with a .196 avg but he is hitting .379 against RHP. If the Rangers continue to remain in the race, Smoak may up very soon as he has nothing else to prove in the minors and has college experience. I highly recommend that you allocate some FAAB dollars for this kid when he comes up in all league formats.

With the injury to Uehara, the Orioles may be bringing up one of their top prospects in Chris Tillman. So far this season Tillman is 6-5 with a 2.69 ERA and has fanned 82 batters in 80.1 innings. The Orioles are loaded with young arms with Jake Arrieta, Chris Tillman and Brian Matusz getting ready in the Minors.

During the All-Star Break, the 2009 Futures Game will be played in St. Louis. The Futures Game is meant to bring the best up and coming talent in the minors together in a USA vs. the World format. Per the rules of the Futures Game, each MLB team must have at least 1 player and the max per team is 2 prospects. I think that the 2 max is too restrictive as some teams have more the 2 "Future Stars" and some don't have any. The two biggest players that were left off the the US roster were Buster Posey and Justin Smoak. Posey was left off because the World Team needed a 1B and they selected Giants prospect Angel Villalona and Madison Bumgarner was a no-brainer for the US which gave the 2 prospects already in the game. Smoak has left off becuase he had an injured oblique when the teams were selected. The US pitching staff is loaded with Bumgarner, Drabek, Latos, Matusz, Parker and the above mentioned Chris Tillman. You can view the full rosters for the Futures Game here. You can listen to Minor League Notebook's podcast previewing the Futures Game here.

While listening to Bill Simmon's podcast with guest Keith Law, they mentioned that since Albert didn't hit in the Minors makes his listed age of 29 more believable. They has been speculation that Albert is 5 years older and that would have made him 25 when he spent his only season in the Minors. Phat Albert hit .314 with 19 HRs, 96 RBIs, .920 OPS and an impressive 46:47 BB:K ratio and he was only 20 years old in his only season in the Minor Leagues. I am not sure how those numbers are considered to be "not hitting". So far in 2009, Pujols is hitting .336 with 31 HRs, 82 RBIs, 64:34 BB:K ratio and an OPS of 1.208 in 81 games. Pujols is leading the league in Runs,HR, RBIs, BB, OBP, SLG, OPS, IBB and Total Bases. Pujols has 30 more BBs then Ks and has only 3 more Ks then HR. I don't care how old this Latin beast is and I plan to ride his un-documented ass to a NFBC title!

Other News:
Wang is injured again
Alex Gordon goes 1-3 in AAA rehab game