BA Q/A:

Brian (Ohio): I've only seen positive reports on Bobby Bradley, but 18 year old players are never perfect. What will Bradley have to work on to continue his progression to the majors?

Bill Mitchell: I'm very high on Bobby Bradley but agree that at 18 he's still got a lot of development ahead of him. He's going to get stronger and will need to continue to work to keep the flexibility in the body. He'll face better pitching as he goes through the system, so like any young hitter he'll need to continue to develop his pitch recognition skills. He's got work to do to improve defensively, especially with improving his footwork around the bag. But his career is certainly off to a ringing start.

Brian is getting his questions answered, I'm not

Brian (Ohio): There has not been much written about Sheffield since the draft. What, if anything, has changed on his scouting report? Are any of his pitches starting to flash real plus potential?

Bill Mitchell: I mentioned in the report on Sheffield about how he dug deep with the championship game still on the line and the Indians holding on to a 1-0 lead. After the first two batters reached base, Sheffield reached back for his best stuff and got two strikeouts with filthy breaking balls. Perhaps I'm putting too much stock on one appearance, but that inning showed me something that you can't always get in a scouting report.

Here's a question from someone who follows more than one team, unlike me:

Justin P (New York): What is there to know about Hector Vargas, Jordan Paroubeck, and Li-Jen Chu?

Bill Mitchell: [The only one of those 3 who is ours is Chu, so here's the answer on him] Li-Jen Chu is a 20-year-old Indians catcher from Taiwan in his first pro season stateside --- strong bat, decent skills behind the plate, and ranked with my 21-25 group.

It's tough when the league is so huge and the chat engenders probably hundreds of questions. I have asked about Pantoja, SS, and Sayles, CF, pitchers Pannone, Shane and Hockin; and a followup about Chang whose writeup sounds so good it's hard to see why he's rated as low as 12th best prospect. If none of these are answered, the next opportunity will be in a couple months when BA does their individual team chats and usually dozens of players come under discussion.

OK, I got a couple in under the wire:

Elliot (Youngstown OH): Besides the big bats of Bradley and Chang the Indians had solid defenders and baserunners in SS Alexis Pantoja and CF Silento Sayles. How do they look as prospects?

Bill Mitchell: Pantoja, the Indians 9th round pick, looked very good in the field. The question on him is how well the bat will develop, but the kid can sure pick it at shortstop. In his second AZL season, Sayles improved considerably. He was very raw coming out of high school in Mississippi, but has some nice tools --- not a high profile prospect but an interesting one to follow.

Elliot (Youngstown OH): Surprised that Chang was slotted as low as 12th despite "his refined skills, especially at the plate, where he showed a compact, quick swing, a good feel for the barrel and more power than expected" while on defense "He’s got the arm for both [SS and third] and is sound fundamentally, so he could become a plus defender at third." What's his downside?

Bill Mitchell: Elliott, I anticipated this question and even wondered whether I was going too low on Chang. I don't think it's a question of Chang's downside, but more on his upside compared to others on the list. A scout I know who used to work in Asia said that the players from Taiwan come out of excellent programs and are much more refined when they get to the states, so it's a little harder to project them to improve as much as other international players. I like Chang and believe he has a good future. In a relatively deep league, coming in at #12 isn't bad.

Don't pimp the solid defenders and good baserunners if they don't have a bat. We need guys that can drive the ball and hit doubles in the gap with 20-25 HR potential.

Brantley was a slap hitter with little power until this season. He always had the body size. Juice?? or a big off season training program?

These kids in Arizona are 18 or 19 years old so there's plenty of time for them to develop further skills. And these 2 kids play the defense-first positions of CF and SS. Actually the one I'm interested in is Sayles. I'd love to have Michael Bourn type leadoff man who can actually steal bases and draw walks and cover ground in CF. Maybe that means I'd love to have a Kenny Lofton or Billy Hamilton type leadoff man!

Mississippi star Silento Sayles stole national record 103 bases in a single season

. April 22, 2013 6:35 AM

Over the course of a full season in any sport, Prep Rally tends to note some fairly remarkable statistics. Few, if any, can match what hit the radar in Mississippi. That's where Silento Sayles, a senior shortstop for Port Gibson (Ms.) High, stole 103 bases in a single season.

Unsurprisingly, the 103 stolen bases mark an all-time national record, according to National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) records. According to the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, the previous NFHS mark was 96 steals as set by Vincente Rosario of New York (N.Y.) George Washington High in 1996. Sayles' 103 steals were also an incredible 26 more than the previous Mississippi mark, which was shared by two teammates at Natchez Trace (Ms.) Academy in 1991.

The senior has signed to play baseball for Chipola College, though it's likely that those plans would take a backseat if he were selected in the MLB Draft.

“I really didn’t set any goals,” Sayles told the Clarion-Ledger. “I just wanted to go out there and get as many as I could get.”

What he got were more steals than anyone in history, and he did so by running every single time he got on the base paths. According to the Clarion-Ledger, Sayles averaged 3.5 steals per game, but had a single-game high of 12. He stole seven bases during his team's 10-0 victory against Jefferson County (Ms.) High to cap off his record single season performance.

While the successful numbers behind Sayles record are enough to make one's head spin, his unsuccessful number is just as remarkable. En route to 103 stolen bases, Sayles was thrown out exactly one time, while trying to steal third base late in a game that Port Gibson trailed.

Sayles told the newspaper that he shouldn't have even attempted the steal, but felt obligated to try and make something happen for his teammates.

The one caught stealing didn't do much to diminish the senior's remarkable stolen bases success rate; with 103 successful steals, he was still successful more than 99 percent of the time.

With that kind of success, its remarkable that more major scouts didn't come see Sayles play. The senior was also a star quarterback and free safety for Port Gibson in the fall, but his baseball accomplishments were far more out of this world.

His coach made it clear that if they had, they would have little trouble believing in the authenticity of his remarkable record.

“The only thing I can tell them is to come watch him play,” Port Gibson baseball coach Dan Smith told the Clarion-Ledger. “Get a clock because the stopwatch doesn’t lie.”

as an 18 year old in Arizona he stole 5 in 8 tries. as a 19 year old 16 in 21 tries.

Short, at 5-9 but hefty enough at 185 to develop some power. So far not much- 2013 4 doubles a triple; 2014 1 double and 3 triples.

Long way off but looks like a fun kid to follow.

Not interested.

Joez type of player.

Not interested.

Joez type of player.

Unfortunately, the players you are looking for Seagull, have not worked out too well for us either. It's obvious that management will not go out and pay for the players you are looking for. I liked the five Cubans as well as Cruz but evidently, the Tribe managers were not interested.

Let's face it, we were one Nelson Cruz away from taking the next step from last season. With Cruz we win the division and most certainly the wild card. With a Cruz, we would have gone on to the next round. I have no doubts about that.

We've been doing it your way for years with no playoff results. We have the pitching. We have the defense. Pitching and defense is what makes champions. In my opinion, we try it the other way next year. The pitching got a royal screwing from all the inept defensive players we fielded. Next year we let the pitching and defense try to carry this team.

If they can trade for Adrian Beltre, that would be a nice step forward. We get a solid defender and an above average bat at third base. The type of third basemen we've been lacking in since the Buddy Bell days.

All of a sudden, it seems, we have a good core of top prospects: Lindor, Zimmer, Mejia, Bradley, Frazier all can be considered among the top 100 in the game. With Naquin and Papi and Gonzalez solid prospects too. Our farm system has looked pretty weak for years. Not much pitching now but the offensive side looks promising.

And don't forget Jiminez and Schuck!

Of course it's not unlikely that some of those guys I cited will turn out to be just as productive in the majors as Giminez and Shuck.

I didn't mention a few more pretty decent prospects: Aguillar, Moncrief and Nellie Rodriguez. The more there are, the more likely someone will be successful.