It’s a painfully slow day news-wise, so while we patiently wait for Game 6 of the NLCS between the Giants and Phillies to begin, I thought I’d use this opportunity to bring you up to speed on a position prospect we’ll probably be hearing a lot about next season.
Royals assistant general manager J.J. Picollo told Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star that the club is considering having top prospect third baseman Mike Moustakas skip playing winter ball in the Dominican Republic.“When we made that decision (to send Moustakas to winter ball) in July,” Picollo said, “it was to see whether he can handle better pitching. But I saw him in the last week of the season in Omaha, and he faced a soft lefty, a hard-throwing lefty, a power righty, guys pitching backward – and he handled all of it.
“So the things we wanted to see him do in the Dominican, he’s already done them. Some guys still want him to go. We’re still discussing it.”
Moustakas, 22, batted .322/.369/.630 with 36 home runs and 124 RBI between Double-A Northwest Arkansas and Triple-A Omaha this season before he joined team USA for the Pan American Games Qualifying Tournament in Puerto Rico. Baseball America recently ranked him as the top prospect in the Texas League for the 2010 season and the No. 2 prospect in the Pacific Coast League. Buster Posey, who played in 47 games with Triple-A Fresno before getting called up to the majors, ranked No. 1 in the PCL.
So, from Picollo’s comments, it sure sounds like Moustakas has nothing left to prove against minor league pitching, right? Probably not, but like Giants GM Brian Sabean did with Posey earlier this spring, look for the Royals to think of some sort of excuse before conveniently calling him up right around Memorial Day next season.