After a promising Spring Training, the Rebels opened the season with a 7-22 start. Since then, the team has shown signs of life, going 11-8 in their last 19 games. Two big reasons for the improved play has been the recent big-league promotion of two of the Rebels' most high-profile prospects.
Mendez was listed in The Dude's March 31 post as the top Catcher in AAA, and was rated by the Rebels as their number 4 overall position prospect. The organization wanted to keep him down in AAA until the All-Star break for more seasoning, but decided that it could wait no longer due to the poor performance of the big league catchers. Mendez hit safely in his first six games, including a home run in each of his first three games. He has appeared in 15 games, hitting safely in 11 of the 13 games he started, and also going 2-2 in pinch hitting appearances. He is currently hitting .340 with 3 HR. Behind the plate, which was assumed to be his weak spot, Mendez sports a respectible 4.05 C-ERA, but has thrown out only 5 of 21 baserunners for a .238 CS percentage.
Darr, listed in The Dude's March 31st post as the top SS in AAA and rated by the Rebels as their number 2 overall position prospect, was also called up about 15 games ago. He has been nearly flawless in the field, posting a 1.000 fielding percentage with a respectible 5.68 RF, and only has one (-) play. At the plate, however, Darr has struggled to hit big league pitching. In 15 games he is hitting a mere .167 with 1 HR.
It is clear that the Rebels have a lot of holes to fill before being legitimate contenders in even the weak NL South, but there is hope as the kids are coming to play.
1 comments:
I hope that the NL South will not be considered weak in 2 seasons time!!
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