Which hoops powerhouse is best MiLB pipeline?
Is there a month that takes one to such maddening extremes as March? Is there a month more volatile? More fickle? One that stirs more ambiguous feelings?
March is at the same time the best and worst month of the year. The weather, which teases the warmth of spring only to crush one’s hopes with a late arriving winter storm, is awful—in all honesty, is there a worse season than the transition from winter to spring? I don’t think so—and an hour of sleep is lost to daylight savings time.
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Conversely, March is arguably the best month for sports. Spring Training and all its optimism awakens a baseball fan’s playoff fantasies and March Madness glues us to our TVs as we wait for out brackets to be busted.
College basketball’s regular season wraps up this weekend, and there are some pretty big games; most notably the Duke-North Carolina rematch.
Sep 27, 2014; Seattle, WA, USA; Kyle Seager played at North Carolina before becoming the Mariners starting third baseman. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports
In honor of the Eve of Madness and the Dawn of Spring, here is how this weekend’s big hoops games would play out if the school’s baseball alumni on the MiLB Pipeline played each other:
(Some parameters for this competition: higher-quality talent means more than depth; only players drafted in 2009 or later were considered; and the total number of players currently in the minors is not a factor, otherwise Jake Lemmerman and his .587 OPS would play a part in this exercise.)
North Carolina-Duke
Notable Alumni: UNC—Matt Harvey, Dustin Ackley, Kyle Seager; Duke—Marcus Stroman
Initially, looking at the alumni in the majors, it appears this would be a landslide for the Tar Heels. Duke puts up a good fight in this match up, however: the Red Sox’s Alex Hassan (.287/.378/.426 slash line at Triple-A Pawtucket) and the Athletics’ Nate Freiman (.284/.371/.506 with 15 HR at Triple-A) made appearances in the big leagues in 2014, although neither is likely to be a daily impact in the major leagues.
UNC ultimately wins this matchup because it has the best player and because of its depth. Third baseman Colin Moran, in the Astros organization, is the best player between from the two teams. He’s slashed .297/.346/.408 in two minor league seasons and doesn’t strike out a ton (16.1 K%), something the Astros could use more of in their lineup. He doesn’t hit for a ton of power, but he could be a future everyday player.
After Moran, the Tar Heels boast Hobbs Johnson (12-8, 2.93 ERA, 1.09 WHIP at High-A) and Levi Michael (.313/.389 OBP between Rookie and Double in 2014) to clinch the win.
Florida-Kentucky
Notable alumni: Fla.—Mike Zunino, Matt den Dekker; Kentucky—James Paxton
Florida has a nice balance of pitchers and hitters; Anthony DeSclafani was just traded for Mat Latos and is on the cusp of making the majors for good after a solid 3.78 ERA, 1.21 WHIP campaign in 2014, which he followed with a stellar Arizona Fall League performance; Brian Johnson went 13-3 with a 2.13 ERA and .97 WHIP; while Casey Turgeon (.306/.428/.446 in Rookie-Ball) and Preston Tucker (.282/.352/.481 with 24 home runs) make for a nice hitter combo.
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Kentucky, as is likely with the basketball game, wins this match up. Alex Meyer, the Twins’ highest rated pitching prospect, has pitched well at every level of the majors—including a 3.52 ERA and 2.9 K/BB ratio in 2014– and is expected to pitch in the rotation at some point in 2015. Add in AJ Reed, a two-way player who hit 23 home runs with a 1.211 OPS—yes, you read that correctly—and added a 12-2 record with a 2.09 ERA on the mound, was drafted in the second round in 2014 and promptly slashed .289/.375/.522 with 12 home runs in 68 games as a professional, and Kentucky runs away with the win.
Virginia-Louisville
Noteable Alumni: Virginia—Ryan Zimmerman, Mark Reynolds, Chris Taylor; Louisville—William Akers, pioneer of the SPF sunscreen ranking system.
The Cardinals loses this match up pretty handily. Chris Dominguez (eight games in the majors in 2014), Dean Kiekhefer (2.90 ERA, 1.01 WHIP and a 2015 non-roster invite), Adam Duvall (.298/.360/.599 with 27 home runs at Triple-A and a .192 AVG in 73 at bats in the majors) are fringe major leaguers or platoon players at best.
Virginia claims three players in Tyler Wilson, Jarrett Parker and John Hicks who all has solid seasons between Double-A and Triple-A. Even more impressive is their draft class from 2014’s College World Series team: eight players were drafted, three of whom were drafted in either the first round or supplemental first round. Mike Papi dominated college ball, hitting .307 with 11 home runs, while Nick Howard (3.74 ERA, 1.16 WHIP and a non-roster invite), Whit Mayberry (1.44 ERA), Artie Lewicki (2.28 ERA), and Brandon Downes (.308/.358/.485) all had admirable professional debuts.
Will the games on the hardwood play out the same way?