At The Ballparks: A’s Prospect Edition

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When the opportunity presents itself to take a baseball road trip, you take it. I don’t mess around, so I hit three parks in three days. Sacramento River Cats at Fresno Grizzlies on July 19th for #TTT8 (Taco Truck Throwdown if you didn’t know), Lancaster JetHawks in Stockton to visit the Ports on July 20th, and finally the Visalia Rawhide hosted the JetHawks on July 21st. The only challenge was how to prepare and how to focus on what to write.

So as I prepared for this trip through the Central Valley, I picked a few players that I planned to scout. The switch hitting catcher Jonah Heim caught my eye at the Cal League All-Star Game and I wanted to learn more. As fate would have it, he has performed well and was promoted to AA on July 10^th. Then there was Nate Mondou: promoted July 15^th.

Jonah Heim:

	G	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	OBP	SLG	AVG
Stockton	80	312	41	91	7	49	.353	.433	.292
Midland*	13	44	6	10	0	4	.286	.250	.227

Nate Mondou:

	G	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	OBP	SLG	AVG
Stockton	88	344	64	100	8	61	.361	.448	.291
Midland*	11	41	4	7	0	1	.292	.195	.171

*Data through Wednesday, July 25th.

The dearly departed Jonah Heim at the Cal League All-Star Game.

Luckily, promotions open up spots for other prospects and Chase Calabuig, this year’s 27^th round draft pick for the A’s, was promoted to Stockton and made his California League debut on July 8^th. His only hit of the night was a single in the first, but he made a couple of nice plays in center field. He seems to have no trouble hitting Single-A pitching and if he keeps it up, could start next year at Midland. Fun fact: Calabuig went to San Diego State and is a second cousin of former A’s catcher Ron Hassey.

	G	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	OBP	SLG	AVE
AZL A’s	16	32	7	13	0	5	.487	.563	.406
Stockton	17	67	16	22	0	9	.392	.448	.328

#ChaseCalabuig continues to hit Class A ball. Here he is singling in the first. #StocktonPorts @Prospects1500 pic.twitter.com/b4h6Na6Juj

— Babar (@1baseballchick) July 21, 2018

Coming into the game, Sandber Pimentel, an A’s 2012 free agent signing, had hit home runs in his previous two at bats. In his first at bat of the night, he hit another home run. The Cal League record for home runs in consecutive at bats is four and was set by George Springer, so all eyes were on Pimentel during his next at bat. Unfortunately, tonight was not the night and he grounded out. He hit a double later in the game and ended the game 2-4 with a run and two RBIs. His defense still needs some work (he dropped an easy pop-up near first base) and that could slow him down from progressing. Pimentel was injured for a few months in 2017 and got a late start in 2018, so we don’t have a lot of recent data to gauge his performance. He appears to be a power hitting/low average type of player.

	G	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	OBP	SLG	AVE
’16 Stockton	117	417	61	99	21	66	.342	.436	.237
’17 Stockton	70	244	40	68	14	42	.374	.484	.279
’18 Stockton	50	182	27	42	14	42	.327	.527	.231

#SandberPimentel, who had his streak of consecutive plate appearances with a HR broken at 3, doubled in the 6th inning. #StocktonPorts #Athletics pic.twitter.com/Qr32zB4hDc

— Babar (@1baseballchick) July 21, 2018

It was nice to see Pimentel pull in Prospect of the Week honors for A+ hitter (week of 7/16-7/22) for his 6 games, .440/.481/1.160, 3 2B, 5 HR, 11 RBI. I’ll have to figure out which players to scout on my next trip and hopefully that gives them some sweet #POTW mojo.

Featured image of Sandber Pimentel – via Stockton Ports on Twitter

Gail Verderico

Gail is Bay Area born and raised. She was conflicted on which side of the Bay to root for early on, but eventually sided with the A’s. Gail now lives in Southern California, loves all Southern California baseball, and enjoys travelling around the country watching as many baseball games as she can. Follow her on X @1baseball_gail and Instagram @baseball_gail.