Ping: A's fans

[Anrhydeddu]

A's has been one of those teams that us textsims players and sabermetric types (that's not you, Marmel) should love. A small market/revenue team that can smartly put together a really good team and grow their own players. Anyway, I have a colleague that just got back from Phoenix and went to last week's Angels/A's game. In BP, he was noticing a non-roster player, #61, that was hitting the snot out of the ball. Sure enough, he came up as a PH with bases loaded and hit a HR, plus showed good glove at 1B. My colleague has been attending baseball games for over 45 years and rarely had anyone impressed him more than this kid, Graham somebody. Who is this kid and what's the deal on him?

[QuikSand]

His name is Graham Koonce, considered by most to be a nice career minor leaguer, what some refer to as a "AAAA" player. Last year in the Texas league, he led the league with 24 home runs and batted .274, with an OBP of .440(!) The guy has a very good batting eye - typical of A's prospects. Taking 133 walks in 600 plate appearances is unusually strong (he was the league leader there by leaps and nounds, too), though he does not make great contact - 117 Ks along the way.

Trouble is, he's 28 years old (I think, maybe even 29) - which ages him out of the true" prospect" bracket. It's not inconceivable that he gets a little time with the big club, especially since they lack a monster at 1B. But it's not too likely that they'll consider him much more than a fill-in. Stranger things have happened, though - and Oakland is always willing to look at players who can produce.

[Chief Rum]

Well, Quiksand got most of the info out there, and there's really not too much to add. He's considered to be way too old to be anything other than an emergency fill-in, but you never know. He's bounced around some, even doing a stint with an Independent squad in 1999.

FWIW, while this guy definitely has power and plate discipline (he also led the California League in walks with the Angels' Class A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes in 2000), but your man saw Koonce get his only hit so far of spring training. He is for 1-for-10 (didn't note walks). His homerun came off of Bobby Jenks, one of the Angels better prospects, but more importantly, battling a sore elbow and the owner of perhaps the minor league's nastiest fastball, triple-digits. Koonce looks like he has some huff, but my bet he got a hold of one of Jenks' fastballs, and Mini-Me could hit a homerun off of that pitch. :)

Here's a picture of him:

http://www.expressfan.com/tlplayers/02_koonce.jpg

Chief Rum

[Draft Dodger]

the best "power prospect" I ever saw in batting practice was a about 15 years ago. He played for the Jays, and he was absolutely knocking the snot out of the ball. Tape-measure shots, one after the other. again, it was BP, but this guy sure looked like he was going to be a pretty decent power hitter - maybe a 30 homer guy.

Well, he was - if 31 homers in 700 career games makes Rob Ducey a "30 homer guy".

Amazingly, I'm not a major league scout.

[QuikSand]

I remember Rob Ducey, when he played for the Syracuse Chiefs in AAA. He had monster power written all over him. Alas...

[QuikSand]

Several years ago, the Bowie Baysox - a AA affiliate of the Orioles - were in transition as their new stadium was being built. They played a number of games on a small field on the Naval Academy grounds here in Annapolis. Being (at the time) a slovenly state employee, I joined several friends in ditching for the afternoon and catching the games.

Anyway, we all yelled like crazy when the Baysox' top reliever took the mound - this guy was easily about 6'2" or more, very dark-skinned, built pretty ruggedly, and had a piercing stare-- very much like Lee Smith. Anyway, the guy threw complete fireballs, and had practically no idea where they were going. Even in the third base seating, we were a little worried.

The best was when he let off a serious gasser, and it hit the opposing batter squarely in the bicep. Note - this isn't the wrist, nor the albow - it hit him right in the fat part of his upper arm. The batter dropped to the ground, and wriggled around for several minutes. Turns out, thankfully, that he was all right - but just to see this guy take a seemingly innocuous ball to the arm and suffer like he was dying was mighty funny at the time.

Anyway, the pitcher - Armando Benitez - has straightened things out a bit, and has gone on to do pretty well.

[samifan24]

Koonce was reassigned to the minor league camp today. Looks like he won't be in Oakland unless someone gets hurt.