Dropping (Hopefully Not) Great Prospects for (Hopefully) Great Prospects
by Shane O'Leary | Roster News Bureau Chief
We actually had quite a wild roster river current this week for the Carp. We saw a doubling down on a bullpen-focused pitching staff, we saw a high prospect get dropped for another high prospect, and all of that was on the heels of the surprise Cam Smith drop last week. Let's get into it.
SP Ramon Marquez (High-A) Replaces SP Caden Scarborough (High-A)
The Carp just traded for Scarborough --along with Dax Kilby-- 12 days ago as part of the trade that sent SP Ryan Weathers out of town, so there was a lot of handwringing on the old internets referencing --we'll call it "general discourse of a negative variety"-- the outlandishness. But there might be a bit of shortsightedness going on. As of today, Ramon Marquez is a better, more compelling prospect than Caden Scarborough, and not because of anything Scarborough has or hasn't done; Marquez has just exploded.
Marquez has monster strikeout rates (93 K in 59 IP across Low-A and High-A this year) and pairing it with a pristine 1.50 ERA and a funny 0.67 WHIP at High-A. Results aren't everything at those levels, but mercy. I heard the Carp moved on Marquez because once he was traded from the Phillies to the Giants, there was internal concern that he was going to be more recognized and subsequently snagged by a rival GM. I know it stings losing Scar, but I think this is an upgrade.
Ryan Zeferjahn (MLB) replaces Christian Zazueta (Double-A)
This move was likely the most shocking of the week. The Carp have shown a desire --some call it an obsession-- with stockpiling prospects and Zazueta is firmly ensconced as a mid-top-100 prospect (#37 at Fangraphs; #66 at MLB.com) in an ever-deep Dodgers farm system.
Zeferjahn, meanwhile, is an MLB bullpen arm who strikes out almost everyone and then walks almost everyone else. (75 K / 32 BB in 51 IP). But he also got traded to the Cubs (from the Angels). And if you're unfamiliar with the world of Cubs baseball these days, you should know that all manners of misfortune has befallen the members of their bullpen. There is a real chance Zeferjahn becomes at least a part-time closer. Even if he just works in leverage, he adds another dynamic arm to the Carp bullpen. Larry will be with you later this week on a deep dive around the newfound bullpen obsession.
I wouldn't be surprised to see the Carp try and reclaim Zazueta if he stays on the wire long enough (he's been quite good in his intro to Double-A minus a start or two), but for now, they add another machine gun to the bullpen arsenal.
We'll likely have more roster talk this week with the trade deadline approaching Friday.
Go Carp!