Back in 2003, the Yankees decided to reinvest in the draft and so they picked Eric Duncan as their No.1 pick. He was supposed to be the guy who was going to spearhead the 'back to the farm' strategy. Since then he's had some promising moments and then some injury-filed seasons, and now he's starting in AAA for the third year in a row.
Here's a Newsday article on him.
Talk to Duncan for 10 minutes on the phone, as I did Wednesday morning, and more than anything you come away impressed by how level-headed he is for someone whose career hasn't gone the way so many people expected - and hoped - it would.To be honest I've been a bit of a die-hard on the Eric Duncan as prospect thing. I've been keeping track of his hitting this year here. So far he's hitting .270/.382/.459. He could make a little more contact but he's certainly recovered from a slow start. He's actually about the right age to be at AAA, even though he's been in the system for 5 years.
"There's obviously been some tough times, with struggles and injuries and whatnot," Duncan said. "Injuries and struggles, that's part of it. But sometimes I try to take a step back and take a look at it from a broader picture. I'm still young. I'm still getting the chance to play baseball and getting the chance to play every day. My struggles are still a pretty good day, when you think about it.
"Yeah, it can be frustrating. I don't want to go through it and all that stuff, but I know at the end of the day I work my butt off and I prepare myself as well as I can, every day, physically and mentally. I know if I do that, I can look myself in the mirror at night."
In 25 games this season at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes Barre, Duncan is hitting .270 (20-for-74) with a .382 on-base percentage. He's hit .321 (9-for-28) in his past 10 games.
In the past few years, the draft classes of 2004 and 2006 have produced Hughes, Kennedy and Chamberlain, so he became the forgotten man, but I've always felt that he would eventually emerge as an important piece in the Yankees. Certainly, if he can keep up these numbers for the rest of the way, he'll probably be ready for the big club next year when Giambi is gone. Indeed, if Giambi should break down, the first cab off the rank to go up to the big club should be Eric Duncan.
Wow, JD Closser?
Back in 2004-5 when I played PS2 baseball games - I don't remember which one - one of the important pieces I would trade for was JD Closser. I never knew a lot about him except for the fact that he was a highly regarded prospect, about to start for the Rockies and when you did trade for him, he grew into an important cog. Well, it's dumb because those games always overestimate how a prospect turns out, but JD Closser was a valuable commodity in those games. In real life he seems to have run out of places to play and has missed that chance.
He's now landed in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
He's now 28 and unlikely to help anybody if he hasn't helped anybody by now, but it was kind of weird to see that name. Scratching around google, it seems that he's traveled through Arizona, Colorado, Milwaukee and Oakland before being signed by the Yankees. It's all desperation in Yankee land because Jorge Posada is down for 5 weeks and the back ups are Jose Molina, Chad Moeller and Chris Stewart.
A look at his Baseball Reference page reveals he's been going down hill between 2004 and 2006 and spent 2007 in the minors. His OPS+ of 88 in 2004 was his best mark. That's pretty serviceable if he could do it today.
Here are his Minor League stats. What we can see is that he's been thrown around a lot, but his Minor league stat line reads .277/.379/.455. That's a handy player. Even if he went , say, .250./.345/.430 at the major league level, that would be tremendously useful.
So you can now stick JD Closser on my Optimism List. I fully understand why the Yankees would sign this guy.
Ian Kennedy Is Doing Fine
Ian Kennedy threw really well in his return to the Minors.
Kennedy gave up only one hit in 7 1/3 scoreless innings in Scranton's 4-0 win over Charlotte. The only other baserunner Kennedy allowed was hit by a pitch.There's probably nothing wrong with the kid.
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