Here we sit. It's October, and there's really no more baseball. Don't talk to me about the playoffs. Those ceased to exist about a week ago.
Anyway, it's a good time to look back on the season, but before we really try to look at the major league team, I prefer to talk about the minor league teams because... well... I'm just not ready to talk about the major league team. I thought we just went over this. Stop bringing it up.
Where were we before you got me sidetracked with that nonsense? Oh yeah. Time to review the season. Let's start with Gwinnett.
Position Players
Joey Terdoslavich, OF - Terdoslavich posted an excellent .318/.359/.567 slash line over 85 games, and it earned him a promotion to the big-league team where he didn't do so well - .215/.315/.266. The bright spot to all of that was that Terdo began walking again, but he showed no power. I've seen better pop from him, so I expect that .051 ISO to rise in the future. There's a decent chance he finds himself on Atlanta's bench next season.
Tyler Pastornicky, INF/CF - Pastornicky improved in his return trip to Gwinnett, hitting .292/.354/.392, as his walk rate improved. He didn't get enough ABs in the majors to be worth noting, but he continues to try to work his way onto the MLB team as he can now play 2B and CF. This might be a bit extreme, but other than maybe Tommy La Stella, he might be the best option for 2B next season, during which he'll be 24.
Jose Constanza, OF - Everyone's favorite chew toy hit .276/.332/.314 in Gwinnett this season, and while he adds speed, that's not a very good line. He's fine guy to have around in the organization, but he continues to live off his 2011 performance.
Todd Cunningham, OF - I'm not sure what to think of Cunningham's season. On one hand, he maintained a strong walk rate of 8.5% and strikeout rate of 13%, but on the other hand, a .265/.342/.333 line isn't terribly inspiring. He's better than Constanza, but he might never be anything more than just a 4th OF. He'll be 25 next season.
Ernesto Mejia, 1B - 28 home runs is pretty good. A .249/.323/.497 line is even fairly good. But this is AAA, and Mejia will 28 in a month and a half. The power is enticing as a bench option, but only playing 1B (and not even that well) and being right-handed limits his usefulness. I'd love to see him get a chance, but you may not want to go into the season guaranteeing him a bench spot.
Joe Leonard, 3B - *thud*
Pitchers
Omar Poveda, SP - I really don't know what to tell you about Poveda. After 5 years of ERAs over 4, he rattled off an impressive 3.62 ERA campaign that saw the best peripherals of his career - 19 % K%, 8.5% BB%. I don't know if his stuff improved or if he figured something out, but it was a nice turnaround. That being said, it's hard to believe he miraculously found something to make him valuable.
David Hale, SP - Hale certainly left an impression. After an interesting season of 3.22 ERA ball but lackluster peripherals - 16% K%, 7% BB% - the righty from Princeton hammered his two opponents. Of course, those two opponents were a dilapidated Phillies team and a meh Padres offense, but hey, that's still pretty good. Chances are that his future still remains in the bullpen, but he was impressive enough, statistically and otherwise, to give him another look out of the rotation. Not sure when that would come, though.
Sean Gilmartin, SP - We covered this last time - his season was unimpressive - but an injury kept him from making adjustments and improving in the second half. The best you could say is that he needs a do-over.
Cody Martin, SP - I'll go ahead and talk about Martin here as he technically pitched more in AAA. A 2.82 ERA in AA was certainly what the organization was hoping for, and the 25% K% and 10% BB% were pretty good as well, though that's more walks than you'd like. A 23% K rate and 11% BB rate is obviously a bit worse, but it was his first trip to AAA. He'll be 24 for most of next season, so he's still okay on the development curve. The season was definitely a success, but his peripherals have continued to worsen at each level. Still stuff for him to work on.
Wirfin Obispo, RP - The best thing that can be said for Obispo is that he throws hard as $#!t, and the worst is that he has no idea where it's going. He K'd 26% of batters faced while walking 13% in his 63 innings in AAA. There's certainly something there, but I don't know if anyone will ever be comfortable enough to actually put him out there.
Ryan Buchter, RP - He certainly Buchled enough knees at AAA, whiffing 38% of hitters, but he also walked 19%. You'll certainly take the trade-off because of the excessive amounts of strikeouts, but major-league hitters are likely to force more walks and strike out less. He still has things to improve, obviously, but you can't ignore a 38% K rate.
Daniel Rodriguez, P - Eck.
(Note: This doesn't encompass everyone, but I tried to touch on everyone of note. Also note that a guy like Mark Lamm isn't mentioned here because he pitched more at another level. I'll get to prospects at the level they played the most. This is also a mostly statistical look to start to get an idea of how prospects fared this season. We'll be doing a list, etc. later in the offseason.)