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| Rick Ankiel |
Ricky Bottalico was sent down (and will not return no matter how much the Heat need an extra save) in order to make room for the prospect that many are saying has a greater upside than Kerry Wood (until his injury). The Wildcats are preparing to offer a long-term contract to the rookie as they are counting on Ankiel to be solid foundation to a strong staff for years to come.
Here are some of the glowing reports about the youngster:
Rick Ankiel
St. Louis Cardinals
Position: LHP Height: 6-1 Weight: 210 Born: 7/19/79
Year Team Class G GS IP H R ER BB SO W-L ERA 1998 Peoria A 7 7 35 15 8 8 12 41 3-0 2.06 1998 Pr. William A 21 21 126 91 46 39 38 181 9-6 2.79 1999 Arkansas AA 3 3 17.2 11 3 3 3 25 2-0 1.53
Rick Ankiel has answered every challenge from pro batters so far in his young career. He dominated the Midwest League through seven starts last year, had no problems after promotion to the tougher Carolina League, and has overpowered Double-A hitters in his first three starts for Arkansas. Overpowering may be an understatement; Ankiel has been damn near unhittable in the Texas League.
Rick Ankiel should make his major-league debut sometime this year. I mean this in all seriousness: Rick Ankiel is a better prospect than Kerry Wood was at the same point in his career. When Wood was 19 years old, he was still struggling to find the strike zone. While Ankiel doesn't throw quite as hard as Wood did, his stuff is outstanding for a lefty. His fastball runs a real 95 mph, with movement, and he isn't afraid to challenge people with it.
Complementing the heater is a big-bending curveball, with which he throws strikes. His changeup is improving. His command is excellent for a young pitcher who throws so hard, witness his awesome K/BB ratio so far this year.
Scouts say that Ankiel has no significant weaknesses as a pitcher. His main problem is simply lack of experience. In other words, he has yet to be challenged by pro ball, and until he faces hitters who can catch up with him, there is always the question as to whether he can handle adversity. He also tends to gain weight, but that can be controlled if he works hard, which he does.
Basically, Ankiel is the perfect pitching prospect. He is young, throws hard, throws strikes, is smart, has good mechanics, and has the numbers to back up the scouting reports. Of course, the last perfect pitching prospect was Paul Wilson, and we know what happened to him. Will Ankiel blow his arm out like Wilson or Wood? The Cardinals seem to be monitoring his workload carefully, which doesn't guarantee health but certainly helps.
Average .271 (7 points) Home runs 104 (6 points) RBI's 441 (5 points) Stolen Bases 42 (2 points)ERA 4.57 (3 points) WHIP 1.430 (3 points) Wins 40 (5 points) Saves 20 (5 points)
One gets the distinct impression that this team's best outlook would have been nothing more than middle of the pack pretenders. The pitching was not competitive from day one, and the batters just didn't produce numbers like they were capable of. Major disappointments were abundant on this team and included both pitching and hitting.
Hitting: Jon Nunnally never got going, and possible regular starters like Graffanino, Newfield and Vidro never lived up to their promise. The only overachiever in the group was Mike Matheny who is showing he may be a major league hitter after all. Stolen bases that were supposed to come from Curtis Goodwin and James Mouton just never materialized. Without another major power source the team would not compete with many of the stronger teams in the No Fehr League.
Pitching: Gonzalez and Tapani were supposed to be the one two punch of this team. Well, they were each bombed in their first outings of the year and just never seemed to get it going. Cal Eldred and Mark Langston never produced the numbers expected of them. Again, the most unlikely of players were responsible for the best overall play. C.J. Nitkowski, Stirling Hitchcock and Darren Driefert pitched well most of the season but it wasn't nearly enough to keep the Batters in the race. Did they really think they could compete in saves with only DiPoto and a couple middle relievers!
Trading for players like Helton, Cordova, Daal and boat load of draft picks seems to have been the sensible thing to do. We'll see if it pays off next year a position in the top four.