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...this winter. Gotta have something to talk about while waiting for Jack to trade one of em away for our new shiny LF/1B/whatever. :-)
Choi and Kivlehan get a huge thumb on the scale from me, because as you know from Balentien and Franklin and the like, I like raw players who show well. There are some players who are so well coached in warm-weather states, with their travel clubs, that they're already maxing out their talent levels. When a kid like Franklin is dinged for being a slap-hitter with a power swing like that, then lifts weights one summer and blows up on the power scale, I take note. I love baseball rats and diamonds in the rough both.
Lopes isn't all that rough - his warm-weather-state baseball skills are pretty polished. But his eye is good, his field skills are very good at 2nd, his base-speed is outrageous, and he was 17 when we drafted him (turned 18 in the AZL). His swing isn't a power swing: he's not Pedroia/Nomar. He's more a Starlin Castro type (with a better eye). If he blows up all over the MWL next year, then he gets exceedingly interesting. If not, he's got Joey-Cora mid level potential.
I definitely want to see him in full-season next year though. We'll see if the Ms push him that way. DeCarlo will be in Everett - he's not nearly as advanced. But Kivlehan-to-Lopes-to-Ard could be an interesting around the horn in Clinton.
~G