Marlin Maniac » Jake Smolinski

A look back at the Marlins 2011 Top 30 prospects

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 09:30:13 +0000

Today, we will take a look at the Marlins top 30 prospects for the 2011 season and see how they fared. It is not a deep minor league system and the Marlins have addressed that and plan to rebuild the system going forward. Matt Dominguez, 3B- After failing to capture the starting third base job [...]

A look back at the Marlins 2011 Top 30 prospects - Marlin Maniac - Marlin Maniac - A Miami Marlins Fan Site - News, Blogs, Opinion and More

Marlins’ Rule V candidate preview

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 06:45:28 +0000

On Friday all 30 MLB teams have to set their 40-man roster for the Rule V draft that takes place next month. The Marlins’ roster currently stands at 35, which means they have five spots open to protect their players from the Rule V draft. For this year’s draft, teams have to protect high school players drafted in 2007 and college players from the 2008 draft.

For the Marlins, there are two locks- right-handed pitcher Tom Koehler and lefty reliever Dan Jennings. After that it is not as clean-cut. There are “four” other players that are candidates to be added in outfielder Kevin Mattison, infielder Paul Gran, outfielder/infielder Jake Smolinski and pitcher Peter Andrelczyk.

First Kevin Mattison, the 2008 draftee out of UNC Ashville spent the 2011 campaign in Double-A Jacksonville. Mattison was a mid-season Southern League All-Star but ended with a .260 clip. The 26-year-old did have 38 stolen bases and had 49 last season. Currently Mattison is playing in the Arizona Fall League and owns a .352 batting average with six homeruns.

Paul Gran is also in the Fall League and is hitting a respectable .308. For Jacksonville this past season, the infielder hit .260. Likely won’t be added to the 40.

Jake Smolinski came to the Marlins from the Washington Nationals when the Marlins shipped out outfielder Josh Willingham and pitcher Scott Olsen. Smolinski, who can play multiple positions, only hit .245 for the Jacksonville Suns and hasn’t really lived up to the potential that the Marlins saw in the former second rounder.

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April/May Round Up: Jupiter Hammerheads

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 17:44:12 +0000

Time to move to Jupiter, where we have a few interesting SP prospects and a lot, lot, lot of under-performing hitters.

A reminder that all numbers for hitters are park adjusted (but not pitchers). What this also means is that, on a monthly basis, applying park factors won’t change much of the stats because of how small they are. But it will change the yearly stats because they are a larger sample. This is why you’ll see things like Logan Morrison’s season BABIP being higher than both his April and May BABIP.

And some misc JUP news: The Jupiter Hammerheads have a team OPS of .596. I think that says enough about how putrid the offense is. Paul Gran leads the team with a .709 OPS . Only 3 others with at least 100 PA are over .600 OPS. Wow.

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Who to watch for: Jupiter Hammerheads

Tue, 04 May 2010 15:17:12 +0000

Moving on to advanced A. The Jupiter Hammerheads are located in the Florida State League, a pitchers league, and they play in a pitchers park that really suppresses home runs. Last year, after the call up of Mike Stanton and Matt Dominguez, there wasn’t really much at all to look at in Jupiter. This time [...]

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Breaking down the top 7 hitting prospects: #4 Jake Smolinski

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:07:03 +0000

Probably counts as surprise #2

Jake Smolinski has seemed to be getting a bad rap through top prospect lists. Baseball America left him off their top 10 list, while Kevin Goldstein and John Sickels’s both ranked him 10th (He was the 7th hitter for BP, 8th for Sickels). I think the most surprising was the fact that Fangraphs left him off their list completely, not just because of the nature of the site but also because they don’t include 2009 draftees. And while he doesn’t really have their upside, he’s closer to Dominguez/Morrison level than a lot of people realize.

Drafted out of high school in the second round in the 2007 draft by the Washington Nationals, the Florida Marlins acquired Smolinski prior to the 2009 season as part of a 3 man package in the Josh Willingham/Scott Olsen trade. With PJ Dean going AWOL and Emilio Bonifacio being Bonifacio, Smolinski is the last hope for that trade amounting into anything positive for our franchise. But Smolinski has the chance of putting things on our side if all goes right. After the jump, we’ll take a look at the numbers and ponder why he’s being so underrated.

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