HOT

Kila Kaaihue, 1B, Royals - Kaaihue was 1-for-3 with a walk Saturday for Double-A Northwest Arkansas. He is hitting .438 over his last 10 games and .298/.433/.573 with 11 home runs and a 17:31 K:BB over 131 at-bats this season. He hit 21 home runs and had a 78:76 K:BB over 451 at-bats last year spread across High-A and Double-A, and all his offensive numbers are markedly ahead of last year's. Someone with his kind of discipline at the plate should be ranked higher on prospect lists.

Brett Gardner, OF, Yankees - Gardner stole five bases in his last eight games at Triple-A Scranton-Wilkes Barre and is hitting .294 over his last 10 through Sunday. He has a .406 OBP and 19 stolen bases this year. Melky Cabrera has a .314 OBP with three steals. The Yankees are 12th in the American League in steals with 23.

Brandon Moss, OF, Red Sox - Moss hit three home runs and singled Saturday for Triple-A Pawtucket and has five home runs in his last 28 at-bats. He's hitting .415 over his last 10 games and .317/.372/.569 for the year. The big news is his strikeout rate, which has dropped to 20 percent for May. The other big news is David Ortiz's injury, which is expected to keep him out at least a month. Moss likely will be called up, though Manny Ramirez and Sean Casey will share the starting DH role.

Derrick Robinson, OF, Royals - Robinson went 2-for-5 on Friday for High-A Wilmington. He leads the Carolina League in steals with 28. He's hitting .350 over his last 10 games, but just .280/.332/.345 for the year. He would help his cause if he increased his walk rate. He has a K:BB of 46:14 over 200 at-bats. All of his offensive metrics are up over last year, though, so he should be heading up the ladder soon enough.

Nelson Cruz, OF, Rangers - Cruz, playing at Triple-A Oklahoma, leads the Pacific Coast League in slugging percentage at .695. He is tied for the league lead in home runs with 15 and has 14 steals and a 38:32 K:BB over 164 at-bats. He must have done something terribly naughty to still be at Triple-A when the Rangers have Brandon Boggs, at .261 with two home runs and no steals, playing the outfield for them.

Charlie Morton, P, Braves - Morton gave up four hits, struck out seven and walked two over seven shutout innings on Thursday for Triple-A Richmond. He's having a surprising breakthrough year, having posted a .195 BAA, a 1.70 GO:AO and a 55:23 K:BB over 66 innings. Plus, he has yet to give up a home run. His curveball is reportedly among the best in the Atlanta system.

Max Ramirez, C, Rangers - Ramirez is hitting .353 with four home runs over his last 10 games at Double-A Frisco through Thursday. His first two months have been remarkably steady, having clearly mastered Double-A pitching. He's going to be 24 in October. Why the Rangers don't move Gerald Laird to a club that needs catching depth (the Yankees maybe?) and make something happen for themselves is positively mystifying.

NOT

Fernando Cortez, SS, White Sox - Cortez is hitting .067 over his last 10 games at Triple-A Charlotte through Sunday, when he went 0-for-4. Presumably, he is not one of the players that Ozzie wants Kenny Williams to add to the roster. Gookie Dawkins was 1-for-4 on Sunday. He has been playing regularly lately, despite the fact that he is hitting .059 over his last 10 games and .103/.146/.154 for the year. Another one to not bring up for the Pale Hose.

Tyler Herron, P, Cardinals - Herron gave up eight hits and two walks over five innings Thursday for Double-A Springfield. He's not made the adjustment to Double-A quite yet. In his five starts, the first of which was May 4, he has a .308 BAA and a 20:8 K:BB over 26 innings, during which he has given up four home runs. Most of the hits Thursday were line drives, which is not surprising given his 0.97 GO:AO, so he is not the victim of shoddy defense. He needs to induce more groundballs, and if he does so, he will increase his chances of moving up.

Virgil Vasquez, P, Tigers - Although he had a decent outing Monday night, Vasquez gave up 35 hits and four walks over his last 20 innings at Triple-A Toledo through Saturday. His May was very bad overall, though he did go seven innings on May 23 with no earned runs. His control has been good, but he is giving up a lot of hits (.361 in May, up from .315 in April) and his strikeout rate is slipping. It may be that he has not fully recovered from right shoulder tendinitis.

Matt Antonelli, 2B, Padres - Antonelli is hitting .158 over his last 10 games at Triple-A Portland through Sunday, with just six singles in 38 at-bats. He continues to draw walks; he has a 38:35 K:BB over 184 total at-bats thus far, so perhaps there is a glimmer of hope the numbers will start to turn around. A line of .179/.315/.283 has a lot of turning to do.

Chuck Lofgren, P, Indians - Lofgren walked five batters in his third consecutive start for Double-A Akron on Tuesday. His 41:31 K:BB over 47 innings is about as ugly as it gets. Lofgren will need to turn this around if he wants to move up. His BB:9 throughout his minor league career is 4.22, so this is unlikely to happen. His strikeout rate has dropped a little each time he has moved up, so there do not seem to be any substantive reasons for tying up a roster spot with Lofgren.

Turning It Around?

Jeff Samardzija, P, Cubs - Samardzija had a decent outing last Wednesday for Double-A Tennessee, his first in a month or so, as he gave up two hits and a walk over six innings while striking out four. Sometimes it just takes a start like this to turn things around. He will need to pitch well consistently for a while in order to be considered for a promotion in the near future. His season had taken a turn for the worse last month. Over five appearances, four of them as a starter, he had a BAA of .373, a K:BB of 12:14 over 17 2/3 innings and gave up four home runs and 20 earned runs. He looked like he was either injured or had hit some kind of wall and was in danger of slipping off the prospect charts, but this could be turnaround time.

Article first appeared 6/3/08