Monday, August 18, 2008

Sleeper Potential - Matthew Moore, SP, TB

In trying to find information on Matthew Moore after seeing his gaudy minor league stat line, I found the going a little tough. After not making Baseball America's top 30 prospects, or John Sickels top 20, Moore recently popped up on a Baseball America rookie league blog touting a solid outing so I decided to take a look. On paper, Moore's numbers are quite impressive;

Age 18 - 2.66 ERA, .160 BAA, 29/16 K/BB in 20 1/3 IP @ Rk
Age 19 - 2.03 ERA, .163 BAA, 64/16 K/BB in 44 1/3 IP @ Rk

Additionally, I found these prospect nuggets about Moore;
  • 8th round pick by TB in the 2007 MLB draft
  • Former N.M. 4A player of the year
  • Scout quoted as saying Moore possesses an "overpowering" fastball
  • Clocked as high as 94 MPH in high school
  • By all accounts, his secondary offerings need work
  • Brother pitches or pitched at the University of New Mexico
  • Comes from a military family
With Tampa Bay hitting on so many pitching prospects right now, it's hard to ignore a 6'2" 205 lb. southpaw hitting 94 on the gun. I wonder just how far behind his secondary pitches remain as a 2nd year in rookie ball after having initial success in 2007.

I placed him on my watch list, but am waiting for more information before using a roster spot on him. In extremely deep leagues, he might be worth a flyer, but I would hold off for now and monitor him closely. It's probably too late for a promotion at this point, but I'd love to see it. A 0.64 ERA and 17/5 K/BB ratio in 14 August innings warrants it.

5 comments:

michael said...

Ive been watching Moore also. The depth of the Rays farm system for pitching prospects has me looking elsewhere until he passes others or gets dealt.

Mike Newman said...

You have a point. The same could be said about Boscan in that case. However, in many deep leagues waiting until a logjam clears itself up means missing out out guys. Take the Rangers catching situation for example. If a player is good enough to push the pile, that's usually exactly what happens. It remains to be seen if Moore will be that good.

North Von said...

you can't discount the fact that he is a lefty and only 19...

Mike Newman said...

True, even if he spends the entire year in A- full season next year, he will still be 20 and on track for a promising career.

Anonymous said...

He's a really cool guy!!!!!!!

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