C. Lee (the Younger) tearing it up at Kanny

[California Sox]

Carlos (The Younger) Lee is currently hitting .330 and batting third for Kanny. This is after he struggled quite a bit at W-S. I have a couple of questions for the folks who've been to NC and seen some of the games. 1) Is C Lee the Younger a prospect or is this just a hot streak? He was asked to make a significant and difficult jump from short season ball to hi A while essentially also undergoing a position change to catcher full time, therefore it's hard to hold his struggles at W-S against him. On the other hand, that doesn't mean he's a prospect. I'd be interested in people's takes on this. 2) And this is a larger issue: Is the jump from the Sally league to the Carolina League more difficult this year than in years past? It seems we've had several plyers (Lee, Nanita, Brice) destroy Sally League pitching and struggle to adjust to the Carolina League. I don't remember the lo-A/hi-A jump as being this remarkably difficult before. Is it a down year for Sally League pitching? Any thoughts would be appreciated, especially those of the people who've seen the games.

[Randar68]

Originally Posted by California Sox

Carlos (The Younger) Lee is currently hitting .330 and batting third for Kanny. This is after he struggled quite a bit at W-S. I have a couple of questions for the folks who've been to NC and seen some of the games. 1) Is C Lee the Younger a prospect or is this just a hot streak? He was asked to make a significant and difficult jump from short season ball to hi A while essentially also undergoing a position change to catcher full time, therefore it's hard to hold his struggles at W-S against him. On the other hand, that doesn't mean he's a prospect. I'd be interested in people's takes on this. 2) And this is a larger issue: Is the jump from the Sally league to the Carolina League more difficult this year than in years past? It seems we've had several plyers (Lee, Nanita, Brice) destroy Sally League pitching and struggle to adjust to the Carolina League. I don't remember the lo-A/hi-A jump as being this remarkably difficult before. Is it a down year for Sally League pitching? Any thoughts would be appreciated, especially those of the people who've seen the games.

Lee isn't a great prospect by any means. He's been in the system a few years already, and generally, defense and position switches aren't things that hold you back levels in the minors, it's all predicated on offense. We'll see how he does next year at W-S. Francisco Hernandez and Donny Lucy will also be in full-season leagues next year, so we'll have to see where they put him. I haven't had a chance to see him actually catch, so I'll have to defer to someone who has on that part of it.

As for the jump from Kanny to W-S... Yeah, it's a big jump, but guys like Nanita, Anderson and Sweeney went from Rookie ball to W-S and that is a FREAKING huge jump. We're spoiled by the performances of Sweeney, Anderson and a couple others who've made it look relatively easy in the last year or 2. Nanita, despite playing JuCo and a year at FIU is still an extremely raw player. He is one of those hitters that produces a different sound when he makes contact with the ball, but he's very unrefined in the field and he's somewhat of a hacker at the plate. Of the players who went from Great Falls to W-S at the start of this year, he was the one I was worried most about struggling. He just needs to be moved along slowly, and hitting close to .400 last year at Great Falls was a fool's gold of sorts.

[Wealz]

Originally Posted by Randar68

Lee isn't a great prospect by any means. He's been in the system a few years already, and generally, defense and position switches aren't things that hold you back levels in the minors, it's all predicated on offense. We'll see how he does next year at W-S. Francisco Hernandez and Donny Lucy will also be in full-season leagues next year, so we'll have to see where they put him. I haven't had a chance to see him actually catch, so I'll have to defer to someone who has on that part of it.

As for the jump from Kanny to W-S... Yeah, it's a big jump, but guys like Nanita, Anderson and Sweeney went from Rookie ball to W-S and that is a FREAKING huge jump. We're spoiled by the performances of Sweeney, Anderson and a couple others who've made it look relatively easy in the last year or 2. Nanita, despite playing JuCo and a year at FIU is still an extremely raw player. He is one of those hitters that produces a different sound when he makes contact with the ball, but he's very unrefined in the field and he's somewhat of a hacker at the plate. Of the players who went from Great Falls to W-S at the start of this year, he was the one I was worried most about struggling. He just needs to be moved along slowly, and hitting close to .400 last year at Great Falls was a fool's gold of sorts.

While his .400 OBP is very good on the surface, Nanita is 23 playing low-A ball. He's going to have to make a BIG jump next year to be considered any kind of prospect. Outfield prospects like him are plentiful.

[Randar68]

Originally Posted by Wealz

While his .400 OBP is very good on the surface, Nanita is 23 playing low-A ball. He's going to have to make a BIG jump next year to be considered any kind of prospect. Outfield prospects like him are plentiful.

Nevermind him only being in his first full pro-season from a mid-major D1 baseball program where he only spent 1 year.

Then again, anything can be measured by a birthday.

That said, he's not a top 10 prospect, but probably somewhere in the 15-30 range.