Prospect Watch: Brett Wallace

Brett Wallace - 1B/3B - Toronto

Wallace hit his 5th home run of the season in AAA Las Vegas and now leads the Pacific Coast League. He is batting .283 with his first 44 at bats of the young season.

Wallace has shown decent power in the past, but not to this extent, so we will have to see if he keeps it up. In 2009 AAA he hit 15 home runs and batted .282 with 425 at bats.

He was selected by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1st-round (No. 13 overall) and was a key player along with Clayton Mortensen and Shane Peterson, to the Oakland A's for Matt Holliday.  He was subsequently traded to the Blue Jays for top prospect Michael Taylor.

Edwin Encarnacion did go to the DL with a sore shoulder, but Aaron Hill was activated from the DL and thus no call-up.  Nevertheless, if Lyle Overbay continues to struggle (.119, 0 HR's) Wallace could see a call up as early as May.

Sin City Scout

We're Still Friends - Daniel Murphy

Last year I loved Daniel Murphy. I saw Murphy as a tremendous sleeper. I saw a young guy who already had some success in the majors the previous year and who loves to spend time in the batting cages to work on his hitting. I respected the hard work he was putting in. However, he had a bad year for the Mets, and for me.

This year, my view of him has changed dramatically. But he still has value.

The Mets have already said that Murphy will be the starting first baseman. This hurts his value some as he is not a typical slugger and he plays in a pitchers park - he is not going to be a 40 HR guy, I would be shocked if he hit 30.

If he struggled last year and is not going to put up typical first base numbers, why do I think he has value this year? A starting first baseman for any team needs attention (Last year, those who paid attention to Kendry Morales were greatly rewarded). Murphy will be counted on as an RBI hitter. He will be used in the heart of the lineup. With David Wright and Jason Bay hitting somewhere around him, he should get pitches to hit. There were also some positive signs last year that Murphy was getting over his struggles at the plate. After an abysmal start, he hit at a .280+ avg the rest of the way. Murphy ended the year with a .266 AVG, 63 RBIs, and 12 HRs.

This year, I will give Murphy the .280 avg, I will give him around 20 HRs, and 80 RBIs. There is room for improvement on these numbers (he had a .300+ AVG in his first 50 games in the bigs). He should not be drafted in a shallow league, and would be a fairly late pick in deep leagues. I think Murphy can be a great fill-in for an injured starter on your team or even a UTL guy depending on match-ups. If his average approaches .300, he could turn out to be a solid late round/waiver wire pick. Last year I loved him, this year we'll just be friends.

-Scout Monkey

( scout_monkey@gmx.com)