It's been almost a month since I first talked about my top 5 little-known minor leaguers. Here's an update on their current (minor-league) stats:
AVG OBP SLG
H Stanley .239 .330 .351
R Castro .233 .321 .362
J Knott .324 .393 .632
J Willingham .268 .432 .562
B Jacobsen .329 .413 .691
Castro is on the Oakland bench at the moment, and Knott was riding the pine in San Diego until he was mercifully sent back to Triple-A to play everyday. I'm convinced that Knott, Willingham, and Jacobsen could be productive regulars in the majors right now. As for Stanley and Castro, I'm holding out hope that their past few years are more reliable than their current disappointing first-halves.
Jacobsen has gotten better each month this year, and he's having the mother of all Junes: he's batting .383 this month, with 10 homers and 25 RBI in 83 at-bats.
Matthew Namee cofounded The Hardball Times in 2004, when he was working as the assistant to baseball author and Red Sox executive Bill James. Matthew still lives in Kansas, where he is currently pursuing a law degree. He can be reached at mfnamee [at] gmail [dot] com.
