I'm not a big minor league follower, but I think we have some good talent down there when looking at a window one to three years from now.
Guys like Davis, White, Reed and Fisher might stick, but I'm not sure there's a star in the group. Fisher and White have certainly had the opportunity, and both have flashed at times, but both have also tailed off terribly after extended play. Davis would be the one player of the group I'd like to see get more big league time based on his minor league dominance. The others seem to be call-ups as needed to cover a DL stint. Fisher might need to be an asterisk given his health scare... not really sure how far back that was affecting him.
I like what we saw on the mound from Valdez, James and Perez. Not sure that Valdez projects as good as he really was, but I don't have any advanced stats to back that up.
Next positional guys that I am excited about and haven't come close to maturing are Straw and Tucker. I think they just need to keep working and find a way to take advantage of the opportunities that will present themselves. Definite upward slope (as opposed to Fisher, Reed, and such).
Lower level guys that should be ready in the three year window would include Alvarez and Beer, hopefully. Alvarez might be ahead of that. Not sure if Stubbs fits in here or not...
Pitching wise, I'd put Whitley, Martin and Bukauskas in a "not yet" but maybe soon bucket. They seem like potential difference makers.
Bottom line, there's no way to guarantee we have a Springer or Keuchel in the works, but I like some of our talent currently baking down below. I'd like to keep the studs if at all possible and sign some free agents.
