Minor Leaguers you should be paying more attention

The big name prospect guys often eat up all the press and get all the notification. Let me just drop a few names that ought to be getting a little more attention.

Dan Grovatt. Dan is hitting .274, but has a nice .440 OBP. He obviously has command of the strike zone and his defense seems solid. This is his first full season of professional ball, and he is doing rather well.

Robbie Grossman. Grossman was highly touted, but is repeating High A because he has had strike out problems. Although the strike out totals have gone down every year, and he is on pace to go down again this year. In fact he has drawn 23 walks to lead the Marauders in that category. He is hitting in the .260's, but has an OBP of .404. He has a couple of homers as a lead off guy.

Brooks Pounders The first thing that jumps off about Pounders is his 18 strike outs to 1 walk in 12 innings. He has an ERA under 3, and a WHIP of 0.92. This guy is not getting the notice of some of the other draft picks of the last few years, but he is not about to go away anytime soon.

Jordy Mercer. Yes, Jordy Mercer. He has a .398 SLUG despite only hitting .215. However, this number is on the rise. He appears to be coming out of his early season slump, so don't give up watching him. He was left to repeat AA to lower his strike out rate and increase power. He has struck out 12 times in 96 ABs, so that is not too bad. His power . . . well almost half of his hits have been for extra bases including 4 homers.

Mel Rojas. Oddly enough Rojas has not gotten the press I thought he would. Starling Marte is the next big thing in the outfield, but Rojas was the 3rd round pick this past year. Taillon and Allie deserve their attention, but Rojas should get some too. He started slow, but is up to .289 in his BA. He needs to work on plate discipline as his strike out rate is too high and walks are almost non-existent. Still, Rojas is young (he only had one year of college), and this looks like a good pick for the Pirates.

Philip Irwin. Irwin has pitched 11 innings over 3 games and has an impressive 0.82 ERA. His strike outs are kind of low, but he has only given up 6 hits. You have to like that. In the end, Irwin is looking very good and has historically been pretty good with the strikeouts.

Those are just a few of the guys we ought to be taking a nice look at as the season goes on.