How Long Will They Stay?

The problem with being a "Low A" baseball team is that if a team has any top prospects at thisd level, then they will probably not be there for a season if they even last that long. Such is the case with one of the Colorado Rockies top prospects, Ryan McMahon. He has 8 homeruns and 15 RBI's in 60 at bats and 18 games with the Tourists although their schedule has been very home heavy to start the season. Starter Johendi Jiminian is off to a great start with a 3-1 record and a 1.27 ERA. The Asheville Tourists are not off to as great a start with only a 9-10 record but they are only 2 1/2 games out of first in the Southern Division in the South Atlantic League. The Colorado Rockies bypass Asheville when it comes to sending them their top prospects. A lot of bad habits can be developed in McCormick Field because of the short dimensions. Pitchers become afraid to pitch inside because those inside fastballs can quickly be turned around and the power hitters start trying to pull everything to take advantage of those short dimensions. When I saw the Asheville Tourists Opening Day Roster for 2014 I was not that impressed with the credentials of their pitching staff. A lot of Free Agent signees at this level of baseball are ordinarily roster fillers and what most organizations like to refer to as "organizational depth." The Asheville Tourists have a team ERA of 4.03 which is about a half run ahead of last years pace. Maybe there is something to be said for orgnizational depth after all.