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Hawaii Winter Baseball is well underway. Here are a few of the early hitting leaders.

1. Argenis Diaz | Honolulu Sharks (Boston Red Sox A) - In 16 games, [tag]Argenis Diaz[/tag] is hitting .407/.459/.500 with 3 doubles and 9 RBI.
2. Chad Tracy | West Oahu CaneFires (Texas Rangers A) - [tag]Chad Tracy[/tag], in 9 games, has hit 4 home runs and is hitting .286/.342/.686. In single A Clinton this year, Tracy hit 14 home runs and 84 RBI in 134 games.
3. Emmanuel Garcia | Waikiki BeachBoys (New York Mets High A) - [tag]Emmanuel Garcia[/tag] is showing some serious wheels as he’s swiped 8 bases in 14 games, so far. He’s also hitting .377/.468/.547 and has 5 doubles and 2 triples.

I haven’t focused on pitchers yet for my weekly updates on the Arizona Fall League. It’s easier to let them pitch a few times before noticing any trends. It still may be too early now, but here’s three pitchers who are doing well.

1. David Purcey | Scottsdale Scorpions (Toronto Blue Jays AA) - [tag]David Purcey[/tag] hasn’t seen time on the mound in over four months do to a cyst removel on his arm. But, so far in the AFL he’s pitched 8 innings with 13 strikeouts and 6 walks. And best yet, he’s pitched all eight innings, pain free.
2. Ricky Nolasco | Peoria Saguaros (Florida Marlins A /AA /AAA) - [tag]Ricky Nolasco[/tag] saw time in 2007 at the high A level, AA, AAA and the majors. His minor league K:BB numbers were great at 5.66 (34:6) in 32 innings, which included 10 starts. In the AFL, so far, Nolasco has pitched 8.2 innings with a 4.5 K:BB (9:2) ratio.
3. Dusty Hughes | Surprise Rafters (Kansas City AA) - [tag]Dusty Hughes[/tag] was 6-2 with a 3.08 ERA in AA Witchita in 2007. So far for Surprise he’s pitched 11 innings, is 1-0 with a 1.64 ERA and has a 7:1 K:BB ratio.

Back for my weekly update in the Arizona Fall League, here’s three hitters who are doing well.

1. Kila Kaaihue | Surprise Rafters (Kansas City Royals A/AA) - [tag]Kila Kaaihue[/tag] hit 21 home runs between single A Wilmington and double A Wichita in 2007. However, his slash stats of .248/.359/.447 left some unimpressed. He’s off to a fast start in Arizona hitting .412/.583/.882 and shows 20+ home run power. He needs to keep up the hot hitting this fall and find ways in the spring to bring his weak ‘07 slash stats up.
2. Eugenio Velez | Scottsdale Scorpions (San Francisco Giants AA/AAA) - [tag]Eugenio Velez[/tag] is a speedy outfielder who already has 9 stolen bases in 10 games this fall in Arizona. Unfortunately, he’s also struck out 10 times and is hitting .238. Last year, Velez stole 54 bases while hitting .297 in the minor leagues. If he can bring his batting average up, the Giants may find a way to keep him in the majors in 2008.
3. Brett Gardner | Peoria Javelinas (New York Yankees AA/AAA) - [tag]Brett Gardner[/tag] is hitting .385 with 4 stolen bases in 9 games in the [tag]Arizona Fall League[/tag]. After hitting .281 with 39 stolen bases in the minors last year, Gardner is using a more aggressive approach at the plate this fall to succeed. It also doesn’t hurt to have Jacoby Ellsbury as insiration. Gardner and Ellsbury were both drafted in 2005, have played against each other in the minors and have been compared to each other for years.

Today’s pitch count is 4.

1. With the emergence of Dice-K, Takashi Saito and Hideki Okajima people are now very excited to see who the next Japanese pitching import will be. Ted Berg takes a look at a few of the pitching options from the Japanese free agent pool.
2. Torri Hunter says that a large African American population is a reason why he’s going to consider playing for the Washington Nationals or the Atlanta Braves in 2008.
3. I’ve just found seven easy steps to making the Cincinnati Reds a competitor in 2008.
4. As a nice addendum to my post earlier about the Atlanta Braves outfield, Chop-n-Change writes about the two biggest questions on Braves fans, who will be in center field in 2008 and will the Braves grab another starter to bolster their rotation.

I wanted to take a look back at the [tag]Atlanta Braves[/tag] outfield for 2007.

Jeff Francoeur

[tag]Jeff Francoeur[/tag] played in all of the Braves 162 games this season, which is a feat to be joyous about. Prior to 2007 the biggest knock on Francoeur was plate discipline. As you can see, he brought his batting average and on-base percentage up considerably higher than expected. He also increased the number of walks he was projected to take, although not dramatically. In bringing up those numbers, Jeff’s power numbers fell a bit. And, he still struck out 129 times in 642 at bats, or 20.1% of the time. The patience at the plate issue is still on the radar of many, but it is getting better.

Grade: B+

Andruw Jones

Disappointment isn’t a strong enough word for what Braves fans had to go through when watching [tag]Andruw Jones[/tag] in 2007. Instead of getting the 46 home runs and 101 RBI that Jones had averaged over 2005 and 2006 while hitting .262, fans got .222/.311/.413 with 26 home runs and 94 RBI. The prior #4 hitter for the Braves poor output in a contract year not only upset fans, but cost Jones big money over the life of his next contract, and more importantly, ran Jones out of town.

Grade: D

Matt Diaz & Willie Harris

The left field situation in Atlanta last season created a good bit of conversation among Braves fans. After Ryan Langerhans was traded, [tag]Matt Diaz[/tag] and [tag]Willie Harris[/tag] split time in left field pretty evenly( Diaz started 95 games and Harris 85). Diaz hit over .300 against both right and left handed pitchers, but didn’t qualify for consideration for the batting title due to lack of enough at bats. This may have been due to his below average left field play or the Braves need for a lead off hitter, that Harris fulfilled.

Willie Harris, being a left handed hitter, platooned against RHP mostly and was fortunate to have a great month of May and June that allowed him to play while he floundered the rest of the season. Harris’ ability to hit lead off and steal bases forced Bobby Cox to play him when his bat was very cold.

Grade: Matt Diaz B- | Willie Harris C-

Outlook for 2008

RF - Jeff Francoeur’s name is etched in stone for the right field position in 2008. If he’s not in RF for any other reason than an injury, fans will riot. No, I’m serious… they will riot. No need to spend any more time talking RF.

CF - Andruw Jones has already been told by the Braves that his services will no longer be desired in 2008. There are a few names that jump out on the free agent market; Mike Cameron, Torri Hunter, Corey Patterson and Aaron Rowand to name a few. While nobody is quite sure how the new Braves owners will spend money this off-season, let’s look at the farm system to see if there may be some help there.

• [tag]Brandon Jones[/tag] | Richmond AAA - Brandon Jones split time between AA Mississippi and AAA Richmond in 2007 and did quite well. His slash stats were .295/.367/.490 while he hit 33 doubles, 19 home runs and drove in 100 while stealing 17 bases.
• [tag]Gregor Blanco[/tag] | Richmond AAA - Gregor Blanco is more of a prototypical lead off hitter hitting .282/.369/.362 with 18 doubles, 3 home runs and 23 stolen bases. Blanco also struck out about 20% of the time last season (18.3% actually) which is something fans got sick of out of Andruw Jones in 2007.

I think Brandon Jones is the front runner here. And if the Braves don’t pursue help on the free agent market in center field, you may see Jones break camp on the “big club” in 2008.

LF - The platoon miffed a lot of people this season and even brought forth blogs calling to “Free Matt Diaz“. Most people want to see Diaz in left field all by himself in 2008, and that may just happen. But let me warn you Diaz supporters about something. If the Braves do go out and grab a center fielder off the free agent market, and Brandon Jones tears up Winter ball and Spring Training, they may bring Jones up to the major league level anyway. And who do you think he’ll platoon with if Jones makes the club out of Spring Training?

I just wanted to send out a quick note to tell everyone that I have joined Fantasy Insider Online as a staff writer. I’ll let you guys know when new content from me gets posted over there.

As for now, you can go read my article about keeping up with Fall and Winter baseball, for your fantasy team’s sake.

Every once in a while, well most of the time actually, other people say it better or before I do. Or, maybe a baseball topic could help a fantasy GM, but it isn’t exactly “on-topic” for this fantasy baseball blog. That’s the sort of stuff you’ll find in the Pitch Count, a periodical (hopefully daily) look around the baseball blogosphere.

Today’s pitch count is 10.

1. The Talking Chop crew, over the next 2 weeks, will be counting down the top 35 Atlanta Braves prospects. In addition to those 35 guys, they will also take a day to analyze prospects they’ve traded (where’s Saltalamacchia going to fall on this one?), and a day to let their readers pick their top 25.
2. An extremely interesting look at a team’s expected starting rotation at the start of the season, and how many pitchers it actually takes to make it through a major league baseball season. No, the answer is not a 5 man rotation.
3. Brew Crew Ball is taking a daily look at all the Milwaukee Brewers participating in Winter League baseball.
4. San Diego Padres blog, Ducksnorts, has already posted some 2008 MLB projections.
5. Baseball America posted their list of the top 20 prospects from the Texas League.
6. Here are 10 ways to fix the New York Mets. If I had a vote, #1 would have been to re-play the last 3 weeks of the season.
7. Baseball America again. This time their list of the top 20 International League prospects.
8. Here are some early, and very incredibly in depth, Philadelphia Phillies 2008 MLB projections.
9. In 2007, nobody entered the 40/40 (HR/SB) club that Jose Canseco “founded”. But, here is a list of 47 players who hit the 10/10 mark. The youth on this list, especially in the 15/15 category (Ryan Braun, Nick Markakis, Russell Martin) and 20/20 category (Corey Hart, Hanley Ramirez) is impressive.
10. Thee are many players that could be labeled as major disappointments in 2007. But who is the Fantasy Bust of the Year?