Baseball in Fort Wayne

Posts Tagged ‘Kyler Burke’

The Fort Wayne TinCaps’ pitcher Brad Brach and manager Doug Dascenzo were named to the Midwest League’s Post Season All-Star Team on Tuesday. Brach, was also a mid-season All- Star and leads the league in saves. Dascenzo has led the TinCaps to the best record in full-season Minor League Baseball in his third season at the helm in Fort Wayne.

Brach, 23, was voted the best right-handed reliever on the circuit by Midwest League managers. He has dominated this season, going 3-3 with a 1.36 ERA and a league-best 31 saves. A 42nd – round pick in the 2008 draft, Brach was a starter at Monmouth University for four seasons before converting to a reliever last year. His 31 saves are tied for the second-most in the minor leagues.

Dascenzo was named the league’s Co-Manager of the Year along with Peoria’s Marty Pevey. He became the winningest manager in Fort Wayne franchise history last week. Under Dascenzo’s guidance, Fort Wayne set a franchise record with 45 wins in the first half and won its first division championship since 2003. Dascenzo was also recently named the Midwest League’s Best Manager Prospect by Baseball America.

The honors were awarded in the same week that Fort Wayne swept Midwest League weekly player honors when Simon Castro took Pitcher of the Week honors and Allen Dykstra was named Hitter of the Week.

Former Fort Wayne Wizard, Kyler Burke, who is now playing with Peoria in the Chicago Cubs organization also made the team.

Kyler Burke was selected by the San Diego Padres in the supplemental first round of the 2006 First Year Player Draft (35th overall). As a senior at Ooltewah High School in Tennessee he batted .459 with 20 homers and 58 RBIs in 45 games. While in Fort Wayne with the Wizards in 2007, Burke hit .211 with 45 hits and 1 home run in 213 at-bats.
Then he was traded to the Chicago Cubs with Fort Wayne native, Rob Bowen, in return for Michael Barrett. Interestingly, Burke is the only one of the three to still be with the organization he was traded to as a result of that trade.

But the stay has not been easy for Burke.

The 21-year-old Burke endured a disappointing 2008 season that saw his confidence drop and his status with Baseball America ’s prospect ratings basically fall off.

“Every guy is different. How they learn and how they develop and the pace they learn is very unpredictable,” Chicago Cubs minor-league hitting coordinator Dave Keller said. “The things he went through, being in (the Hawaiian Winter League) and going through that and some of the adversity he went through the last couple of years, he’s learning from all that and applying it in a game” [PJStar.com]

Through his first 50 games with Peoria in 2009, Burke is hitting .282 with 50 hits, 27 runs and a league leaging 22 doubles. He’s hit 4 homers with 25 runs batted in and 5 stolen bases. It’s a perfomance that is good enough to earn him a Midwest League All-Star Selection.  

Photo: Kyler Burke during an at-bat at Memorial Stadium – by Chad Gramling

Jarrod Parker has been named the top prospect in the Arizona Diamondback’s organization by Baseball America. It’s hardly a surprise. He’s been highly touted since being selected number nine overall in the 2007 Amateur Draft. During his first professional season last year, he faired very well in the Midwest League, including dominating his hometown Fort Wayne Wizards for several shutout innings in the last game in Memorial Stadium history.

BA also selected Parker for the “Best Fastball” and “Best Slider” categories as well as slotting as the number two starter in the projected 2012 rotation behind current ace, Brandon Webb.

While many predict he’s at least another year away from arriving in the Majors, BA speculates that might be a bit pessimistic:

It wouldn’t be shocking to see 2007 first-rounder Jarrod Parker . . . in the big leagues at some point this year.

And while we are on the topic of Baseball America prospect rankings, a couple former Wizards have shown up in with their current organizations:

• Luis Cruz (Pirates) – Best Defensive Infielder
• Jon Link (White Sox) – Best Slider
• Yordany Ramirez (Astros) – Best Outfield Arm
• David Freese (Cardinals) – 9th Overall Top Prospect
• Kyler Burke (Cubs) – Best Outfield Arm

In case you are wondering Baseball America will unveil their ratings for the Padres organization on February 2nd.

Updating a previous post, former Wizards pitcher Travis Chick has signed a minor league deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers and has scored and opportunity with the club during Spring Training. Chick performed fairly well during his stint at Triple-A while in the Seattle organization last season, so this is one story we’ll be watching. DodgerTalk says:

…a Texas native selected by the Marlins in the 14th round of the 2002 draft, is 40-38 with a 4.26 ERA in 166 minor league games (121 starts). He spent the majority of the 2008 season with Seattle’s Double-A West Tennessee club, and ended the season with Triple-A Tacoma, where he went 3-1 with a 1.91 ERA in five starts. The 24-year-old appeared in three games with the Mariners in 2006 for his lone Major League experience.

The Rangers Report recently did their write-up on the Chicago Cubs top prospects. Somewhat surprisingly, they have included Kyler Burke, whom I thought had dropped off most radars. Anothe rstory I will be passively watching as the season unfolds. It’s probably a make or break year for Burke.

The Cubs’ bounty for Michael Barrett, Burke is a slugging corner outfield with a solid arm and huge power potential.  However, he has trouble against breaking balls and swings and misses way too often.  That results in his impressive power becoming negated.  However, he is a terrific athlete that has the ability to develop into a superstar, if only everything comes together. 

Former Wizards Pitcher, Jon Link put together an outstanding season in 2008, when he recorded a Souther League best 35 saves last summer while pitching with the Double-A Birmingham Barons. He was recently added to the Chicago White Sox 40-man roster and some suspect he’s being groomed to be the club’s closer in the near future. Another player on my 2009 watch list. He recently conducted a couple youth baseball camps out in Virginia.

Conducting two youth baseball clinics last Saturday at Frozen Ropes Training Center in Chantilly, Link lectured on everything from basic mechanics and pickoff moves to arm and body care and how to field the position. He closed the session with a 15-pitch bullpen session to his high school catcher, Billy Cushman.

 (See also: Wizards Where R They? Travis Chick).

Last summer, I watched with a lot of interest when Michael Barrett was traded from the Cubs to the Padres. However, that was the least interesting part of it. The other components of that trade saw Fort Wayne native, Rob Bowen traded to the Cubs (only to be traded to the A’s for Jason Kendall a short time later). Also in that deal was Kyler Burke, who was a member of the Fort Wayne Wizards at the time.

This past weekend, his former team came to Peoria where – as a member of the Peoria Chiefs – they faced Burke. Burke sat out of Sunday’s series finale, but he hit .429 against his former team during the first two games of the series.

Said Peoria Chief’s manager, Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg: “I see him hitting for power. I don’t see why he can’t hit for average also. He brings a lot of tools he just needs to find a way to deliver it every day” [source: PJStar.com]

Burke currently ranks as the number 13 prospect in the Chicago Cubs’ system according to Baseball America. He was 14th in the Padres system last year.

Peoria doesn’t come to Fort Wayne until July 26th, which begins a three game series. Provided Burke is still on the team, I believe that will be his first return to Fort Wayne.

Photo by Chad Gramling