Mars, Dubon & Pinales named NYPL All-Stars

[mabrowndog]

SS Mauricio Dubon, OF Danny Mars and RHRP Carlos Pinales will represent Lowell as NYPL All-Stars. Mars gets his own blurb:
 

Red Sox 2014 sixth-rounder Danny Mars should give Molina and other South hurlers a run for their money. The Lowell outfielder leads all active NYPL batters in average (.363), OBP (.419) and OPS (.915) and should set the table for the North offense.

 
Dubon's hitting .333/.346/.423/.769 since July 12. He's been a contact hitter who doesn't walk much (just 2 BB & 7 K in 83 PA over that stretch). For the season, he's got a .279/.308/.366/.674 line in 184 PA.
 
Pinales has finished 18 G for the Spinners, saving 12 with a 3.42 ERA and a 19/5 K/BB in 23.2 IP. Batters are hitting .273/.302/.375/.677 against him, and he's allowed earned runs in just 5 of his 19 outings.
 
The NYPL All-Star Game is August 19 at MCU Park in Coney Island, NY, home of the Brooklyn Cyclones.

 

[jscola85]

Is it strange to anyone else that Mars hasn't gotten a promotion to Greenville?  A guy like Franklin Guzman probably shouldn't be enough to block him from an opportunity there.

 

[mabrowndog]

Mars plays CF and bats leadoff. Those happen to be the same position and order slot of Manuel Margot.
 
Margot's only 19, so they were never going to rush him up to Salem. That kinda sorta blocks Mars, though both players could certainly get cups of coffee at the next-higher level before month's end.
 
As for Guzman, the Sox saw fit to promote him from Lowell mid-season despite a pedestrian .241/.276/.407/.683. Yes, it was also a means of making room for the 2014 draft class, but they didn't just release him. While his stat lines alone suggest he's hit his ceiling as a hitter at age 22, bear in mind he's only played 101 games as a professional, including 15 for Lowell and 22 for Greenville, with less than 150 PA above the DSL. Unlike most Dominican prospects who get signed at age 16 or 17, Guzman was signed as a very raw 20-year-old with advanced athleticism. He's a lottery ticket, not unlike the 2-sport athletes teams draft and pay large bonuses while knowing full well that they're going to focus on football as their first priority.
 
Mars can certainly play LF. But one of sports' unwritten rules is that when a player is put in a role where he's both comfortable and highly productive, you leave him there.

 

[sittingstill]

Guzman was signed as a very raw 20-year-old with advanced athleticism. 

In the games I shot this year at Lowell where he played, coaches were often yelling to him from the dugout to get him positioned properly for defense. There's definitely a steep learning curve for the youngsters who are adapting to organized baseball, and they may not fit the traditional trajectory of age-to-level or stats-for-promotion.

 

[mabrowndog]

3B Jordan Betts also named to the A-S team.