Greg Maddux's Biggest Fan
07-20-2009, 04:41 AM
Looks like Thomas Neal has hit the mainstream. He is currently the cover story on Baseballamerica.com.
Thomas Neal is hitting .346/.431/.611 on the season
Giants' Thomas Neal no longer guarded Cal League secret
Staff Report
July 17, 2009
The Futures Game as well as the Triple-A, Eastern and Southern league all-star games cut into our player pool for this week's Hot Sheet. No big deal. We managed to find plenty of worth candidates from among the leftovers.
Remember as always, this is not a re-ranking of our Top 100 Prospects list. Instead, it's a snapshot of who are the hottest prospects in baseball right now, with stats taken from the past week of games (July 10-16).
Contributing: Ben Badler, Dan Budreika, Matt Eddy, Matt Forman, Conor Glassey, Jim Shonerd.
No. 1 THOMAS NEAL, LF GIANTS
Team: high Class A San Jose (California)
Age: 21
Why He's Here: .435/.536/.783 (10-for-23), 1 HR, 1 3B, 3 2B, 6 RBIs, 8 R, 3 BB, 1 SO
The Scoop: Neal's always had big-time power. The knock on him coming into the season was that he had struck out in nearly a quarter of his at-bats. This was true in 2006 and 2008, his two full pro seasons. He missed nearly all of 2007 recovering from surgery to repair a dislocated shoulder.
This year, the 2005 draft-and-follow out of Riverside (Calif.) CC is playing close to home in the Cal League—and he seems to enjoy the local flavor. Neal has cut his strikeout rate (19.5 percent), while producing some of the gaudiest numbers in the league.
Over 298 at-bats, Neal is hitting .346/.431/.614 with 27 doubles, four triples and 15 home runs. On July 13, he went 3-for-5, coming a single away from hitting for the cycle. It would have been his second of the season, having done it on April 28.
Thomas Neal is hitting .346/.431/.611 on the season
Giants' Thomas Neal no longer guarded Cal League secret
Staff Report
July 17, 2009
The Futures Game as well as the Triple-A, Eastern and Southern league all-star games cut into our player pool for this week's Hot Sheet. No big deal. We managed to find plenty of worth candidates from among the leftovers.
Remember as always, this is not a re-ranking of our Top 100 Prospects list. Instead, it's a snapshot of who are the hottest prospects in baseball right now, with stats taken from the past week of games (July 10-16).
Contributing: Ben Badler, Dan Budreika, Matt Eddy, Matt Forman, Conor Glassey, Jim Shonerd.
No. 1 THOMAS NEAL, LF GIANTS
Team: high Class A San Jose (California)
Age: 21
Why He's Here: .435/.536/.783 (10-for-23), 1 HR, 1 3B, 3 2B, 6 RBIs, 8 R, 3 BB, 1 SO
The Scoop: Neal's always had big-time power. The knock on him coming into the season was that he had struck out in nearly a quarter of his at-bats. This was true in 2006 and 2008, his two full pro seasons. He missed nearly all of 2007 recovering from surgery to repair a dislocated shoulder.
This year, the 2005 draft-and-follow out of Riverside (Calif.) CC is playing close to home in the Cal League—and he seems to enjoy the local flavor. Neal has cut his strikeout rate (19.5 percent), while producing some of the gaudiest numbers in the league.
Over 298 at-bats, Neal is hitting .346/.431/.614 with 27 doubles, four triples and 15 home runs. On July 13, he went 3-for-5, coming a single away from hitting for the cycle. It would have been his second of the season, having done it on April 28.