FanHouse

Kids Are Alright will examine some hot minor league prospects and their potential to be fantasy relevant towards both seasonal and keeper leagues. If you'd like to read more of Will Brinson's minor-league rantings, check out Greensboro Grassbloggers, his Single-A blog. Yes, he has Discovery Channel issues.

I was perusing my the blog/news info on my RSS reader last night and stumbled across an interesting little nugget in an MLB.com Dodger mailbag. Ken Gurnick was answering questions, mostly about Dodger minor leaguers, and one reader wondered why uber-stud and very young prospect Clayton Kershaw was kicking it in AA. This is a reasonable request since he pitched very well in the spring at the major league level and should in theory at least be in AAA.

The way the ball flies out of the Pacific Coast League in general and Triple-A Las Vegas in particular, management seemed to prefer to keep the best pitching prospects in Jacksonville.

[...]Instead, Kershaw will have his innings monitored, while Hong-Chih Kuo, Chan Ho Park and Esteban Loaiza fill the fifth-starter job for a few months. A callup before the All-Star break is expected.

So that's pretty interesting, I tend to think. If you're in a non-long term keeper type league, Kershaw might not be owned yet. And surely he's not owned in any single season leagues. In fact, because he's in Double-A, he's probably not really on the single league radar just quite yet. But that doesn't mean you -- and us, naturally -- shouldn't be monitoring him.

Kershaw is currently tied for second in the Southern League with 12 strikeouts through eight innings. He's allowed four walks and nine hits, so his WHIP is high and the .280-some that batters are hitting off of him early is a little disconcerting. However, if you go back and read between the lines via Joe Torre, Gurnick and even Russell Martin before spring training, you can relax a little, since Kershaw's not down in J-Ville trying to amp up his stats; he's down there working on his changeup and trying to expand his repertoire. (He basically threw curves and fastballs in ST. Vin Scully named his curve "Public Enemy Number One". That in and of itself makes him worth owning in any league.)

My point of all that? Ignore the stats (except the K/9) and grab him if he's available in your keeper. Single season leagues without minor spots probably want to hold off a little while, but this guy is going to be an impact pitcher in the majors this year.