Monday Morning Minors

Slim pickens this week.  The AFL wraps up next week and there have been an unusually small number of farmhands playing in the Latin leagues.  I've prayed every day of the last week that the GM meetings will bring some sort of action.  Since pretty much every of our manager interviewees have already been hired away, maybe we can make a decision?  Eh screw it, just rehire Macha... again.

Perhaps the only piece of news this week is the addition of Richie Robnett to the AFL roster.  He replaces Travis Buck, who underwent surgery towards the end of last week with a sports hernia.  He will return to Arizona to support his team and should be ready to go by the start of the 2007 season.

Robnett, who missed the last couple months of the regular season with a broken bone in his hand, has hit in all four games so far.  Not only that, but he has an extra-base hit in all four as well.  In his debut on Monday he went 2-for-4 with a home run and a double.  In the next three games he combined to go 4-for-10 with a double, two triples and three walks.  His first game he batted ninth, but by the end of the week he was hitting third.

His 2006 season was full of ups and downs as he struggled with injury and bounced around the system.  Stockton was his home for most of the year as he hit .266 with a .350 OBP and 11 home runs in 267 at bats.  The 22 year-old got called up to Sacramento for  a few games in late July before being sent down to Midland, where his season ended after a couple weeks with the broken bone in his hand.  

He and Buck are two of the top offensive prospects in the system, especially at the top level, and a solid 2007 could put them on Oakland's doorstep by the end of next year.