Arizona Instructional League Notebook
When you're Justin Upton, however, that's not quite enough.
Some of that comes with the expectations heaped on a No. 1 overall pick (2005), especially one who got a record-setting bonus. With that comes a certain pressure to live up to the hype.
A lot of it, though, comes from within Upton himself. He recently said he felt he didn't perform the way he knows he can. It's the kind of reaction the Diamondbacks were undoubtedly thrilled to hear, knowing that Upton's skills plus that kind of drive will surely allow him to live up to everyone's expectations, including his own.
Upton described his season in South Bend as inconsistent and the numbers bear that out. He hit .263 for the year, starting out with a .324 mark in 10 April games (he got a late start dealing with some injuries). The average dropped the next few months, but the power picked up some as he hit nine of his dozen homers after the All-Star break in the Midwest League.
The Diamondbacks, for their part, were pleased with his performance and his development, numbers aside. It's all part of the learning process, one that continued when Upton went to Tucson for his first instructs.
"It was good," Upton said from his home in Virginia about his time in Arizona. "Being somewhere where you can relax and just work out and work on the stuff you need to, it was a good experience. It was good to have a place like that, with all of the instructors there to help you with what you needed help with."
By Upton's own admission, he still has plenty to work on, both with the bat and with the glove. He didn't always make adjustments as pitchers in the league changed how they would pitch him. Defensively, he's now played the outfield full time for just one season. Both were on the instructs agenda.
"They were impressed with my approach, but they want me to have a better approach at the plate," Upton said. "I also worked on my outfield footwork."
After the rigors and excitement of a first full season, instructs can be a little draining and boring. But Upton took that in stride and made sure he focused on getting his work in every day.
"We still had fun and everything," Upton said. "The atmosphere is a little dull, but you get used to having your routine and work on the things you need to work on."
It also allowed him to finish off the year on a good note, a year that may not have lived up to his own expectations, but certainly created a foundation on which he can build his professional career. His time at instructs, to stretch the metaphor, allowed him to get a good head start on building the next floor in 2007.
"I went home in a good frame of mind knowing what I needed to work on," Upton said. "I know what kind of shape I have to be in, how I'm going to be pitched and that I have to have an approach for it.
"It was a little closure to the end of the year."
San Francisco Giants
Sometimes it takes certain players longer to figure things out. And a team taking a chance on a player can get some surprising dividends as a result.
Take second baseman Eugenio Velez, for example. Originally signed out of the Dominican Republic by the Blue Jays back in August 2001, the middle infielder spent four seasons in Toronto's system, not making it to full season ball until 2005 when he hit .285 in 67 Midwest League games.
In December, the San Francisco Giants took a small risk by taking Velez in the Minor League phase of the Rule 5 Draft. Since coming to the United States, Velez had never hit more than four homers or stolen more than seven bases in a season. So the Giants sent him to the Class A South Atlantic League, even though he would turn 24 in May.
Velez responded by having one of the best statistical seasons in the Minor Leagues. Playing for Augusta, he batted .315 in 126 games with 29 doubles, 20 triples, 14 homers, 90 RBIs and 64 stolen bases.
"It's not often you find an infielder who has the numbers he has," Giants farm director Jack Hiatt said. "All of these things equate to quite a young player to look hard at. And we're definitely doing that."
They did that in Augusta and they continued to do that at instructs. First and foremost, it was a good way for Velez to work on his defense, one part of his game that wasn't as consistent as his bat. One of the best things about being in Arizona this fall is that Velez had the full complement of fielding instructors to help him with that aspect of the game.
"We were trying to smooth that out with him each day," Hiatt said. "We were spending a lot of time and effort on those skills every day. It's not often you can get all these instructors on one field to critique him and pick up the finer things he's doing wrong or right."
It was a good opportunity for Velez to continue to work on his suddenly burgeoning offensive skills as well. It's an early way he can show an ability to adjust to different pitching, a skill that will be essential if Velez wants to continue to move up the Giants ladder.
"He's never played higher than A ball," Hiatt said. "All who saw him play, he was very consistent from the get-go to the end. It's important to continue on and prove it wasn't a fluke."
Colorado Rockies
Rockies top draft pick Greg Reynolds has been getting an education on the field and back in the classroom.
The No. 2 overall pick in the 2006 draft is back on campus at Stanford as he works toward getting his economics degree. For the past few months, and particularly for the previous several weeks in the Rockies' instructional league camp, he's been learning how to be a professional pitcher.
Reynolds, 21, began his pro career by going 2-1 with a 3.33 ERA with Modesto in the Class A Advanced California League, after which he went to Tucson for instructs. Even though he threw a lot of innings in his junior season at Stanford -- 127 2/3 to be exact -- Reynolds still had plenty left in the tank, thanks in part to Colorado going very slowly with him in his debut pro season.
In each of his 11 starts at Modesto, the Rockies limited Reynolds to five innings or 75 pitches, whichever came first.
"I was very surprised at how my body held up, and how my arm held up," Reynolds told Rockies.com reporter Thomas Harding. "That's due to the precautions the Rockies organization took in holding down the pitch count.
"I feel as healthy as I've ever been. My body didn't get beaten down."
That's good news for the Rockies, who obviously hope the college ace will move quickly through the system, beginning in 2007 when some of the wraps will be off.
"Next year, we're hoping to see him pitch more normal pitch counts, and he should be able to go deeper into ballgames," Rockies player development director Marc Gustafson said.
At instructs, Reynolds focused on keeping his pitching posture consistent. His Modesto pitching coach Butch Hughes spotted a slight flaw during the season, and Rockies roving pitching coordinator Jim Wright has paid special attention.
"I thought I flashed some Major League potential and Major League stuff, but it's just a matter of getting consistent," Reynolds said. "One tweak was they wanted me to stay on line a little better. I have a tendency to throw across my body, so they worked with me on that, even when I was just playing catch in the outfield."
Jonathan Mayo is a reporter for MLB.com.