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An interesting tidbit in an interview yesterday with the Jay's Ross Atkins about Alejandro Kirk but more interestingly giving some insight into how they structured the whole Alternate Site thing ... I wonder if this could be a part of a future revised minor league system ...
McCown: As a catcher, with the limited experience that he has, do you see him going back to the minor leagues, assuming the minor leagues play next year? Or did he show you enough to make you believe he’s ready?
Atkins: Alejandro has been very impressive. This was such a different year. He had only played statistically in A-ball and had never been above that but our Alternate Site, we viewed it as comprable to a hybrid of Double-A and Triple-A. They were playing games on a very regular basis and he was competing against that we thought was comprable to major league pitching and he was also catching Triple-A and major league catching while he was there.
Because of the control we had over the environment and what could happen in a game we could do creative things to help him with his development and help him be more prepared for what it might be like to catch Matt Shoemaker in the big leagues and how he would be thinking about setting up the Rays’ lineup and setting up playing against the Yankees and working through all of those things before he got here.
Atkins: Alejandro has been very impressive. This was such a different year. He had only played statistically in A-ball and had never been above that but our Alternate Site, we viewed it as comprable to a hybrid of Double-A and Triple-A. They were playing games on a very regular basis and he was competing against that we thought was comprable to major league pitching and he was also catching Triple-A and major league catching while he was there.
Because of the control we had over the environment and what could happen in a game we could do creative things to help him with his development and help him be more prepared for what it might be like to catch Matt Shoemaker in the big leagues and how he would be thinking about setting up the Rays’ lineup and setting up playing against the Yankees and working through all of those things before he got here.
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