First off, I want to thank you for visiting our page. It’s been a long time in the making. Not only have my blog partner Jim Brown and I been writing together for Jason Martinez over at MLBDepthCharts for the last 6 years, we’ve been friends for over 30. Baseball has always been a common bond between us. Endless nights playing APBA, constantly arguing over all those hapless Pirate teams of the past (well, not so distant past actually) and going back to a 1990 wager at work over whether Tigers first baseman Cecil Fielder would hit 50 home runs or not. Jim still reminds me to this day that Cecil hit his 50th and 51st on the last day of the season. I like to believe all of those times lead us to this blog.
Tracking the lower depths of the minor leagues has always been our passion. It started out as a mandatory measure to help keep pace in the highly competitive “Pennsylvania Furnace League; an NL-only fantasy baseball league that’s been in existence since 1991. Being a member of the PFL, the smartest group of fantasy owners I’ve ever been around, forces you to dig deep, stay competitive searching for players that exist long past the Top 10′s, 20′s and Top 30 prospect lists one generally sees gracing the internet every winter and early spring. This primarily planted the “Under the Radar” seed.
Over the years using select criteria, both Jim and I have created, developed, revised and employed our own stat formulas to help choose our players. We chart positions using age, minor league levels, and genuine gut instinct. Most importantly, we aren’t scouts and we’ll never ever claim to be. Is our criteria perfect? No. No one can 100% predict the rise (or fall) of any prospect really. All Jim and I are? Fans. Two fans that have a simple knack for doing what we do. And we want to try to promote minor league kids no one is talking about yet, right here. Raising awareness of the lesser known prospects is our goal.
Jim is the pitcher guy, while I track hitters. Our job: try to predict minor league players’ rise to the top before being fully noticed by the baseball pundits. No more, no less.
Please follow us on twitter: Marc @UTRMHefferan and Jim @UTRJBrown
Stay tuned. The content is coming.
Under The Radar Minors 
I live in the east valley (phoenix metropolitan area). Have been using your site as to who to keep an eye on during summer league here. I am a photographer. If there is a player in the AZL that you’d like pictures of to use let me know.
First of all, thanks for the message on the site. We’re very glad you enjoy the website and our work. Once the AZL picks up some steam and some off he “have’s and have nots” start to separate themselves within our work, maybe we can call on you to help us out.
Again, thanks for enjoying the site. Please tell everyone you know.
Marc
My pleasure. Your blog is the only one I’ve found with mentions of the Arizona Summer League. MiLB.com only offers rosters, schedules and the such. Your information is much appreciated. I look forward to the chance contributing in the future. If and when the time comes shoot me an email at hotdogphotograph@gmail.com.
Love this site and its insightful info on prospects!!!!
We really appreciate it Louis. Thanks for your words and help spread the word.
Marc
I love this site. Just joined a dynasty league…inherited a miserable team and farm system (we can have up to 50 minor leaguers). In a league as deep as ours, all the top 200-300 minor leaguers are already on rosters — i’ve got to find ’em beforehand.
Am curious: which of these guys are worth holding onto:
Luis Campusano, C, SD
Dilson Herrera, 2b, Cinn
Jose Miranda, SS, Minn
Austin Slater, OF, SF
Drew Ellis, 3b, AZ
Sam McMillan, C, Det
Kyle Holder, 2b, NYY
Jordan Ludlow, OF, Pitt
Ryan Cordell, OF, CWS
Corey Ray, OF, Mil
Andrew Velazquez, SS, TB
Cornelius Randolph, OF, Phil
Rafael Bautista, OF, Wash
Austin Allen, C, SD
Eric Haase, C, Cleve
Frank Schwindel, 1B, KC
Blake Perkins, OF, Wash
Casey Gillespie, 1B, CWS
Wes Rogers, OF, Colo
Darick Hall, Phil
Breyvic Valera, LAD
Adalberto Mejia, Minn
Austin Gomber, StL
Keegan Akin, Balt
Bobby Poyner, Bos
Brendon Little, CHC
Zack Burdi, CWS
Trey Wingenter, SD
Trevor Richards, Miami
Tom Eshelman, Phil
David Peterson, NYM
Zack Eflin, Phil
Dillon Maples, CHC
Wilmur Font, LAD
Tom Pannone, Tor
Bryan Mata, Bos
Dillon Maples, CHC
Corey Oswalt, NYM
Jordan Romero, Tor
Caleb Smith, Mia
Thanks,
Jeff
First of all, thanks for following the site. Much appreciated. As far as your league, 50 minors is pretty deep I’d say. Regarding your above list, my suggestion would be to sort guys by position, tier them and pluck from the top based on current, then overall performance. In a league as deep as yours, deep minors can be looked at as hot stocks. Buy them when they’re cold (slumping), then sell when their hot (streaking). If you keep that in mind, you’ll always know which players to keep a hold of based on long-standing success.
I’ll try, thanks. It is tough, though, because it seems like I could make a case for keeping each one of my players!
The other challenge is knowing which of the guys you tout should be added to my minor league roster. Do you have a way of putting them in tiers, estimated when they might reach the big leagues and what their ceilings might be?
thanks
It’s very tough, yes, which is basically the reason for the creation of this site. One thing I learned long ago in writing is the same thing that can be applied to deep level prospect tracking: it’s a process, not an event. Sure, we report on the top daily performers, however, those performances add up and help us determine who’s headed for top prospect status. Our prime focus on low level prospects (I wouldn’t say gives us a leg up on other sites, but) helps us gather stats on players from the very beginning and we keep that info and he helps propel our touting when other sites may brush it off “because they’re in the lower levels!” Make sense? Predicting ETA is extremely tough. We use our own metrics which are weighted with several other determining factors to try predicting that timeline. Heck, even most of the so-called experts rarely get it exactly right because so many things have to go right to land that prediction perfectly. Hope this helps.