Moustakas struggling

A quick look at the Midwest League and the most glaring thing I see is the fact that Mike Moustakas, Kansas City's top pick, is still struggling. He was hitting .193 through 15 games. He didn't have a homer and had driven in only one run. It's got to be frustrating for the kid who was a high school run producer in California. He had one stretch last week where he was five-for-11 and it appeared as if he were ready to break out. But he's gone one-for-17 since.

I don't have any inside info but I wouldn't be surprised if they send him back to a short-season league once June rolls around if he's still struggling. There's no shame in that and if he can fatten up against some high school pitchers; it might do a world of good for his confidence.

Here's a leftover item from the Harrisburg trip from which I recently returned. I spoke to Erie's Jeff Frazier - there will be a feature on him in Friday's Farm's Almanac - but I had a little item that didn't fit into the story. Frazier, it seems, is quite the ping pong player, a fact he is waiting to spring on his teammates.

"I'm a crazy ping-pong player," he said. "We had a table at home and my brothers and I were super competitive. No one can come close to beating me. I love to play and I'm pretty darn good at it. Whenever there's a table around, the game is on. My teammates don't know yet but we're going to go at it for sure."

In other Harrisburg news, scuttlebutt around the Senators is that they should have a new pitcher on staff within the next few days. Washington is going to bump Jordan Zimmerman up from Potomac after he's completely dominated the Carolina League. Zimmerman, a Division-III star at Wisconsin-Stevens Point before the Nats chose him in the second round last year, is 2-0 with a save and a 0.61 ERA in three games (two starts) for Potomac. He's fanned 18 and held the opposition to a .128 batting average. He was 5-2 with a 2.38 ERA in 13 games (11 starts) last year for Vermont in the New York-Penn League.

Zimmerman is hot stuff and should be able to make the move to the Eastern League with relative ease. Don't be surprised if he is just using Harrisburg as a stopover to Columbus. The Nats aren't shy about pushing their prospects and Zimmerman has the stuff to handle being force-fed.

One last note, my Ecuadorian friend, Diego Arcos, tells me that Tommy Hanson, the Atlanta stud that's tearing up the Carolina League at Myrtle Beach, played a season in Ecuador. That's his info, not mine, but if it's true, it's cool. The subject came up when Arcos noted that Seattle has Alfredo Venegas in its system, making him the first player from Ecuador to ever sign a contract with a Major League franchise.