Not having done this in awhile, I put together some lists you all might find interesting to look at. Hitters this time, pitchers next time. These are system leaderboards and as always, the cautionary small sample size warning is given.
If you’ve been following the Staten Island Yankees or GCL Yankees, the top of this list shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Shane Brown is a 2010 draft pick from the 23rd round from Central Florida. Last year Baseball America called him a future utility type although he was drafted as a catcher. After dominating at Staten Island, he’s been called up to Charleston. Chris Austin was a 13th round pick from a Georgia High School from 2010 who can hit. He has some raw power, was drafted as a catcher and now plays mostly 1B or 3B. He recently moved up to Staten Island. Everyone is probably glad to see Dante Bichette handling himself so well in the GCL.
Now here are some other leaderboards to look at.
BB Rate:
Like I said before, it’s nice to see Dante Bichette succeeding early on in his career. Although the sample is very small, he’s certainly shown he can handle at least this level. His K% is just as impressive as his BB% for an 18 year old. Some of the usual suspects that have good plate selection show up here, Damon Sublett and Corban Joseph are two who have always been able to draw a walk. For everything that’s been written about Cito Culver already, it’s comforting to see he hasn’t been overmatched by Staten Island as an 18 year old. Again it’s way to early to draw any real conclusions, but it’s certainly nice to see.
K%:
As for guys that strike out a lot, these are also some familiar names. Cody Johnson has an absolutely legendary swing and miss skill. Ditto Jorge Vazquez. You may remember that some recent studies have shown it’s better for prospects to have K% under 22% or so, relative to the players age and league. Most of the names here are pretty young. Angelo Gumbs is one of the more raw prospects in the system but that doesn’t mean he isn’t very talented. Again, there’s also small sample problems at work here. The short season leagues, A- and RK (Staten Island and GCL) don’t have enough PA’s where this feels totally comfortable. For prospects like Kelvin De Leon and Melky Mesa we largely already know what we’re getting- the ability to hit the ball far when contact does get made.
ISO:
This is just a measure of a player’s power. It subtracts all the singles for SLG% so it’s essentially how well a player can hit for extra bases. Isaias Tejeda is certainly having a nice start to his American baseball career. In his first year over as a 19 year old, he’s done more than hold his own so far in the GCL. Truthfully, I don’t know that much about him. He is a catcher and in TrueYankee tradition, he’s not so good- so far this year, 41 stolen bases allowed, only 2 caught stealing. Yikes. Ravel Santana is more familiar. I mentioned him as someone to watch for in my list of prospects a few weeks ago because of his power/speed combination. He’s certainly been able to display those traits early on this season.
SPD:
This is just a fun statistic that measures some speed components for a player. These numbers are from Fangraphs, and they include in this measure SB%, frequency of SB attempts, triples and percentage of runs scored. Daniel Lopez is another guy I have no idea about. He has 14 stolen bases and only 2 CS so far in 96 PAs which isn’t too shabby. Mason Williams leads Staten Island with 12 stolen bases but has been caught stealing 6 times which is why he isn’t towards the top of this list. Tyler Austin meanwhile, in the GCL was a perfect 11-0 in stolen base attempts.
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5 Responses to Minor League Update
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TIQ IQ
Thanks! This gives a better idea of how prospects are actually progressing. It would be nice to see charts like this a few times a year.
Is there some way of showing how the prospects are doing defensively? It is nice to see Bichette and Culver, for instance, doing well with the bat. But the knock on Culver, in particular, is that he will never make it at SS.
You are joking about “everyone feeling good” about Bichette right? The vitriol and armchair Gm’ing was so outrageous and over the top that half of the people who commented on the pick on here and Rab could not in good conscience possibly react to Bichette’s year with anything other than begrudged silence.
However for those of us who insanely suggested waiting for a high school player with a ML father to PLAY a game before we pounced? Well we can “feel pretty good” about it.
Yes its only rookie ball (I hear that all the time now) but if Bichette was OPSing .620 you can bet the haters wouldn’t be saying “it’s only rookie ball”
His Isod demonstrates an unbelievable approach for a high school player.
Montero is starting to hit. Bettances and Banuelos are developing decently.
Murphy has bust out. And the Bichette, Culver, Williams, Gumbs, Santana, ALmonte group has excelled.
Sorry to harp on it but Culver and Bichette are currently not looking like what they were dubbed.
Bichette was LITERALLY called the worst first round pick ever by many many many posters.
It’s just a few PAs so I wouldn’t get carried away but I think anyone can say it’s encouraging. That being said, it is only rookie ball, that’s also true. I don’t know what your point it. No one posted here it was the worst pick ever. Culver and Bichette each have a long, long way to go before either side claims a modicum of victory on this thing.
People overreacted to the pick, but that doesn’t mean we should overreact to the GCL performance either. That said, I’d rather have him hitting than not hitting.
Sean, come on now. The reaction to the bichette pick ranged from hysteria to despair. Especially at rab. its a rookie ball sss but the walk rate, k rate and power numbers over a pretty decent amount of pas is extremely extremely encouraging. my point is that if yankee scouts had an idea about his approach and disciplime that changes the narrative.
The “worst pick ever” wasnt hyperbole. I literally saw that written. It just shows the info gap. Only someone who scouted a hs player alot would know his approach.
As a former hs star I can tell u hs stars dont walk. Youd have to scout abs and pitch selection closely.
The insanity surrounding the pick shocked me