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Originally Posted by lollipopcurve
Disagree. It's not about hype vs performance. It's about the type of performance. Both Dunn and Bruce (though Bruce to a far lesser extent) frustrate fans because they strike out a lot and fail to produce runs in "clutch" situations. Hamilton is, in important ways, the opposite. He creates excitement by turning nubbers into hits, singles into doubles and empty bases into stolen bases. At an elementary level, his speed appears to be effort, while a whiff from Dunn or Bruce appears to be lack of effort. Unfair, but that's what fans feel at some level, IMO. I don't see a player like Hamilton ever drawing the ire of the average fan like those guys do.
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I finally saw Billy in person here in Mississippi and what I saw reinforced the opinion I had from the long trail of stats. Billy has tremendous athletic ability, but it vastly outstrips his baseball judgment/experience.
If called up, the reason Billy would turn into a Zone whipping boy is the large number of times he gets picked off. I saw a player with very quick twitch muscles, but just not a lot of baseball instinct. On his steal in the first inning, he did not get a good jump at all but his speed covered the mistake a bit... that said, a good throw would have got him. In the field he can move quickly to a ball after he see's it, but he lacks the fielders instinct of moving to the ball from the second its hit. The players I have talked to about this say they kind of know where the ball is going to be because of the sound and angle of the bat. Billy just does not have that ability yet.
That said, this is a focused young man, but he comes from a realtively sheltered world. taylorsville is about as deep south sticks as you are going to find, even though it is not all that far from jackson. The main reason i am concerned about the call up is that he needs a little more time to mentally mature. He currently has humility, but i would say he has a tenuous grasp on it, and too much spotlight right now could really hurt.
The difference between Billy the solid major leaguer and Billy the never was will come down to the amount of work, both intellectual and physical, Billy puts in over the next 2-3 years to gain the skills he currently lacks. The spotlight could shatter his humility and focus.
Bottom line... I like the kid. I agree with every one of Doug's complaints but feel that under his CURRENT mental makeup, that these can and will be overcome/trained out of him. He listens and works and has the natural physical capability. That is all you can ask from a prospect.
I say don't mess with that by doing a premature call up.