July 2 International Signing Period

[dougdirt]

Originally Posted by Patrick Bateman

A guy whom alreayd walks pretty sparingly, and has low power is not likely to see those rates stay constant as the progress through the minor leagues and major leagues....

Maybe not. But maybe so. Juan Pierre has considerably less power and has walked 40+ times in the Majors on more than a few occasions. A guy like Michael Bourn had no power and has walked over 50 times in the last few seasons.

Now Bourn walked more in the minors too. But despite his lack of power, pitchers in the Majors are still throwing him plenty of non strikes. Just saying that I can certainly see a way that he can be a quality hitter in the Majors without doing much walking because the guy, like a Juan Pierre, simply never strikes out. To top it off, he also has a little bit of pop in his bat.

[Scrap Irony]

Over three minor league seasons, Torreyes has a 1:1 BB:K ratio.

He has some pop in his bat and has a solid Iso obp (obp-BA) of 0.60. (This year's is better than that.) 84 of his 291 hits have been for extra bases. All but 89 ABs of this has been done in parks that range from nuetral to those that sap serious power.

Looks like he was in the mother of all BaBIP-related slumps, but has come out the other side.

Unfortunately, he's a guy that's already got two strikes against him, in that he's very short/ small and has little pedigree. He'll have to mash in order to get recognized. Too bad, too, as he's got a solid defensive reputation (reports range from Gold Glove to above average).

Jose Altuve was mentioned as a comparable player when he was a Red. I'd certainly take that as a major leaguer and run.

(I'd deal Drew Stubbs for he and a C prospect right now and not look back.*)


Caveat: Ronald Torreyes is probably my favorite prospect in all of baseball, so I'm biased.

[Patrick Bateman]

I just personally see him progressing as more of a Dave Sappelt than a Jose Altuve. Altuve is certainly proving to be more of an exception than a standard. Sappelt was a similar type of hitter that was considered to have sufficient power and contact abilities to hit in the upper minors.

Yet this season, he has posted a .650 OPS in the PCL league with his BAPIP mostly normalized at .280. He's a similar guy IMO that just doesn't have the projection to improve at the same rate as the average minor league prospect.

[dougdirt]

Originally Posted by Patrick Bateman

I just personally see him progressing as more of a Dave Sappelt than a Jose Altuve. Altuve is certainly proving to be more of an exception than a standard. Sappelt was a similar type of hitter that was considered to have sufficient power and contact abilities to hit in the upper minors.

Yet this season, he has posted a .650 OPS in the PCL league with his BAPIP mostly normalized at .280. He's a similar guy IMO that just doesn't have the projection to improve at the same rate as the average minor league prospect.

Sappelt went back to his old swing that he was using in Dayton. Not the one he was using in AA/AAA before he was traded and was hitting well. Sappelt has enough power and contact to work with as a center fielder, when he is using the right swing. But right now he isn't and it is likely causing timing issues like it was in the past.

There is a night and day difference. He went back to the bat wiggle.


Sappelt on the left struggles to hit for power because his timing is off because of that silly bat wiggle that delays his hands from being in the right spot when he begins his swing. Sappelt on the right was able to have his hands in the correct spot when he begins his swing, thus allowing him to have better timing.

[Patrick Bateman]

Originally Posted by dougdirt

Sappelt went back to his old swing that he was using in Dayton. Not the one he was using in AA/AAA before he was traded and was hitting well. Sappelt has enough power and contact to work with as a center fielder, when he is using the right swing. But right now he isn't and it is likely causing timing issues like it was in the past.

There is a night and day difference. He went back to the bat wiggle.


Sappelt on the left struggles to hit for power because his timing is off because of that silly bat wiggle that delays his hands from being in the right spot when he begins his swing. Sappelt on the right was able to have his hands in the correct spot when he begins his swing, thus allowing him to have better timing.

I do see the obvious difference, but why hasn't anyone in the Cubs organization figured this out considering it is a pretty basic swing difference.

[dougdirt]

Originally Posted by Patrick Bateman

I do see the obvious difference, but why hasn't anyone in the Cubs organization figured this out considering it is a pretty basic swing difference.

Why didn't Sappelt or the Reds figure it out for a few seasons? Or Sappelts college coach while he was actually in college. What changed Sappelt's mind on it, since he was the guy who initially decided to make the change after watching the games better hitters who for the most part were all very quiet at the plate?