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===  Jason Kendall or Victor Martinez Dept. ===

I/O HQ:  Polished approach at the plate (especially for a teenager with about 12 at-bats in this hemisphere).  Very nice OBP and gap power.

"Can adequately play both C and 1B."  Not that great a catcher in terms of handling pitchers, framing etc. and doesn't yet understand nuances of position.

Does not have the power associated with 1B.

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I/O The Rest:  John Sickels has Choi at #15 within the Seattle org, and what he says isn't too much, but what he does say is exactly the same thing.

Baseball Prospectus has Choi at #17 and says the same thing in a less-erudite manner.

Jason, who is at this point (like G and J) has become a tremendous expert on the M's minors, has Choi much lower, at #26.

If you're a 19-year-old catcher and you hit like a 21-year-old 1st-round pick, how do you get such humdrum ratings?  Is 'cause the Seattle Mariners have (seemingly) already begun the process of moving Choi off catcher, and 'cause Choi doesn't project to hit for power.  ... next case, bailiff...

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Choi's Results:  Choi has so far not set any ceiling.  His minors results are consistent with his making baseball's Hall of Fame (or with never making the majors).

I mean, he hasn't played much one way or the other, but my point is that he could be the #1 pick in the ammy draft and we wouldn't know why or why not.  He landed in the States, fell out of bed, and dropped a 40 on the Lakers ... er, a .440 OBP on his young American comp.  Steve Baron didn't.

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Well, I take it back:  we do know, about Choi, that the Seattle Mariners put him in high A+ baseball at the age of 19 -- and that he immediately OBP'ed .380 there.  Steve Baron didn't.  Neither did a whale of a lot of other kids.

His results in the Arizona League (not the Arizona Fall League that Ackley decimated) were ridiculous.  He posted a .459 AB with a pro-rated 60 doubles in about 40 games (one-fourth an MLB schedule).

Slap me silly.  At age 19, Edgar Martinez wouldn't have done that.  The AZL was simply an overmatch for him. 

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SSI Crunch on Choi