Kyle Waldrop, OF
one more piece in Dipoto's bimonthly subscrip to "Tweener OF" chess set

.

Would be oh-so-easy to dismiss him with a contemptuous wave of the hand.  More interesting is to credit Dipoto with a bit of savvy, and try to guess at what he's thinking.  The guesses start with "stash him deeeeep behind Guillermo Heredia and hope that your Tacoma coaches can activate his Mitch Haniger lobe."

Waldrop had a weak year in his first attempt at AAA, age 24.  Going INTO last year's weak season, BaseballHQ had said:

...

Made MLB debut in 2015 despite sideways results.  Has only showed glipses of raw power against live pitching.  Length in swing was exposed by advanced pitching.  Swing tends to sweep at baseballs instead of gliding to the point of contact.  He can play 1B, LF and RF adequately.  Long term future is a power bat off the bench.

PWR above average

HIT average-mediocre

SPD average

DEF average

...

The Mariners.org news release on him looks like Johns had to be waterboarded to do it.  But Here is a Fansided article that seems to labor under the delusion that Waldrop did not SLG .311 last year.

Enjoy, 

Dr D

Blog: 

Comments

1

He might have the shortest batting stroke ever!  

I think this evaluation is a bit optimistic:  "All in all, the Dipoto and the Mariners have picked up a solid soon-to-be MLB-ready talent in Kyle Waldrop."

Well, he's MLB ready if you consider that he's already played in the bigs.  

His best MiLB season was his 2nd go-around in the Cali League....and I basically discount all Cali League numbers.  He's had 2805 MiLB PA's and hit 62 homers.  27 in the Cali League.  

He doesn't play CF.  He doesn't steal bases.  He's slugged .311 in AAA, ISO-ing .085. He did bat .226, however.  He has that going for him.   He makes Boog Powell look like Babe Ruth, even our Booger when he's off of banned substances.  Mike Freeman's AAA numbers are .314-.376-.424, for example.  

Waldrop did have 1/2 of a fine season in AA, back in '14: .315-.359-.517. 

And therein lays our hopes.

If you don't pay attention to the AA .277-.313-.430 the next year. 

Spaghetti.  Mostly dry and non-sticky.

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