Kivlehan finding power would be very good. His home/road splits are still abominable, but with the swing he has he SHOULD have power. I dunno if he is peppering balls around while he works on his batting eye and whiff potential, but it's interesting to watch.
His Ks are actually perfectly acceptable at 18%, not even a year after he was posting a 30% K rate in Everett. Patrick's batting eye too has climbed from .20 to .45 since short-season (and remember, he started his pro career with one walk against 35 Ks). His OBP is always gonna be padded by hit-by-pitch totals, but however you get on base is fine with me. Choi does it too.
It's pretty amazing when you consider Kivlehan's jumped 4 levels in 2 years (if you count last year's college at-bats, which I do) after not playing baseball in half a decade. His learning curve is STEEP and some people would drown. He's not drowning, even while playing 3B exclusively in the field. When he consolidates all this information and starts driving the ball (which might be now based on his recent power surge, but it'll be hard to tell til next year in AA) he should get even more interesting. Not on a national level (he's too old for that) but locally, he's definitely one to watch.
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As for DeCarlo... I already used abominable, so what's worse than that when talking about his K rate? 39 freaking percent? SERIOUSLY?? I love the guy, but he's got to cut that basically in half. I don't know if he's being attacked repeatedly by bees at the plate and has to fend them off with his lumber or what, but jeez kid. RELAX.
Even with that, he's performing well for a teen in pro ball, even if it's rookie ball. I expected him to get to Everett this year and Clinton to start next year, though and that might not happen if his whiff-mastery goes unabated. I hope to see him swing through fewer pitches down the stretch in this season. Go Joe!
And then there's Fontaine. On draft day I basically said, "without the teens, this draft doesn't work." And then we got the teens. The last of the teens I desperately wanted was Fontaine. Lonnie and I were both a little wound up about getting him. Not the greatest bat-speed - it won't scare you - but a great swing and a good baseball player, which is what I care about more. What good is bat-speed if you can't play ball? It's not like Olerud's lack of batspeed ever hurt him.
Lachlan can play, IMO, and I'm glad to see both him and Tank off to good starts in the early going. O'Neill turned 18 less than a month ago, and Lachlan is still 17 until the end of August. Considering both are cold-weather kids too, they're just in their infancy as far as reaching their potential goes.
Glad to have the Canadian kids here. Fontaine, O'Neill and Corey Simpson pair very nicely with Yates, Gabe Franca, Timmy Lopes and Joe DeCarlo for our teenage bat contingent. Even guys like Marlette are only 20.
A couple of those guys are gonna work out, and the journey should be fun to watch over the next few years for sure.
~G
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