We have several interesting bats in the minors, but nobody that we can trust yet to be the next All-Star bat coming up through the ranks (making the 2nd in a decade, with the first being Ackley. Okay, the first was Choo, but shaddup about that).
Most of our hitters are second- or third-tier guys. We have our backups and our complementary players, but few game-changers. Kyle Seager has value, but he's not going to be a middle-of-the-order guy. He's no Ackley / Lawrie / Harper / Trout type prospect. And the Franklins and Catricalas of the system haven't been able to prove one way or the other which category they fall into.
I'm very, very curious to see what the 2011 draftees bring to the table in that regard. If Paolini can stay at second, or Miller can remain a shortstop, and they can hit in the vein of their college numbers, that could be quite something.
But Castillo or Pimentel working out is on another level, as both guys should have remarkable power if they were to pan out. I did an off-the-cuff assessment of a high-percentile estimation of the upper expectations for our minor league hitters.
Ackley - Robin Ventura at 2B
Liddi - Tony Batista (though this mark is moving up)
Peguero - Wily Mo Pena
Seager - Adam Kennedy
Shaffer - Shannon Stewart
Franklin - Ray Durham
Carp - Glenallen Hill
Tenbrink - Trot Nixon
Catricala - Todd Zeile
...
And it's not a bad list. Now, ANY system you look at should have a list like that of what players would look like if they could reach their higher projections instead of the middle or lower ones.
But even with that obscenely-rosy view of the system we don't have expected crushers there, certainly not at the upper levels. Maybe Liddi if he becomes more Glaus than Batista.
That's another reason I badly want to drop $1.5 million or so in the lap of Cron, a true slugger, to buy him out of his college commitment.
We need a Cron, or a Pimentel, or a Castillo to come through for us, so that when we're looking at losing Smoak to FA we have another guy who can pummel the ball and fit into the MOTO all ready to go.
This is why I desperately wanted Rendon - to pad the ranks of the good average, great OBP, 35 doubles / 20+ HR hitters that we have, which are nearly extinct in our system currently.
So now we need to add another hitter from outside the system in the meantime and wait for the teenagers to hopefully blossom. You too, Vinnie and Nick - no slacking.
Pitching surplus is divine, but arms get injured and never recover. Bats are more constant. I'd like some. TIA.
~G
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