BA's 2012 Carolina League Top 20 Prospects

[JeffH]

Villanueva strikes me as a Joe Randa quality prospect (different profiles, though).

[Cubswin11]

I see Villanueva as a DeRosa "super sub" type guy. Solid bat that will hit for average with having okay power and he can move around and play multiple spots and start 120ish games a year and at some point could turn in some solid years as a full time guy.

[El Duderino]

Mike Newman used Prado as a comp before, which I like.

[craig]

9. Christian Villanueva, 3b, Myrtle Beach (Rangers)

Age: 21  B-T: R-R  Ht.: 5-11 Wt.: 160  Signed: Dominican Republic '10.

Villanueva batted .567 with two homers in his final eight games with Myrtle Beach before the Rangers packaged him with Pelicans righthander Kyle Hendricks to get Ryan Dempster from the Cubs. Javier Baez projects as Chicago's third baseman of the future, but Villanueva has the all-around talent to force his way into the lineup.

 

Villanueva uses a short, compact stroke to hit line drives to all fields. He understands the strike zone and puts himself in position to hit. Primarily a doubles hitter at this point, he shows sporadic power to the pull side and could develop into an average home run threat.

 

With solid range, soft hands and a plus arm, Villanueva has all the tools to play third base. His first-step quickness shows up in the field and on the basepaths, where he can use his average speed to swipe the occasional bag.

 

How you project Villanueva depends on how you scout the stuff in red. He's hit 17 and 14 HR's the last two seasons, this one in two strong pitchers-leagues, and while playing this season in an especially pitcher-friendly stadium. So as a youngish prospect, the HR stuff seems reasonably promising. If I bought the "short, compact stroke to hit line drives to all fields. He understands the strike zone" part, I'd be very optimistic. That sounds like a high-average/high-OBP contact hitter. A high-average contact hitter who's hitting mid-teens HR's already would seem like a very nice prospect. Except, he's not been a high-average/high-OBP guy to date. He's instead been a .279 and .278 guy the last two seasons, and hit .250 at Daytona. With quite a few K's and not that many BB's at Myrtle Beach. (83K/24BB/375AB, doesn't seem that high-average/high-OBP-knows-the-strike-zone-and-is-hitting-short-compact-swing line drives all over the place to me. I hope he becomes that, but I wonder.