Minor League Discussion & Boxes 8-17-13

[craig]

Vogelbach has been heavily a singles hitter. When he gets hits, a disproportionate amount of them are singles. Much higher singles/hit ratio than Darwin Barney, for example.

 

Vogelbach's ratio of hits/XBH is around 39.5%, Barney's (minor league) ratio is about 23.5%. Now, I'm not saying Vogelbach couldn't stand to be a bit higher, but his ratio is FAR closer to Baez than Barney.

 

Yeah, Barney as a major-leaguer has really boosted his power. And Vogelbach was a lot more power-oriented in short-season last year. This year, Vogelbach is lower than Barney, and lots less than XB-oriented guys like Baez and Villanueva.

 

Vogel has 130 hits, 22 doubles, 18 HR. 40/130 = 30.8%

Barney this year: 28XBH/83 = 33.8%

Baez: 66/129 = 51.2%

Villanueva: 56/118 = 47.5%

 

May just be a fluke/coincidence. But maybe there's something real, who knows. Much of the scouting has talked about what a "pure hitter" he is rather than an upper-cut slugger. It may be that he's got a level groundball/line-drive stroke, and doesn't have a lot of lift in his stroke.

 

Many of the game reports have talked about his HR's being rocket line-drives, rather than soaring high flies. And having many of his balls-in-play being hard-hit balls, without lift.

 

Not sure how adjustable/teachable "lift" is. But he'll probably eventually need to lift his HR-output.

[Guest]

Vogelbach has been heavily a singles hitter. When he gets hits, a disproportionate amount of them are singles. Much higher singles/hit ratio than Darwin Barney, for example.

 

Vogelbach's ratio of hits/XBH is around 39.5%, Barney's (minor league) ratio is about 23.5%. Now, I'm not saying Vogelbach couldn't stand to be a bit higher, but his ratio is FAR closer to Baez than Barney.

 

Yeah, Barney as a major-leaguer has really boosted his power. And Vogelbach was a lot more power-oriented in short-season last year. This year, Vogelbach is lower than Barney, and lots less than XB-oriented guys like Baez and Villanueva.

 

Vogel has 130 hits, 22 doubles, 18 HR. 40/130 = 30.8%

Barney this year: 28XBH/83 = 33.8%

Baez: 66/129 = 51.2%

Villanueva: 56/118 = 47.5%

 

May just be a fluke/coincidence. But maybe there's something real, who knows. Much of the scouting has talked about what a "pure hitter" he is rather than an upper-cut slugger. It may be that he's got a level groundball/line-drive stroke, and doesn't have a lot of lift in his stroke.

 

Many of the game reports have talked about his HR's being rocket line-drives, rather than soaring high flies. And having many of his balls-in-play being hard-hit balls, without lift.

 

Not sure how adjustable/teachable "lift" is. But he'll probably eventually need to lift his HR-output.

Barney's ratio is weird this year because of a lack of singles, not extra power.

 

If you're trying to measure usable power, you really should be looking at XBH/PA instead of contrasting it to how many singles are hit. It's not right to penalize a guy for getting singles in addition to the XBH.