Who is the Cubs #28 prospect (run-off)?

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

Yeah, the fact that he's already a 2B does it for me.

[toonsterwu]

I liked Amaya and voted him top 15 last year, ahead of Christian Villanueva and Alcantara and some of the other then-popular guys like Watkins and Marco Hernandez. I know some scouts have liked some of his tools, so I hope that proves out.

 

But I'm not really that close to voting for him here now after the year he had. A 2B-only defensively, who K's like a slugger and slugs like Barney. 109K/5HR, his high K's from 2012 got worse, not better. He'll need to have a massive BABIP to carry a decent average with HR:K ratios like that.

 

I can agree with a lot of that, but I'm willing to somewhat give him a mulligan on the HR power. This might not be fair, but I keep thinking back to how badly Alcantara struggled in Low A before taking off in Daytona. I'd have to go check again, but I'm fairly certain that HR wise, Kane County is a harder park than Peoria was (could be wrong).

 

That said, to be clear, I wasn't suggesting anything high, but at the back end of the top 30 (I might consider him around say, 22-27 if I did a personal list), I think it's an intriguing enough gambit - a guy with the potential for more, but a bit more developed than some of the names we're tossing around.

[craig]

Last year Amaya had a healthy .322 BABIP. But still hit only .252 overall (with a sub-.700 OPS). That happens when a quarter of your AB's aren't put in play, but you're hitting less than .050 on those AB, with a K/HR ratio > 20:1. To have a decent OBP and slugging, he'll need a decent batting average. For that to happen, he'll either need to get a lot more HR-hits, or else K a lot less. I expect both of those are possible, but it's not easy.

 

It's kind of odd, because his scouting profile has been as a contact hitter with good bat skills. But he keeps striking out.

[Guest]

I voted for Hannemann to break the tie and for the fact that he spent two years away from baseball while Panigua only spent one.