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He was developing better secondary stuff before he broke.Rodriguez is a precocious corner power bat with elite makeup.Now if he starts hitting for more power in games, that’s a horse of a different color.
Listi has some strong underlying indicators (he hits the ball in the air and had strong peripherals at Hi-A last year) but he’s 25, very old for the levels at which he has competed, and looked out of place in the AFL from a tools standpoint. Like Jo Adell showed late in the fall, Marsh’s hands loaded a little further out away from his body and he had what some scouts called a “wrap” or “power tip,” where the bat head angled toward the mound a bit, setting up more of a loop than a direct path to the ball. If we feel a prospect could reasonably have a best big league season of anywhere from 1 to 5 WAR, that would be “high” variance, whereas someone like Sean Murphy, whose range is something like 2 to 3 WAR, would be “low” variance. The margin for error for teenage, first base-only types is very small, but we’re also very high on Casas’ bat.After a breakout 2018, Balazovic spent most of 2019 dominating the Florida State League as a 20-year-old. That’s an awful lot of smoke.
Scouts liked what they saw, but not enough to meet a price tag that was up around $1 million according to sources. He’ll also work an upper-80s slider to his glove side and it has shocking, horizontal length considering Gonsonlin’s arm slot. He’d be higher on the list if not for his injury history.Pitchers with sneaky fastballs are all the rage, and Balazovic has a bat-missing curve to go with his.Build a pitching prospect in a laboratory and the result is Greene, who has elite arm strength and athleticism. He’s developed a better changeup in pro ball, pronating really hard to turn the thing over and create tailing movement. Some area scouts thought he was so raw as a hitter, and that his stock had fallen enough due to a pre-draft hamstring issue, that he might be better off going to school. He has a strong, mature and somewhat maxed-out frame, though some similar pitchers have changed their body composition in pro ball and found more velocity and consistency. The top of a rotation ceiling that seemed possible a year ago would now require a bit of a bounce back in stuff and a quantum control/command leap. He’s very competitive, and is similar in many ways to Brett Gardner.He can play shortstop well, but can Gimenez make enough contact to be an impact regular?While I’m skeptical of Greene’s ability to play center field, his hit/power combination should be fine in a corner.Well, we all know about the medical now.
Many of which start out as top prospects. He projects as an above-average defensive shortstop who plays a utility infield role.It’s been two and a half years since the Red Sox bonus packaging scandal of 2016, and Muzziotti has emerged as the best of the collection of prospects who were granted free agency in its aftermath. Gowdy probably moves into the 40+ FV tier if his velocity and breaking ball are back in the spring, but he’s clearly behind the developmental curve for a 21-year-old.Haseley was an intriguing two-way talent with a big price tag and decent tools out of an Orlando-area high school. He’s tracking like a mid-rotation starter.It’s possible the wait is over and that Marsh’s swing is now in a place that will enable him to hit for power that’s more in line with the thump he shows in batting practice, but his in-season slugging performance (.428 in 2019, up from .385 the year before) is not the evidence.
But we have some questions about the ultimate ceiling.It’s tough to say where Honeywell’s stuff will be when he returns, but it was 60 FV stuff before injuries derailed his career.Mountcastle is the best DH-only prospect in baseball.We now have what you could say is a softer 50 on Gimenez. He’s only played ball for a little while and still held his own in the Midwest League last year.Rodriguez is a Forrest Whitley sequel currently in production.
Just ask the Phillies! In the seven minor league starts before his big league debut, he walked just four batters, and was similarly efficient in his first few big league outings. He also struck out in just 13% of his full-season at-bats last year, which is impressive for a 19-year-old. After he returned, the Phillies moved him pretty quickly to Double-A for six starts, then had him finish in the Fall League.