I am not giving an opinion on his ability to hit MLB pitching - I have in the past said that I have serious concerns about his bat, and that until this season, his minor league performances have been nothing special. I am personally skeptical of his ability to hit, and that is even with his massive cushion of production with his glove, arm and legs. As for his stolen bases, they made an emphasis on him stealing bases at the lower level and have backed off that at the higher levels because they are confident, he can steal a lot of bases if he gets on base. We have seen players somewhat similar to Melton skill set wise come up with the Astros before - Marisnick and Fisher and Siri are examples.... they all had very loud tools, but the bat lagged behind. Melton is a better base runner than any of them, but the bat is similar at the same point of development. If Melton can get an OPS of .750ish, he will be a very good player....... but for reference, his career minor league OPS is only .780.
What gave it away? The nearly 50% strikeout rate or the complete lack of any extra base hits? At this point if he stays up it will be for the glove and as a pinch runner to steal a bag.
He’s only gotten 30 plate appearances. He’s averaging 90mph ev and 60% hard hit rate so the power is there. Yes, he is making bad swing decisions and is missing on a lot of swings, but he needs another few weeks of regular/everyday play before we can draw any kind of conclusions about him, and really he probably needs another 150 pa before we will be able to determine his fate with any degree of certainty.
My opinion of him really hasn't changed - if anything it has slightly improved because his physical attributes have translated slightly better than I expected. Jacob has always been raw, so I am not surprised that he is having struggles in his first time in the big leagues. I agree with you though that he doesn't look physically outmatched by pitching, he just looks outmatched at the art of hitting.
First signs of life and he gets hurt. In addition to the concern with the bat he’s also apparently made of glass. I hope I’m wrong about him and he damn sure looks like a ballplayer, but I’d be selling.
Well who are you talking about then? Eduardo Guillorme or whoever the hell they just called up? I'm gonna love it when he gets a start before Whitcomb does.
He's doing this with probably the worst average launch angle for anyone that can hit at all. Most people who have his launch angle hit into double plays regularly. Even Dubon has a higher launch angle if that tells you anything.
