Springer has 12 strikeouts in the previous 9 games... I guess that is what is preventing him from moving up to OKC? I mean he is just destroying AA.
Yeah his K% is currently 28.9% at AA, which is barely an improvement over 30.9% last year. There are basically zero successful major leaguers who ever put those numbers up in AA. Chris Young is a decent comp for Springer and he never put up a higher K% than 26%, with seasons usually at 21%. We're basically looking at a Chris Carter who will provide plus defense in center field.
Springer's numbers are mind boggling. In theory, if Corpus played 162 games, Springer would be on pace for 50 doubles, 50 steals and 50 HRs. Yikes.
Wtf are you talking about? He's basically Chris Carter? The same one thats batting .213 with 11 hrs? How can you say he's basically Chris Carter, when if he was in the majors right now putting up the exact same stats, he would be easily be a top ten player in the league. I'm not even being bias. Stats don't lie bro. He is far superior to Carter, that's actually an insult. You're not even close on the Young comparison. He is batting .300 with 17 hrs!!! How could you possibly be serious about Chris Carter or Young.
In AA in 2009, Chris Carter had a triple slash line of .337/.435/.576 with 24 HR and a K rate of *only* 20.1%. If you look at their minor league numbers, Chris Carter and Springer show some resemblance - Chris Carter actually put up 39 HR in one A+ season and 31 HR in a AAA season. The power numbers for both Springer and Carter are unreal, but the K% are equally bad. George Springer would dream of striking out at *only* a 20% clip, but regardless, high K rates in the minor leagues are usually really bad omens. Springer can hit a ball a mile, but it's hard to do that in the major leagues if you're not putting the ball into play. Other people much smarter than me have made the George Springer = Chris Young comp before. It's a nice one since Chris Young, in his good years, was a productive player with slash lines around .230/.330/.420 and 20+ HR.
Somebody had posted at TCB a quarterly rundown of his at bats showing a steady decrease in the strikeouts. same thing occurred at the prior level, Springer starts off turrible then gradually gets less and less strikeouts as he gets accustomed to the level. IMO keep him there or maybe a move to AAA. No need to rush anyone. Next year Cosart, Singleton, and Springer should be in the show full time.
Tonight's Crawfish Boxes Podcast has Jim Callis of Baseball America as a guest. They'll be starting up momentarily.
Yeah. He's a five tool guy so he'll give you more than his bat, but I agree that his mlb bat will be very suspect unless he cuts down on the K's.
Paul Goldschmidt in A+ ball might be a decent comparison. I believe in his next year that he started AA ball with a high K% and it gradually decreased. I see your point, though. Hoping Springer improves his at-bats.
Also, Ryan Howard gave the Phillies a pretty great 7-year stretch where he hit about .275 with insane power (and strikeout) numbers.
I'm really not sure. I do think he may end up about a .240-.250 career hitter at the MLB level, with good ISO power numbers. The big issue will be the OBP.
Sunday Stories Let's play 2 in Arkansas! Lancaster's offense continues to put up video-game numbers. How did Lance McCullers fare in Beloit? Recap Albuquerque 4, Oklahoma City 2 Brandon Laird's 2-run homer (5) in the 1st turned out to be the only offense for the Redhawks tonight. Jonathan Villar finished 2-4. Brett Wallace and Fernando Martinez hit doubles. Ross Seaton went 5 2/3 innings and allowed 4 runs on 7 hits (2-run homer), walked 3, and struck out 1. Kevin Chapman pitched an inning, allowing a hit and walking 2. Jason Stoffel retired all 4 Isotopes hitters he faced, striking out 1. Game 3 of this series pits Jarred Cosart against Angel Castro. First pitch is at 7:05 Mountain. Game 1: Corpus Christi 5, Arkansas 3 in 8 innings The Hooks scored 2 in the top of the 8th to take game 1. Domingo Santana finished 2-4 with a triple, a solo homer (9) in the 2nd, and 3 runs scored. Jose Martinez, just activated from the DL, went 3-4 with a double and a run scored. Michael Burgess and Jonathan Meyer each hit RBI singles. Speaking of Santana's triple... it brought in the go-ahead run in the 8th. He scored on George Springer's sac fly. Springer added a steal (17). Mike Foltynewicz went 4 1/3 innings and allowed a run on 3 hits, walked 3, and 5. Sergio Escalona couldn't hold the lead in the 6th, allowing 2 runs on 3 hits and walking 1. Pat Urckfitz got the win in relief, as he allowed a hit, walked 1, and struck out 3 in 2 scoreless innings. What happened in Game 2? Game 2: Corpus Christi 13, Arkansas 9 The Hooks ended up taking 2 of 3 in the series by sweeping the doubleheader. They put up a perfect 10 in the 1st, but it got a little close for comfort at times. They blasted out of the gate with 10 in the 1st. Springer kicked it off with a 2-run double, and then Santana sent out his 10th of the season, a 2-run shot. Max Stassi hit an RBI single, and Jose Martinez followed that up with a 2-run single. Springer capped it off with a 3-run home run, giving him 17 on the season. In the 4th, Erik Castro hit a 2-run double, and Ben Orloff stole home (5) in the 5th. The top third of the order (Orloff, Martinez, and Springer) all scored 3 runs. Orloff finished 1-2 with a walk, Martinez was 4-5, and Springer finished 3-5. Erik Castro finished 2-5 with a run scored. David Martinez was shelled, but at least he had a 10-run cushion to work with. He only lasted 2 1/3, and he gave up 7 runs (5 earned, 1 inherited) on 6 hits (2 homers) and struck out 1. Jorge De Leon got the final 2 outs of the 3rd, but not before allowing 2 hits and walking 1. Matt Heidenreich pitched the final 4 innings and allowed 2 runs on 3 hits and struck out 4. The Hooks will have Monday off, and then they'll head home to host Midland for a 4-game series. Lancaster 16, Visalia 1 The Jethawks took 3 of 4 in this series by ravaging the Visalia pitching staff all series. They scored at least 10 runs in all 4 games in this series and they've now scored 134 runs in their last 12. Lancaster put up a 5-spot in the 1st... on 1 hit. Delino DeShields led off the 1st with a walk, then he proceeded to steal 2nd and 3rd (14) as Joe Sclafani and Brandon Meredith walked to load the bases. Preston Tucker was hit by a pitch to bring in DeShields, and Chris Epps promptly emptied the bases as he unloaded a grand slam (5). That was the one hit in that inning. Tucker extended his hit streak to 17 by leading off with a double in the 3rd, and then he came around to score on M.P. Cokinos' 2-run homer (4). Cokinos would add an RBI double in the 5th, and he would score on a Matt Duffy single. Brandon Meredith had a 2-run homer (6) in the 6th. Tucker then drew a bases-loaded walk in the 8th, and Epps and Cokinos followed that up with 2-run doubles. Joe Sclafani was 2-2 with a double, 3 walks, and 3 runs scored. Meredith was 2-4 with the home run and scored 3 runs as well. Tucker's double was his only hit and he also scored 3 times. Epps finished 3-5 with 6 RBI and 3 runs scored, and Cokinos was 3-5 with 5 RBI and scored twice. David Rollins threw 5 shutout innings and allowed 3 hits, walked 3, and struck out 5. Tyson Perez tagged in and pitched 4 solid innings, with a 6th-inning solo homer from Ryan Court being his only blemish. He allowed 1 other hit, walked 1, and struck out 2. The Jethawks will hit the road, with a 3-game series in Stockton being their first stop. Luis Cruz and Kyle Hallock will be the first two up. Stockton's starter is TBD. First pitch is at 7:05 Pacific. Quad Cities 3, Beloit 2 In the battle for 2nd, the River Bandits inched closer to Beloit with the win this afternoon. Lance McCullers got the victory with 5 strong innings. He shut out the Snappers, allowing 2 hits, walking 1, and fanning 6. Dan Minor tagged in and threw 3 scoreless, but a 2-run homer from Renato Nuñez with 1 out in the 9th knocked him out of the game. Cam Lamb issued a walk, but avoided further damage by shutting the door. Ariel Ovando put QC on the board first with an RBI groundout in the 2nd. They got 1 in the 5th on a fielder's choice hit by Carlos Correa and 1 more in the 6th on an RBI single from Teoscar Hernandez. Hernandez finished 2-4 with a double. Joining him in the 2-hit club today was Jordan Scott. With a win in the series finale, Quad Cities will pass Beloit and move into 2nd in the Midwest League's Western division. Colton Cain and Mike Hauschild will get the start, and they will be opposed by Derek De Young. First pitch is at 7:00. The Academy was off They'll actually be heading to the Mariners' complex first thing tomorrow morning. Three Stars 3. Domingo Santana, RF, and George Springer, CF, Corpus Christi Santana: 3-7, 3B, 2 HR (10), 4 RBI, 4 R Springer: 4-7, 2B, HR (17), 5 RBI, 4 R The Show continues. I'd love it if Santana turns into Mike... oh, sorry. Giancarlo Stanton. Springers gonna Springer 2. Lance McCullers, P, Quad Cities, and David Rollins, P, Lancaster McCullers: W(2-4), 5 IP, 2 H, BB, 6 K Rollins: W(5-3), 5 IP, 3 H, 3 BB, 5 K McCullers is probably going to rocket up top prospect lists this summer. He could find himself in Lancaster by July. Rollins, in my opinion, is probably the top lefty in the system to this point. That Happ trade has really been quite the steal, eh? 1. Jose Martinez, 2B, Corpus Christi 7-9, 2B, 2 RBI, 4 R Unfortunate for Martinez, as it looks like Jake Elmore has 2B locked down in OKC. He's in Corpus because Jio Mier is on bereavement leave (grandmother passed away). But this should be a temporary measure. Great games for him coming off a DL stint. Ever since he signed with the Astros organization and got back in touch with Jeff Luhnow, the man who signed him as a Cardinal, I've been rooting for him to make it to Houston, given the tremendous adversity he's faced. Honorable Mentions Joe Sclafani, SS, Lancaster: Fontana who? Brandon Meredith, OF, Lancaster: He's coming alive. Jason Stoffel, P, Oklahoma City: Hasn't allowed a run since May 14. I really hope he gets his shot at Houston soon. Teoscar Hernandez, CF, Quad Cities: He seemed to be hitting the wall last month. Hopefully he can get himself back on track. Goat Golden sombrero is back in Telvin Nash's possession.
The Rollins emergence has really been great to see. That Happ trade was indeed a complete haul for a major league average pitcher who was 28 years old. I may make a longer post about this sometime, but the "org depth" guys in last year's draft class is looking damn impressive in the early going. There are so many guys on the Lancaster roster who are showing awesome K/BB rates and look like future contributors in some capacity. Finding contributors from the later rounds was one of Luhnow's hallmarks with the Cardinals, and I wonder if some of these guys could elevate themselves into major league contributors.
Was just browsing through the splits of some of our "prospect" lefties (Rollins, Oberholtzer, Chapman), and Chapman's numbers really stood out. Unlike the other two guys, Chapman has killer numbers vs. lefties. When he came over from the Royals, we all talked about him becoming a LOOGY, and man, his numbers against lefties this year are fantastic in AAA. Lefties are hitting .143/.333/.229 against him. That .333 OBP is likely from his control problems, since he's issued 10 BBs in 48 PAs against lefties. Either way, he's basically neutralizing those guys. Really wonder if/when he gets a shot as the LOOGY guy. I suppose it's just Wesley Wright blocking him right now.
I've always thought Springer is the right handed version of Curtis Granderson. Springer has more power and better on base skills than Granderson did at 23, albeit with a bit more swing and miss in his game. Granderson did lead the league in Ks in 2006, but with 3 all star appearances and a silver slugger on his resume - I'm sure we'd all be happy if Springer has a Granderson like career.
Scary thought: Granderson led the league in K's in 2006 with a K rate of 25.6%. George Springer is striking out in 28.9% of his ABs right now in AA ball. Honestly if Springer gets close to Chris Young's 2007-1011 production (batting .240 with 20+ home runs and great outfield defense), then I'm happy. But unless he cuts his strike out rate significantly, I can't see him becoming anything more than a Chris Young guy.
