For hitters with a weak pedigree and who are not also wizards in the field I don’t think there’s anything else you can do to substantially raise your profile. Valdez does seem likely to be getting lucky with that LD rate, but he’s clearly an elite hitter at that level at a fairly young age (losing a year to COVID). Even that level you would think if he has some fatal flaw as a hitter the pitchers would already be taking advantage.
Here's a list of all Texas League players to accrue 200+ PAs in a single season sorted by wRC+. Lot of good names at the top of this list, especially when you account for age.
Not saying Valdez won't hit in majors, only that I doubt scouts/prospect writers will admit they were wrong on a guy they are extremely low on that is completely mashing in AA. I wish the prospect lists had more of a statistical component to catch guys that they may whiff on. Granted, I don't think the prospect lists are as bad as they are made out to be. In aggregate, I think they do a good job considering how tough it is to project that many players playing against a lot of suspect players. They each have their biases. FanGraphs tends to love shiny tools which is going to cause them to undervalue an organization good at developing with a strong analytical program.
The rankings are further off the mark than normal because of the lost 2020 season for the minor league players. Valdez had an .860 OPS last season splitting time between A+ and AA ball so he wasn't a complete bum before this year.
Third baseman Edwin Díaz moved from SL to Corpus and activated. He could be enabling an Enmanuel Valdez move.
Agree with this. I think Valdez is being overlooked is mostly scouts trusting their eyes and not the stats.
Spencer Arrighetti vs. Hickory: 5 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, BB, 10 K The two runs scored on a homer. Colin Barber also hit his 3rd home run for Asheville.
One odd thing about Berryhill is his consistently abnormally high BABIP combined with relatively low HR rate and obvious lack of speed. He must hit the ball extremely hard but have a low launch angle. So while BABIP is usually assumed to regress to around .300, it’s possible that Berryhill could just be a rare player who can maintain a higher rate. That could mean there’s potential for a launch angle change to get him a lot more HR but it also means that he can get away with a higher k rate than normal. He’s over 200 pa in AA and has great results so he could be ready for AAA and will likely need Rule 5 protection this offseason.
I was hoping, "is being called up to the majors" followed "Astros announce Hunter Brown....". Hopes dashed.