To clarify, I remember reading this at the time that they signed him. In other words, I believe they did know it when they drafted him.
You're comparing the level of hype a player receives as a means to judge his future career? Yeah that makes sense.
I remember reading that Kvasnicka is a much more polished hitter from the left side. It would not surprise me if it was just a typo on the MiLB site.
Here's a scouting report I just found. It mentions the power, but also talks about some holes in the swing from the left side. http://www.pnrscouting.com/scoutingreports_2010_kvasnickami.html [rquoter] As with fellow 2010 draft-eligible backstop Micah Gibbs (Junior, LSU), Kvasnicka gets "bonus points" for doubling as a catcher and a switch-hitter. From the right side, Kvasnicka hits out of an upright, balanced stance. He stays fairly short to the ball and shows flashes of a little more power to come, though he is already capable of putting a charge into the ball middle-in. He does a good job of keeping his hands back and shows an understanding of how to let the ball travel and drive the oppo gap. From the left side, Kvasnicka hits from a more hunched-over stance. His base is a little wider and more open; he utilizes a semi-high leg kick to close his hips and enter his stride/weight transfer, and may be well-served to shorten the action on his front side to help his timing against more advanced stuff. His hands set-up lower than from the right side and, while he lifts some in his load, he often fails to get them high enough, opening holes (these are magnified some due to a little extra length, also created in the backwards hand action in the load). There's some clean-up that may be required (moreso from the left side), but Kvasnicka shows a good understanding of the strikezone, a solid ability to barrel the ball, a generally clean weight transfer from each side (better from the right), and he does not miss mistakes. There is some power potential from both sides, though right now he limited to the pull side from the left, as his load can limit him to yanking mistakes from the belt down. [/rquoter]
"In fact, if you're looking for a source of worry regarding Kvasnicka's development, I'd take a look at his performance against lefties. The switch-hitter famously had no trouble adjusting to the speed of the professional game from the left-handed batters box, blasting an opposite-field homer and a double to the same place on the first two pitches he saw. But Connecticut turned him around in his last two at-bats yesterday and for all four today, and Kvasnicka looked shakier as a right-handed batter." http://catscorner.mlblogs.com/archives/2010/06/ I believe that's taken from the June 20th blog. Anyway, I think there are more instances where the writer talks about Kvasnicka looking "shaky" from the right side of the batter's box.
His Avg/OBP/Slg% is a lot closer to Lance Berkman, but the scouts still don't seem to be as high on him, so we'll see. All I know is that he's torn it up everywhere he's gone.
Dallas Keuchel tweeted last night that he's been promoted to Corpus Christi. as seen at Astros County Dallas has done exceptionally well in high A the last month or so.
That is awesome. Keuchel is the type of pitcher that could be fast tracked to the big leagues. He is left handed and has pinpoint control. Lancaster is the best hitting ballpark in the minors and he still had a solid ERA of 3.36. His road ERA was 2.31.
Seems like there's a lot more movement within the farm system than there typically is...at least for the Astros. They finally have a "do well...move up" philosophy that hasn't been there for a long time. Could be just because I'm looking more at the lower levels because the top 2 are so bad.
Two of his tweets prior to the promotion news.. I hope the Astros take away his twitter before he gets the call up.
perhaps it's just immaturity; at least let's hope so. whiners suck, and whiners who whine in public outlets really suck. divas suck, too. let's just hope those are the drivellings of a kid who's almost grown up.
His whole Twitter account is drivel. If he ever wants to make it in the big leagues he will have to quit posting the things he does. Right now he is a nobody, so he can get away with it.
I agree that his tweets are drivel, but I doubt that plays a role in locating his pitches or keeping hitters off-balance. There are plenty of d-bags in the pros who say stupid things but are quite good at their job.
Yet 99% of GMs across all of sports place huge value on character. On a micro scale, no, it doesn't affect his ability to pitch. On a larger scale, a bad attitude can hinder a player's development on multiple levels. Then there is the factor of being a good teammate and positive influence in a clubhouse, eventually to younger, more impressionable players.
True words. But if the kid keeps pitching the way he is, I doubt he will be held back because of things he says on twitter. Now if he gets to the Show and pulls some crap like Mitch Mulesky did, that's a different story. He was wrong to call out the Astros for promising a mid-season promo, but it's not like he did it with cameras in his face with team mates standing around.
Sure, this handful of commetns in and of itself isn't something to worry too much about. At the same time, given that it's the only account I have of the guy expressing himself, it doesn't fill me with optimism that he is nothing like that outside of the Twitter world. I can't even fathom myself making those comments publicly if I were a young pro ball player trying to make it to the big leagues.
