Jump to content

BA's Jim Callis on Posey as a SS


Recommended Posts

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prospects/ask-ba/2008/266078.html

Jim Callis answers the question many of us have been asking. If Posey was still playing SS where would he go in the draft.

Callis states:

"As a shortstop, Posey displayed the same strong arm and soft hands. His range was more ordinary, and at 6-foot-2 and 200 pounds, he doesn't have a traditional shortstop build. But it's still fair to say that the whole package could add up to an average defender at short.

This draft is light on shortstops who can provide both offense and defense, and with Posey's explosion at the plate this spring (.471/.570/.843 with 15 homers in 51 games), he would have been the third-best shortstop available, behind only the non-related Beckhams, Georgia high schooler Tim and the University of Georgia's Gordon. Posey wouldn't go No. 1 overall as a shortstop, but he'd go in the middle of the first round."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

He won't put up the power numbers that Smoak or Alvarez will..

but he'll have the highest average.

Not only is he hitting .471 (I can't believe we're nearing the end of the college baseball season and someone's hitting almost .500 :eek: )

but his BB:K ratio is over 3:1. That is one amazing eye for the strike zone!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

He won't put up the power numbers that Smoak or Alvarez will..

but he'll have the highest average.

Not only is he hitting .471 (I can't believe we're nearing the end of the college baseball season and someone's hitting almost .500 :eek: )

but his BB:K ratio is over 3:1. That is one amazing eye for the strike zone!!!

I agree. I see a Pudge-type bat.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kevin Goldstein was warning about how everybody explodes in that park in one of his articles today.

That true for power numbers, but he was referencing Shane Robinson who was a leadoff hitter, and had very little power.

He did hit .430 in his senior year or something ridiculous like that, but I seriously doubt the park helped him because of the way that particular player's game is. He was a singles hitter with ridiculous speed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

the single best predictor of a successful hitter is the BB:K ratio. Billy Beane of the A's certainly believes this. I don't know if there is data to support this notion. But Posey's BB:K ratio is simply amazing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posey is a special talent. Period. Although Markpolis and others feel he's not #1 worthy, I've come to the conclusion that he is. He'll be a very good pro. He grows on you, like a wild vine. That is a good thing. :)

With Callis' determination that Posey could still play an average defensive SS it had me wondering if a team might draft him as a SS. I doubt that would be the case, but it wouldn't shock me. Why move a potential GG catcher to a position that he'd be merely average defensively?

Still... it did make me wonder.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hopefully this kid will rise all the way into the top 3 of the draft...making it more likely that Alvarez or Tim Beckham falls to us at number 4.
I agree. Posey is certainly a great talent, but I doubt he plays SS and we've already got the best young catcher in baseball, so there isn't much need for him in Baltimore. If he goes early and it pushes Beckham or (my preference) Alvarez down to us, that'd be great.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree. Posey is certainly a great talent, but I doubt he plays SS and we've already got the best young catcher in baseball, so there isn't much need for him in Baltimore. If he goes early and it pushes Beckham or (my preference) Alvarez down to us, that'd be great.

I concur 100%. No way Posey plays SS in the pros. He's already too thick and his range is limited. He projects well at the catcher position. Elsewhere, not so much.

As Jim Callis of BA stated, if Posey were still playing SS, he would go somewhere in the middle of round 1, behind Tim and Gordon Beckham.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Posts

    • Isn't is just weird that it took 100+ years to figure that out? Hey, that guy hits a bunch of balls right through the box, maybe we should have the second baseman move over that direction a little? Nah, if we do it so will everybody, and we like .350 hitters even when they're on the other team. It would be like a football game where there's a formation where a WR keeps getting completely open downfield and busting 40 yard plays, and it takes 35 years for defenses to adjust. "It's just how it is! If we cover that guy, then the running back might average five yards a carry!"
    • I was thinking the same thing. 
    • Yes, I think that would be a solution that just might work. If you doubled the number of MLB teams it might take a decade or two for talent to catch back up. One of the reasons many strategies of 100 or 150 years ago worked was a much lower talent level, and much bigger spread between the best and worst MLB players. Even just going back 50 years or so it's clear to me one of the reasons pitchers could throw 300 innings was a much shallower pool of hitters, or at the very least choices that favored .220 hitting shortstops with no power. But, what do you think the odds are of Major League Baseball expanding to 60 teams in the next decade? 0.001%? 0.0000001%? The owners would look at such a proposal as an idea for how to slash their shared revenues by 50%, and would probably rather spend the last 20 years of their life fighting it in court than let that happen. This is like the discussions I have with soccer fans on promotion/relegation in the US. Great idea, tremendous benefits, works beautifully in the rest of the world, fosters all kinds of local grassroots interest in the sport, punishes tanking. But current owners would rather gouge their eyes out with their thumbnails than implement it here.
    • I only watched the first two innings.  I didn’t think he’d last much longer because he looked very hittable to that point.  I really question the pitch selection to Rorthsveldt on a 1-2 pitch with a man on third and one out.  He just swung threw a up in the zone fastball, Suarez’ best pitch.  Throw another one same spot, or higher, or in, or even try to bury a changeup low.  Anything to try and get a swing and miss.  But a two seamer (that’s what they called it) down and away? Credit to Suarez for giving us 5.  I don’t really think he’s a starter but he’s getting it done.  Why can he hit 97 in the first inning but not in relief?   I guess it’s a warmup thing.  The 2023-24 Orioles are very good at “winning ugly”.   They find a way more often than not.
    • I hadn’t heard an up to date report on Gillen’s arm.  He’s two years out from that surgery so that’s certainly not good.   I like Lindsey too.  The only real drawbacks are that he’s a RH hitter and the power projection is questionable but he’s got top of the line speed. I’m really not interested in the hit first college types like Amick.   I’d like to see them go HS position player or roll the dice on a Brody Brecht/Jonathan Santucci college pitcher with big stuff and command issues.   At #22 and #32 maybe they can do both.
    • We've really needed Suarez to step up, and so far he has. He does this a couple more times, I might be a believer.
    • Been going downhill ever since Roy started calling for him in the pen. The jinx goes both ways.
  • Popular Contributors

×
×
  • Create New...