Rylan Bannon 2019

[NCRaven]

Jeff Kent?

[HowAboutThat]

13 hours ago, Luke-OH said:

Most people don’t believe the power, the first two leagues he played in were big time hitter’s leagues. He’s listed at 5”10” but is more like 5’ 7” but not even an average runner home to first and the arm is just ok. The swing has been improved this year, but it was a big oversized thing with an big leg kick and length that was just waiting to be taken advantage of.

Yet I’m pretty sure I had him ranked higher than anyone and the reason for this is because I watched him in college and I knew that his power was real and not just a product of the leagues he played in. It’s probably game power over raw power due to the amount of balls he puts in the air pull side, but it’s still real pop and he has the plate discipline to hide some of the hit tool concerns. I know that although the tools don’t really scream good defender, but he’s a polished glove with a good first step and quick transfer who throws well on the move.

Why don’t I have him ranked higher, well the big swing and leg kick was one reason which I’ll have to rethink but mostly because it’s bad process to evaluate someone’s profile of tools and skills and just say “well he hasn’t failed so I feel like he’ll be good”. I do have that gut feeling about him and I used to go more on gut than I do now, but I realized that’s not a good process even if your gut is right from time to time. It’s hard for me not to be overly enthusiastic about Bannon because I’ve been the high man on him since before he was drafted. I wanted the Orioles to draft him and I wanted the Orioles to trade for him. But if I let myself rank guys based on emotional attachment to being right about a guy in the past, my analysis would lose some of its value.

I should know this, but game power is now much of your available power you can make use of during games and raw power is just how much you can bench( or whatever)?

[Can_of_corn]

4 minutes ago, Philip said:

I should know this, but game power is now much of your available power you can make use of during games and raw power is just how much you can bench( or whatever)?

How much you can batting practice.

[Luke-OH]

On 5/3/2019 at 1:56 PM, Philip said:

I should know this, but game power is now much of your available power you can make use of during games and raw power is just how much you can bench( or whatever)?

Like CoC said, raw power is judged by scouts watching batting practice. I believe max exit velocity is perhaps a better indicator of raw power, but I don't have any hard evidence to support that and I'm not even sure what would be a good test of this theory since raw power is somewhat subjective and only valuable in terms of it's relationship to future game power. 

[LookinUp]

2 hours ago, NCRaven said:

Jeff Kent?

Just because you mentioned him, I decided to look up Kent's minor league stats. Let's just say they're atypical. He wasn't particularly young for his levels and his OPS wasn't great. In fact, he produced better for most of his ML career than he did in the minors. 

https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=kent--001jef

Needless to say, we'd be very pleased if Bannon turned into Jeff Kent. I was actually surprised to see that he's not in the HoF. 55 career WAR is pretty good. 20th all time for 2B.

[Aglets]

Currently slashing .302/.378/.492 at Bowie.

Hasn't failed at any level of minor league baseball yet.......is he a future piece?   

[Bubble Buddy]

1 hour ago, Aglets said:

Currently slashing .302/.378/.492 at Bowie.

Hasn't failed at any level of minor league baseball yet.......is he a future piece?   

Definitely should be encouraging that he's kinda bounced back and is putting up good numbers at AA right now. Struggled a bit end of last year. Hopefully he can keep it up. 

[LookinUp]

22 minutes ago, Bubble Buddy said:

Definitely should be encouraging that he's kinda bounced back and is putting up good numbers at AA right now. Struggled a bit end of last year. Hopefully he can keep it up. 

I'd characterize it as highly encouraging. We're not talking about Robbie Alomar here, but you need guys that you can plug in and be good players at the ML level. He's starting to look like that.

[Moose Milligan]

2 hours ago, Aglets said:

Currently slashing .302/.378/.492 at Bowie.

Hasn't failed at any level of minor league baseball yet.......is he a future piece?   

My theory on draft status/prospect status is in play here.  If this were a 1st round pick putting up those numbers this board would be foaming at the mouth.  

[Luke-OH]

13 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

My theory on draft status/prospect status is in play here.  If this were a 1st round pick putting up those numbers this board would be foaming at the mouth.  

It's some of that, but it's also lack of size, lack of speed for someone his size, etc. Which is why the draft status was low. 

I have him ranked ahead of Adam Hall, both last year and currently, I think that's reasonable, he's a FV 45 for me (second division regular), the swing has improved, but I want to get a better feel for how the changes affect his batted ball profile (he thrived off of pulling the ball in the air) before making any grade changes. I'm comfortable even with McKenna's early season struggles to have McKenna a half a grade above him. McKenna is a 7+ runner, Bannon is a 4+ or 5, McKenna is a better fielder at a more defensively important position. McKenna has equivelent raw power, but his approach doesn't allow him to get to as much of it in game. McKenna had better bat to ball skills but Bannon has shown improvement in this respect. 

[LookinUp]

Interesting. McKenna has been pretty bad this year. His k and bb rates are essentially the same as Bannon's, but the production isn't close so far. 

[Luke-OH]

27 minutes ago, LookinUp said:

Interesting. McKenna has been pretty bad this year. His k and bb rates are essentially the same as Bannon's, but the production isn't close so far. 

Production is only a part of the equation when I'm evaluating a player. Production fluctuates significantly, even with the very best prospects.

[LookinUp]

11 minutes ago, Luke-OH said:

Production is only a part of the equation when I'm evaluating a player. Production fluctuates significantly, even with the very best prospects.

Agree. I'm just concerned because his production seems to only fluctuate up every now and then. He was good in Frederick (1/2 season) and the AFL, but has otherwise not been a highly productive hitting prospect. I'm not suggesting they're similar prospects, but McKenna's production reminds me of Xavier Avery's. Some flashes (combined with great athleticism) got people excited, but ultimately he just wasn't the guy we hoped.

[Frobby]

Bannon doesn’t get much attention, but he’s having a pretty nice season, .264/.355/.410 in a league where the average OPS is .680.    He should be at Norfolk next year at 24.     Hopefully he can finish out the season strong.   

[ChuckS]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

Bannon doesn’t get much attention, but he’s having a pretty nice season, .264/.355/.410 in a league where the average OPS is .680.    He should be at Norfolk next year at 24.     Hopefully he can finish out the season strong.   

I liked his defense too in the looks I saw.  Can play 2B or 3B.  Probably a better fit at 2B. Really quick sidearm release on his throws.