Miclat at Aberdeen

[rooter]

He's playing at SS for Aberdeen tonight. Has this been noted anywhere else?

[Hutman]

I was there last night, he looked pretty good, hit the ball hard a couple of times, also appeared to have a decent arm with one ball deep in the hole that he got and easily threw the guy out. Don't know how fast they Tri-city guy was though.

One observation, he has a very wide stance for a guy 5'9.

[howie14]

I was there last night, he looked pretty good, hit the ball hard a couple of times, also appeared to have a decent arm with one ball deep in the hole that he got and easily threw the guy out. Don't know how fast they Tri-city guy was though.

One observation, he has a very wide stance for a guy 5'9.

I was out there last night [parental pride]because my son was in the color guard[/parental pride] and concur with the baseball evaluation.

He does seem to have the butt of a much larger individual.

On an unrelated topic, does Jacob Julius get released after this year? He's having an identical season to last, as far as I can tell.

[rooter]

I was out there last night [parental pride]because my son was in the color guard[/parental pride] and concur with the baseball evaluation.

He does seem to have the butt of a much larger individual.

On an unrelated topic, does Jacob Julius get released after this year? He's having an identical season to last, as far as I can tell.

Possibly. He's actually having a worse year overall. Last year he showed good patience at the plate with a lot of walks and a decent OBP. This year he's only walked 16 times vs 44 strikeouts. His average is slightly higher at .230 but pretty bad overall. I was hoping for better from him this year.

[stef]

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?n=Greg%20Miclat&pos=&sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=476582

[Stotle]

We'll know a lot more this time next year. I like the pick -- I think he has the ceiling of an everyday SS with gap-to-gap power (single digit HR) and a ideally a bottom 1/3 of the order bat. Not a huge fan of "comparisons" since I think every player is usually a pretty unique package when you break them down, but maybe something like Jason Donald?

[rooter]

We'll know a lot more this time next year. I like the pick -- I think he has the ceiling of an everyday SS with gap-to-gap power (single digit HR) and a ideally a bottom 1/3 of the order bat. Not a huge fan of "comparisons" since I think every player is usually a pretty unique package when you break them down, but maybe something like Jason Donald?

Doubtful. Donald probably has the power to hit ~20HR a year.

[itsernst]

We'll know a lot more this time next year. I like the pick -- I think he has the ceiling of an everyday SS with gap-to-gap power (single digit HR) and a ideally a bottom 1/3 of the order bat. Not a huge fan of "comparisons" since I think every player is usually a pretty unique package when you break them down, but maybe something like Jason Donald?

I think he would be a good top of the lineup kind of guy; He seems like a roberts type of player.

[Hutman]

I think he would be a good top of the lineup kind of guy; He seems like a roberts type of player.

He probably needs to add about 20lbs to reach Roberts stature. The positive he does appear to hit the ball pretty hard. Makes nice contact.

[Stotle]

I think he would be a good top of the lineup kind of guy; He seems like a roberts type of player.

Pre-surgery Miclat was actually very much like Roberts, but with less power. Also, Miclat was a very good base-stealer -- Roberts was prolific.

As sophs:

Roberts/Miclat

PA/BB - 6.2/5.4

PA/SO - 8.8/13.9

OBP - .453/.486

%hits for XB - 40%/25%

I think these are correct, though all I have at my office is some chicken scratch on a pad (I was using these for an article that was lost and is now being re-written). The point to take away is that, as good as Roberts is he wasn't projected to be a stud top-of-the-order bat. He really maxed out, and that's great. Miclat ideally projects to around a #7 hitter who can spray the ball around hit gap-to-gap. Maybe he maxes out and can fit in as a lead-off hitter, but he is still regaining strength in his shoulder and still regaining bat speed. It's a stretch to just assume he'll go right back to being pre-surgery Miclat, who projects much closer to Roberts.

EDIT: As an aside, I just read an earlier post where I wrote that he reminds me a bit of Pedroia with a better arm(which I think works). If he returns to form, he'll be a very tough strikeout with solid gap-to-gap pop and the hands/arm/range to stay at SS. Not sure about the HR power until we see his strength next year.

[Triple Crown]

2 for 4 tonight, so far, small sample size, but very nice start to his pro career

Hopefully, his defensive skills are what they're cracked up to be.

[Camden_yardbird]

I was there last night, he looked pretty good, hit the ball hard a couple of times, also appeared to have a decent arm with one ball deep in the hole that he got and easily threw the guy out. Don't know how fast they Tri-city guy was though.

One observation, he has a very wide stance for a guy 5'9.

Do you remember how wide Ricky Henderson's stance could get, and how small his strike zone could get? I would imagine at some point someone told Miclat that if he could hit with a wide stance he could decrease the size of his strike zone.

[Ruzious]

We'll know a lot more this time next year. I like the pick -- I think he has the ceiling of an everyday SS with gap-to-gap power (single digit HR) and a ideally a bottom 1/3 of the order bat. Not a huge fan of "comparisons" since I think every player is usually a pretty unique package when you break them down, but maybe something like Jason Donald?

I'm not getting that comparison - even a little bit.

[Anonymous]

Do you remember how wide Ricky Henderson's stance could get, and how small his strike zone could get? I would imagine at some point someone told Miclat that if he could hit with a wide stance he could decrease the size of his strike zone.

I understand there was a guy in a Twin Cities bathroom with a pretty wide stance. But I think he was trying to increase the size of his strike zone.

[Stotle]

I'm not getting that comparison - even a little bit.

I don't know what to say in response -- looks like you were going for effect and not furthering a discussion I'll give it a shot...

Healthy Miclat = Roberts-light (less power)/Pedroia-light (less power/more arm).

Injured Miclat = AAAA player that is a ML-fielder but doesn't have the arm consistency for SS and doesn't hit enough.

Not sure whether he'll fully-recover best guess at this point Miclat = Conservative estimate of a middle-of-the-road hitter whose command of the strikezone won't help him as much if his bat speed isn't all-the-way there and pitchers can come right at him. Fringy-SS (because of arm strength) but could handle it. I equate that to Jason Donald (again with the concession that I don't enjoy making comparisons but understand why people ask for them). Donald has more raw power (larger frame) but I view him as a fringy-SS (range and arm) that fits in best as a bottom 1/3 of the order gap-to-gap guy.

I'll be right here on the edge of my seat, awaiting your one-liner....