Jackson Holliday 2023

[Billy F-Face3]

I'm curious... why haven't they promoted Jackson to Aberdeen yet? Alot of his draft classmates like Dylan Beavers, Judd Fabian, and Max Wagner have all been promoted and playing there since late last season.

[ShoelesJoe]

Quote

Tony Gwynn?  Lol

I may not have been as clear as I should have been. My question was about finding a comp for Holliday's skill set, and when I thought about it Tony Gwynn came to mind: Top-notch pitch recognition, exceptional strike zone judgement, the ability to take a pitch anywhere in the zone and barrel it up, some power but not enough that you'd normally bat him in the 3-4-5 spots in the lineup. Another player with that skill set was Wade Boggs. As for somebody in the game right now Jeff McNeil seems like a good fit. 

[sportsfan8703]

I’m thinking he’s in Delmarva for a couple of homestands then joins Aberdeen on May 9th for the start of a long home stand. It’s just a nod to the affiliates. He’ll be in Bowie for the 2nd half of the season. 

[waroriole]

7 hours ago, Billy F-Face3 said:

I'm curious... why haven't they promoted Jackson to Aberdeen yet? Alot of his draft classmates like Dylan Beavers, Judd Fabian, and Max Wagner have all been promoted and playing there since late last season.

Those three already faced at least A level pitching in college. Generally, high schoolers start the next season in low A. It should be a short stay though. 

[btdart20]

8 hours ago, ShoelesJoe said:

I may not have been as clear as I should have been. My question was about finding a comp for Holliday's skill set, and when I thought about it Tony Gwynn came to mind: Top-notch pitch recognition, exceptional strike zone judgement, the ability to take a pitch anywhere in the zone and barrel it up, some power but not enough that you'd normally bat him in the 3-4-5 spots in the lineup. Another player with that skill set was Wade Boggs. As for somebody in the game right now Jeff McNeil seems like a good fit. 

People need to understand when a HOF comp is made, it's commonly used in reference to style/type, not the expected outcome...  Mostly because I'm not a historian, nor do I want to dig I'm completely fine with a HOF comp when that's the understanding.

 

Jackson hasn't been swinging at junk and seems to see a lot of pitches per PA, which is a similarity to the names mentioned.  He has a 1-2 count last night and ripped a double down the 1B line.  So, his 2 strike swings aren't always defensive either.  He's not a McNeil/Frazier type in that since.

He does have advanced bat control for his level.  Gwynn and Boggs were those types too.  But I suspect he'll have a bit more power than they did (mostly because it was a different era then - Gwynn could have been whatever type of hitter he wanted to be IMO).   

Not to continue the Astros carryover, but Correa could be a solid current comp.  

[MurphDogg]

9 hours ago, Billy F-Face3 said:

I'm curious... why haven't they promoted Jackson to Aberdeen yet? Alot of his draft classmates like Dylan Beavers, Judd Fabian, and Max Wagner have all been promoted and playing there since late last season.

A quick glance at Sally League rosters shows that there are only two players in their age-19 season who have appeared in a South Atlantic League game thus far this season, T.J. White and Junior Caminero. Both are 5 months older than Holliday, born in July 2003 while Jackson was born in December 2003. 

I fully anticipate Holliday to be in Aberdeen by mid-May and it is likely that he will be the youngest player in the league when he does.

[RZNJ]

From watching the first few games he does an outstanding job of staying back on the breaking pitch and going the other way.   He doesn’t quite seem to have his timing down for driving the ball to his pull side just yet.   He looks really good.  I just question how much power he’s going to have. If it’s at least average he could be a top 5 prospect if not #1 overall.

[Just Regular]

2 hours ago, RZNJ said:

From watching the first few games he does an outstanding job of staying back on the breaking pitch and going the other way.   He doesn’t quite seem to have his timing down for driving the ball to his pull side just yet.   He looks really good.  I just question how much power he’s going to have. If it’s at least average he could be a top 5 prospect if not #1 overall.

Got to figure he'll get the same "Catch the ball out in front and get to your Pull-side power" coaching Cowser and Norby have received the past couple seasons.

I guess around Adam Frazier there's some bat-control, no-pop guy where even the Orioles would just let a guy be, but don't believe Holliday would have rated where he did without enough oomph.

[backwardsk]

4 hours ago, MurphDogg said:

A quick glance at Sally League rosters shows that there are only two players in their age-19 season who have appeared in a South Atlantic League game thus far this season, T.J. White and Junior Caminero. Both are 5 months older than Holliday, born in July 2003 while Jackson was born in December 2003. 

I fully anticipate Holliday to be in Aberdeen by mid-May and it is likely that he will be the youngest player in the league when he does.

And both of those guys have been professionals longer than Holliday. TJ white was super young for his class when he was drafted in 2021 out of high school.  He’s also being converted to first base at Wilmington.

[sportsfan8703]

7 hours ago, waroriole said:

Those three already faced at least A level pitching in college. Generally, high schoolers start the next season in low A. It should be a short stay though. 

How much do all the ST AB's he got count?  Like I said, and I have no problem with it, I think they are just giving Delmarva a chance to have Holliday there for a few home stands.  

[luismatos4prez]

Here's a random tangent:

Batting average is way down across the league since Gwynn played of course. To the degree that over the last 80 years, Luis Arraez has the highest BA+ (129) in baseball with a .318 career average, even higher than Tony Gwynn (128) with his .338 career average or Ted Williams (128) with his .344 career average.

Okay, back to Holliday.

[Can_of_corn]

5 minutes ago, luismatos4prez said:

Here's a random tangent:

Batting average is way down across the league since Gwynn played of course. To the degree that over the last 80 years, Luis Arraez has the highest BA+ (129) in baseball with a .318 career average, even higher than Tony Gwynn (128) with his .338 career average or Ted Williams (128) with his .344 career average.

Okay, back to Holliday.

Good luck finding a starting right fielder that averages 9 HR/162.  (I checked, even Nick was at 14/162)

Edited April 10, 2023 by Can_of_corn

[luismatos4prez]

1 minute ago, Can_of_corn said:

Good luck finding a starting right fielder that averages 9 HR/162.

Don't look at the Orioles' lineup today.

[Can_of_corn]

7 minutes ago, luismatos4prez said:

Don't look at the Orioles' lineup today.

Just because a guy starts a game in right field doesn't mean he's a starting right fielder.

He's also at around within about 1.5 HR/season of Gwynn's pace if he got as many at bats.

[backdoorslider]

Not a big fan of Hollidays homer numbers in the minors against craptastic low level pitching. Hopefully he can develop some power.