2023 #7 Prospect Enrique Bradfield Jr. - CF

[Frobby]

4 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

Joey Ortiz in his first summer after being drafted in 2019 at Aberdeen when it was Advanced Rookie Ball.

228 PA.   .026 ISO.

If Bradfield hits the weight room, adds 10-15 pounds of good weight, and takes to the O’s hitting program he will surprise.

If he can put on 10-15 pounds without losing speed, fine.  Otherwise I don’t like the tradeoff.  

[Sports Guy]

@Tony-OH do you recall what was said about Mullins when he came out of college and in his early time in the minors in terms of his power and how that compares to what is being said about Bradfield now?

[RZNJ]

6 minutes ago, Frobby said:

If he can put on 10-15 pounds without losing speed, fine.  Otherwise I don’t like the tradeoff.  

I think that can be done but just for fun I’ll disagree and say that I would take the trade off.   If Bradfield’s sprint speed (just making this up) went from 30.5 to 30.0 but he became a significantly stronger hitter, I’d be down with that.  The idea is to make him the best baseball player he can be, not the fastest baseball player he can be.

[Tony-OH]

5 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

@Tony-OH do you recall what was said about Mullins when he came out of college and in his early time in the minors in terms of his power and how that compares to what is being said about Bradfield now?

There wasn't much being said about Mullins because he was such a low draft pick. Here was his profile page when drafted.. 

 

[RZNJ]

28 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

@Tony-OH do you recall what was said about Mullins when he came out of college and in his early time in the minors in terms of his power and how that compares to what is being said about Bradfield now?

[Aristotelian]

13 hours ago, Three Run Homer said:

He will need to be better than .038 ISO, for sure.  Maybe not that much better.  Brett Butler had an excellent career with a career ISO of about 0.085.   Billy Hamilton's career ISO was similar.  Butler had a much better hit tool and batting eye than Billy Hamilton; Hamilton was better on defense.  Brett Butler with better defense is not a crazy aspiration for EBJ, and that's a hell of a ballplayer.  

Interesting comp. Butler put up close to 50 WAR. I'd take that for sure!

If you take away the hit tool, it's a big downgrade from Butler-Ichiro to Vince Coleman/Billy Hamilton comps. 

[sportsfan8703]

Mullins played at Campbell. EBJ played at Vanderbilt. EBJ probably got more tv time than any other player in the country last year. Batting lead off for one of the more popular programs.  When you’re seen so much, your flaws get hyperfocused on.  It used to be what hurt NCAAB upperclassmen in the draft.

I think we got really lucky to have him fall to us. Teams try to hit home runs in the MLB draft, and didn’t want to take someone that they viewed as a defensive CF, and back of the lineup type. But that would be awesome if that was just his floor for us. But I think he’s got a chance to do much more. 

Also, we’ve shown we’re one of the better orgs at developing hitters now. Maybe the best. I’m not putting limits on this dude. Heck, he could be ready by next OD. He may even be a playoff run September call up ala Terrence Gore this year. 

[Just Regular]

Cedric is potent - I actually don't guess them to be very similar Bats even though the CF transition is clear.    I don't have a lot of taste for Cedric back at leadoff as I think a few teammates are much better bets to get 5 PA night in night out, but would love him closer to the middle.    It'd be against tradition for him to go ahead of the O'Hearn/Mountcastle types.

His name hasn't come up yet, but one of my favorite league walk leaders was Chone Figgins.    He scored 114 runs that year as part of an almost 900-run offense.

[Spy Fox]

4 minutes ago, Just Regular said:

Cedric is potent - I actually don't guess them to be very similar Bats even though the CF transition is clear.    I don't have a lot of taste for Cedric back at leadoff as I think a few teammates are much better bets to get 5 PA night in night out, but would love him closer to the middle.    It'd be against tradition for him to go ahead of the O'Hearn/Mountcastle types.

His name hasn't come up yet, but one of my favorite league walk leaders was Chone Figgins.    He scored 114 runs that year as part of an almost 900-run offense.

A comment in the Mullins thread Tony linked to says "Chone Figgins v2?"

EBJ seems like a better Figgins comp than Ced does.

[Frobby]

1 hour ago, Sports Guy said:

@Tony-OH do you recall what was said about Mullins when he came out of college and in his early time in the minors in terms of his power and how that compares to what is being said about Bradfield now?

Mullins didn’t make Tony’s 2015 top 30 list after a full summer at Aberdeen after being drafted.  

[ChosenOne21]

6 minutes ago, Just Regular said:

Cedric is potent - I actually don't guess them to be very similar Bats even though the CF transition is clear.    I don't have a lot of taste for Cedric back at leadoff as I think a few teammates are much better bets to get 5 PA night in night out, but would love him closer to the middle.    It'd be against tradition for him to go ahead of the O'Hearn/Mountcastle types.

His name hasn't come up yet, but one of my favorite league walk leaders was Chone Figgins.    He scored 114 runs that year as part of an almost 900-run offense.

I totally forgot Chone Figgins was a player. I think he's a pretty good comp for a successful Bradfield, though I think Bradfield is a better defender at a more premium position and will have a higher SB success rate.

[Spy Fox]

7 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Mullins didn’t make Tony’s 2015 top 30 list after a full summer at Aberdeen after being drafted.  

Always cool to look back at these old lists. 2023 was an interesting year for the group listed here with a few of them who achieved early career success (Mancini, Bundy, Givens) likely fading out of the league, while a few who struggled for a long time posted career best years (Scott, Heim, Harvey).

[Just Regular]

2 minutes ago, Spy Fox said:

A comment in the Mullins thread Tony linked to says "Chone Figgins v2?"

EBJ seems like a better Figgins comp than Ced does.

Offensively.     Chone was fun in that 3B was his best position - B-Ref Rdrs thinks he was a minus everywhere else.

We hope EBJ puts a Brooks Robinson kind of lock on CF gold gloves (sorry, Julio).    He barely has to hit a lick if he can do that.

Luhnow's Astros grew Myles Straw for the league as one data point for the Club wanting to play that kind of player, and I'd imagine on the scouting scale EBJ does everything Straw does, just much better.      Straw's put out just shy of 2 fWAR/year from 2021-2023 while hitting 244/315/307 and being on today's Mount Rushmore of CF defense.

Probably only Beavis or Butthead could comment on the Orioles offense if EBJ ever leads the league in walks as part of this group.

[Aristotelian]

Juan Pierre is another name that I keep thinking of as far as light hitting speedster CF's making solid WAR contribution without much power. 17 WAR, .295/.343/.704

[Say O!]

6 hours ago, Aristotelian said:

Juan Pierre is another name that I keep thinking of as far as light hitting speedster CF's making solid WAR contribution without much power. 17 WAR, .295/.343/.704

Important difference in measured value is that today’s offensive environment is much lower than Pierre heyday.  2000-2009 league OPS was ~.760 compared to ~.730 last year.