Samuel Basallo 2024

[Just Regular]

This forecast guesses peak wRC+ he will end up at the top of the Basallo-Holliday-Mayo group by about 145-135-125.

https://fantasy.fangraphs.com/the-top-30-projected-hitting-prospects-entering-2024/

We count the months for Holliday and Mayo now, but I'm not out yet on Basallo challenging for 129 plate appearances in the regular season and growing into part of whatever push can occur this fall.

Elias' talent portfolio, it also seems like he represents the end of a chapter - counting Kjerstad also we have 4 more rookie integrations where the newcomer probably has bigger talent than the incumbent (I'll give Cedric a push with EBJ by virtue of big MLB achievements).    By Basallo's arrival, with luck our appetite for lineup replacements will be satisfied for a long time.

 

[Tony-OH]

Disclaimer: I'm not saying Basallo is a bust or will not be good this year

Saying that, he looked absolutely awful in 3 of his four PAs tonight including almost little leaguish against a left on left slider. He was unbalanced on almost all of the off speed pitches that he saw tonight and his double was when he ambushed a first pitch fastball.

Hopefully this is just a bad game, but he did not look like the guy we saw last year, even in his small sample size in Bowie last year. I hope he isn't pressing because he's no longer than under the radar guy, but comes into this year as one of the top prospects in all of baseball.

Hopefully he won't start getting frustrated, but I could tell he was frustrated when he was dominated by two nice sliders and a 98 MPH fastball on the inner half that he watched for strike three later in the game. 

 

[Fiver6565]

8 hours ago, Tony-OH said:

Disclaimer: I'm not saying Basallo is a bust or will not be good this year

Saying that, he looked absolutely awful in 3 of his four PAs tonight including almost little leaguish against a left on left slider. He was unbalanced on almost all of the off speed pitches that he saw tonight and his double was when he ambushed a first pitch fastball.

Hopefully this is just a bad game, but he did not look like the guy we saw last year, even in his small sample size in Bowie last year. I hope he isn't pressing because he's no longer than under the radar guy, but comes into this year as one of the top prospects in all of baseball.

Hopefully he won't start getting frustrated, but I could tell he was frustrated when he was dominated by two nice sliders and a 98 MPH fastball on the inner half that he watched for strike three later in the game. 

 

I don’t think it would be a bad thing for him to struggle just a bit and have to stay in AA most of the year, especially since he can’t catch yet. Just need to pump the brakes on him getting to the majors in 2025 if that occurs. Which is fine given the backlog of players we already have, and that we have Adley at Basallo’s natural position. 

[Can_of_corn]

Just now, Fiver6565 said:

I don’t think it would be a bad thing for him to struggle just a bit and have to stay in AA most of the year, especially since he can’t catch yet. Just need to pump the brakes on him getting to the majors in 2025 if that occurs. Which is fine given the backlog of players we already have, and that we have Adley at Basallo’s natural position. 

Once again we run into the idea that if a guy isn't plus he's incapable.

[Mooreisbetter27]

16 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Once again we run into the idea that if a guy isn't plus he's incapable.

With the bolded, pretty sure Fiver is referring to the fact that Basallo won't be physically catching for a while yet due to the injury.  

[ScGO's]

24 minutes ago, Mooreisbetter27 said:

With the bolded, pretty sure Fiver is referring to the fact that Basallo won't be physically catching for a while yet due to the injury.  

Does this injury hinder him offensively? How long until fully recovered?

[Mooreisbetter27]

1 minute ago, ScGO's said:

Does this injury hinder him offensively? How long until fully recovered?

It's a stress fracture in his arm.  Supposedly it isn't supposed to be hindering him to hit.  IIRC it should be late April to early May when he will resume catching duties. 

[Frobby]

I wonder, if Basallo had closed out last season with four AA games at .222/.222/.278 (this year’s four games), instead of the four he had (.467/.500/.667), if people would have tempered their expectations for 2024 and Basallo’s next 1-2 years a little.  There was an awful lot of extrapolation going on there.   

I’m sure Basallo will be fine, but it’s also likely he’ll struggle at times in AA.   
 

[Just Regular]

AA pitching ought to be able to slow him down for awhile.

Fangraphs has him the only age-19 bat in the league, and the only age-20's Jett Williams and Roman Anthony are very fine prospects on their own.

Orioles player development has spoiled us, but I think Basallo generally needs to survive rather than thrive early to keep his standing as a top tier prospect MLB wide.

If he starts destroying AA Arms at age 19.7...

[Say O!]

I get a kick out of all the posters giddily talking about 2024 or 2025.  Perspective — if Basallo does not debut until 2026, he will still only be 21yrs old. 

[Fiver6565]

5 hours ago, Mooreisbetter27 said:

With the bolded, pretty sure Fiver is referring to the fact that Basallo won't be physically catching for a while yet due to the injury.  

correct

[LookinUp]

I've been watching some of the best high school players around struggle with command. Others look off balance hitting or not on time. It's all about getting ramped up. 

I assume Basallo will look like the dude we know he is soon enough. 

[Tony-OH]

5 hours ago, Say O! said:

I get a kick out of all the posters giddily talking about 2024 or 2025.  Perspective — if Basallo does not debut until 2026, he will still only be 21yrs old. 

Which is why I kept "arguing" that point to several posters who were more "excited." I really like Basallo's bat, and maybe it was just a real bad night, but one of the things i loved about him was his ability to stay balanced and holy crap, he was anything but balanced last night in several of his PAs. 

But it's way too early to draw any conclusions (Not saying you are). It's just an observation from one game.

[btdart20]

Just scrolling through MiLB leader boards and noticed that Ethan Salas started back in A+.

[RZNJ]

18 minutes ago, btdart20 said:

Just scrolling through MiLB leader boards and noticed that Ethan Salas started back in A+.

He was pushed to AA at the end of last year without really proving anything in A+.   I guess they decided to put the brakes on the 17 year old.