Ronnie Welty

[oldfan]

Tony, Baseball America seems to like this guy, any word from your tour on him?

[QBsILLEST1]

He's a major sleeper. My bold prediction is this year I think he puts himself on the map as a top 100 prospect. He definately has the potential, I think he may be overlooked because he went to a JuCo if I remember right. Hopefully he improves on his walk rate so he can be a major league ball player.

[Stotle]

Agreed. I was surprised to find my Top 30 (on the sticky Top 30 thread in this forum) was the only one to contain Welty. Granted, it was back in the fall. I think more people are warming up to him now.

[mler1019]

He's a major sleeper. My bold prediction is this year I think he puts himself on the map as a top 100 prospect. He definately has the potential, I think he may be overlooked because he went to a JuCo if I remember right. Hopefully he improves on his walk rate so he can be a major league ball player.

Top 100 in all of baseball???

[Big Mac]

Agreed. I was surprised to find my Top 30 (on the sticky Top 30 thread in this forum) was the only one to contain Welty. Granted, it was back in the fall. I think more people are warming up to him now.

Do you think he will start at Delmarva?

[QBsILLEST1]

Top 100 in all of baseball???

Yessir....very bold prediction, but he definately has the ability and talent. Especially if he can become more patient, he already doesnt strike out very much.

[Big Mac]

Yessir....very bold prediction, but he definately has the ability and talent. Especially if he can become more patient, he already doesnt strike out very much.

He strikes out about 1 in every 4 AB's.

He strikes out about 5 times as much as he walks, that's why I'm a bit skeptical.

[LookinUp]

Agreed. I was surprised to find my Top 30 (on the sticky Top 30 thread in this forum) was the only one to contain Welty. Granted, it was back in the fall. I think more people are warming up to him now.

Technically, he was considered for your top 30 but didn't actually make it.

[stef]

Yessir....very bold prediction, but he definately has the ability and talent. Especially if he can become more patient, he already doesnt strike out very much.

I can only go by the stats but that K rate has got to improve:

http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/W/Ronald-Welty.shtml

I hope you are right about the ability and talent!

[Stotle]

Technically, he was considered for your top 30 but didn't actually make it.

You may be right about the OH thread (I don't remember) but he did make it in the end -- I've gotten in trouble for linking in the past, so I don't want to post the link, but he made the top 30 (around 24, I believe). As I recall, the OH thread was in October and Jon and I compiled our list in November (though the write-ups didn't post till December).

[QBsILLEST1]

He strikes out about 1 in every 4 AB's.

He strikes out about 5 times as much as he walks, that's why I'm a bit skeptical.

Yeah I was wrong, he struck out a lot last year. So he definately needs to improve his contact and walk rates. But he was said to be working on that in the offseason, so hopefully we will see some imrovement from our youngster-remember he is pretty young still, plenty of time to polish his skill set(s)

[Stotle]

Do you think he will start at Delmarva?

I think he certainly is ready for Delmarva, but this is an organizational decision I wouldn't feel qualified commenting on. I don't speak with anyone in the FO so my take is 100% based on evaluation of the player and not how I think the organization views him. He handled Short-season ball well last year and played better as the season progressed.

For those concerned about Ks, he cut his strikeout rate almost in half in August (which is about 35% of the season) -- 1 SO/5.92 AB.

[Tony-OH]

Welty's K rate in Bleufield last year is a major, major red flag. He certainly has some tools to work with and it'll be interesting to see how he performs at Delmarva this year, but I think it's extremely premature to start putting him on prospect lists.

[Stotle]

Welty's K rate in Bleufield last year is a major, major red flag. He certainly has some tools to work with and it'll be interesting to see how he performs at Delmarva this year, but I think it's extremely premature to start putting him on prospect lists.

I think that's certainly reasonable. I also think it somewhat ignores that he dropped his K-rate from every 3.5 ABs in his first two months to almost every 6 ABs in the last third of the season. As QBsILLEST1 pointed out, he was off a lot of radars because he wasn't a D-I player (most don't even pay attention to D-I college ball, let alone JuCo ball), but if we can put high school players on prospect lists, JuCos are certainly fair game. It's all personal preference.

For those interested, Chandler-Gilbert CC (Airzona) is a very solid program, producing some note-worthy MLers (and prospects) incuding Ethier, Sarfate, Eric Young Jr. (with Ethier transfering to Arizona State, eventually). I'm sure there are more, though I imagine most ended up as MiL filler.

[jamesenoch]

From Baseball America's 2009 Organization Talent Rankings Article :

http://www.baseballamerica.com/online/prospects/rankings/organization-talent-rankings/2009/267864.html

Prepare For Takeoff: Outfielder Ronnie Welty has a lanky body and needs to add strength to grow into his frame. If he does, he could become a prototypical right fielder, with power and arm strength. His two seasons in a wood-bat junior college league in Arizona helped him make a quick transition to pro ball.