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He may have gotten off to a slow start this season, but Bobby Witt Jr., the No. 7 prospect in baseball per MLB Pipeline, had a great night at the plate Wednesday. The 20-year-old shortstop went 3-for-5 with his first Double-A home run to help the Northwest Arkansas Naturals, the Royals Double-A affiliate, beat Tulsa, 9-2 at Arvest Ballpark.
Witt, whom the Royals selected second overall in 2019, led off the bottom of the third inning with a solo homer to right field off Tulsa right-hander Michael Grove. Since there was no Minor League season in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this is Witt s first taste of professional baseball outside of the Arizona Rookie League and work at Kansas City s alternate training site last year. All things considered, homering in his seventh game isn t too bad.
Hidden Gems on the Farm: The Bats
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Photo by Jennifer Stewart/MLB Photos via Getty Images
Transitioning away from Monday’s look at the farm system’s hurlers, we can now examine one of my favorite types of prospect. These guys are the neglected hitters, whose swings may have a few peculiarities, or they may simply not have a defensive position, or maybe they only have one loud tool. Each of them face substantial obstacles to success at every point of their baseball journey, more so than even their other teammates on the slog through the lower levels of Minor League Baseball. As a brief reminder that even analytics warlocks still have rules to abide by, here’s the regulatory framework for this exercise:
Hidden Gems on the Farm: The Arms
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Photo by Jennifer Stewart/MLB Photos via Getty Images
Before this year’s minor league season begins, one of the commenters here at LSB had suggested what appeared to be a fun exercise. The idea was simple: dive into the farm system and see if you can dig up any under-the-radar names to keep an eye on this year. With the wealth of depth in the Rangers’ present MiLB system, identifying potential gems that have been concealed because they were either late-round selections, or were paid low international signing bonuses shouldn’t be too tough.
Kevin Richards (R)
The five players in bold are members of our Community Prospect List Top 30, with Soderstrom and Puason in particular ranking in the top four in the A’s farm system.
The best way to look at this group is to split them up by draft year, including three players who went unselected in last year’s short five-round draft but then signed afterward as free agents.
2019: Dicochea (8th), Schofield-Sam (12th), Valenzuela (13th), Coletti (17th), Cushing (22nd), Jones (27th), Baram (30th), Nambiar (34th), Walkinshaw (36th), Leal (38th), Whittlesey (undrafted)
2018: Butler (6th), Cota (10th), Martinez (21st)
2017: Berrios (20th)
Int’l (with ages): Granado (24), Mora (23), Armenteros (22), Rivas (22), Richards (21), Santos (21), Bautista (20), Wright (20), Buelvas (19), Perez (19, acquired in trade), Puason (18)