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How much contact does Bobby Witt Jr. need to make to be a star? Even with a raucous 2021 spring performance on his ledger, there are reasonable concerns among pro scouts who saw him about how often he’s going to swing and miss. None of this is new. Witt swung and missed a lot during his showcase summer but his subsequent fall and spring were strong enough to make him the second overall pick of the 2019 draft class, and he’s the type of talent who’d be a threat to go first in most drafts.
His skillset compares quite closely to Trevor Story‘s. There are going to be some strikeouts here because Witt’s swing path makes it hard for him to get to pitches down and in, but his combination of defensive fit and game power make him a likely impact player anyway. He’s is a big, athletic young guy who moves so well that he makes the field look small when he’s running the bases or ranging for a grounder, and he is very likely to not only stay at shortstop but be quite good ther
J.J. Picollo on the Royals minor league rosters
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Royals Assistant General Manager of Player Personnel J.J. Picollo met with members of the media Thursday night to discuss the different rosters at each level, some of the players and thoughts on how the staff will have to manage them during the season.
Let’s toss some read meat your way and talk about Bobby Witt, Jr. and why he was sent to Double-A first. The staff thought for Witt that it made more sense for him to execute his plan at-bat to at-bat at the Double-A level, where he will face a little more velocity. They believe that level will help him to become the most well-rounded player that he can be. He will work on the left side of the infield with the possibility of pushing Hunter Dozier to the outfield if Witt should shove his way quickly to the bigs.
The 35 Royals minor leaguers who could end up in the big leagues
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I could write up prospect ranking as you see around the web, but is there a point to that other than people like numbers next to player’s names so they can argue about if you were right or wrong? Instead, let’s follow Kyle Glaser’s lead at Baseball America and try to identify the 35 players who will make it to the majors.
Per Glaser, each farm system will have 2-3 All-Stars per system; on average, they will have 10-11 regulars and 35 total players that will reach the big leagues at some point. So instead of breaking down the players 1 to 35, I’ll change it up by putting the players into those buckets. Of course, Kyle Isbel and Jake Brentz have already crossed themselves off that list by cracking the bigs this season when we look back, but 35 other candidates still fit well.