Minor League Games - Monday, June 26, 2017

andyb 2017-06-27 11:56:29 UTC #23

I don't think Hall gets in my top 30. While young for his draft class he does benefit from the Baseball Reference year cutoff bias in that he turns 22 in July and we all really look at him based on the 21 on his Baseball Reference line. He is a college 1B that is in Low A rather than High A. As with Hoskins we should discount those stats a bit since he is more experienced than other player in the SAL. Power is legit but the BB rate is also not that great which might give him issues at higher levels.

He is not a non-prospect. We just have enough depth where I don't think he gets in the top 30.

phillychuck 2017-06-27 12:27:06 UTC #24

Looking at Squire's list, I would have Hall about where he does. I can't see any reason to skip the players in Squire's 26-30 group ahead of him based on either pedigree or performance. Honestly, 13 HRs in 75 games (missing 20 for injury) at Lakewood is the equivalent of about 40 HRs in Reading. He's also leading the team in BA, a few points ahead of Moniak. As andyb points out, Hall is about 1/2 year older than the best college prospects in low-A ball--college players who start in Short-Season usually skip a level or are promoted mid-season in their first year or two. If Hall ends up in Reading next season he can "catch up" to the appropriate age group (like Kingery did this season).

andyb 2017-06-27 12:46:32 UTC #25

Hall is a little closer to Kyle Martin than Hoskins. He has hit a few more HRs than Martin did at Lakewood but the BB/K ratios are similar. The HRs are impressive at Lakewood. It just remains to be seen whether he has the other parts of the hit tool that he would need to succeed at higher levels. This does not mean that guys like Ortiz and Pickett don't have the very same questions at Williamsport. It just means that we really need college players to jump to High A in their first full year to have a good evaluation of their skills.

I actually might take all of Squire's 26-30 group ahead of Hall. Morales is an unknown so really we should see him pitch first, but if he is a mid-90s guy he is probably a better prospect. We know Garcia has already made it to AA (and should be back next week). Howard as a 2nd round pick starts ahead of a 14th round pick on pedigree. Stephen is probably in the same group as Hall. Not a lot of data yet on him. Austin Davis is probably in the majors by the end of the year. Squire's list is also very position player heavy. And he forgot a few (Eshelman?, Tirado?).... Guys like Kyle Young and a number of other second tier pitching prospects are arguably in the same group as Hall also. Just a deep system that unfortunately has few stars at the moment.