Minor League Games - Saturday, June 24, 2017

[allentown]

Offensively, the biggest plus on Walding is that he put up an .812 OPS, with a .280 BA at CLW. That was at age 23, which is old for a HS kid. He has a higher OPS this year at Reading, but with a pathetic .223 BA. The home field benefit is huge, especially for SLG which is about twice as high at home. He walks a lot, but he Ks a LOT. It's hard to be hugely positive about a 24-year old in AA who is striking out in almost 40% of his AB. In his hot June, he's reduced his Ks to only a third of his ABs.

[andyb]

The "main point"? This is the first mention of Walding's BA in this discussion. Or did you mean "the low OPS," and the main point being that the low OPS doesn't reflect all Walding's value becaue of his defensive superiority to Franco?

Not sure I ever said anything about low OPS other than that Walding is a better player with a low OPS than Franco is because of the defense. That was pretty clear. Low batting average (this year anyway) is part of why his OPS is low though a decent walk rate has always meant his OBP is not that low.

Walding is a little undervalued because some people look at batting average. This will be a criticism of Crawford too even when he has hopefully good seasons. I bet he gets described as a SS who hit .260 with little power. When that could be paired with a solid OBP and good defense.