Quote:
Originally Posted by Prison Bitch
I'm not seeing Springers troubles in minor league play
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I presumed he meant Springer's very brief struggles in AA during his age 22 season.
I don't think that's exactly a fair comparison given that it was his first full season as a professional and while Starling proceeded to have an okay AFL, Springer absolutely detonated the league at 22.
And if anybody's ready to say that Starling's set up for the kind of season that Springer had at 23....well I'll gladly take that bet. 37 bombs, 45 SBs, a .411 OBP and a strong BB rate to help off-set the relatively high K rate. Even more amazing is that the guy got
better in AAA (which goes back to my position that the PCL isn't much better than the TX league to determine what you truly have in a hitter).
If the Royals are extremely lucky, they'll get a player similar to Chris Young in his D-Backs days, IMO. And again, that presumes a fair amount of development that still needs to come for Bubba. And also remember that the 20-25 HR seasons that Young had in AZ are probably 15-18 HR seasons in KC.
That's not without value, but A) it requires additional positive development from Starling that can't be counted on and B) it's still not as good as Lorenzo Cain.