Quote:
Originally Posted by duncan_idaho
Bubba Starling is the most talented physical player the royals have probably ever drafted and one of the 10-15 best raw athletic products in the draft in the past decade. Just a great example of tools vs skills.
Two cases of bad luck also significantly shift the perception. If Ventura lives and Kyle Zimmer isnt doing his best Sam Jackson impersonation (Mr. Glass), it’s very different.
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The great misnomer - the 'hit tool'.
'Hit' isn't a tool - as you've noted, it's a skill. Now some could argue that guys with quick wrists and excellent eyesight are going to naturally be able to hit the ball squarely more often, but there are a lot of guys who fit that bill who never develop a good enough path to the ball to have a playable 'hit tool'...because hit isn't a tool, it's a skill.
For an everyday player, the hit tool is the most important and it's not a particularly close question, IMO. Raw power means shit if the hit tool isn't there and it can't translate. Ultimately that's what doomed Starling - his hit tool was abysmal; still is. So his offensive profile was a mansion built on sand. All that raw power and game speed simply didn't matter when he couldn't put barrel to ball.
For me, hit tool for hitters and command for pitchers are the key. And I don't mean control - I mean command within the zone. Guys that can command their fastball to all 4 quadrants are so far ahead of everyone else, provided they have basic threshold velocity (91-92 or so for a starting pitcher, IMO). If a pitcher doesn't demonstrate command in the zone, they're probably not gonna get very far unless they're Jordan Hicks and throwing 105.