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I agree his K rate has not been good. One of my biggest pet peeves as an MLB fan is hitters who K too often, and pitchers who walk too many. My favorite players are the George Brett and Tony Gwynn types who hit and get on base. There's not many of them left. So reluctantly, I have accepted a few of the guys with the K rates between 25 and 30 are more common in today's game. I mean, Salvy remains my second favorite Royal of all time despite his often times embarrassing swings and misses.
Pratto's OBP in the minors is more of what I'm hoping can be a consistent thing (along with a K rate of 24.6% this year). Get on base, hit some dingers, and we have someone that serviceable in the back end of the lineup. You may very well be correct in your assumption that he's not MLB-level player. We throw these numbers around but really it's the eye test that we trust. And it didn't look good his first time.
I think MJ, Witt, Vinnie, and Salvy are good for the top 4 in the lineup. MJ obviously had some really bad swings early on but his at bats look much better lately, he gets on base and he has shown the ability to hit lefties. That's why I have him leading off. Plus, I just haven't been on board with Witt batting lead off.
So those are my top 4 in the lineup, followed by matchups that may favor Oli/Isbel/Fran in the 5 and 6, the AAA Massey we saw in 2022 batting 6th or 7th. I dunno, obviously that's what this year is all about. Figuring out who can perform at this level and who can't.
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