Quote:
Originally Posted by jd1020
Is Marte struggling though? He's 20 in high-A with a 130 wRC+. His average is somewhat low, but hes only striking out at 21% and walking at 11%. Given hes only 20 I don't really see that as struggling.
Walker is certainly ranked higher on every board I've seen, but I also wonder when his 80 grade game and raw power is going to start showing up.
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The raw power absolutely shows up.
He hit a line drive double at 118 mph some weeks back. He mashed a ball out of the stadium into LF shortly thereafter. The raw power is absolutely 80 grade.
Game power - yeah, it's absolutely a question. But everything on his dash board looks really good. 20 years on in AA (as opposed to Marte in A+) and in his first lap of the league he has almost identical approach stats while further demonstrating his athleticism and showing that perhaps he's capable of staying at 3b longer than anyone expected.
And in a vacuum I wouldn't say that Marte is 'struggling' but he got a cup of coffee at A+ last year and is sitting at largely the same sort productivity and performance he demonstrated at A ball last year. I worry when I see a guy appear to plateau a bit. It doesn't mean his timeline and development will stall - it means the learning curve (and thus the long-term ceiling and/or aging curve) will be a little bit different.
Guys who make the majors at 21 simply have different careers/curves (over large numbers) than those that do it at 23, who are different than 25, etc...
If I have two similarly situated players, both are 20 years old and one is showing development in AA during his first turn there, the other is looking largely stable in A+, the former is going to turn my head more. It just means different curves over the course of his career.