Eric Young Jr. – 2B/OF Rockies
The Rockies recalled Eric Young Jr. on May 1 to replace the injured Brad Hawpe on their roster as the club searches for an answer to the struggles of Clint Barmes. Young has been kicking around the high minors for a couple of years now. He struggled this spring, hitting just .222 and failing to make the roster, but it doesn’t appear he was in the Rockies plans to break with the team in almost any event.
Young is, from a fantasy standpoint, an intriguing blend of speed and contact. Last year in AAA Eric hit .299 with a .347 BHIP%. Young has repeated high BHIP%s in his pro career due to his plus speed and that should play in to his game at the MLB level as well. Eric’s zone control is reasonable, as his BB and K rates show. He won’t kill your SLG%, especially out of an MI slot, and he’ll even pop an occasional HR once he gets settled. The number you are really interested in however is SBs. He had 58 last year in 552 AAA ABs, 46 in 476 AA ABs in 2008, and an ungodly 160 combined in A and high-A in 2006 and 2007.
This just in, Eric can run.
It’s hard to see what the Rockies don’t see here. Young is a gifted athlete, as his father was, and he’s said to be a hard worker. His defense isn’t great but while he doesn’t exactly make you comfortable at 2B, he’s not a complete hack either.
Young has struggled with major league pitching but he hasn’t seen enough of it yet to be expected to find his feet, and he really has accomplished everything there is to accomplish in the minors. The ongoing Barmes saga has provided Young the opportunity here, and even if he doesn’t stick as an everyday 2B for the Rockies he should eventually earn 300+ ABs as a super utility guy … You know … sort of like Julio Lugo … only good …
If he gets 300+ ABs he could steal 30 bases. That kind of SB production from an MI qualification is always useful to a fantasy owner, almost no matter what little else he contributes. Eventually, if he earns 500 ABs, he could steal 50, but Young's chances of earning 500 ABs in a given year is still an open question.
Long-Term Fantasy Grade C+
Seas Lvl AB XBH HR SB AVG BB% K% OBP SLG 2006 A 482 39 5 87 .295 11.8 15.6% .391 .409 2007 A+ 540 48 8 73 .291 7.5 19.4% .359 .430 2008 AA 403 31 3 46 .290 12.8 19.1% .391 .392 2009 AAA 472 38 7 58 .299 10.1 16.7% .387 .430 2009 MLB 57 2 1 4 .246 6.6 21.1% .295 .316 2010 MLB 26 2 0 4 .308 13.3 7.7% .400 .423
Mike Moustakas – 3B Royals
The second player taken in the 2007 draft, Mike Moustakas has been a bit of a puzzle to the Royals since turning pro. It appears however that a few of the puzzle pieces are falling into place.
Mike hit just .254 in High-A Wilmington last year, but he did slug 17 homers posting a .254/.303/.432 slash line. There was a lot of handwringing in the Royals' organization and among prospect pundits about those numbers, but how do you like these: .292/.331/.472? That’s’ a little better right? That is Michael's slash line on the road and that leaves him hitting .208/.269/.381 at home in Wilmington’s Frawley Stadium.
Playing at home last year Mike was almost a completely different hitter as further evidenced by his 58.3% FB% and lowly 6% line drive% as opposed to 33.5% and 18.2% on the road. Clearly Frawley was living rent free in Mikes head as he tried to lift the ball in an effort to be more productive. This year in AA NW Arkansas Mike is raking at a lofty .418/.500/.909 clip. with 6 HRs in 55 ABs and entered weekend hitting .571 in 21 May ABs. He’s dead-on AA pitching with a 20.8% line drive %.,he's adding loft (52.1% FB) and generally making opposition pitchers miserable.
An additional remarkable aspect of his start is that on fly balls alone he’s hitting .417 and slugging 1.250 despite a highly-unfavorable .222 BHIP%. It’s scary to think what will happen when that corrects.
Mike has nicely filled out his 6-0/195 frame as a pro adding punch to his quick hands, superb contact skills, with what is now plus power. He has adjusted to pro breaking pitches and started to use more of the field after arriving as a pull hitter. He has also adapted nicely to 3B after his physicality forced him out of SS, the position at which he was drafted.
Pay less attention to his AVG over the last two years and pay more attention to his healthy K rates. Mike's .272 AVG had the drag of a less-than-favorable .289 BHIP% and as we noted, last year his AVG was suppressed buy home field issues and an overall .275 BHIP%. Perhaps the most intriguing number from this year's line however is his 14.5% BB rate. Mike tends to chase simply to put the ball in play and try to create something. If he continues to be willing to take more walks he’ll get more pitches to drive and that will be an important part of his development as he takes on more sophisticated pitching in the higher levels.
Mike missed about three weeks this year off the start of the season with a strained oblique but his hot run since his return has re-established him as an elite prospect . It was thought that Mike would have to move to LF to give berth to Alex Gordon but Gordon’s struggles has reversed that formula and if Mike continues to tear up AA he could be knocking on the door not too long after the break which is exactly the timetable we put him on last year.
Long-Term Fantasy Grade - A
Seas Lvl AB XBH HR SB AVG BB% K% OBP SLG 2007 R 41 5 0 0 .293 8.9% 19.5% .356 .439 2008 A 459 50 22 8 .272 4.7% 17.3% .337 .468 2009 A+ 492 50 16 10 .250 6.0% 18.3% .297 .421 2010 AA 55 15 6 0 .418 14.5% 14.5% .500 .909
