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The Next Dan Uggla? Another Look At Cody Cipriano

All season Rays minor leaguer Cody Cipriano has caught my attention. Our own FreeZorilla did a wonderful job of introducing Cipriano to us yesterday in his minor league profile of him. At age 24, Cipriano is having a really nice season for Class A+ Port Charlotte. As FreeZorilla mentioned, Cipriano has played most of his games at second base. When I think of Cody, I immediately think of Dan Uggla. They share similar body types (~6'0 200 lbs) as well as a similar skill set. Uggla plays second base for the Marlins, but is a butcher defensively. Cipriano,a righty like Uggla, rated as average defensively in 2008, but would probably best be served as a first basemen. Uggla would probably fare better as a first basemen, but the Marlins have Jorge Cantu there, and he might be even worst than Uggla defensively.

With the comparison in mind, I decided to take a look at Cipriano and Uggla. Luckily, like Cipriano, Uggla, at age 24, spent the first part of his season also playing for his organization's advanced A club.  

Here is the comparison:

Star-divide

Player

Age

Level

PA

AVG

OBP

SLG

OPS

HR

2B

Uggla

24

A+

140

0.336

0.422

0.600

1.022

6

13

Cipriano

24

A+

169

0.320

0.392

0.515

0.907

5

14

Uggla has the OPS advantage as he put up very similar power numbers in 30 less plate apperances. Surprisingly, while Uggla is a free swinger now (25.6 K% career), he showed very good plate discipline in the minors, something Cipriano is struggling with.

Here are the plate discipline numbers:

Player

Age

Level

BB

K

BB%

K%

BB/K

Uggla

24

A+

17

21

12.1

15

0.81

Cipriano

24

A+

19

48

10.1

28.4

0.40

While the walks are similar, remember Cipriano has more PAs. He has more than twice as many strikeouts and his BB/K rate is less than half of Uggla's. Like Cipriano, Uggla was never thought of as a prospect and the Arizona Diamondbacks left him exposed to the Rule 5 draft. Two years later, at age 26, Uggla hit .282/.339/.480 with 27 home runs and 26 doubles as a member of the Florida Marlins. Even with terrible defense, Uggla averaged 3.9 WAR from 2006-2008. I'm not saying Cipriano is going to be the next Dan Uggla, but back in 2004 nobody expected Dan Uggla to be the next Dan Uggla either.

0 recs  |  Comment 10 comments |

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Isn't he a little old

to be in A+?

We need Robots....The time is now Bud, Stern, and Goodell.
Seriously, Officiating Sucks in this Country

by Some other guy who does not care on Jun 17, 2009 10:06 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Ummmm

What?

We need Robots....The time is now Bud, Stern, and Goodell.
Seriously, Officiating Sucks in this Country

by Some other guy who does not care on Jun 17, 2009 6:21 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Be a better nerd

Swav or Die
For the lulz

by SRQman on Jun 18, 2009 1:29 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

I think it's 'cause he's a college guy

hasn’t been in the minors too long IIRC

I could be wrong though

by staplemaniac on Jun 17, 2009 10:36 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Yep

A bit old, but thats why he’s not a prospect.

www.draysbay.com

by Tommy Rancel on Jun 17, 2009 11:19 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

So was Uggla

If that’s the comparison. He was 26 in AA when he was taken in the Rule 5 draft.

Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."

by Brickhaus on Jun 17, 2009 1:07 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

But....

Benzo? If you didn’t know he is immortal and will work for free.

by matthan on Jun 17, 2009 11:07 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

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