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A Look At The Rays' Sean Rodriguez and Minor League Equivalency

A lot of people see Sean Rodriguez's gaudy stat line in Triple-A and think one of a three things: 1) This kid is a beast and he's going to mash. 2) This kid's numbers are inflated thanks to a hitter's friendly ball park a.k.a he's a product of his environment. 3) Wow, those are good numbers; probably a little too good, but I'll take it.

After reading most of the "various chatter" on the site over the past few days options 1 and 3 seem to be the most popular with just very few leaning towards option 2. Some believe that Rodriguez is 2009 Ben Zobrist with a latin twist while others see an average hitter with slightly above average pop. According to Minorleaguesplit's equivalency calculator, Option 3 seems to be the most reasonable option; at least at this point

This year he's hitting .301/.402/.622. With those numbers and that league/team selected, the calculator has him hitting this line with the Rays .233/.319./458 with 21 home runs and 14 doubles in 381 at-bats.

The good news is that even with the adjustments for parks/leagues, Rodriguez's power numbers look to hold true. In 2009, there are 23 players who are qualified as second basemen (Ben Zobrist included) who have amassed at least 380 plate appearances. Seven of them have a SLG% over .458. The numbers don't reflect much plate discipline and that is definitely a knock on Rodriguez, but plate discipline can be developed, and I'm sure the Rays are going to beat it into his head from the start.

Of course this is far from exact science. It's unrealistic to think that just cause the calculator spits out these numbers that he will live up (or down) to those numbers (although it would be nice in some cases). However, in addtion to the raw minor league numbers, the scouting reports, and more importantly seeing Sean Rodriguez, Sean John Rodriguez, SJR, S-Riddy, Puffy Rodriguez or (insert nickname here) in extended Major League action, hopefully this gives us a small glimpse of what we could expect.