On the heels of the recent surplus of draft picks, the Bowling Green Hot Rods had six position players hold spots on the top 30 prospect list recently put together by mr. maniac.
|
Name |
Rank |
Age |
Position |
Avg |
OBP |
SLG |
wOBA |
|
Josh Sale |
7 |
20 |
LF |
0.264 |
0.386 |
0.504 |
0.403 |
|
Drew Vettleson |
8 |
20 |
RF |
0.298 |
0.358 |
0.455 |
0.367 |
|
Ryan Brett |
10 |
20 |
2B |
0.32 |
0.372 |
0.436 |
0.382 |
|
Tyler Goeddel |
13 |
19 |
3B |
0.251 |
0.325 |
0.4 |
0.346 |
|
Jake Hager |
14 |
19 |
SS |
0.278 |
0.331 |
0.383 |
0.319 |
|
Jeff Malm |
21 |
21 |
1B |
0.303 |
0.388 |
0.517 |
0.403 |
However there is another young man, albeit at the age of 22 who is 2nd in the Midwest League in wOBA (.416) for players with a minimum of 140 plate appearances, and his name is Alejandro Segovia. Here's the wild thing about Segovia's ride: he's doing it with a BABIP of .247. For context the rest of the top 10 has an average BABIP of .343 and a median of .354. The 2nd lowest is .280.
Segovia is getting it done with lots of power, including a league leading .300 ISO, and strong plate discipline (11.6% BB rate, 15.8% strikeout rate). 17 of Segovia's 31 hits have gone for extra bases including 9 home runs in just 146 plate appearances. Given the pop and low strikeout rate, I'm not sure there is much reason to be concerned with the BABIP.
Segovia may be a bit old for the league, but there's one piece of information still omitted. Segovia is a catcher, a position that often lags in offensive development.
Where did Segovia emerge from? Segovia was signed in the summer of 2007 as a 17-year-old international free agent out of Venezuela. In 2009, as a 19-year-old Segovia blistered the Venezuelan Summer League to the tune of .349/.417/.545 with 7 jacks in 189 plate appearances. Segovia was promoted the stateside Gulf Coast League where he quieted considerably. 2010 was spent with Princeton, where his plate discipline (1BB, 19K) and power (ISO .062) fell apart.
The Rays kept things progressing, advancing Segovia to Hudson Valley in 2011 where he moderately rebounded to a slash line of .276/.364/.414. In 2012, Segovia found himself in full season ball sharing time with another 22-year-old, Matt Rice. Rice was actually named to the mid-season all-star team. Segovia, has had a caught stealing rate of 43% for his career, but that number has plummeted to 22% this season (11 of 49).
Segovia is still largely going unnoticed, and with valid reason. As mentioned he is old for the league. There have been 9 catchers in the Midwest League since 2009 who were 22 or younger and posted a wOBA of .365 or greater. Only 19 year-old Wil Myers is a top prospect. Rob Brantley (Detroit), Jason Hagerty (San Diego), and Chun Hsiu-Chen are C-C+ prospects in their organization while others have flamed out entirely, moved off the position or are still posting decent numbers but not advancing in the system.
The Rays have several recent high draft picks in the system led by Justin O'Connor and Luke Bailey. I look forward to the farm competition from the Venezuelan contingent of Oscar Hernandez and Alejandro Segovia.