Minor League Equivalencies

I have MLE's for all AAA and AA players. First off, I'd like to thank the creator of the site MinorLeagueSplits. I used this site to get this year's park factors. While I realize one year park factors can be fluky, the park data that I used previously was a little outdated, since this stuff is not normally published anywhere. In addition, there have been some new parks, so I made the decision to sacrifice a lrager sample size to get more current data. If minor league splits keeps up the great work, I'll have multi year park factors in the future.

Some highlights:

There isn't really anyone in the minors having the kind of year that screams "call him up now" Every year there's always some journeyman who puts up great minoe league numbers but is not a prospect. This year, that's Hiram Bocachica. He has the best MLE line for any player with a minimum of 100 at bats at 295/381/601.

He's also 30, has never hit anywhere near this well, its only 163 at bats, and he's fortunate to be a ballplayer and not in the joint (name literally translates to mouth girl).

Others hitting well are Jason Botts (276/345/536), Kevin Kouzmanoff (317/367/505), and Scott Hairston (278/347/521). These guys are not super young (25-26) and may turn into decent players, but are not can't miss prospects.

For the real prospects, 2 of the best are Lastings Milledge (265/368/458) and Joey Votto (272/339/483) Votto will wait his turn behind Scott Hatteberg. Milledge looks great, its almost his actual minor league numbers untranslated - he's playing in what has been the best pitchers park in AAA. I hope Omar keeps him, As an Angel fan I'd rather face Barry Zito for 2 more months than Milledge for 6 years.

James Loney (317/357/451) is the Dodger's version of Casey Kotchman. Howie Kendrick (292/326/471) is now a fixture in the big A.

Ryan Raburn (259/326/465) is 25, playing in Toledo, and not a hyped prospect. He plays 2B, and runs well, so he could turn out to be interesting.

Carlos Quentin's numbers look a lot better than last time I ran MLE's, mainly because Tucson has not been a hitters park this year. I have no idea if that will hold up or is a pure fluke. Quentin is at 246/359/409, with much of the value coming from getting plunked.

Cleveland now has Shin Soo Choo (279/337/423). He'll be a good one, his bat looks like Coco Crisp, he's fast, and has a rightfielder's arm. Good move by Mark Shapiro, and Choo just recently beat Seattle 1-0 with a homer.

Chris Young (Cf, not the P) is hitting 233/310/445. The next Mike Cameron.

Alex Gordon (245/326/421) is playing well for a first year player. Delmon Young (301/316/422). Where's the power? Looks like he can hit swinging at everything, but can't drive the ball that way, at least not yet.

There was an argument on Baseballthinkfactory.com about comparing Dustin Pedroia and Alberto Callaspo. Alberto's raw numbers look better this year, but translated they are amazingly similar: Callaspo (283/339/377) and Pedroia (272/340/375). Pedroia was better last year, and I think he's the better prospect, but both are good players and should be starting at 2B next season.

Steven Drew is up in the majors now, but might not be quite ready (244/289/396). I am sad to say the numbers for the Angel's #1 prospect do not look so good right now (214/281/384). Brandon Wood plays in the best hitters park in the Texas league. Its possible that the one year factors overstate how much the park helps hitters, and it should be noted that the Travelers have played a majority of their games traveling this season, and should have some good homestands coming up. My stats may be too harsh on Wood, but if I adjusted them, give him every benefit of the doubt, I can't see his MLE batting average any better than .230 at this point. He's slumped to less than .280 in AA, and strikes out in a third of his at bats. Its a good sign that he has taken more walks this year, 50 so far, but he absolutely needs to improve his ability to make contact, or the great career people think he'll have just isn't going to happen.

See all the MLE's at :
MLE 2006