Twins Daily 2019 Top Prospects: #10 Akil Baddoo

"He could also use some refinement in the field."

I did find this sentence a bit surprising. It seems curious to me that Baddoo isn't a strong fielder. I assume the range is more than adequate. What does he need to improve in the field? Also, did Baddoo grow up playing baseball or was it a Kepler type situation where he has some catching up to do time wise simply being on a baseball field?

How does he pronounce his name?

Baddoo's jump in K's was suprising. 

Does any site keep swinging strikes vs looking strikes on batters?   Id be interested to know if he is watching strikes cross the zone.  

Baddoo has big league leadoff hitter written all over him. Hope he stays healthy and keeps making the adjustments required at each step. FSL will be a great challenge.

My gut tells me I would rank him lower than 10.  Then after looking at #11-#20, the only player I would move ahead of him is Rortvedt.  Will be interesting to see how he does in 2019, although we could say that about the entire Top 20++++++.

Baddoo's jump in K's was suprising. 

 

Does any site keep swinging strikes vs looking strikes on batters?   Id be interested to know if he is watching strikes cross the zone.  

http://www.statcorner.com/bat.php?id=668731

Yes, he was K'd looking more often than league average but actually K'd swinging slightly less than league average.

Also worth noting that his K rate in April and May was 32%, but he seems to have made some pretty big adjustments and his K rate was at 20% for the rest of the season.  Not sure how his looking/swinging splits might have changed between those periods.

How does he pronounce his name?

I can't help you on the pronunciation, but I think he has one of very best names in baseball!

In many cases I think the Twins should "rush" their prospects quicker through the minors as part of the rebuilding process.

But, that view isn't a blanket across every prospect.  I think players like Baddoo should be moved slower because the baseball skills are not as fully developed as the athletic skills.  The OBP - SLG trade off is one symptom of this claim.  Give the kid time tof figure it out a bit in the minors and he might be able to combine the two.  

At the same time, I think the minor league competition can develop bad habits that you can get away with against lower competition but becomes apparent in the big leagues.  So, moving a guy like him up the ladder one step at a time makes sense.

Uh-Kill. 

Huh. His last name is silent?

I know he projects well as an outfielder, but Baddoo has yet to play high A ball. I would have Miranda higher than Baddoo (I am surprised that Wade, Littell, and Rortvedt are also ahead of Miranda).

Huh. His last name is silent?

Like all the great, he goes by just one name

One thing you cannot teach is OBP, and the walk rate.  I am very excited about this.  Twins have far too many swing and miss guys up higher that chase.

Like all the great, he goes by just one name

If I'm his agent, he changes it from Uh Kill to Killa. And networks with G Cinco pronto.

Seth, Miranda played 27 games at High A and 104 at Low A. Baddoo played 113 at Low A. I know we all hope they are both successful. I just think Miranda has out performed Baddoo to this point. Obviously, Baddoo could end up as the better player, but to see him now as #10 and Miranda as #20 is arguably surprising. 

In terms of prospect status. Take a look at some of the guys who were going from Cedar Rapids to Fort Myers last year and what happened to them, guys like Lewin Diaz and Travis Blankenhorn. I think a lot of things can get exposed in this jump that Baddoo's about to make, pitchers in the FSL are a lot more advanced than in the MWL.

Ugh. A Diaz analogy for Baddoo.

The reason Diaz has 'disappeared' from the top prospect conversation, is that he shouldn't have been in that conversation in the first place (heading into 2018).

If Baddoo OPS's 598 at Fort Myers this season (as Diaz did last year), he will have done it as a player with significant defensive value and flexibility, value on the bases, and at the age of 20...as apposed to Diaz who did so as a player with zero defensive flexibility and next-to-zero defensive value, zero value on the bases...and at the age of 21. (Also, Blankenhorn never saw Fort Myers until his age 21 season...spending his age 20 season in Cedar Rapids being about as good offensively as Baddoo was last year at 19)

I won't try to predict the future for any of these guys, but I'm guessing most prospect rankers are going to give Baddoo more rope than Blankenhorn and a lot more rope than Diaz.

Unfortunately, walk rate in the low minors has extremely low predictive value for future performance. Chris Mitchell (who had a stat-based prospect ranking system at Fangraphs and was eventually hired by a front office) ignored walk rate almost completely until AA. And for reference, Buxton and Sano both had BB% and K% rates in Cedar Rapids very similar Baddoo last year.

You are correct about part of this.  Earlier in this thread, it was stated that Baadoo was in the low 30% range the first two months, then dropped to the low 20's the last 4. (strikeout rate).  Also a lot of the called looking K's were very marginal.  It is hard to tell, but a walk rate is hard to teach, especially if their is not a big chase rate.