Just How Could Ben Watson Be????
I was curious about comparing Ben Watson to a certain prominent prospect in pro baseball who has rocketed up the prospect rankings this season. He played in the ACC as recently as 2023. I initially thought of the two as having loosely similar hitter profiles in college, but following further research to my claim I have become even more intrigued.
I've attached two images with some quantifiers for each player. Ben's 2024 stats in the ACC are compared to the prospect's 2023 stats while also in the ACC. I also added some ratings according to Pitcher DIGS site:
https://sites.google.com/view/pitcherdigs/home?authuser=1
which takes all of the stats of the players and outputs handy little ratings for each major hitter quality, such as contact ability, ability to draw walks or as some say "eye", Barrel Contact (quality of contact), Power, and Run. The ACC player was known as a contact hitter in college and has since become a player that crushes the ball to all fields with impressive exit velo's doing considerable damage to put up runs.
This prospect has made changes to their swing in both bat speed and swing path, under the tutelage of their team's advanced development program since being drafted. The changes have led to him becoming a young player with elite future projections that could pan out as soon as next year in the MLB. So this isn't to say that Ben is equal a blue chip prospect in pro baseball, but maybe that he could make a few tweaks to become EVEN BETTER! As well that I feel he's undervalued to have not been taken in the most recent Rule 4 draft.
Benny Swats Forever
Anyone care to guess who the former ACC player in question might be???
5 Replies
1y
It is a big "if" though assuming he will get more aggressive, in the air, etc like KC has. Campbell blew up this year. Will be interesting to see if he keeps it up. Campbell was a 4th round pick.
(In response to this post by Vawter Tech)
1y
"We’re going to learn how to do two things: we’re going to hit it hard and we’re going to hit it in the air."
(In response to this post by HwoodHokie)
C
chagerma
1y
As recent as maybe 5-10 yrs ago it was still that HRs were a slightly missed line drive.
(In response to this post by Vawter Tech)
1y
One might say: We want to hit the ball in the air at an approximate 12-13 degree launch angle
(In response to this post by chagerma)