Jamie D'Antona

by manphibian on May 19, 2008 2:33 PM EDT

Some off day discussion, from The Baseball Analysts blog today;

Jamie D'Antona is hitting .430 for Arizona's Tucson affiliate in the Pacific Coast League (AAA). Yes, FOUR THIRTY.
YEAR   G  AB   H  2B  3B  HR  BB  SO  AVG  OBP  SLG  
2008  40 142  61  17   0   6   3  19 .430 .445 .676
Primarily a third baseman, D'Antona has also played first base and catcher this year. At worst, he profiles as a backup corner infielder and emergency catcher for a major league team. A second-round pick out of Wake Forest in 2003, D'Antona led the short-season Northwest League with 15 home runs that summer, then hit .315/.353/.531 in a half-season at high Class A Lancaster in 2004. Promoted to AA, he struggled (.211/.233/.282 in 73 plate appearances) for the first time, showed minimal progress (.249/.322/.385) at the same level in 2005, repeated at Tennessee as a 24-year-old in 2006 and rebounded to hit over .300 with 17 HR.

The 6-foot-2, 220-pound free swinger moved up to AAA last season and put up an .861 OPS. Blocked by Mark Reynolds and Conor Jackson, he returned to Tucson and is drawing more attention than walks for his eye-opening batting average. However, D'Antona is hitting .470 on balls in play in a favorable ballpark and league environment. I think he is a tweener but, in light of the fact that journeymen Luis Maza and Terry Tiffee are also hitting over .400 in the PCL, I would discount D'Antona's batting average quite a bit and classify him more as a suspect than a prospect at this point.

I have heard some mention on here about D'Antona as a possible long term replacement for Hudson, not because he can actually play 2B but because of that crazy BA this year in AAA. As the article points out, he's got a .470 BABIP and plays in an incredibly favorable park and league, so I think people are getting a little too excited about his bat. It probably will not be good enough to make up for a complete lack of defensive ability (or at least experience) at 2B.

What do others here think? Is he a legitimate big league slugger in waiting, a guy we need to find a spot for? From people who have actually seen him play a decent amount, is there any chance he can handle 2B, or is he too slow/unathletic/whatever?

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I smell....

....another Sidewinders scouting report…...

Max Scherzer is all out of bubblegum.

by DbacksSkins on May 19, 2008 3:10 PM EDT reply actions

Scary

walk rate though. If this guy doesn’t hit, he will never sniff the basepaths. 3 BB in 142 AB’s? Ouch.

by AZSEAfan on May 19, 2008 3:47 PM EDT reply actions

His walk rate hasn’t been quite so bad in the past. His BA/OBP the last couple years was .308/.362 in AAA and .312/.383 in AA, and on his minor league career he’s got a .298/.357/.481 line with 194 BB vs 2112 AB. Still not a spectacular walk rate (somewhere in the mid 50s for a full MLB season), but not as horrible as his numbers so far this year look in that department.

by manphibian on May 19, 2008 5:20 PM EDT up reply actions

I wasn't saying we should

put him at second after ODawg’s tenure. Just thought it out loud. :-D

Baseball season, when everything becomes right in the world.

by seton hall snake pit on May 19, 2008 5:00 PM EDT reply actions

It must be his defense

He is capable of being an emergency catcher, but he is not a catcher. He’s not good back there, and probably couldn’t call a major league game. I’ve seen him catch in the AZFL, and I wasn’t impressed. Apparently neither was the organization, They let him catch 21 G last year, but just 3 this year

He’s not a bad first baseman probably, but he is a weak fielder at 3b

He has a .897 Flg % at 3rd this year and had a .909 last year, and I have never heard scouting reports that he has any kind of range at 3rd that would make up for the errors.

He’s a decent hitter, and would probably be more valuable off the bench than Hammock, since Hammock never gets in a game, so there isn’t much point of tying up that roster spot with a 3rd catcher.

The team needs another lefty bat off the bench. The team needs Chad Tracy.

by shoewizard on May 19, 2008 8:55 PM EDT reply actions