International League Hitters

 
The International League was led by a number of hitters who have bounced between the majors and AAA over the past couple of years.  Many of them should be up to stay in 2001.

It seems like Karim Garcia has been around forever, but amazingly, he's just 24.  When he was a Dodger farmhand, many felt he was going to be the next great lefty slugger.  However, the Dodger patience ran out on him when he was just 21.  They let him go in the expansion draft to Arizona, who later dealt him to the Tigers.  Ultimately, he found his way to the Orioles this season and should be a good bet to start, and possibly star for the O's next season, as there are many question surrounding their outfield: Is Albert Belle healthy, can Delino DeShields make the transition from infield to outfield, can Brady Anderson still play defense, can Eugene Kingsale hit enough to keep himself in the lineup.  If the answer is no to any of these, Garcia will get an extended look.

Craig Wilson has always been able to hit.  His main problem has been with his glove.  Now he has an additional concern in AA prospect Joe Crede, who's showing signs he's almost ready for the bigs as well.  The White Sox already have a pretty good hitter at DH in Frank Thomas.  Wilson is definitely an offensive asset, but his major league career might have to take root elsewhere.

Timo Perez made a name for himself this year with his solid play in the playoffs, sorta reminiscent of what Melvin Mora accomplished last year.  And in many respects they are similar players.  Both do a lot of things pretty well, but nothing superbly.  Unless the Mets can find a way to shed Derek Bell, Perez will be a 4th outfielder next year, which may be the position that best suits his talent anyway.

Pat Burrell has been in the headlines for a long time - led the nation in batting average as a freshman at University of Miami, finished his college career with an average over .400 and is widely regarded as one of the best college hitters ever, was the first pick by the Phillies in 1998 following their 1997 JD Drew draft debacle - so being a top prospect really isn't news for this guy.  What might be news is how quickly he adapted to major league pitching this year and the comparisons he's drawn from opposing managers.  Some have compared his power to that of Mark McGwire, but that might be a little far fetched.  What isn't far fetched is that he may challenge for the triple crown the way Greg Luzinski did in the 1970's.

Aubrey Huff was a teammate of Burrell's at Miami.  Although he's not quite as good a hitter as Burrell, he's not far behind.  However, unlike Burrell, he's a pretty good fielder.  The Devil Rays would be wise to give him 3rd base and find a way to move Vinny Castilla, either to DH or out of town; keeping Huff's bat on the bench would only add to the cacophony of criticism that D-Rays management doesn't know what they're doing.

Mark Johnson is somewhat of a rarity: catcher who bats left handed.  Johnson has always displayed a tremendous eye at the plate, walking more than he struck out in every full season of his professional career until last year, a season in which he spent mostly sitting on the bench in the majors.  This year, the Sox decided to send him back to AAA to learn a new position, as Josh Paul appears to be the heir apparent to Carlton Fisk and Ron Karkovice.  A testament to his professionalism, Johnson took the move in stride and will give the Sox another potent bat next year.

Ryan Freel is somewhat of a surprise to be on this list.  He had never shown much power or speed before this year.  Of course he was certainly helped by spending his 3rd year in AAA, so it remains to be seen if he can produce these kind of numbers in the majors.  He also has a bit of a problem in that the Blue Jays outfield picture is rather crowded with quality players.

Russ Branyan is another guy who's spent parts of 3 years in AAA.  Branyan's calling card has always been his considerable power, homering an average of once every 12 at bats for his minor league career.  However, just as notorious is his propensity to strike out, whiffing every 2 1/2 times at the plate.  His walk totals are not that exciting, so it's questionable whether or not he can become the next Darrell Evans, who's low batting average camouflaged a decent player who got on base, or the next Dave Kingman, who's low batting average was exacerbated by a low on base as well.

Brad Wilkerson is one of only a few players who made more than one league's top hitter list this year.  Drafted out of the University of Florida in 1998 as one of the best 2-way players ever (he pitched and played outfield for them), Wilkerson came into his own this year after struggling through much of last year.  Combining his season at AA with his AAA numbers, one gets a better idea of what he can do once he reaches the majors: .295 with 18 homers and 47 doubles, .530+ slugging and a .410+ on base.  In addition, he's a solid defender with, as you might imagine, a terrific and accurate arm.  Many people wondered why the Expos traded All-Star outfielder Rondell White this summer... he's the reason.

George Lombard is another guy who's been trying to find himself in AAA for the past several years.  He has good strength and great speed, but like most "tools" outfielders the Braves have developed, he has not reached his potential.  Like a lot of guys with his ability, he has trouble with the strikezone.  My theory is that because he could do so many other things at previous levels, he never really had to learn it.  Now he does.  If he can, he could become another Ron Gant.  If he doesn't, he will be just another Mike Kelly.

The theme here is repeaters.  Dernell Stenson is yet another guy on his 2nd or 3rd go around AAA.  A couple years ago, he was viewed as a comparable successor to Mo Vaughn at first base.  Now, the Red Sox are not so sure.  He's still pretty young for the level and it's not like he had a terrible year, so there's still hope.  But the likelyhood of him becoming a 30-40 home run, middle-of-the-order hitter is growing dimmer.  A more likely scenario is a hitter somewhere along the lines of Dmitri Young: 20 homers with decent average and on base.  Definitely a plus player, but not someone to build a franchise around.

Jerry Hairston may finally get his chance.  He was already the O's best defender at second base when Angelos and crew signed Delino DeShields.  Now the O's are moving DeShields to the outfield so Hairston can play.  He doesn't have a lot of power or speed but he does one thing well offensively that is so under appreciated: he doesn't make outs.  He draws walks, hits a little, doesn't ground into double plays and steals bases with a reasonable amount of success.  The fact that he's a very good fielder makes him all the more compelling.  Think of him as a Mark Loretta with better defense.

Everyone's been talking about Alfonso Soriano for so long that it's hard to believe he's not in the Hall of Fame already.  Actually, his performance this year showed he's got a long way to go.  Like many of the repeaters on this list, his biggest problem is knowledge of the strikezone.  If he had Vlad Guerrero's long arms that might not be such an issue.  But he doesn't so it is.  Until he learns to swing at hittable pitches, his power is not gonna be much of a factor on any team.  A new issue arose this year: his defense.  Several scouts have openly questioned whether he can make it as a shortstop in the majors, which led the Yanks to try him at 2nd base and consider moving him to the outfield.  There's no question Soriano is a talented baseball player.  The degree of talent and whether or not he can focus it, however are big question marks.

The hero of last year's Eastern League Championship Series, Milton Bradley, showed that when he's focused, he can be a pretty formidable player - a switch hitting outfielder with power, speed and a good arm.  On the downside, he still loses that focus quite a bit, hence the 15 times he was caught stealing in 25 tries.  Still, he has enough talent to challenge Peter Bergeron for the starting job in centerfield next year in Montreal.
 
 

NAME AGE AVG G AB R H TB 2B 3B HR RBI SH SF HP BB IB SO SB CS DP SLG OBP 1B 2B 3B SS OF C E TA RC RC/G
1*Garcia, Karim (Det) 24 0.297 40 155 31 46 101 6 2 15 38 0 3 3 11 1 32 2 1 4 0.652 0.349 0 0 0 0 39 0 4 1.026 33.14 0.828
Wilson, Craig 23 0.370 62 230 43 85 112 14 2 3 34 0 4 4 32 0 26 0 1 7 0.487 0.448 0 0 33 31 0 0 8 0.967 48.83 0.788
X*Perez, Timoniel 23 0.357 72 291 45 104 149 17 5 6 37 4 4 3 16 1 25 13 7 4 0.512 0.392 0 0 0 0 70 0 5 0.914 55.88 0.776
X Burrell, Pat 23 0.294 40 143 31 42 71 15 1 4 25 0 1 0 32 0 36 1 1 1 0.497 0.420 10 0 0 0 30 0 2 1.010 30.97 0.774
X*Huff, Aubrey 23 0.316 108 408 73 129 231 36 3 20 76 2 1 2 51 4 72 2 3 15 0.566 0.394 1 0 93 0 0 0 21 0.963 82.71 0.766
*Johnson, Mark 24 0.270 94 315 49 85 159 21 1 17 60 0 1 5 67 4 54 14 2 4 0.505 0.405 38 0 0 0 38 0 3 1.038 68.21 0.726
Freel, Ryan 24 0.286 80 283 62 81 135 14 5 10 30 4 2 9 35 1 44 30 7 3 0.477 0.380 0 24 12 1 23 0 9 0.986 55.55 0.694
T*Garcia, Karim (FS) 24 0.285 116 425 69 121 234 23 3 28 92 0 7 5 45 2 102 5 4 11 0.551 0.355 0 0 0 0 103 0 7 0.906 79.17 0.683
X*Branyan, Russell 24 0.245 64 229 46 56 132 9 2 21 60 0 2 2 28 0 93 1 1 2 0.576 0.330 0 0 35 0 19 0 9 0.926 43.25 0.676
*Wilkerson, Brad 23 0.250 63 212 40 53 102 11 1 12 35 0 1 3 45 1 60 5 4 0 0.481 0.387 0 0 0 0 62 0 6 0.951 41.67 0.661
X*Lombard, George 24 0.276 112 424 72 117 186 25 7 10 48 5 3 6 55 3 130 32 9 3 0.439 0.365 0 0 0 0 110 0 6 0.875 72.89 0.651
*Stenson, Dernell 22 0.268 98 380 59 102 185 14 0 23 71 0 4 4 45 6 99 0 0 8 0.487 0.349 67 0 0 0 21 0 12 0.818 63.32 0.646
X Hairston, Jerry 24 0.294 58 201 43 59 88 15 1 4 21 2 2 5 29 0 32 6 4 2 0.438 0.392 0 52 0 8 0 0 11 0.865 36.09 0.622
Soriano, Alfonso 22 0.290 111 459 90 133 213 32 6 12 66 2 6 3 25 1 85 14 7 8 0.464 0.327 0 40 0 71 0 0 21 0.748 67.92 0.612
2*Garcia, Karim (Bal) 24 0.278 76 270 38 75 133 17 1 13 54 0 4 2 34 1 70 3 3 7 0.493 0.358 0 0 0 0 64 0 3 0.839 46.03 0.606
X#Bradley, Milton 22 0.304 88 342 58 104 144 20 1 6 29 1 2 1 45 3 56 10 15 5 0.421 0.385 0 0 0 0 87 0 3 0.775 52.91 0.601
Last Updated on 10/18/00

FS = Full season, TA = Total Average, RC = Runs Created, RC/G = Runs Created per Game