This is a far way from his days playing baseball in a grassy lot, using a tennis ball and broomstick, in Wiggins, Mississippi, next to a church (many of the facts used here from a recent article on Lewis by Andrew Baggarly of the SJ Mercury, very good read). Contrary to most reports on him as he rose through the farm system, he's been playing baseball all his life: even though he was mainly known for playing football when he was drafted out of college, he didn't play football until high school, but has played baseball all his life.
Here's how his stats right now would look like, if he played a full 162 game season:
- 162 games (18 games played thus far)
- 630 AB
- 126 runs
- 171 hits
- 27 doubles
- 18 triples
- 18 homers
- 108 RBIs
- 63 walks
- 117 strikeouts
- 18 stolen bases
Still, this is about what has been predicted for him as he's been rising up the system. Double-digit power. Double-digit steals. Leadoff run scorer and base stealer who also has potential to be a middle of lineup run producer as well. He's striking out more than I would like to see, but he's doing OK in that department so I'm quibbling. The only serious flaw in his game is that he hasn't been hitting LHP at all, with a horribly bad batting line that is only assuaged by the fact that it is only in 15 AB. That and that he's already 26 years old, so he needed to start showing what he's got pretty soon.
And so far so good. But so did Lance Niekro, another platoon hitter who couldn't hit pitchers that throw the same side, and you know what eventually happened to him, at least thus far. In a season dominated by our starting rotation, it is nice that a position prospect is making some nice noise under the radar for us. Also takes the sting out of the dashed expectations that many of us had for Todd Linden. Good luck Fred!
Lewis's platoon issues look to continue. His minor-league numbers, in a decent-size sample, look punk vs LHP, decent-to-good vs RHP.
ReplyDeleteViz http://www.minorleaguesplits.com/pl/430/430930.html
Thanks wcw, I should have noted that he has had this problem for a number of years now.
ReplyDeleteI should have also noted that defense appears to be a problem, it is not good to have your name mentioned once a week (or so it has seemed) for a defense gaffe of some sort, this isn't little league anymore, it's the majors! :^)
But if he can really continue that batting line for a full season - unlikely because of his problems hitting LHP as wcw noted - I think defensive problems will be tolerated, look at Pat "the Bat" Burrell, he's so bad that he is regularly taken out of the game near the end when defense is necessary. I had him on my fantasy team with Barry before and he was more of a pain to deal with because of this than Bonds was with his frequent days off.
This will make it hard to send him back down. The Giants had mentioned earlier in May that they might go with a smaller bullpen and with the string of strong starts lately, they might be considering it again when Roberts return off the DL, though I'm not sure who they would send down in the bullpen, I think Messenger shouldn't have any options left, neither does Chulk, Taschner probably has one but he's done well and it wouldn't be fair then.
Tough choice. Interesting to see what they do.