Corey Seager, Dominating

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

I think expectations should be tempered with any prospect. This cycle happens a lot: prospect makes a top 15 organizational prospect list, prospect moves up to a higher level, struggles, never recovers, falls off the prospect map, becomes organizational fodder, career minor leaguer, it happens. In fact, that specific career arc probably happens way more than a high level prospect moving up the organizational ladder, making the big leagues, and becoming a contributor in any way. Lets take the 2006 MLB draft, Greg Reynolds, Brad Lincoln (to a lesser degree), Billy Rowell were all taken within the top 10 picks. There is no thing as a sure thing in the draft, drafting prospects is an inexact science. It’s unrealistic to draft players and expect them to turn into decent MLB players, dreaming on players is fun, but keeping your expectations in check is a necessity.

Okay, with that boring and drawn out disclaimer: COREY SEAGER!!!!!

He is raking right now. All of the worries about him OPS’ing .556 in the Cal League have been effectively put to rest. I could go on and on, how he’s OPS’ing over 1.000, how he’s only 20, how Brandon Liebhaber actually has to announce when he’s not tweeting about Corey Seager. But I think this answers everything:

There are 88 players in the California League under the age of 24. Out of these 88 possibly relevant players, Corey Seager ranks 2nd in weighted On Base Average, sitting at .445. Seager is the 5th youngest player in the whole league, and out of those 5 players, he ranks 1st in wOBA by nearly 100 points. Making contact, and putting the ball in play is also important, Seager has that down too, ranking 1st in batting average. Oh, and by the way, he ranks 4th in OBP, and 2nd in SLG.

People love talking about Joc Pederson, how he is going to play an incredible CF for the Dodgers, or how Zach Lee is going to solidify the rotation, possibly this year, or how Julio Urias could (and may even likely be) in the major leagues by 2015. But prospects like Corey Seager, one’s who hit for power, average, play solid defense, get on base, have plus-plus-plus makeup (we’ve never heard of any incidents), one’s who will likely play third base, when your organization is well aware that the last great third baseman to play for you was Adrian Beltre, one’s who consistently gets rave reviews from scouting reports don’t come around often. I’m not good at the whole scouting thing, so here’s Dustin Nosler:

"At worst, Seager is an average third baseman. He’s adept at shortstop, but his size and range should prevent him from playing there in the majors. He has a quick first step, soft hands and plenty of arm for either position. If he were to play shortstop in the bigs, however, he’d be the biggest shortstop to ever play the position. His final destination on the diamond is likely at third base, but the Dodgers are going to keep him at shortstop for a lot of the 2014 season. He’ll begin in Rancho Cucamonga with a midseason promotion to Chattanooga more than likely."

Nosler mentions, like every scouting report i’ve seen on him, that he’ll be an above average offensive player, and he’s improving on defense.

I think the last part to that scouting report is very accurate, if he keeps this up in any capacity, the Quakes better enjoy him while it lasts, because he’ll be in Chattanooga before the season ends.