A smooth left-handed swing provides line drives now and presents the kind of power potential scouts like. His arm may play in right field and he's a good baserunner, but the bat is what will get him drafted.Says Baseball America:
He established himself as one of the best high school hitters in the Class of 2006 last summer, earning Aflac All-American honors as well as the MVP award at Team One Baseball's Cape Cod High School Classic. He has carried that momentum into his high school season this spring in California, hitting 11 home runs in his first 26 games while still drawing 32 walks, evidence of his plate discipline which is the best in this year's high school class.Last year the first hitter the Twins drafted was Henry Sanchez, a slugging high school first baseman. To this point Sanchez has not had much success, as he's hitting just .205/.270/.349 with 56 strikouets and just 10 walks in 156 plate appearances in Beloit this year. Of course, at age 19, he's still very raw, so by no means am I passing any kind of judgment.
With that said, Parmelee strikes me as the type of guy who could have more immediate success. A line-drive hitter with excellent plate discipline is the type of guy that can develop into something pretty special. Many people feel that Parmelee was a steal at the 20th pick.
The Twins were offensive-minded throughout the early rounds, taking another high school outfielder in William Benson in the second round (says the MLB.com scouting report: "He has a power-speed combination that excites scouts") and third baseman Garrett Olson in the fourth ("He handles the lumber well with at least average power. Defensively versatile, he's played all over the field").
It's no secret that the Twins have struggled mightily to develop hitters in the past, but this year they have used some high picks on guys with a lot of upside. We'll see what they do with them.
3 comments:
Definitely. It was a good draft by the Twins, as the smartly picked some talented hitters with already good strike-zone knowledge, a la Mauer. Lets hope a few of them are up by 2010.
Good to see. In the past the Twins have sort of not seemed to care about plate discipline, but the trend now seems to be moving toward a patient team (Mauer, Cuddyer, Castillo, even Morneau to some degree).
Thanks for the links and analysis on Parmalee.
I would leave Cuddyer out of that group. He's a guess hitter. Yes he walks, but usually its cause he takes a lot of hittable pitches and sometimes gets lucky. He slumps, like he has been, when pitchers take advantage of this. He isn't really a patient hitter because even though he takes those pitches, he doesn't swing when he is given on to hit half the time. It feels like every other at bat he watches a fastball go right over the plate.
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