Checking In On The "Youth-Wave"
A Mixed Bag
One of the most exciting aspects of the 2024 season was the large influx of prospects coming up and making their debuts. It has been a mixed bag so far. The highs have been HIGH, and the lows have been LOW.
I will not pretend that I know a lot about prospects. Brett might pretend that, but I won’t. This blog is here just to lay out the stats for the readers so they don’t need to spend the time looking it up themselves. Enjoy!
Jackson Holliday
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. I think that Jackson starting his MLB career at Fenway was the death sentence. Couldn’t handle the pressure.
Jokes aside. It seems like Holliday has gotten the yips. Hitting five homers since returning to the minors is nice, but his AVG and OPS have dropped .035 and .100 points in that span. Do not expect to see him again this season. Buy his rookie card CHEAP when it is out in Update.
MILB Stats: .270 AVG/ 7 HR/ 28 RBI/ .899 OPS/ 5 SB
MLB Stats: .059 AVG/ 0 HR/ 1 RBI/ .170 OPS/ 0 SB
Jackson Chourio
Another Jackson, another mediocre start to the season. After signing an 8-year $82 million deal, it was a given that he would be on the Opening Day roster. Should he have been? Probably. His 2023 MILB stats were great, but the Brewers put themselves in a box. Here are his stats so far.
0.5 bWAR/ .230 AVG/ 640 OPS/ 7 HR/ 27 RBI/ 8 SB
Jackson Merril
When I set this blog up a week ago, Merril was the clear NL rookie of the year. That has changed with another Paul Skenes start. I will be tweeting out their stats later today, and you can comment on that post to tell us who you think will win the reward.
Merril is actually outperforming his minor league stats from the past few seasons. In 800 MILB ABs he swatted 21 home runs. In the MLB, he has ten over 263 ABs. We will see if the power stays, but he should be a 20/20 guy this year!
2.3 WAR/ .289 AVG/ 120 OPS+/ 10 HR/ 9 SB/ 35 RBI
Paul Skenes
Forget about the All-Star game. Forget about Rookie of The Year. Paul Skenes is putting himself smack in the middle of the Cy Young race. I don’t need to try and dissect his season. So, here he is compared to the Cy Young favorites.
Skenes- 1.9 WAR/ 2.14 ERA/ 192 ERA+/ 33.7 K%
Glasnow- 2.2 WAR/2.88 ERA/ 137 ERA+/35.2 K%
Wheeler- 2.1 WAR/2.73 ERA/ 148 ERA+/ 27.2 K%
Suarez- 3.5 WAR/1.75 ERA/ 230 ERA +/ 26.8 K%
Junior Caminero
If you were opening Topps Series One this spring and pulled a Junior Caminero rookie auto, you probably felt pretty good about yourself. Not anymore!
Caminero has unfortunately fallen apart in the minors. He has had two soft tissue injuries resulting in only 34 games played. He is still on track to come up this summer, but the injuries are concerning.
MILB Stats: .261 AVG/ 8 HR/ 24 RBI/ .811 OPS/ 1 SB
Dylan Crews
Recently called up to Triple AAA, it seems that we will indeed see Crews sometime this summer. Is he ready? Probably not. I am not a “prospect analyst,” but your number two overall pick should be putting up better stats to justify a call-up.
MILB Stats: .270 AVG/ 7 HR/ 42 RBI/ .782 OPS/ 17 SB
Jasson Dominguez
Jasson had seemed ready to join the Yankees before tweaking his left oblique over the weekend. Returning from surgery on his UCL in September, there has not really been a place for Dominguez on the team. There is no place for him to get consistent ABs between Judge, Verdugo, Soto, and Stanton. Ironically, as he went down with an injury, so did Stanton. Time will tell who gets healthy first.
MILB Stats: .356 AVG/ 6 HR/ 13 RBI/ 1.013 OPS
Kyle Manzardo
Brett was salivating when Kyle Manzardo got called up a few weeks ago. When Manzardo got called down. Nothing. Not a peep. What a fair-weather fan. His first stint in the minors did not work out. Power disappeared and has yet to reappear in the minors either.
MILB Stats: .294 AVG/ 9 HR/ 22 RBI/ .979 OPS
MLB Stats: .207 AVG/ 0 HR/ 7 RBI/ .570 OPS
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