Quote:
Originally Posted by HOF Auto Rookies
Different hit tools but power wise could be close. His swing is absurdly quick. Left handed Sheff.
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That's a pretty good assessment. And I wasn't looking to be argumentative, Brent
I'm sorry if I came off that way.
I am absolutely confident that this kid was going to be one of the very best hitters in the game. I thought he could be a 30 home run hitter, but I was more confident in his ability to hit for average than I was confident in his power hitting ability. So, when I say "only" 25 to 30 home runs, that says something about the kind of talent he had. The home runs were an afterthought. He was going to be an extra base hit machine. I wish minor league splits were better. I'd like some stats to back up what I'm saying. But Oscar could hit with power to all fields. And for a guy with such a live bat, he had good plate discipline. There wasn't a lot of swing and miss to his game. Even as a rookie in the Major Leagues, when he only hit .239, he only struck out in about 14% of his plate appearances. He hit .240 vs righties, and .238 vs lefties. And towards the end of the season, he was putting it together. After hitting .244 in August (22 for 90), he hit .295 in September and October (13 for 44). His OBP was up to .340.
I started watching him in 2011 when he was in class A ball at Quad Cities in Iowa. I want to say it was about halfway through that year. He'd go on to hit .386 that season. I saw him play 6 or 7 games. After that, I would watch whatever I could. If I couldn't watch the entire game, which was most of the time, I'd pull up the game, and skip to his at bats.
Taveras had a very long swing early, yet as a 19 year old, he was dominating kids that were 2 years older than he was. He hit .386, and Kolten Wong hit .335. He wasn't hitting the long ball yet, but he had a 1.028 OPS. 308 at bats, 27 doubles, 5 triples and 8 home runs. The next year he hit 23 home runs in 477 ABs. The swing was still long, but it looked to me like he's moved his hands into a slightly different position pre swing from last year. I think more than anything, the power came because he was maturing physically, and developing more natural loft in his swing. That's what made me really think this kid could be a power hitter. The great ones go up there, and drive the ball, but they don't go up there looking to hit the home run. Hank Aaron, for all the home runs he had, didn't have the majestic home runs that Mark McGwire did. Aaron didn't have the incredible loft. He hit a lot of line drive home runs. Taveras went up there looking to make solid contact, and he just drove the hell out of the ball. He used his entire body. His leg kick used to be a little higher. It looks like a hitting coach had him lower that just a little, too. Whatever they did, whatever he did on his own, and whatever just happened naturally, he had such a beautiful, fluid swing. He could hit the ball out on a rope, or he could hit the deep, soaring fly balls that Cardinal fans are used to seeing. I just loved his total offensive approach. Now, it looked to me like he was becoming a little less aggressive at the plate the closer he got to the Majors. He knew he could hit. He was working on developing the discipline needed to succeed. I thought he could have come up in 2013, and played at the Major League level as a starter. After hitting .386 in 2011, in 2012 he hit .321 at AA Springfield with a .953 OPS. 37 doubles, 7 triples, 23 home runs, 94 RBI in 477 ABs, and 10 stolen bases in 11 tries. In 2013 he hit .310. In 2014 he hit .318. In his minor league career (436 games), he hit .320 with an .892 OPS. His slash lines were impressive:
A .444/.584/1.028 in 78 games
AA .380/.572/.953 in 124 games
AAA .358/.485/.843 108 games
I think his AAA numbers would have been better with another half season. He moved through the system so quickly. He hit .321 at A ball, .310 at AA, and .318 at AAA. This wasn't some AAAA star that wasn't going to make it in the Majors. He was the real deal.
The Cardinals will now look to Stephen Piscotty, another talented outfielder. Piscotty is ranked the #51 prospect in baseball. He's a plus hitter with average, slightly above average power. A really good prospect, but not Taveras. I think Piscotty has star potential, but oddly enough, I liken him to Allen Craig, the player the Cardinals moved to make room for Taveras.
