FanPost

Keep an eye out for Ji-Man Choi

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Player

Triple Slash

BABIP

ISO

Player A

.280/.333/.480

.306

.200

Player B

.296/.403./.509

.329

.213

Player

BB%

K%

LD%

GB%

FB%

Player A

6.8%

17.9%

17.9%

47.4%

34.7%

Player B

12.9%

15.5%

19.0%

45.1%

33.0%

Player

O-Swing%

Z-Swing%

Swing%

O-Contact%

Z-Contact%

Contact%

Player A

33.4%

68.3%

48.9%

30.9%

88.0%

78.1%

Player B

8.2%

74.0%

43.7%

35.7%

91.5%

86.7%

Player A is former Mariner and inevitable Oriole, Met, or Royal Kendrys Morales, and Player B is current Tacoma Rainier Ji-Man Choi. Morales is going to turn 31 in 2014 and Choi is going to turn 23. Morales turned down a $14MM qualifying offer and Choi is making the baseball equivalent of slave wages. Choi's plate discipline is a bit miragey as it's composed entirely from MiLB data, but there's still 1000+ pitches recorded by Minor League Central on him, which leads me to believe that the above is not entirely all that far off from his true plate disciple stats. The important part though is that he walks more than Morales ever has at any point in his career while also striking out less. Furthermore, Morales never hit as well as Choi has at any level of Minor League play.

There's no real in-depth analysis here, as I'm mostly just highlighting a prospect I like by comparing him to one of the brighter spots of last year's team. The Mariners have, in theory, a better version of Kendrys Morales sitting down there in AAA who's done nothing but hit over the entirety of his professional baseball career. If his development as a batter stays the course through 2014 the M's could be looking at a cheap and longterm option at DH.

Stats for Kendrys Morales were taken from FanGraphs for his MLB career. Stats for Ji-Man Choi were taken from Minor League Central for his MiLB career.