2006 Prospect Update

[Guest Edgy DC]

Forgive me if we have one of these, but I think we're referencing info found on prospects one thread at a time.

Hoch gets smiley with Wylie.

[MFS62]

Edgy, speaking of prospects, I happened to look up our pal Chase Lambin in the new Baseball Almanac. I saw his fielding stats last year. He played thrid, short and second at two levels (AA and AAA) and if fielding percentage is any measure of defensive prowess, his percentages were pretty terrible everywhere. But his hitting stats were good at both levels.
It could be we are looking at the emergence of a new, switch hitting, Matt Franco.
http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/L/chase-lambin.shtml


Later

[smg58]

Lambin doesn't appear to field nearly well enough to be an everyday middle infielder, and it's not clear that he'd hit well enough to start some place else. He'll probably hit way better than the average utility infielder, though, so unless there's just no hope for him with the glove he'd fill a useful niche on the club either this year or next.

[Guest Rotblatt]

I tracked Lambin last season, and loved the offense I saw. Oberkfell juggled a lot of middle infielders, and Lambin in particular seemed to get shuttled around a lot. I think he was drafted as a shortstop, but has played mostly second in the minors.

He also got demoted (rather unfairly, IMO, as he was mashing the ball) to make room for Hernandez on the AAA roster, but got promoted back pretty quickly. Lambin's got some serious power--24 HR in only 392 AB. If he had been given 550 AB, we're talking about 34 HR power from a middle infielder. Could be a Jose Valentin type player.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Which begs the question of whether they delay him to go with Jose Valentin (who, after his recent delcines, can best be described as someone who "could be a Jose Valentin-tpe player").