Kevin Goldstein's Future Shock today includes some quotes from a scout on Chris Davis.
The scout loves Davis's power, but says he has a hitch in his swing and is always going to strike out a ton, and that he can't stay at third base long-term.
He sees him as a useful first baseman/DH type, but not someone who'll be "a first-division corner guy."
Sounds reasonable enough...and really, one of the things that I think is interesting about the Rangers' minor leaguers this season, and that makes it hard to try to rank these guys like we've been doing the last couple of weeks, is how hard it is to really get an accurate gauge on a lot of these players.
Davis has some huge plusses, with his power and his performance in high-A at such a young age, but he's also in a very hitter friendly league, and the defense and huge K numbers are big negatives.
Taylor Teagarden is another example...great offensive numbers, but he's a little old for high-A. Of course, he's only in high-A because he missed all of last season, and thus, shouldn't that mitigate the penalty for being in a lower level? But at the same time, don't you have to dock him some for the injury?
Johnny Whittleman gets off-the-chart marks for the attitude and intangibles, and he was great early in the year, but is currently in a horrible slump, his defense is a question, and he's only in low-A.
You have to love Brandon Boggs' numbers at Frisco, but again, he's a little old for AA and he hasn't done it before now. But like Teagarden, part of the reason he hasn't done it before now is his injury history.
It seems like every player in the system, except for Eric Hurley, is hard to really get a bead on because for every big plus, there is a big minus or a big question mark surrounding him...