OK, so Moose Tacos got off to a disappointing start in AAA for the second time in two years. We kind of forget about how much he struggled after moving up last year, because he ended up on a tear, and eventually was named the minor leagues hitter of the year. At the end of the day, the slug did return for him at AAA, but he never really recovered, in terms of OBP, ending up just north of .300 for his 236 PAs in AAA.
Apart from the four dongs he ripped, his 2011 April was borderline dreadful. In 21 games, his line was .229/.304/.410. What seemed unthinkable a few months ago came to pass—he got lapped by Eric Hosmer on the race to the major leagues. Hos makes it up in one year less time (and counting) than Moose.
But at least for the small sample size of May so far, things appear to be turning up for Moose. Through 8 games, he’s hitting .344/.436/.531 for the month.
The thing that’s interesting about what Moose is that he appears to be actively trying to be more patient at the plate. Alas, he had a mere 8 walks in his 236 AAA appearances last year, and just 25 strikeouts. That says he was being far to anxious about putting the ball into play. Through just 132 PAs this year, he already has 13 walks. Unfortunately, the strikeouts have increased, as well—he’s already up to 24. But that’s probably a symptom of his appearances growing to counts he’s not used to getting into. It’s pretty easy to put the ball into play at 0-0, 1-0, 0-1. Once you start actively trying to work the count, it takes some adjustment time to learn how to hit with 2 strikes.
I, personally, look at these as positives. His average currently sits at .261, but the OBP is a respectable .344—far beyond what he was able to do at AAA last season. It’s a learning curve, but he’s (slightly) passing the test.
BTW….In his blog from last Friday, Rany mentioned talking in the not-to-distant past with one scout who made a comparison for both Hosmer and Moose. Hosmer he said looked like a bigger and stronger version of Will Clark (sweet brown gravy!). His comparison for Moose, on the other hand, wasn’t so glowing.
Moose, he said, looked like Shea Hillenbrand with more power. That really stung when I first read it, seeing as how Hillenbrand’s promising career (a 2-time all-star in his first 5 seasons) was over after 7 seasons. And there’s no one who can argue against the fact that Moose’s glove work has shown signs of being Shea-esque (sigh).
But if you think longer about it, if “Hillenbrand with more power” is a guarantee for Moose, I’m not sure I wouldn’t sign up to take it. I mean, Hillenbrand isn’t out of the league right now because of his poor defense, or even for his stick, for that matter. He’s out of the league because he’s a douche and a locker room cancer. There are only so many times you can fight with your club, your manager and the world before the game is going to be tired of you.
But a guy who hits about .285/.325 and consistently launches 15 to 20 dongs a year (Hillenbrand) ought to be in the league. KNOWING Moose’s problems for getting on base through a big chunk of his minor league career, would you NOT jump at a guarantee that he could go .285/.325? Especially when that guarantee comes with that “more power” element?
As hyped as Moose has been, we are Royals’ fans, after all. Would anyone really NOT jump on board if, for his 6 to 7 year career in Kansas City, we could be guaranteed a Moose line of .285/.325/.500 with an average of about 25 dongs a year?
This scout might have been sending out a back-handed complement, but I’d gladly stick my face in front of it for a guy that produces like that. It’s better than anything we’ve produced in the past 20 years not named “Beltran.”
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