Steve Hill is off to a pretty torrid start to the season. Through 91 plate appearances, he’s hitting .333/.391/.679. Last year, in about the same span of time for Springfield, he hit .303/.330/.505. While those are just “slash” lines, but from that we can glean that he might be figuring out this whole AA thing so far.
Hill is 24, so he ought to be figuring out AA. His walk rate is up from 2.9% to 8.8%. He’s also hitting the ball with more authority, as his groundball rate is down from 46% to 36%, and therefore the ball is clearing the yard – 1 in 5 balls he hits in the air ends up leaving the yard. Sure, it’s the Texas League, but still, that’s pretty darn good.
The thing with Hill is he’s going to have to hit in order to prove he belongs in the big leagues, because he has no true position. The notion of having him catch is a good idea, but in just 33 games of catching so far he’s allowed 8 passed balls, 12 steals and 3 errors, leaving plenty of room for improvement. He’s not the rangiest outfielder, either.
Hill’s also not the most selective of hitters. In 717 minor league plate appearances, he has just 40 walks to 163 strikeouts. Yet in spite of his wrinkles, Hill has been an above average hitter or better at each level and still probably has yet to tap all of his power potential. Patience also tends to (but not always) improve with age.
As long he keeps smacking around the baseball, he should find himself a major league gig. The only question is where. The system as we know it now doesn’t need any more outfielders or first baseman, so he’ll really have to keep powering away to distinguish himself.
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What are your opinions on the best time for an NL club to trade a prospect that is almost assuredly a future DH/1B? Hill’s stock is pretty high right now; is it better to trade him now in the expectation that his trade value is close to peaking? Or is it preferable to wait for him to clear AAA, get a 60 or so AB with the big club, then see what team will bite? The latter option incorporates the risk that he’ll slow down/get hurt between now and then.
What I’m asking is, at what point could the Cards expect to get the most in return for Hill? I think the question is especially pertinent given that we’ve already got a 1B/DH type in the majors (Duncan) who could have been traded when he was most valuable but wasn’t.
he’s just not that big of an asset yet to be considered the centerpiece of any major trade. he would have to a) keep slugging near .600 and b) continue to do so at AAA for a reasonably sustained period of time.
i like his bat, but he’s not in top 100 territory or even close to it, and that’s what you have to be more often than not in order to be part of a big trade. maybe he could be a trade chip to get a piece of the puzzle, a 5th starter or middle reliever, or he could be a part of a trade to get a more key type of player, but only as basically a part that would include better prospects.
Breaking Quad Cities news from Derrick Goold. Josh Wison has returned to the team after brief retirement. Guess he tried to get a job and then figured, “hey, I wonder if they would take me back at Quad Cities?”
http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/bird-land/bird-land/2009/05/minor-moves-a-high-draft-pick-returns/
Was Brandon Buckman released?
Brandon Buckman had been on the DL for several weeks, then got released last week.