John Sickels' take on Astros' farm hands Brian Bogusevic and Drew Sutton
by Stephen Higdon on Nov 7, 2008 9:46 AM CST
in Minor League News
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PrintSBN's John Sickels, of Minor League Baseball, has been driving around Arizonia to see various prospects in the desert. Fortunately for us, he includes some thoughts on Brian Bogusevic and Drew Sutton, both of who have been raking for Scottsdale.
Bogusevic:
Brian Bugosevic, OF, Houston Astros: Converted to the outfield after failing to sustain success as a pitcher. He was a good hitter at Tulane, and he looks like a good hitter now, with a very attractive short swing, good strike zone judgment, and fine overall tools. Not sure about his home run power and he may project best as a fourth outfielder, which is better than being a Double-A pitcher.
The notes on the swing and strike zone judgement are very encouraging. While John classes Bogusevic as a fourth outfielder, I think he's forgetting that we currently have a fifth outfielder as our starter -- so if get marginal third outfielder/fourth outfielder production, we hit the jack pot in relative terms.
Sutton:
Drew Sutton, INF-OF, Houston Astros: Had a terrific Double-A season though he is old for the level. Being groomed as a super-utility type, spending time in the outfield though second and third are his main positions. Not a great athlete, but a "baseball rat" type who is fundamentally sound, hustles, and controls the zone well. I can see him as a .260ish hitter with a bit of pop to go with his defensive versatility.
.260ish with pop + on base skill + defensive versatility + grittiness = sign me up.
While both of these guys have glaring flaws (age) and have had limited success that gets degraded by the context in which it's taking place, Sickels highlights the fact that both players have the right mechanics and natural instincts to succeed. Even if all our minor league system contributes next year is a utility guy and a Bourn platoon that would be a pretty huge success given the context of being the 30th ranked farm system in all of baseball according to Baseball America.
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Bogusevic's HR power.
He only hit 3 homers in AA this year. But that came in only 145 plate appearances. As he gets more experience, I’d bet that he’ll hit for more power.
Maybe it’s just Tulane homerism, or maybe it’s my own need to see some tangible improvement with the Astros, but I think he projects as more than simply a fourth-OF type. And Sickels admits that he only saw Bogusevic in one game, so take those observations for what you will.
Besides, there’s more to baseball than hitting for power. If he turns into simply a Tony Gwynn or Wade Boggs type, hitting for average and RBI’s, there’s nothing wrong with that.
Not at all
If he just gets on base, I’ll be happy.
The Crawfishboxes
A good friend of mine used to say, "This is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains." Think about that for a while.
by Stephen Higdon on Nov 7, 2008 3:56 PM CST up reply actions
Didn't he show HR power at Tulane?
You Tulane guys may know the answer, but that is my recollection. To me, a key question is whether he can handle CF defensively or not. Obviously, there is not a question about his arm. The quote I saw from Corpus is that NOBODY ran on him because they knew his arm strength. But I don’t know a lot about his range and fielding. Obviously, if he can play CF, then a high OBP type offensive profile is adequate. If he is better suited for the corner outfield positions, he probably needs to show more power.
That depends,
as I said, if he can hit for average, then that’s good. I hate to compare any minor-league player to a hall-of-famer, but Tony Gwynn played for 20 years and only broke 10 home runs four times. Gwynn hit for average, didn’t strike out too often (this looks to be Bogusevic’s problem), and got on base. And he played RF the whole time. I don’t think his lack of power hurt him too much. Same with Wade Boggs.
I think Bill James once wrote about how that type of hitting is a lost art amongst the best hitters, and it’s why we don’t see massive RBI numbers like we used to, despite all the home run hitters out there. So if Bogusevic can be that type of player, I’m happy, regardless of where he ends up on the field. Besides, the Astros desperately need some dudes to get on base.
As for his defensive ability, I’m not sure. I think I saw him play CF once or twice when I watched some Hooks games, but I don’t recall anything remarkable about it. It seems like the Astros are having him play all over the outfield, though, so they apparently don’t have too much of a problem with him playing in center.
Sure, if he turns into Tony Gwynn or Wade Boggs, he can play anywhere.
Those guys were perennial batting champions, but I wouldn’t project that for Bogusevic (and probably not fair to him to expect it). If he is more of a corner OFer than a CFer, I can see how the “4th outfielder” projection arises. But he could still be valuable in that role. Think about someone like Skip Schumaker with the Cardinals, who plays all over the outfield, puts up a decent BA and OBP, but doesn’t hit for much power.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/s/schumsk01.shtml
Looking back
through some old scoresheets, I have 9 including him from the 2003 season, which must have been his first year with the team, because it’s the last year I was there and he’s not in any earlier ones.
He appeared in 9 games, and was the starting pitcher in two. In one of those games he didn’t hit for himself.
He had 29 at bats and 5 hits, including 3 double.
Obviously later years would be more enlightening, sorry…
by Xan on Nov 8, 2008 1:22 AM CST up reply actions
Baseball Cube occasionally has college stats
And, fortunately, they have Bogusevic’s.
Grand total of 14 homers in three years – and he didn’t hit any in 2005. Not exactly Berkman-esque.
Sutton and Bogusevic
I noticed that FirstInning.com has live updates of winter league games. What got my attention was seeing that Bogusevic was batting (Nov. 8). The game was in the 5th inning and Sutton already was 3 for 3 with a HR and double. Bogey was 1 for 3 with a RBI single.
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