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“You could hit for a high enough average to win the Triple Crown?”
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#The next big thing tampa 2015 full#
“I don’t know,” Sano replied when I asked him what kind of numbers he could put up in a full major league season, “but if I stay healthy I feel like I have a chance to be something like the MVP and win the Triple Crown, and I can be on the All-Star team.” Take, for example, this exchange between Minnesota's Miguel Sano and Sports Illustrated's Tom Verducci: Predictions and projections by fans and pundits have become a part of the spring training fabric, so it was only a matter of time before a player dipped his toes in the waters of prognostication. "See that tiny little dot over there? That's the ball I just hit." Nick Wass/Associated Press Snell figures to start the year at Triple-A and should be ready to make his MLB debut right around midseason-if not earlier. It's all about getting better and learning." That maturity will serve him well moving forward. None of it really counts, none of it matters. To his credit, he's not concerned with the fact that he still has some work to do-or with the numbers he puts up this spring.
#The next big thing tampa 2015 plus#
While Snell is armed with three plus pitches, including a fastball he can dial up into the high 90s, he's not yet a finished product. So that was good to get him out there and let him experience that a little bit. Just effortlessly throwing 94-96 miles an hour, and it seems like even his misses were kind of intentional where he wanted to go just off the plate. Oh my gosh, yes, He left a changeup up, but you definitely know why everybody is excited about him. So it's understandable why his first spring training outing-an inning of relief against Washington in which he allowed three hits, walked a batter and surrendered a three-run home run to Scott Sizemore-had some Tampa Bay fans worried.īut as Rays manager Kevin Cash told Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, it was a good thing for the 23-year-old southpaw to endure a rough outing, one that did nothing to change his view of Snell. The six players we're about to take a look at are poised to follow in their footsteps this season.īlake Snell was about as dominant as a pitcher could be in 2015, starting the season off with 49 consecutive scoreless innings and finishing it with a 15-4 record, 1.41 ERA and 163 strikeouts over 134 innings of work across three minor league levels. That last part is why you won't find Texas' talented trio of Lewis Brinson, Joey Gallo and Nomar Mazara on the pages that follow, while players like the Chicago Cubs' Kris Bryant and Houston's Carlos Correa were eliminated by one (or more) of our four selection criteria.īut nobody would argue that Bryant and Correa didn't emerge as their respective division's next big thing in 2015. The player cannot have appeared in an All-Star Game or won any individual MLB awards.Īside from that, the selection process came down to my own projections and expectations for each player, based on past performance (both in the majors and minors) as well as whether there was a clear path to playing time.The player must be expected to play at the MLB level during the 2016 season (whether all year long or as an in-season call-up).Each player must be under the age of 25 as of Opening Day 2016.The player cannot have completed a "full season" in MLB (400 or more at-bats or 150 innings for starting pitchers).The criteria for inclusion, which we’ve used in previous versions of this list, remains the same, but we've added a fourth prerequisite to make entry a bit more difficult: But only a select few have the total package to become baseball's "next big thing." That doesn't mean there's not a lot of young star power on the horizon, whether it be a player who's just getting his major league career started or a prospect who has yet to make his big league debut. Those who develop into Bryce Harper- or Mike Trout-like superstars are the exception, not the rule. Being labeled a top prospect in any sport, especially baseball, doesn't guarantee success and stardom at the game's highest level.