SS Breakdown at BP
By Phil Gurnee Aug 10, 2007, 8:14am PDT
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Baseball Prospectus Kevin Goldstein runs down the top Minor League Shortstops:
Number 2 - Chin Lung Hu, Age 23.5
"The defense was always there, along with a modicum of hitting skills, but all of a sudden Hu's bat has taken a major step forward, and scouts think it's for real. Hu has become a more aggressive hitter, attacking the ball early in counts and focusing on lacing line drives all over the field. It's worked wonders for him, and he has the bat speed and hand-eye coordination to hit .300 in the big leagues without many home runs, but plenty of doubles, and without too many walks, but few strikeouts either. In the field, he's as good as it gets in the minor leagues, with one observer describing his glovework as "just absurd." He's as good as Rafy Furcal right now, and way cheaper."
Nothing new here, as he repeats what he said in an earlier chat. Just posting this because I like the fact he's the 2nd rated SS in baseball. In the 2006 version of SS breakdown HU was ranked 10th. Since then he has leapfrogged over quite a few on last years list.
Ivan DeJesus gets honorable mention
"The son of a 15-year veteran big leaguer, DeJesus combines on-base skills with plus defense, but neither speed nor power will be part of his game."
I think it is to early to be discounting Dejesus and his power. He's only 20 and he showed some life in July with 10 XBH to go along with a 556 slug%. He started this season 3 years younger then Hu, but just one step lower at high A.