Matt Skole, BA’s #13 NY-Penn League Prospect
As mentioned last week, Baseball America has been running its Top 20 Prospect Lists and after getting shut out from the GCL, Matt Skole becomes the first Nationals farmhand to get recognition as the #13 New York-Penn League prospect.
Skole was the Nationals’ 5th-round pick out of Georgia Tech and led the NYPL in doubles and RBIs while posting a .290/.382/.438 line. He was the starting desginated hitter for the N.L. affiliates in the league’s All-Star game last month.
I was fortunate enough to see Skole twice on my midsummer jaunt to upstate New York and couldn’t agree more with Sean Hogan’s one-sentence analysis of Skole having “the bat to be an average major league 3B [and] the glove to be an average major league 1B.” He’ll be 22 entering the 2012 season, just four months younger than Hagerstown’s 3B-SS Blake Kelso, but the best guess is that he’ll start at Hagerstown while Kelso moves up to Potomac.
Skole will be the highest 2011 draftee (5th round) eligible for BA’s post season rankings this year, as the five ahead of him (Rendon, Meyer, Goodwin, Purke, & Turnbull) did not appear in regular season games after signing. Glad to see he make a mark with the folks at Baseball America – It speaks very well for the Nationals 2011 draft, imho.
I may have made a comment on this board when he signed that just based on his physical size alone (6’4″, 230lbs.), he’d project toward 1st base long term. Nothing he did this year with Auburn changes that opinion.
I thought Bryce Ortega’s numbers were better, but BA probably saw him a lot more than I did.
Congrats to Skole, I expect to see you with Hagerstown next year. Hagerstown could have a damn good infield next year with Alvarez, Jimenez, Moldenhauer, Ortega, Skole, and Sanchez.
OT but anyone know where I can find the average age of each level?
@Mark L – Ortega turned 23 last week and played fewer games. BA spent quite a bit of time lamenting how many of the NYPL’s “best” players barely played thanks to the Aug. 15 deadline.
@jeff550 – Best thing to do is look at the league in question on baseball-reference.com and look at the average age for bats and arms. If you don’t mind me averaging the two, here’s a q&d breakdown:
GCL = 20.2
NYPL = 21.3
SAL = 21.7
CrL = 22.8
EAS = 24.4
INT = 26.6
For the sake of reminder, Sickels’ guidelines:
AAA: Typical Age range is 23-24. Age 25 depends. 26+ is old
AA: 22-23. 24 depends. 25+ is old
High-A: 20-22. 23 depends. 24+ is old
Low-A: 19-21. 22 depends. 23+ is old
Short-A: 19-20. 21/22 for draft year guys only. 22+ is old
GCL: 17-19. 20 for draft year guys only. 21+ is old
I would be disappointed with the lack of any GCL stars, but we were older than normal there since we placed so many college draftees there. Normally its where you put your HS kids, seasoned with DSL graduates and some repeaters. But we really only had one HS – Deion Williams – to put there. Since we never draft, oops, I mean SIGN HSers anymore, its likely that will be our GCL modus operandi from now on.
Argueably 3 of the top GCL Nats players there were all DSL graduates repeating the level (Wander Ramos, Estarlin Martinez & Greg Baez).
VH – As always, we appreciate your insight when it comes to the three-letter leagues (GCL & DSL). Just finished up the DSL review (publishing probably on Friday) and I came away thinking it’s not so bad because if nothing else it’s getting younger. But the GCL I’m not looking forward to writing up.