Carter Kieboom Named to BA’s Eastern League Top 20
As Baseball America wends its way through its postseason (pre-preseason?) awards, Carter Kieboom became the second National to make one of its Top 20 lists as the #5 prospect for the Eastern League (sorry, no link: paid sub).
Given the Durham boys’ penchant for double-dipping, this is likely the first of two appearances for the 21-y.o., who was drafted 28th overall in the 2016 First Year Player Draft.
As mentioned in the previous post, the younger Kieboom struggled through a .198/.308/.347 month of April for the Potomac Nationals (though he did hit four HRs) before the pyrotechnics from his prosterior began in May, including a 10-game hit streak from May 3 to May 13 that overlapped Juan Soto’s soiree from April 24th to May 9th.
Kieboom finished May at .391/.458/.576 with 3HR and followed that up with a .327/.410/.635 mark over 14 games before his promotion to Harrisburg following the Carolina League All-Star break.
He remained red-hot through his first 11 games at AA (.995OPS, 2HR) but the league adjusted to him and he spent the rest of 2018 trying to figure out advanced pitching (.573 OPS in July, .738 in August).
The longstanding question is whether Kieboom can stick at short, as one might expect from 26 errors in 118 games (obligatory reminder: minor-league scorkeepers are uneven in their decisions). A slide over to either 2B or 3B would appear to be dependent on the big club’s whims short-term needs, as well as the development of next-in-line Luis Garcia.
It will be interesting to see if Kieboom starts getting some reps at 2B in the AFL.
Luke, since you’ve had a good look at both of them, who between Kieboom and Garcia do you think would fit better at 3B as Rendon’s prospective replacement? In other words, who has the better arm and generally is the better fielder?
What about Big Tuna ?
Parcells covers a lot of ground, but only when he’s laying flat on it.
My nickname for the young kid @ Hags
Kieboom has the better arm but Garcia is the better fielder. Ultimately, you’d have to give the edge to Garcia when you consider he’s more than two years younger.
Good scoop. I would think that Kieboom is the heir apparent at 2B with the big club at some point next season, but we’ll see.
McGowin is supposed to get his first big-league start today (Wed.), assuming they don’t get rained out.
I am interested to see how his stuff plays.
at this point I would pencil him in with Rodriguez and Voth as potential long men out of next years bullpen. I’ve always thought Voth was a potential Stammen replacement. J-Rod can still become a starter is he refines his command.