Chase D'Arnaud Gets Hot in Arizona Fall League

by Charlie on Nov 14, 2009 1:10 AM EST Comment 17 comments

Chase D'Arnaud went 3-for-4 for Scottsdale today, raising his Arizona Fall League average to .286. He got off to a slow start, but he's come on very strong recently, hitting .393 in his last seven games. Given his lack of experience in the high minors, his line so far (.286/.370/.397, with eight steals and only one CS) is solid.

One strange thing I just noticed, and normally I think these Player A / Player B games are a bit silly, but this one's interesting:

Chase D'Arnaud, SS, age 22

Class A 213 AB .291/.394/.427 14 2B, 3 3B, 3 HR, 30 BB, 31 K, 17 SB, 3 CS
Class A+ 210 AB .295/.402/.481 19 2B, 4 3B, 4 HR, 30 BB, 41 K, 14 SB, 5 CS

Player B, SS, age 22

Class A 274 AB .299/.414/.522 18 2B, 5 3B, 11 HR, 51 BB, 61 K, 29 SB, 8 CS
Class A+ 201 AB .308/.422/.418 10 2B, 3 3B, 2 HR, 36 BB, 43 K, 24 SB, 5 CS

Can you guess who Player B is (without hunting)? The answer is after the jump.

The two players have very similar skillsets: average, plate discipline, a bit of power, and speed. They also played at the same levels, at roughly the same ages. They also put up these seasons one year after being drafted in the fourth round by the Pirates.

Player B is Brent Lillibridge, so I predict that PECOTA will have a huge crush on D'Arnaud, and we'll all get more excited about him in around March.

A couple points about this:

1) Lillibridge obviously hasn't worked out, but there are a couple reasons to hope that D'Arnaud won't suffer the same fate. First, D'Arnaud was about five months younger than Lillibridge when they put up those numbers; that's not much, but it's something. Second, and much more importantly, D'Arnaud's lower strikeout rate bodes well. It's not like Lillibridge was Mark Reynolds, but it's hard, even for a fast guy like Lillibridge, to keep putting up good batting averages while striking out as much as Lillibridge did in the low minors. Strikeouts were a big issue for Lillibridge in college as well. D'Arnaud doesn't have that problem.

2) It's telling that after Lillibridge's 2006 season, he was probably the fourth-best prospect in the organization, behind Andrew McCutchen, Brad Lincoln and Neil Walker. Now, D'Arnaud's very similar season places him somewhere around #10.

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D'Arnaud

Seems to have gotten off to a slow start and turned it around (much like he did at High A if I remember correctly). Also the SBs are a bit surprising I must say.

by Slizeezyc on Nov 14, 2009 3:55 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

A SS from the Bucs System?

I maybe getting insane here (probably am) but would it be fantastic if the Bucs actually produced a major league SS from their farm system? I can’t recall them doing this in over 20 years!

by zogger on Nov 14, 2009 9:12 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Hmm, tough question

Closest contenders within the last 20 years are Kevin Polcovich (who started for a season) and Lou Collier (who had a nice long career, albeit mostly as a non-SS).

Outside of those two, I think we’re talking about Rafael Belliard. We traded for Jack Wilson, Abe Nunez, and Jay Bell…

by Vlad on Nov 14, 2009 5:13 PM EST via mobile up reply actions 0 recs

For a full time starter at SS...

for more than one season…the last home grown one was Dale Berra…previous to that…Frank Taveras…and Gene Alley.

by Thunder on Nov 14, 2009 6:18 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Just wanna say

that I appreciate you, Charlie, the indispensible WTM and the other denizens of this site for keeping tabs on what’s happening with our prospects throughout the system. I’ve been a Pirates fan most of my long and storied life, but I look back now and wonder at how little attention I paid to our minor-league system until the past couple years, Of course it’s true that for long stretches there hasn’t been anything to pay attention to, but now that there is, I like hearing when people like Chase are tearing it up. Helps turn a glimmer of hope into a gleam of hope.

by bucdaddy on Nov 14, 2009 10:51 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Thanks. It’s also increasingly easier to write about this stuff given the availability of stats, the proliferation of firsthand accounts of games, etc. When I started blogging in 2004, there was very little of that stuff available.

by Charlie on Nov 14, 2009 5:19 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

It used to be a stone bitch...

…even finding out who the team drafted, let alone how they were playing.

by Vlad on Nov 14, 2009 6:56 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Man, I remember buying BA in print to get just the basic stats for our minor leaguers once a month, always a couple weeks out of date.

by WTM on Nov 14, 2009 7:56 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Actually, Lillibridge’s K% wasn’t too bad until he got to AAA. 17% through the low minors. High, but not Pedro-like.

(NOTE: I use plate appearances rather than at-bats to calculate this. I know most people use at-bats. Is there a reason for this? I feel like plate appearances give a better look.)

Also, D’Arnaud must stand in pretty close to the plate. He got hit by pitches 17 times this year. That’s a Jeter-like number.

http://fanhuddle.com/pittsburghpirates

by Nate Rose on Nov 14, 2009 12:32 PM EST reply actions 0 recs