DonCaballero wrote:

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Reddick walked at a higher pace than Kalish did last season at AA. But yeah, fuck that and let's judge him based on the like 5 PA's he had at ML level.

First, I want to echo AMarsh: .250 ISO is pretty freaking good. I have no doubts about Reddick's power. In fact, I was actually kind of impressed by Reddick in Boston; I expect guys to be overwhelmed at that level at first, so I just noticed the "wow" factor on his power. The ball really screams off his bat.

But, as a new self-appointed driver of the Kalish bandwagon, I want to point out one flaw in your comparison of their AA numbers ... Reddick had very similar struggles when he first got to AA, but his struggles happened in 2008. He had about 130 in AA at the end of the 2008 season, and he didn't do well. No shame in that; it's a SSS, and guys often have an adjustment period, just as Kalish did. But to get a real read on the performance of the two guys in AA, you'd need to use Reddick's entire AA stats and Kalish's entire stats, which happened in 2009. Just doing the math in my head quickly, it looks like Kalish comes out about 10-15 OBP ahead in that comparison, and he's abouta year younger. I haven't done the SLG, but I'd guess Reddick wins there by a bit, but Kalish has developing power, and the OBP is more important to me.

And, outside the stats, Kalish's approach is far better, as mentioned here by others, and his power is quite good for his age, so there's good reason to think that it will develop well. Kalish just has a more traditional profile of a prospect who maintains his success than does Reddick, and his wrist injury in 2008 gives an apparent reason for his being underrated nationally.

Of course, this is all shades of perception here. In the end, there's no *that* much separating the two. Reddick has some really great tools, and he's made strides in his approach, so it's certainly possible he'll end up with a better MLB career. I just think Kalish has a better chance of reaching his ceiling, and I think he is more underrated nationally and will prove that this year.

DonCaballero wrote:

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That's basically my point. People here are underrating Reddick a bit because he didn't do too well at MLB/AAA in 140 PA's. Yes, he didn't do well, but it doesn't have that much to do with his approach. He's made strides in his BB numbers, and 140 PA's or so should not prove otherwise.

And that's a fair enough point. I do think Kalish performed better in AA at a younger age than Reddick did and is underrated nationally because of his injury-plagued 2008 and was showing why I think that, but I also think that people are overreacting to the MLB experience from Reddick. My boosting of Kalish has a lot more to do with what I think about Kalish's game than anything about Reddick (I'd like to see more than .350 OBP in his "good" stretch in AA, but he is improving at that). It's not a zero-sum game.