The Texas Rangers have a Cuban prospect who is enjoying incredible luck this season.
There is a great tutorial on batting average on balls in play (BABIP) over at FanGraphs, but here’s the short version: It will take a Herculean effort for someone to maintain a .483 BABIP for an entire season.
That’s what Texas Rangers prospect Andy Ibanez’s BABIP was entering play Wednesday. This is his first stint of professional baseball in the United States, and it’s been a pretty productive start to the season. He’s hitting .408/.459/.671 with 12 doubles in 18 games.
(Ibanez is 23 years old and has three years of pro experience in the Cuban National Series, where he hit .283/.348/.419.)
As I mentioned, however, Ibanez will see his luck start to level out and his numbers should go down. Even a 150-point drop in BABIP would allow Ibanez to have a very impressive season. He’s also shown an impressive ability to manage the strike zone, drawing eight walks with only 14 strikeouts.
Pitcher Anderson Espinoza of the Boston Red Sox is living up to his scouting reports. The Red Sox’s No. 2 prospect according to Baseball Prospectus has a 2.45 ERA in four starts. He’s struck out 20 hitters and walked just five in 18 1/3 innings and is holding hitters to a .212 average.
In the Midwest League, the San Diego Padres are getting huge offensive production from catcher Austin Allen. He’s hitting .509/.567/.667 … .509! …and has a struck out just eight times. Look for his numbers to drop a lot, but the 2015 fourth-rounder is off to a great start.
Next: Triple-A