Before the Tigers selected him in the Rule 5, Baddoo had not played a competitive baseball game since 2019, spent the 2020 season rehabbing from Tommy John surgery and had never played a game above High-A after the Twins selected him in the second round of the 2016 MLB draft out of Sale High School in Conyers, Georgia.
Now presented the opportunity to make a big league roster in spring training, he channeled the energy from his childhood, the confidence that allowed him to play up with the bigger, older kids.
Within his first few games, Baddoo made sure he didn’t end up among the litany of forgotten Rule 5 picks.
“The Tigers saw something in me and I’m truly thankful for that,” he said. “What they saw in me is something I always had inside of me. I have this chip on my shoulder, and that’s the mentality that I had throughout the offseason and throughout the Rule 5. I was like, ‘Well, now I’m a big leaguer, so let’s prepare like a big leaguer and show everyone that you’re there to belong.’”
Reader Comments and Retorts
Go to end of page
Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.
1. Walt Davis Posted: April 21, 2021 at 06:11 PM (#6014806)If he doesn't rapidly improve his plate discipline, MLB pitchers will carve him up.
Yeah, he really fell apart in the past week or so. I think he struck out 7 or 8 times in a row vs. Oakland.
However, in his brief time in the minors, plate discipline didn't appear to be a huge problem. In 1018 PA, most of them as a teenager, he walked 140 times -- 14% of his PA. (Just to compare someone in a similar environment, Byron Buxton had 160 walks in 1604 PA -- 10%. Mike Trout walked in 12% of his minor-league PAs.) Baddoo did strike out a lot (23% of his minor-league PAs), but perhaps that's not extraordinary in this era. In spring training he had 10 walks and 14 K in 50 PA.
So maybe he'll adjust? Hopefully.
I recall back in the deep, dark, distant past (2005 maybe) that the nerds pointed out that minor-league walk rates didn't have much to do with ML walk rates. Some guys who rarely walked in the minors ended up walking a lot in the majors and vice versa. I don't know if that's still true but mainly a guy who's gonna be a good ML batter should be able to hit just about anything in the zone from a minor-league pitcher with authority. So something like Baddoo's 243/351/419 line at A-ball in 2018 (at the age of 19 which may be the most important factor) might be "great discipline" or might be "here's a guy who can't smash A ball pitching and has to be selective about what he swings at."
The Tigers aren't going to be competing for anything this year so as long as he isn't completely ridiculous they should be able to carry him and let him play. I suppose at some point you gotta get him out of there but assuming he doesn't go 0 for 60 or something there's no reason he can't get 300-350 PA this year at the big league level. Tell him to hang out with Miguel Cabrera a lot and even if he spends next year at AAA he's still just 24 in 2023.
You must be Registered and Logged In to post comments.
<< Back to main