Courtesy of Native_Astro, we have a recap of Brian Bogusevic's eventful winter via Baseball America. Tim Ednoff, the writer, has some nice quotes, but the premise of the entire piece has me adrift somewhat. Firstly, Bogusevic has had good success in the Dominican Republic. We can be happy with what he's achieved, but it is dangerous to expect in any way to correlate over to major league stats. He's had a good workout, has faced a lot of leftie pitching and will have learned some things about his plate approach.
It's odd, prior to his trade to the Phillies, Hunter Pence's numbers in 2011 were quite similar to Bogusevic's. The 27-year-old former pitcher put up a slash-line of .287/.348/.457, compared to Pence's .308/.356/.471, with comparable ISOs, with Bogusevic owning a higher BB%. Of course Pence's numbers in Philadelphia took off, but it does make you think.
A FanGraphs article from today talks about Josh Reddick as a fourth outfielder, when he is probably better tagged as a third outfielder. When Sean posted the link I think he was upset with the characterisation of Bogusevic as a fourth outfielder, when we really have little idea on how he will progress/regress. His swing does seem to have some pop in it, he plays above average defense in right field (bWAR likes his 'D' fWAR loves it).* He is an above average baserunner, and will probably steal more than four bases this year (he stole a high of 23 in 2010 in the minors).
I think a few people have mentioned to me what a two-way star Bogusevic was at Tulane University, where he was drafted by the Astros in the first round of the 2005 draft, and were not surprised he was showing up in the majors in 2011 with a surprising set of offensive skills. All this may just be a smokescreen and Bogusevic may never be more than a good outfield bat off the bench, but I wouldn't limit any number of possible outcomes just because he's had an unusual path to becoming a major league hitter.
*His fWAR for 2011 was a staggeringly high 2.4 is likely down to his collosal 10.4 UZR in 2011, a UZR/150 of 49.6.
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