Can I tell you guys something I'm excited about?
Nick Yorke, our up-and-down first round pick from the 2020 Covid/sign stealing draft, is off to a really interesting start in Portland.
He's got a nice but unexceptional line: .267/.343/.467, for an .810 OPS. Pretty good, especially because as a 22 year old he's still young for the level.
But in his first go round in AA, he had a really similar line (.785 OPS) with a touch less SLG. So why is he repeating the level? Last year, he struck out 25% of the time. He was very young for the level, but the whole idea of Nick Yorke was supposed to be contact skills, so it was kind of ominous.
It's still April, obviously, but the first stats to stabilize are things like contact and strikeout rates. And so far this season his K% is only ~15% while his walk rate has held around 9%. So he has basically the same slash line, but it's come on a much lower BABIP because he's been putting the ball in play more. And it doesn't seem to be a case of not striking out because he's swinging earlier in counts, because his BB% is unchanged.
This is a really good sign IMO for him getting back on track as a legit prospect. I think he'll be the first of our big prospects up to Worcester, and probably the first to Boston, too.