Big Amoco Sign wrote: ↑April 21 22, 11:00 am
Isn’t the K rate palatable if he’s walking to counter? All that matters is the ratio.
At a certain point the nominal K rate matters because he has to go up a level. The pitchers are better and smarter and if a hitter has enough issues/holes to have that much swing and miss at AAA, it likely gets worse in MLB. Same thing in the opposite direction with walk rate. You see a similar concept with BABIP luck for hitting prospects, especially at lower levels. Yes, a hitter could be unlucky with BABIP, but in a decent enough sample if you have a low BABIP it's just as much an indictment of your hit tool which is indicative of problems you'll have at higher levels.
As it relates to Gorman in particular, it's a strange juxtaposition to his past performance in both directions. Like any modern power hitter he's going to have swing and miss, and though he does have the excuse of being young for his levels, that AAA spell was the only stop in his pro career his K rate has dipped below 25%, which means that much swing and miss this year is not a good omen for him transitioning to MLB quickly. He's also hitting the bejeezus out of the ball when not striking out, so the question is can he at least strike out at career norms while keeping some of that uptick in production. Said more simply, Gorman's pre-AAA career says legit power prospect with some K risk, his first AAA stint says surefire major leaguer with low K risk but not great performance, and his 2022 AAA performance says legit power hitter with huge K risk. To me that 2022 performance doesn't answer the questions you had about his readiness for MLB that you might have had before the season, but it doesn't cast a shadow on his future either. So you leave him in AAA for a while longer to see if those questions start to answer themselves in one direction or another.
