Winter League Notes: Hitters

Back before Matt Garza joined the Cubs and we got swamped with trade talk and prospect analysis, I wrote an article on how Cubs’ pitchers were performing in the winter leagues, and promised an update on the hitters for my next column. Ok, so I’m late, but the Garza trade is a great excuse.

But now that transactions have settled down a bit, we have time to take a hard look at how some Cubs prospects are doing in the winter leagues. Most of the Cubs’ players haven’t gotten all that many at bats, but there are two key exceptions. Even better, one of those exceptions joins the list of middle infielders to watch as we head into 2011.

First, let’s take a look at Max Ramirez, the catcher recently claimed from the Red Sox. In 185 AB Ramirez is hitting .286/.373/.381. That gets more encouraging when you consider that he has only struck out 40 times. A 21.6% strike out rate is pretty good considering what we’ve seen from Ramirez in the past, and an encouraging sign for the future. His batting average has stayed consistent with runners on base or the bases empty, an indicator that he is hitting the best stuff the pitchers have for him. While this isn’t enough for me to predict a 25 man roster spot for Ramirez, it is certainly good news.

Meanwhile, in 210 AB over 59 games, shortstop Marwin Gonzalez has been beating up pitchers across the league. His basic line alone reads nicely: .324/.412/.419. It gets better the more we study it, however. In 46 AB he’s hitting a ridiculous .435 off left handers, slugging .565. His .324 average comes with just 31 strikeouts (less than 15%) and 33 walks. With the bases empty his average drops to .288, which is not bad considering that with the bases empty a pitcher can use his full assortment of breaking pitches. With runners on base, Gonzalez jumps to an impressive .370. There is no doubt he is feasting on fastballs. And did I mention he is a switch hitter? This guy keeps looking better and better.

So where has Gonzalez been hiding all this time? He’s been in the Cubs system since 2006, at the age of 17. 2009 was the first year he spent entirely on full season leagues, and played reasonably well for Daytona. A mid season promotion led to him spending much of 2010 in Tennessee where he hit .246/.284/.341. Despite those less than amazing numbers, his strikeout ratio was still a very nice looking 13%.

He has played all over the field, but at Tennessee was almost exclusively a shortstop. It certainly looks like he’ll find a home in the infield someplace, but the competition with be stiff.

I’m not going to try to project Gonzalez, other than to say he will likely start next season in Double A Tennessee, or maybe Iowa with a very good spring. Like Junior Lake, he could be poised to have a breakout season. For now, add his name to (lengthy) list of Cubs infield prospects, and we’ll keep an eye on his progress over the course of the next season.