Chicago Cubs: Andy Weber is a dark horse in the organization

Chicago Cubs: Who is Andy Weber?

Weber played three seasons at the University of Virginia, where he managed to slash .305/.371/.442 with a .813 OPS across 139 career games. In his last and final year last year as a Junior, Weber certainly helped his draft stock by slashing .344/.415/.536 with five home runs and 49 RBI. Most impressively, Weber struck out at a lowly 11.5% clip. In the 2018 season, Weber was named ACC All-Conference.

Weber began his Cubs career in the Rookie league, playing in 13 games and seeing 56 plate appearances. Unfortunately, Weber struggled. He slashed .196/.268/.353 with two home runs and three RBI. Weber struck out at an unimpressive 33.9% rate.

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Nevertheless, Weber continued to progress as he worked his way up to Low-A. There, Weber slashed .291/.363/.329 with no home runs and seven RBI. Most impressively, Weber significantly decreased his strikeout percentage down to 20.7% while simultaneously increasing his wOBA to .325 from .296 and also producing at league average with a 100 wRC+.

Weber possesses solid bat speed through the zone as well as accuracy and drops his hands back before driving through the zone on a swing. The plane of his swing remains nice and level, and the ball can jump off the bat with fervor. For Weber, he also shows an ability to hit to all fields. His pull percentage and opposite field percentage were identical last year at Rookie-level, at 40.6%.

Regarding his speed, Weber is not a burner on the basepaths however shows average to above-average speed. In each of his final two seasons, Weber stole a total of eight bases and was only caught stealing one time. He stole a base at each of the levels last year for the Cubs. Despite this, it gives the notion Weber is smart with his base running.

Lastly, Weber profiles to have decent arm strength as well as range. He provides a level of versatility as well and can play multiple positions, including shortstop and third base. The question remains, can he work his way up to the show?