Movin’ On Up: Wil Myers Promoted

Wil Myers, 2009 third round selection, will begin his ascent through the Royals system as he has been promoted from Burlington in Low-A to Wilmington in High-A where he joins fellow prospects Eric Hosmer and John Lamb.  Christian Colon, fourth overall pick in the 2010 draft, is also in Wilmington and debuted on Tuesday.

Myers, 19, started slowly in Burlington producing at a .232/.293/.439 clip through April, but in May he picked it up with a line of .330/.459/.500 and continued with a solid June, producing a 1.066 OPS with slash stats of .319/.472/.594. His April stats look to be a result of a low walk rate and a high ground ball rate. He’s turned it around since by hitting more line drives and walking much more. At the end of April, Myers had walked 7 times in 91 plate appearances. As of today, he’s walked 48 times in 294 appearances.

Right now Myers is considered among the most promising prospects in the organization, with some considering him the top hitting prospect, even ahead of Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas. Baseball America considers Myers the best pure hitter and best power hitter among Royals prospects.

The only question with Myers is if he can learn the catching craft.

(For whatever reason, the Baseball-Reference.com table doesn’t list the 2010 results, but the career numbers are current. Weird.)

You can see that gaudy 23 passed balls in 79 games.  With a career 35% success rate against would be base-stealers, Myers is very raw behind the plate (and in 2010 he’s 19/68 – a Kendallesque 28%).  He’ll really have to improve defensively to be the catching future in Kansas City, and it’s more than likely he’ll end up in the outfield.  That would also speed up his advancement as he could focus more on his offense in a less defensively demanding position.  Also, at 6’3″, Myers isn’t ideally sized for a catcher, and time behind the plate could be detrimental to his back and knees.  Wilmington currently has Salvador Perez at catcher, and as a Carolina League All-Star in 2010, Perez is the likely everyday catcher in Wilmington while Myers will end up DHing most of the time, I assume.

Where ever Myers ends up in the field, he’ll make the big leagues on the merits of his hitting.  He’s shown he’s ready for this promotion, and it may not be long until Hosmer and Moustakas make their next move up the ladder, as well.

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