Kansas City Royals Prospect Review: Hot Hitters in April
By David Hill
Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
At this point, Dusty Coleman is not likely to be considered a real prospect for the Kansas City Royals. After all, he is 28 years old and has all of 16 games at the AAA level. For most of the past four seasons, Coleman has been stalled at AA, likely seeing himself become minor league filler and playing that role of a mentor to the hotter prospects.
However, despite his status as a non-prospect, Coleman has produced the best on base percentage of anyone in the Royals farm system with twenty or more plate appearances. Thus far, he has produced a .379/.493/.483 batting line, hitting six doubles and stealing three bases. However, the most impressive statistic has been his ten walks and four times being hit by a pitch (proof that he truly is a Royal at heart) in 73 plate appearances. He is even second in the system with 13 RBI as of last night.
This amazing success to begin the season is not likely to be sustainable. To date, Dusty Coleman has a 32.6% line drive rate at Northwest Arkansas, more than ten points higher than league average. Not only is Coleman hitting almost everything pitched to him well, but he has a thoroughly unsustainable .478 batting average on balls in play. At some point, the bubble has to burst.
In the meanwhile, Coleman has been a nice story to the start of the season. Perhaps if he can keep that hot streak going for a bit longer, he can find his way to Omaha and prove he deserves a chance at the AAA level.
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