If you’re like me, you enjoy playing sports video games from time to time. Every once in a while some virtual incarnation of a player does something to my player that I take as a direct insult to my ego. When this happens I turn the difficulty down to the easiest setting and adjust the settings to allow me to annihilate those who wronged me. When I’m satisfied with the carnage I turn back the settings to a reasonable level.
This is the process I imagine Texas Rangers' red hot prospect Andy Ibanez is going through right now. In 67 plate appearances in the South Atlantic League Ibanez's hitting slash line is an absurd .446/.500/.738. Small sample size precautions be darned, that’s impressive. Ibanez’s compact swing and impeccable batting eye are the keys to his success. Though he doesn’t project for a great deal of home runs in the future, he should hit more than his fair share of doubles moving forward.
The reigning SAL Player of the Week's isolated power of .295 stems from his big time production of two baggers. The 11 doubles he’s hit so far this year have his slugging percentage 108 points higher than Joey Gallo’s and is the most doubles by anyone in professional baseball so far this year. Though Ibanez has only drawn seven walks so far this year, that’s a trend I imagine won’t continue as the sample size expands. An 9.0% walk rate is by no means bad, but his career norm has been a tick or two above that.
Good at bats is Ibanez’s calling card. That advanced approach at the plate leads to the second baseman’s low strikeout rate of 19.4%. Another key to the second baseman’s success is his ability to hit the ball hard when he puts it in play. When Ibanez makes contact, he takes advantage of his outrageous, though surely unsustainable, .543 BABIP.
So the question now is how is a prospect without a projected plus tool setting the league aflame and laughing maniacally while doing it? The answer is simple: Andy Ibanez is in the wrong level.
Texas signed the Cuban prospect last summer for $1.6 million, considered a solid bargain, as a 22 year old. This is his first year playing pro ball in the U.S. so it isn’t unreasonable or uncommon for Texas to place him in a lower level to allow him to adjust to life in a new country. Ibanez turned 23 before the season started and is 1.8 years older than the average player in the South Atlantic League. Sometime in the near future Ibanez will be promoted to a more appropriate level, but which one?
High Desert would be a good option if the Rangers were looking for Ibanez to attempt to maintain his enormous offensive numbers. Since Ibanez doesn’t fit anywhere defensively besides second base, he would be stealing time mostly from a legitimate, or semi-legitimate depending on who you talk to, prospect in Travis Demeritte. The former first round pick is putting up his own absurd offensive numbers evident in his 1.140 OPS.
Demeritte isn’t the only second base prospect Ibanez would steal at bats from if he were promoted there. Josh Morgan, Michael De Leon, and Evan Van Hoosier all see some time at second base for the Mavericks. The California League’s average position player age is 22.4, so it would be more age appropriate but not as aggressive as the Rangers usually are with their prospects.
These two things lead me to believe that Frisco is the more logical next stop for the Cuban infielder. Alberto Triunfel is the only second baseman listed on the Rough Rider roster. Isaiah Kiner-Falefa sees some time there, but he’s listed as a shortstop and also seeing time at catcher.
If Ibanez is promoted to Frisco it will be easy for Joe Mikulik to pencil him into the lineup almost every day. Frisco is doing well now, but I’m having an awful lot of fun imagining a lineup with Ibanez, Luis Mendez, Lewis Brinson, Ryan Cordell, and Ronald Guzman hitting 1-5, but I digress.
The average age of Texas League Position players this year is 23.9. If Ibanez was called up to Frisco he would still be about a year younger than the average player in his league. That lines up with Texas’ history of being aggressive with their assignments.
While it’s fun to vanquish enemies with ease playing The Show on rookie, actual player development is nothing like a video game. Playing against competition that isn’t competitive isn’t the best way for young prospects to ready themselves for the show. Video game numbers belong in video games, not in real life. I’d say it’s just about time for Andy Ibanez to raise the difficulty level.
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