Looking at Our Hitters: 2008 Columbus Catfish (A)

We've already looked at the Rays pitching throughout the organization from many different angles. Today let's start to look at our batters by level using their 2008 StatCorner numbers, beginning with the Columbus Catfish (low A ball, which will be the Bowling Green Hot Rods in 2009). First, here are the definitions of the stats used from the StatCorner Glossary:

PA: Plate Appearances. This is how much they hit.

wOBA: "wOBA or weighted on base average is a statistic developed by and used with the permission of Tom Tango. In a nutshell, wOBA uses linear weights on certain batting events to come up with a metric that is more statistically sound than OPS and is scaled onto an OBP scale. According to Tango "An average hitter is around 0.340 or so, a great hitter is 0.400 or higher, and a poor hitter would be under 0.300." This is how well they hit.

bRAA: "Stands for batting runs above average. It is computed by taking the hitter's RV/PA (Run value per PA above average = (wOBA for player - wOBA for league) / 1.15.) and multiplying by the number of plate appearances he has had that season." This is how much 'value' they added (or cost) their team based on the quality and quantity of their hitting.

Columbus Catfish (A)

Batter	Age	Level	PA	wOBA	bRAA
Fronk, Reid	22.4	A	527	.398	29.3
Sexton, Gregory	23.8	A	528	.365	14.5
Vogt, Stephen	24.1	A	448	.369	14.0
Stewart, Quinn	25.3	A	261	.379	10.3
Loyola, Maiko	23.4	A	542	.355	10.2
Salem, Emeel	23.8	A	170	.381	7.0
Fontaine, Chase	23.1	A	227	.367	6.5
Cipriano, Cody	23.9	A	178	.340	1.1
O'Malley, Shawn	20.9	A	390	.333	-0.2
Wrigley, Henry	22.3	A	439	.311	-8.4
McCormick, Mike	22.3	A	415	.298	-12.6
Dhaenens, Seth	24.6	A	168	.241	-13.1
Luna, Omar	22.0	A	415	.292	-14.5

Comments: Fronk (drafted in the 7th round in 2007), Sexton (10th round in 2007), and Vogt (12th round in 2007) had nice full-season debuts in '08 after playing in Hudson Valley in '07. Stewart (5th year Sr. sign in 2006) was too old for A-ball, but put up decent numbers. Loyola has signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates as a minor league free agent. Salem (6th, 2007) broke his elbow on May 14th and needs to move up due to age. Cipriano (9th in 2007), O'Malley (5th in 2006), Wrigley (14th in 2005), and McCormick (5th in 2005) were disappointments last year, but could still bounce back in '09. Dhaenens was released and is a minor league free agent.

Kevin and Andy are more knowledgable about our position prospects, so I'll defer to their comments. Other notes: Age is as of today. Hitters are listed by level, so some appear in other posts. I only included those who had many plate appearances or are high profile (top prospect, ex-prospect, in the news lately). StatCorner only covers down to full-season A ball, so no Hudson Valley, Princeton, DSL or VSL players are included in these summaries.