Looking at Our Hitters: 2008 Montgomery Biscuits (AA)

The next team in our look at batters-by-level from last year is the Montgomery Biscuits. 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.

Montgomery Biscuits (AA)

Batter	Age	Level	PA	wOBA	bRAA
Nowak, Chris	25.8	AA	533	.397	25.3
Eldridge, Rashad	27.2	AA	512	.375	14.1
Jaso, John	25.3	AA	354	.382	12.0
Hughes, Rhyne	25.3	AA	450	.363	7.9
Martinez, Gabriel	25.6	AA	567	.357	6.7
Merrill, Ronnie	30.1	AA	451	.348	2.0
Asanovich, Josh	25.8	AA	348	.347	1.1
Spring, Matt	24.1	AA	273	.341	-0.4
Hall, J.T.	24.6	AA	216	.335	-1.5
Pedroza, Sergio	24.8	AA	342	.334	-2.7
Andrus, Erold	24.4	AA	528	.333	-4.5
Cottrell, Patrick	26.8	AA	222	.284	-11.3
Raburn, John	29.8	AA	392	.280	-21.2

Comments: Nowak (drafted in the 19th round in 2004) was one of the best hitters in the organization and continued to hold his own after being promoted to AAA. Expect him in AAA in '09. His future with the Rays is questionable due to age and being blocked at the big league level (Longoria/Pena) unless he can play a corner OF position (6 games in LF and 1 in RF in '08). Eldridge was productive but looks to be minor league filler at this point. Jaso (12th round 2003) continues to impress with the bat and will either back up Navarro or return to AAA next year.

Hughes (8th round 2004) was good with Montgomery and great in the AFL. As with others the question is his future, he's already 25 and Chris Richard will be back at AAA and Pena in MLB in '09. Martinez (27th round 2001), Merrill, and Andrus are all minor league free agents. Spring (4th round 2004) wasn't bad for a catcher in AA but had a rough time in the AFL. Hall (41st round 2004) struggled a bit after being promoted to AA but the organization thought enough of him to send him to the AFL.

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.