Minor League Breakdown: The Hitting Prospects

It's time for the 2nd breakdown of the minor league hitting prospects as most prospects have had at least 70 PA's. Even Josh Sale was allowed to participate in full-season ball. And while he is the Rays minor league leader according to OPS and wOBA, please keep in mind that it only have been 10 PA's.

Overall state of the farm

After an above average start into the season of our MiL hitters as a group (lead by Tyler Goeddel, Henry Wrigley and Brandon Guyer), their performance level dimished a bit and stabilized at an overall .687 OPS over the last two weeks. Better pitching performances, however, have at least ended the End-of-April drought of our upper level clubs in Durham and Montgomery. The hitting prospects as a group, however, are still ranked favourably to their pitching colleagues at every level.

OPS-CH and ERA-CH stands for the OPS and ERA change since the last minor league breakdown.

Prospects stats overview

It's the same thing every year. Lots of prospects who might have flown under the radar surprise with excellent performances, while others who seem to be destined for a breakout struggle. That's the nature of human beings and that is also the fun of athletic competition. With Kyeong Kang, Henry Wrigley and Cole Figueroa three lesser mentioned prospects have shown the top performances in the Rays minor league system. While repeating and being overage prospects for their respective level (Figueroa has already been promoted to AAA; the other two should follow within a month or two), their performances have to be credited. On the other side, lots of the top hitting prospects struggle (e.g.: Mikie Mahtook, Tim Beckham and Hak-Yu Lee; Lee is slowly coming back with a .751 OPS over his last 71 PA's, however). 
Here is the data:

 

(click on the image for a better view)

Prospects on the rise

1. Kyeong Kang ... In his last 53 PA's he has hit for a .562 wOBA and a 1.315 OPS. And while he's repeating in Montgomery, he shows very impressive power (already 8 HR vs. 11 HR all of last season and 26 HR in nearly 400 minor league games before this season). 
2. Jeff Malm ... Of the bunch of early drafted position players over the last three years, he is performing best, so far. While being older than fellow Hot Rods prospects Tyler Goeddel or Drew Vettleson, he is showing more consistency and power.
3. James Rice ... A hot streak over the last 35 PA's (1.066 OPS, .479 wOBA) makes him one of the lone bright spots (next ot Alejandro Segovia and Mayobanex Acosta) in an otherwise injury-ridden (Ashley, Chirinos, Bailey) and badly performing (Thomas, Vogt) catching system.

Prospects to be falling

1. Tim Beckham ... The Rays starting shortstop position could've been his as soon as by the end of this season. The suspension, however, in addition to mediocre performances is more than one step back for him. What a horrible day that was for the Rays!
2. Jake Hager ... The move to Bowling Green was an aggressive one, and looking at the performance level so far, might it have been too aggressive? On a positive note: He is not striking out all that often (10.7%).
3. Todd Glaesmann ... After excellent performances in Australia over the off-season, I was very much looking forward to see what he can do in Port Charlotte. However, firstly he was not promoted and secondly his bat has gone flat over the last weeks (56 PA's, .495 OPS, .221 wOBA). Maybe his injury is still holding him back?  
4. Mikie Mahtook ... There was much more to be expected out of him. The main question: Where is the power?

Glossary

All of the stats provided above are excluding the stats from the previous day. I preferrably use FanGraphs as source for the stats. Click on each stat for its explanation:

• Traditional stats: AVG, OBP, OPS, BB% and K%.
• Newer stats: ISO, wOBA, wRAA, BABIP and Spd.