Bartman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Calling A Catcher Up Too Soon)
But, you know, definitely way too soon
Probably the most surprising thing about Joey Bart’s major league debut has been his lack of power. He barely walked as a minor leaguer; in the majors he’s walking even barelier. He struck out pretty often in AA, the first time he wasn’t a man among boys; as a major leaguer he’s whiffing at a Jarrett Parkerian rate. Those both make sense, even if they’re not what you want to see. He has stuff to work on, and it’s the same stuff he’s had to work on since he became a pro.
That’s okay, because what’s already there is so strong that you can tolerate some lapses in other areas. We know how good his bat is, and his power will play, so as long as he gets consistent chances, he’ll do damage. Right?
Right?
(Sigh)
Joey Bart has only had 89 plate appearances, but in them, he has hit .232/.292/.293. He’s walking 2% of the time and striking out 36% of the time. His vaunted power, the one tool that was supposed to show up even when the contact was inconsistent, has been utterly absent, as Bart has just three doubles and one triple to his name, and the last double came a month ago.
According to Statcast, Bart is barreling balls less than average, his exit velocity is below average, his launch angle is below average, he’s hitting the ball on the sweet spot less than average, and his .265 wOBA is pretty much right on target.
For those of you who don’t speak Baseball Stats, that’s all extremely bad.
If you’ve been watching the games, then it’s not really a mystery what’s been wrong with Bart, who despite a poor season continues to be one of the Giants’ top prospects and a building block for the future. He’s swinging too much at slop out of the zone, and not enough at hittable pitches in the zone. When he does make contact, the ball is going on the ground more than half the time, exactly the place where his power does the least good. He’s making bad decisions at the plate and reaping the consequences. Problem solved.
This is the danger that comes with promoting a prospect too early. Joey Bart’s bat was not ready for the major leagues when he got called up, and all the prospect hype in the world couldn’t change that. Fans were excited about him because he’s a shiny new toy, and people tend to love shiny new toys. But even when he was healthy last year, Bart’s production wasn’t eye-popping.
Don’t get me wrong: he was good. The home run power was always impressive, and he was in his first full professional season, and there wasn’t anything to dull the prospect shine off of him. But last year, in his 251 plate appearances for the high-A San Jose Giants, Joey Bart hit .265/.315/.479. There are plenty of caveats you can apply for why that was a fine performance, but you know what you’re looking for out of your top prospect? No caveats. That was not the case, even if Bart went to AA Richmond at the end of the year and hit a very impressive .316/.368/.544.
Just as a fun contrast, in his year in San Jose, Gary Brown — who had absolutely no impact at the major league level — hit .336/.407/.519. Just as a helpful reminder of (A) What spectacular numbers look like with the Baby Giants and (B) Spectacular numbers with the Baby Giants do not necessarily correlate to major league success.
So the thing to do this year would have been to let Joey Bart get a full year, or nearly a full year, in AAA at Sacramento, and only get called up if he was performing well enough to never return to the minors. He could have honed his craft on both offense and defense in a low-pressure environment, so that when he did get called up to the majors, he’d be as ready as a player can be.
That, obviously, was not in the cards this year. As much experience as Bart got at the Alternate Site, playing against the same every day, the only way for him to really develop was to call him up to the big leagues. These growing pains are a natural side effect of that decision, which was the least bad decision available.
So yes, it sucks watching Joey Bart these days. Gabe Kapler apparently agrees, since he pinch hit for Bart with Wilmer Flores in an important spot in last night’s game, but the important thing is to keep running Bart out there and letting him learn. He’s already improved behind the plate in the month that he’s been a major leaguer, and so this time has already paid dividends. The hope is that Joey Bart will carry the experience of hitting in the majors into next year, when he will build on the foundation of what he’s learning right now.
The fear, by the way, is that a poor showing at the plate will create bad thoughts or bad habits that bleed into the rest of his career. So that wouldn’t be good at all!
Joey Bart is painful to watch right now, and also the Giants are making the best of a bad situation. Both things can be true. Both things are true.
We’d all sure feel better if he hit a few dingers, though.