Brendan Katin

[jdoz]

What does this kid have to do to get a chance? He's leading the Sounds in RBI's and slugging. He's batting a respectable .281. He hit two more dingers last night and has been on fire for several stretches this season. Hart has been struggling a bit and Frank Catalanotto is signed to fill in here and there? Catalanotto is a viable veteran, but when you have Katin crushing it in AAA ball, I don't really get it. At the very least Katin could be traded right now for great value.

[Brian the Automator]

While an .864 OPS is nothing to be ashamed of as an OFer, the brass probably thinks that a 26-year old in AAA hitting that well isn't all that uncommon. I think his age and his right-handedness are working against him a little bit. I think that if this were a team that wasn't contending, he'd get a shot over a guy like Cat.

 

He's probably the type of guy that would be a throw-in (albeit not a bad one) for a mid-season deal.

[Brily0204]

How often do players his age develop the skills to take walks? His 8/50 BB/K rate is certainly working against him, especially coming off 13/109 last year. But, yeah, I hope he and Heether can at least get a shot somewhere, if not with Milwaukee.

[jjfanec]

He needs to learn how to walk in order to play at the big league level. He has a .320 OBP which is bad and has walked just 8 times to 50 K's. He is striking out close to once every 3.5 PA's in AAA how will that translate into the majors? I love his power but he needs to show some patience at the plate to warrant a call up.

[jdoz]

These are good points. Have there been similar players with big power who haven't had decent walk stats that have been called up? If so, how have they done? Ryan Howard comes to mind. The guy led the majors in strike outs and won the MVP award two years ago. I'm not saying that Katin has Howard power, but he can certainly hit it harder than many.

[Never Outhustled]

Have there been similar players with big power who haven't had decent walk stats that have been called up? If so, how have they done? Ryan Howard comes to mind.

Howard is a big strikeout guy, but he also walks a ton. He had a 467 OBA in AAA as a 25 year old before being called up for good.

 

I'd love to see Katin become a more patient hitter, but some hitters just don't have the batspeed to wait back and still pull balls. I don't know if thats the case with Katin, I haven't seen him play since college.

[dadofandrew]

He gets out almost 70% of the time versus guys who aren't good enough to be the 11th/12th men on MLB staffs, and the occasional prospect. As stated, he isn't young. He's a fringe prospect, as guys with 30 HR power are like guys that throw in the mid 90's...they get a boatload of chances.

[kramnoj]

One sorta comp is Mike Jacobs. He walks less than most would like and had a k/bb ratio of over 3/1 in the minors. He's not a good player, but he's useful to a lower payroll team that wants offense. As Brian noted, he may not be a replacement for Hart, but he could be a decent chit for the right team.

[Brily0204]

Another comp is Matt Diaz, who is actually very similar to Jacobs. Diaz had some not terrible k/bb ratios (2/1) in the low minors, but those ballooned to about 4/1 in AA and AAA and have stayed pretty bad in the majors. If Katin could improve to those rates, he might have a shot. He doesn't hit for Diaz's average, but has better power and--per BA--is supposed to have a very good outfield arm

[jdoz]

2 more homers today and 5 rbi's. I hear all the talk about the K/bb ratio and I get it. Katin's K/bb ratio this year is 51/8 = 6.4/1, but he's slugging at .585 (#1 on the sounds), an ops of .915 (#2), with a .293 avg and 10 homers (#1). He has two 2 homer games in a row now. Hart's K/bb ratio this year is 49/19 = 2.6/1, but he's only slugging at .415, with a .745 ops, .256 avg, and 5 homers. Between the power hitting and the strong arm I think it warrants a call up or a trade for good value. Check out his line today -

 Nashville Player AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO AVG Bourgeois CF 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .294 Escobar SS 4 2 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 .294 Heether 3B 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 .303 Katin RF 4 2 3 0 0 2 5 0 1 .293 Koshansky DH 4 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 3 .220 Almonte 1B 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .317 Salome C 3 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 .250 Gillespie LF 3 1 1 0 0 1 2 0 2 .210 Garciaparra 2B 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .303 Dillard P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .188 Swindle P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 Smith C, P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 BATTING 2B: Escobar (11, Phillips). HR: Katin 2 (10, 1st inning off Phillips, 1 on, 2 out; 6th inning off Phillips, 1 on, 1 out), Gillespie (2, 5th inning off Phillips, 1 on, 1 out). TB: Bourgeois; Escobar 3; Katin 9; Koshansky; Salome; Gillespie 4. RBI: Katin 5 (40), Gillespie 2 (9), Koshansky (32). 2-out RBI: Katin 2. GIDP: Almonte. Team RISP: 3-for-5. Team LOB: 1. 

(edit: "prettified" the box score... we don't expect that members do this, but mods are happy to help with stuff like this when we can --1992)

[dadofandrew]

What's his MLE for OBP, about .260? He barely gets on 30% of the time in AAA against non-prospects. No one helps the team win by getting out 70-75% of the time.

[MLS1965]

Yea, BK is is in quite a groove, but I gotta tell you his HR a few weeks back OVER the CMT sign on TOP of the score board was impressive. If I knew how to post my own photos I got a great contact picture just as ahe hit the second HR today...

[jdoz]

What's his MLE for OBP, about .260? He barely gets on 30% of the time in AAA against non-prospects. No one helps the team win by getting out 70-75% of the time.

 

Another fair point - using this MLE calculator - http://www.minorleaguesplits.com/mlecalc.html - Katin's MLE for OBP is .284 and he's slugging at .485 in the majors. BUT - let's put things into perspective, Hart's OBP is .330 and his career OBP is .324. Catalanotto has a career .358 OBP. So yeah Katin is getting on around 30% of the time (when converted to MLE), again - keep it in perspective - Hart is getting on a third of the time and Catalanotto is not doing much over that either. Meanwhile Hart's career slugging is .477 and Catalanotto's career slugging is .449 - both topped by Katin's MLE for slugging of .485.

[pogokat]

a .46 differential in obp forhart is much more valuable than the possibility that Katin hits for slightly more power...

 

Katin had the exact same season last year..he basically needs to double his walk total to have any chance

[JJHardy7]

I've seen Katin play quite a bit and I really like the guy. I just don't know if he'll be a starter in the bigs. I think he could be a bench type player, but I kind of wonder if MLB pitching would be too tough on him at this point because he seems to lack some strike zone awareness.

[JohnBriggs12]

He strikes out a lot and rarely walks. That's says to me he swings and misses a lot against AAA pitching and lacks strike zone awareness. That's not the type I'd want coming off the bench in the 9th inning facing major league closers. To his credit, he's having his best season, but it's only 42 games. He's shown power but has never hit more than 24 HR so it's not all that impressive when combined with his BB and K totals. If he ends the year hitting .296/.330/.585 with 30 or more HR, he probably would deserve a 40 man spot and a September call-up, but he's a very long shot at best to ever make an impact in the big leagues. A guy like Bucky Jacobsen had more power and took a lot more walks but his major league career was very short.

[clancyphile]

Katin's bets use would be as bait in a trade in mid-summer.

[DHonks]

JohnBriggs, not many top sluggers in MLB ever hit 24 homers in a minor league season. Recently we've been spoiled with guys like Howard and Ankiel sitting in AAA, slugging away. Playing an extra month in the big leagues definitely leads to an increase for most players

[Mass Haas]

From Adam McCalvy of MLB.com:

 

Brewers general manager Doug Melvin has been impressed by Triple-A Nashville outfielder Brendan Katin, who hit two home runs in each of the Sounds' weekend wins. Katin is hitting .293 this season with 10 home runs and 40 RBIs. He also had 51 strikeouts versus eight walks. "This guy just keeps on hitting," said Melvin, who compared Katin to former Brewers slugger Rob Deer. "[Katin] has power, a good arm in the outfield. He does get overlooked a bit."

[Godspeed]

Katin reminds me a lot of Todd Dunn, but in looking back at the stats even Dunn drew a walk every now and then. For Brendan's sake it would be nice for him to get a shot in Milwaukee like Dunn did, but (thankfully on the results side) these are different times. If he keeps putting up these numbers though, he'll get a shot somewhere, if not with Milwaukee.

[CheezWizHed]

This conversation sounds a lot like the Nelson Cruz conversations of a couple years ago. Lots of power, lots of strikeouts, few walks.

[LouisEly]

Anyone starting to think that a Gerut (or Catalanotto)/Katin platoon would be more productive than Hart?

[battlekow]

No, but a Gerut (or Catalanotto)/Hart platoon would be more productive than Hart.

[monty57]

Katin's got another 2 HR night tonight.

[jdoz]

Katin's got another 2 HR night tonight.

 

Monty, you beat me to it. Katin has now had 3 two homer games in his last 5 played, that has to be some sort of record. Oh yeah, but he struck out and didn't get a walk in his other two at bats. Guess he's not worth having in the majors right? Gimme a break, what does this kid have to do to get called up??! Since Hart looks lost out there, it's probably just best to keep playing Catalanotto and Gerut, no sense in bringing up the guy who is leading the team in rbi's, home runs, has a killer arm, and has 3 multi-homer games in his last 5 played.