Saturday, December 28, 2013

Scouting the Draft: Michael Chavis

Gotta give credit to Shankbone for spotlighting this kid first over on You Gotta Like These Kids.  Brian Sabean has a long history of returning to strategies that have worked for him in the past and abandoning ones that have failed.  Since John Barr took over Scouting Director duties, the Giants have tended to target a certain type of position player emphasizing the hit tool over the other 4 major tools, catching, throwing, running and power.

If you believe that the Giants are happy with their choice of Christian Arroyo in the first round of last year's draft, then you should also be interested in Michael Chavis in the upcoming 2014 draft as it would be difficult to find two more similar players.  Chavis is a Georgia HS player with unimposing size at 5'11", 180 lbs.  He is listed as a 3B, SS, OF, but his best position as a pro is probably 3B.  His best tool, by far, is the hit tool.  PG describes his bat as "very fast."  While his other tools are not outstanding, he is above average in all of them.  The power is more than adequate as he homered in 5 different PG tourneys and won the PG AA HR Derby!  He runs a 6.68 60 yard dash and his IF throws have been clocked at 90 MPH.

As you might guess from his size, he has a very simple, direct, quick swing that gets to the ball quickly with power to drive it.  He tends to have a level, line drive swing but added some uppercut to win the HR derby.  He does have a bit of a front leg kick although not exaggerated.

BLF does not have in ranked in their top 50 draft prospects.  BA has him at #42 with the comment, "5-foot-11 gamer offers all-around skills with plus bat speed, contact ability, and above-average raw power to go with above average wheels and arm."  Matt Garrioch has him all the way up at #22 at Minor League Ball.

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