The Trout Tracker is going on hiatus this week since our hero is still doing his thing up in the bigs, but the spirit of the tracker shall live on with a different future Angel star.
I had thought about picking Jean Segura, but I didn’t think giving weekly updates on a hamstring injury would be all that interesting. I thought about Garrett Richards too, but I think my infatuation with him is largely based on him and I sharing a first name, besides, starting pitchers just aren’t as exciting. Finally, I settled on none other than slugging third baseman Kaleb Cowart.
Really, Cowart should have been the easy and obvious choice. As last year’s first round pick, Cowart clearly has the pedigree to be considered a future star, and his power potential certainly backs that up. On talent alone, Cowart could very well be considered the Angels top prospect this time next year. From an actual production standpoint, Cowart may not have a long resume, but what he is doing this year is plenty impressive.
Cowart may have had a poor though abbreviated debut in rookie ball last year, but he has made that a distant memory in Orem this year. Since Orem is only short-season ball, Cowart has just 104 at-bats this year, but he has a .375/.429/.500 slash line…
OK, that line is nice, but it isn’t great. It just doesn’t hold up to Trout-ian standards.
Sigh.
Look, Cowart could be great, but he could also be not so great. He does strike out a lot with 25 Ks in those 104 at-bats. In fact, he kind of reminds me of Mark Trumbo in that his biggest tool is his power, but his ability to keep his average up and strikeouts down remains a question. Heck, when Cowart was drafted, there was real question whether or not he’d be a position player or a pitcher… just like Trumbo. Now, I say this as if being another Trumbo is a bad thing, but that isn’t what I mean at all. The point I am trying to get across is that Cowart has big time potential, but he is far from a sure thing and there is no sense firing up the hype machine until we see a little more of him. So, I guess this might be the first and last Cowart Coverage for the foreseeable future.
Sorry, Kaleb, thanks for trying though.