Tomahawk Take Scouting Report: Joey Terdoslavich

And we arrive to the most interesting prospect in the Braves organization, at least in my opinion. In a system with no impact hitters we as fans love to look at Joey’s season and proclaim that he is the next big slugger just waiting to get the call up. But I think we should all heed the advice of Joe Lucia and calm down a bit.

I normally like to start these off with a scouting report for you to sink your teeth into but because Joey is relatively unknown outside of Braves Country there aren’t many quality reports out there for me to give you.

So we are going to have to settle for Perfect Game’s player notes:

Player NotesGood D catcher, can hit

I apologize for throwing so much information at you in that quote box but seriously, that’s all I could get.

Anyways, Terdoslavich was drafter as a catcher, but moved to first base, and he could possibly be playing third base next season. Baseball America predicts that he will eventually end up in left field, which is a possibility if he continues to hit and can’t field well enough for the hot corner but I would love it if he could stick at third. We have Andrelton Simmons (I will go over some time) but Joey could have much more power.

Be careful how you take that last sentence. The key word is could. Let’s look at Joey’s stats for his entire professional career.

His numbers have obviously been good throughout his career but there is no reason that we should expect him to keep producing like he did in 2011. His power numbers jumped out of no where with an ISO going from the low .100’s all the way to .240. That’s a pretty big jump and it didn’t happen unless he got really lucky, gained a ton of muscle, or made some changes to his swing. He will probably not have those numbers next season.

I am not the one to tell you which it was but I can tell you that although I am being a debby-downer there are still positive things to look at.

In the two years and three leagues he has played in, Joey has not hit below .285, had an OBP below .340, slugged below .400, or struck out more than 22% of the time. His power numbers have also increased each year and within each league.

Take all of this with a grain of salt because the sample size isn’t very big at all. That’s less than 1,000 AB’s we are looking at and in A+ ball or lower. We can’t just shout his name from the mountaintops because of one (record setting) season. Only more AB’s in advanced leagues will tell us whether Terdoslavich is the real deal or not. But if you really just want to get excited about Joey Terdoslavich than check out these comparisons:

Rookie Ball:

• Terdoslavich (205 PA)- .296/.351/.402
• Player B (48 PA)- .305/.354/.375

A Ball

• Terdoslavich (85 PA)- .316/.365/.430
• Player B (508 PA)- .323/.388/.483

High A Ball

• Terdoslavich (536 PA)- .286/.341/.526
• Player B (239 PA)- .239/.305/.396

Player B is Jason Heyward.

You can follow Carlos on Twitter @bravesbanter