Atlanta Braves Minor League Maneuvers

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Willians Astudillo

Willians Asudillo (both names are spelled correctly)  is a 24 year old catcher, third baseman, and first baseman who signed with the Phillies in 2008. With a position list like that you can guess that the Phillies found a hitter and were searching for a place to put him. He remained in Venezuelan Summer League from 2009 through 2012 where he struck out just 16 times in 568 at bats. In his final season there he hit .361 over the 52 game season, walked 15 times and struck out twice.

In 2012 the Phillies brought their young hitter to the states where he played 45 games in the Gulf Coast league. The change didn’t affect his bat as he posted a .318/.327/.419/.746 line including 15 doubles. He also walked once and his strike out rate ballooned. . . to five in 153 PA.

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Prior to the 2103 season Astudillo injured his left knee and missed the whole season. You would have thought a knee injury would have set him back but 2014 was another great year for him as he moved up to A ball in Lakewood where he played 117 games with a .333/.366/.433/.799 line including 30 doubles a triple and 4 homers while walking 19 times and striking out 20.

The 2015 season saw him move to A+ ball and continued to hit although his power numbers dropped. in 107 games (418PA) he posted a .314/.348/.384/.729 with 18 doubles a triple, 10 walks and 10 strike outs.

As you can see from the video he’s got a nice compact swing and his bat stays in the zone for a while.

Following the season the Phillies released him.

I mentioned that Astudillo played third, first left and caught fro the Phillies. In fact she played every position for them except pitcher and center field. I don’t know why he didn’t play center for them he clearly can.

Astudillo snatched a home run away from  Jesus Aguilar pretty handily.

His future is clearly as a utility man in the mold of Martin Prado. At 5’9 182 he isn’t going to be a big home run guy but line drives work pretty well too.