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Excerpt
from June 15, 2002 edition of NMLR
Jamie Newberg's Texas Rangers Minor League Report |
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Take
this for what it is worth: Ruben Rivera was given uniform number 40
when he was promoted to Oklahoma earlier this week. That was Ryan
Ludwick's
RedHawk number.
Interpret accordingly. Ludwick continues to be very, very impressive,
and while it was a bit of a surprise to see him lead off last night,
the guy did draw more than 50 walks in each of his two full minor
league seasons and was on pace for a career high this year, and each
day I have seen him play I have edged closer to saying what I will now
put in writing: there is something about Ludwick that reminds me of a
young Jim Edmonds. I'm not saying Ludwick (who bats right-handed,
unlike Edmonds) is on track to become a perennial .300-30-110 guy
(which Edmonds was not until age 30, by the way), but there are some
parallels. Ludwick has the range and the arm -- and the flair -- in
center field despite corner outfield size. While neither is really a
leadoff type, my recollection is that Edmonds hit at the top of the
Angels lineup from time to time early in his big league career (of
course, Edmonds never hit more than 14 jacks in a minor league season,
while Ludwick has 29 and 26 in his two full seasons).
In 1545 minor league at-bats, Edmonds was a .297 hitter with a .375-ish on-base percentage and a .441 slugging percentage. Ludwick, in 1389 minor league at-bats, is a .266 hitter with a .354 OBP and .493 slugging percentage. Each broke onto the scene with less fanfare than they probably deserved. Edmonds came out of nowhere to establish himself as a star, arriving in the big leagues in 1993 as a player who had just hit .315 with nine jacks for Class AAA Vancouver in his final minor league season, at age 23. Ludwick, perhaps because he was one of four players Texas acquired in the Carlos Pena/Mike Venafro and clearly not the bellwether, has not been considered a sure thing by any stretch, but he is doing very good things right now, also at age 23. Edmonds hit .246/.270/.344 in his first major league look, spanning 61 at-bats in that 1993 season. Through 32 at-bats, Ludwick is hitting .344/.400/.500, and in his eight games thus far he has four multi-hit efforts. Don't
start to think of Ryan Ludwick as Jim Edmonds. It might not even be fair
to think of Ludwick as being in the big leagues to stay, not yet at
least. But if Ludwick develops into the player he is showing signs of
being, and an Edmonds comparison or two starts to make the rounds,
remember where you heard it first. |