Another Pirates outfield prospect. What does Travis bring to the table?
- Born: August 19, 1997
- B/T: Left/Left
- 5’11”, 180-lbs
- Drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1st round of the 2018 MLB June Amateur Draft from University of South Alabama (Mobile, AL)
The Numbers
His raw numbers are listed above courtesy of baseball-reference.com. Let’s aggregate by year then focus on the important numbers for minor leaguers:
It’s encouraging when a young player moves up a level and the skills move up with him. At High-A, Swaggerty’s OBP moved into excellent territory, while the speed held (even improved), the strikeouts fell and the walks edged up. The ISO fell, but he hits the ball hard.
Swaggerty is known for his plus outfield defense and his speed. He has power too, but he is young enough that it could still be developing.
He loved hitting against lefties, didn’t he? We will need to keep an eye on this split to see if it continues at higher levels, though a .331 OBP against righties is not problematic.
He has pull home run power, though not exclusively. And a lot of those doubles were veeery close to going out. He sprays singles and triples all over the field. He has opposite field power, just not a lot of it yet.
I like charts that show a a player climbing to a peak, getting tired in the dogs day of summer, but then fighting through a finishing on a high note. That’s a motivated player.
The Scouts
- Rotowire: #152 on their Top 400.
- BaseballHQ: Not on their Top 100.
- Fangraphs: #61 on their Top 120.
- Fantasy Six Pack: #504 on their dynasty list.
- Prospects365: Not on Ray Butler’s Top 200.
- Imaginary Brick Wall: #195 on the Top 487.
- Fantrax: #134 on the Top 250.
Warnings
Let’s see those opposite field home runs and an ISO creeping upward to match his Hard% number.
Otherwise this is a player without obvious weaknesses. He’s solid everywhere that isn’t plus.
Conclusion
As you see, the scouts like him, but not all, and that’s what you get when you have a player without plus tools in the power or BAVG department. The defense/speed guys tend to get overlooked. But the power is coming, he draws walks, get gets on base, he runs the bases, and he can cover lots of ground in centerfield. The Pirates got a good one in this 1st-rounder.