Alex Call vs. Steele Walker

[zisk]

  Compare these 2 players since turning pro. I hope I am missing something with Walker, because Alex Call dominated Kannapolis

at the same age that Walker couldn't hit .190 there. Call is considered to be better in the field than Walker is as well. Call has shown

that he belongs in AA, and going forward he has a real chance to reach the majors. I don't know Calls best outcome, but his floor

appears to be a productive 4th outfielder. I'll admit I don't know much about Walker. Was he fighting a minor injury after playing

all year in college? Is that the reason for his unimpressive debut? If anyone has info for Walker please let me know. All I've seen is

his top 30 page on white sox.com . Going by this limited info I would have kept Call and traded Walker to the Indians.

Edited December 15, 2018 by zisk

[default]

Good lord.

[oldsox]

Good post, Zisk.  I was wondering the same thing.

[TheTruth05]

draft year

[GenericUserName]

Walker was just coming back from an injury (strained oblique muscle) that kept him out for a pretty decent chunk of time towards the end of his college season.  So you are comparing an injured guy in his draft year to a multi year pro. If you want a stats based approach to comparing them, you should check out their college stats because they have asymmetric available professional data.

http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/profile.asp?ID=201173

http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/profile.asp?ID=184086

They put up incredibly similar numbers in their final college seasons, but Walker played in a much more difficult conference. Walker was also good enough that he was selected for the Team USA collegiate national team where he also did really well.

To me, Call was a nice outfielder that maybe could play at the major league level, but was more likely a tweener that ends up being a AAAA player. Walker might similarly be a tweener profile, but I think he could be the best of both aspects similar to a Yelich. He has good power and good speed, but not great at either, while Call seems to be more of an average at both. I think Call is a fine prospect, but he is also the type that most organizations have and we could find another like him rather easily if we wanted to. 

[bmags]

This is really unfair to walker, that said, Hostetlers preference for using high second round picks on college bats over high school position players has been a big miss. Some of the Hs this board targeted last year had really nice first runs in pro ball and have had good write ups since. The Sox selected an injured college bat that Basically lost his first year. 

[Timmy U]

Steele Walker has nothing to do with Call.  He’s not the reason the Sox thought Call was expendable.  Call’s  behind Luis Robert, Luis Alexander Basabe, and Luis Gonzalez both offensively and defensively in CF.  And that’s just the guys named Luis.  If you add in everyone else, Call was going to struggle to find AB’s in AA.  That said, I think he has a decent chance to play in the majors and is a nice pick up on a salary dump for Cleveland.

[Dominikk85]

Walker definitely shouldnt be judged too hard because of the oblique thing. Longenhagen believes in him he probably just got more hurt as he played through it.

He needs to step up next year though as he is pretty old for his level and should destroy Rookie and A ball when healthy as an advanced college bat. If he struggles next year he pretty much is a non prospect but he could also rise to AA next year.

Call is a random quad A player who might be a solid  emergency call up but not a regular, neither his contact skill nor his power are enough to be a regular, his rookie ball stats were probably just an advanced college get beating up on raw HS draftees.