Brief notes on Midland Rockhounds’ hitters of interest from 5/23 game against Frisco. (Notes on pitchers from both Midland and Frisco to come.)

OF Denzel Clarke: Tooled-up OF likely to be hindered by his lack of ability to hit. Athletic build with squared shoulders, a strong lower 1/2, and long levers. Plus bat speed with a flat, pull-oriented path that is not particularly long but likely needs altering to get to his considerable raw power. Despite lack of swing length and relative simplicity to the operation, doesn’t appear comfortable at the plate. Somewhat stiff, lacks a coherent approach, and don’t believe he sees the ball particularly well. Multiple swings and misses on fastballs in the center of the zone and chased a pitch way out. Breadth of areas with considerable required development drive extreme doubt he will hit. Upside is there, but probability he achieves it appears quite low.

Athlete with big raw power and heralded running and defensive ability that I didn’t get a chance to observe. Standout raw tools merit continued evaluation, but long road ahead to develop a hit tool that will approach viability at the ML level. 

C Daniel Susac: Former first-round pick with poor present look at the plate. Fairly simple operation and see sufficient pitch recognition with the ability to locate his bat in the general area of the pitch. Despite these traits, swing seems fairly grooved, lacking the hands to manipulate his barrel to consistently square the ball or adjust to spin. Flat, pull-oriented path with fringe bat speed — hard to see him getting to meaningful in-game power in spite of his innate strength. Despite evaluated pitch recognition, has an extremely-aggressive approach that will further hold back his profile, walking just 2.7% of the time this year. 

Can’t provide an overall projection given extremely brief look and lack of defensive evaluation. That said, hard to believe the bat plays at the ML level.