I wanted to step away from the Mets' farm system with today's prospect. Today I wanted to look into Jason Heyward, an OF prospect in the Atlanta Braves' farm system. He was selected in the first round of this year's draft and next season he will be 18-years old.
Baseball America is in love with this guy. They voted him best power hitter, and best strike zone discipline, and see him as the starting LF in 2010. That being said in their write-up about the Braves' farm system they talk about his power hitting. Finally, they voted him in the number 2 position of their top 10 prospects going into the 2008 season. (Rankings made public on 11/5/07)
I have not been able yet to locate any high school statistics on the web yet for Heyward but I was able to get some of his 2007 minor league statistics. He played 12 games this year, 8 in Rookie league (GCL) and 4 in the Danville Applacian Rookie league. Between these 12 games, he had 43 AB with 13 H, 5 2B, 1 HR, 6 RBI and posting a .302 BA, .354 OBP, and a .488 SLG.
Although I have a lack of statistics, there seems to be a lot of buzz around this guy and I am interested in seeing what he does next year when he has a full season of minor league ball under his belt. He is young, which means that he could be a superstar or a flop, but he does have a lot of talent.
