Amateur talent in the northeastern part of the country is
tough to come by and even tougher to scout when you do come by it. One of the
first round one players I saw as a amateur was former St. John’s shortstop Joe
Panik who was selected 29th overall by the San Francisco Giants in
2011. A shortstop in college, Panik spent most of his time in 2013 at second
base.
Joe Panik has your commonplace middle infielder body. He’s a
relatively thin 6’1”, 190lbs with long limbs. He is not overly physical but
also isn’t so wiry that you’re concerned he’s going to have the bat knocked out
of his hands. There’s still some projection left here and I do think Panik will
put on some weight as he ages. How that weight will impact his game remains to
be seen. It’s possible it could allow him to hit for more power than he does
right now (which isn’t much) but it could also sap the already fringe range he
has at second base.
Let’s keep it right there and address the defense. Panik has
below average speed and his first step and reactions aren’t quick enough to
hide it in the field enough for him to play shortstop every day. Not for me,
anyway. The arm is average both on strength and accuracy. The hands and feel
for the position are just okay. I’ve seen Panik make some fine plays toward the
bag from both directions and I’ve also seen him make an adventure out of plays
that I regard as routine. He could probably play a passable short for some, but
my personal tastes prefer an above average defender at the position unless the
bat is exceptional.
Panik’s bat is not. The pure bat-to-ball skills are really
interesting. I put a future 55 on Panik’s hit tool. He’s short to the ball and
displays good eye-hand coordination. He sports a simple, toe-tap stride and
closes before he takes a nice, balanced swing. The bat speed is not good and,
as a result, Panik just doesn’t hit the baseball very hard all that often,
though he does show the ability to spray balls in every direction. I have a 35
on the power right now but I think that contact skills are good enough that he’ll
hit his share of doubles in the gaps. I project the power to a 4.
So what kind of value does a player like this possess? There’s
not enough glove to play shortstop (not that he’d play there for San Francisco
anyway with Brandon Crawford there right now) and not bat to make you say, “Screw
it” and stick him there anyway. Is there enough of both for him to play
everyday at second base? We’ve seen players like this succeed there before.
Marco Scutaro has had a nice career with a similar skill set (though his is a
true plus hit tool and might be more) as did Randy Velarde and Tony Graffanino.
One thing those guys have/had that Panik doesn’t right now is some positional
versatility. Panik has worked at 2B and SS but I’d like to see him log some
practice time in other places. The way the Giants have groomed him thus far
suggests that they think he can be an everyday secondbaseman. The lack of pop
would relegate him to second-division status for me if that’s the case. You
could certainly do worse. Panik did not have a good year in 2013 and it's not out of the realm of possibility that he's sent back to Double-A to begin 2014.
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