Bleacher Bums Forum

I'm always the cautious one, but I don't see this really being Russell's time yet.  He was an .850-OPS guy in 60 AA games.  Scouts like him, .850-OPS is pretty good, and he's got no major cautions.  But I don't think an .850-OPS guy in AA is so dominant that it proves that he's ready to be big-league good right now.   

If he can sustain or improve on that, great.  But it's not like 50-games of .850 will necessary stay that good if he plays another 50 games in AA (guys go up and down all the time.)  So sustaining at at least that level of excellence seems desirable.  And improving seems pretty desirable, too.  The premise with "he's only 21", "he's only 22" is that young guys are supposed to keep improving faster than their level of competition.  Sometimes they do, but it's not rare when they don't.  If he goes up to PCL and struggles like Baez with a PCL-mediocre low-.800's OPS, people will want to promote him because he's Addison Russell, touted prospect.  But guys who are really big-league ready ought to be sustaining pretty high production numbers in that league if they're ready.  Hope he does produce great and is ready soon.