COMEBACK PROSPECT OF THE YEAR: '04
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*Ahem*. The purpose of the Comeback Prospect of the Year award is to commemorate that prospect that was highly thought of in the past, only to see his stock plummet, before rising again. With this in mind, the award does not necessarily have to go to a player with great performance or who projects to be an All-Star, just one who did a lot to re-establish some of the stock he formerly possessed. Without further ado, the Minor Yankee Blog Comeback Prospect of the Year '04 (or MYBCPotY'04 for short) is...
Bronson Sardinha, 3B, 21, A+ Tampa/AA Trenton
- A+: 248/.315/20.5%/.088/9.54/1:1.5/9/81% (AB/BA/XBH%/IsoP/AB:UiBB/UiBB:K/SB/SB%)
AA: 266/.267/25.4%/.116/7.82/1:1.91/4/80%
First things first, Bronson Sardinha is a 3B in the same way that if you put Jason Giambi at SS, he'd be a SS. 43 errors in 118 games at the hot corner will do that for your defensive rep, not that he had much of one to begin with considering his career has seen him go SS to LF to CF to LF to 3B.
Defensive contributions aside, Sardinha broke his mold in '04 and that's what led to arguably his best pro season. For those of you out of the know, the mold for Sardinha had been to struggle initially at a level leading to demotion before finding himself ('03) or just taking a really long time to find himself ('02). In '04 Sardinha got out of the gate very quickly and did enough to maintain himself that had he spent more time in the FSL, his BA would have placed 2nd.
The most confusing aspect of the year was the general lack of power that Sardinha displayed. While he's never been a big time power prospect, '04 saw Sardinha become a singles hitter in the FSL before rediscovering his power stroke somewhat in the EL. The power rediscovery is somewhat tempered by the average FSL IsoP being .118 and the average EL IsoP being .147. To be completely fair to Sardinha, Tampa has historically been a roughly neutral FSL park and that trend continued through the first 100 or so games of the season meanwhile Trenton, which is also historically neutral, became overwhelmingly pitcher-favored through the season's first 100 games. As more postseason statistical ratings come out, this picture will be clearer.
When he did regain that power his BA went down. Due to the inconsistent nature of BA I am not too worried about that development though an increase in strikeout rate does make it more worrisome.
The key for Sardinha going forward will be to consolidate his '04 stints. He needs to continue showing the strike zone control and BA-prowess that he had in the FSL, while hitting for at least his AA power. Bronson does have some time on his hands though as he will most likely start the year in AA and turn 22 in the first same month. For comparison's sake, Jeremy Reed, who was a consensus top 15 prospect in baseball this past offseason attained that status on the strength of an outstanding year split between A+ and AA at the age of 22. Not to insinuate Sardinha is the same caliber of prospect, but he does bear some similarities in that his likely future is as an OF corner, he controls the strike zone, and has less than optimal power for a corner. Sardinha would also seem to be ahead of Reed at the same stage, though I doubt he will have a year like Reed's '03.
I think the most likely future for Sardinha is that he has another good year, maybe getting some September exposure and will eventually settle into a pinch-hitting or platoon role on a better team due to his lack of power. If the power comes, he could have a more pronounced role. Overall, I still see Sardinha as a John Vander Wal type of player though. Very useful in short stretches, handy if someone goes down due to injury, but not great enough to play an everyday role.
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