Tomahawk Take Scouting Report: Christian Bethancourt
These past few days have been extremely brutal as a fan of baseball. Not much is going on in the trade rumors department, and since we are in the off season that means little to talk about. We have been over the CBA deal so much recently it’s gotten exhausting and of course I won’t be discussing the NBA’s deal.
So I thought it would be a good idea to look over some promising young Braves prospects. Since Brian McCann is arguably Atlanta’s most consistent player I thought it would be interesting to start off with Christian Bethancourt, potentially his future replacement.*
*Even though McCann’s contract runs out next year he has a club option and I would bet money that he re-signs with the team after that is picked up.
First of all Bethancourt isn’t going to be ready for a while, but since McCann isn’t either it works out quite nicely.
I want to link you guys to a Scouting the Sally scouting report on Bethancourt from 2010. I know it’s not ‘new’ but Mike Newman talks about some awesome things and it is a must read if you are really interested in learning about Braves prospects. Which you should be, because they are going to be the future of the team some day.
"Between innings, I clocked multiple throwing times in the 1.8′s from Bethancourt which is pretty unheard of. His best time, 1.83 seconds, leaves me frustrated with the 20-80 scale because I can’t award bonus points. If asked the single most impressive tool I’ve ever seen in minor league baseball, it would be a toss up between Bethancourt’s arm strength and Mike Stanton’s in game power. It would not surprise me one bit if Bethancourt could touch triple digits from the mound and I’d rate his arm strength ahead of former teammates Julio Teheran and Arodys Vizcaino."
Yes Newman did actually say that he would rank Bethancourt’s arm above Teheran and Vizcaino, the Braves #1 and #2 prospects. They are pitchers if you didn’t know. That is extremely impressive, and exciting.
In the report I linked you to Bethancourt was pretty raw with the bat and his tools hadn’t turned into the performance expected yet. But it looks like that could be over now, as he has been tearing it up in the Arizona Fall League as well as putting up a decent .303/.323/.430 slash in A ball this past year.
One thing Bethancourt still needs to work on is his patience at the plate. His walk rates look like this since 2009:
- 8.4% (R)
- 3.3% (A)
- 3.4% (A)
- 1.7% (A+)
That’s not good. He has to be able to walk more than that if he is going to produce offensively at the big league level, unless he plans on being a .360 career hitter.
Also, his power is not there yet but scouts have said that he does have a swing that could lead to a strong power hitter. He is still young, and power is the last thing a hitter develops so we will have to wait and see more than anything on that.
Speed is another thing that Bethancourt brings to the table which is extremely unusual for the catching position. Now, compared to Michael Bourn he won’t look like much but Newman gave Bethancourt a 65 on the 20-80 scale and he took 11 bags in 2010 and 9 in 2011, which is more than most catchers and less than he is capable of.
No team is going to push for their catchers to steal bases and he isn’t going to be a huge stolen base threat because of that, but it is definitely a plus that he can if needed.
So in closing, Christian Bethancourt could possibly be the future backstop for the Atlanta Braves depending on how quickly he develops and how long McCann holds up. With more work on the glove side of defense he could easily be the best defensive catcher in the game, with an absolute cannon of an arm. Offensively he has all the potential to be an above-average hitter and based on the AFL season he is having it looks like he might live up to that potential. My ETA for Christian is 2-4 years depending on his offense.
And hey, if we end up having a universal DH because of the new interleague play, McCann could DH and Bethancourt could catch. We would utilize a top defensive catcher, and the best hitting catcher in the game. Pretty sweet huh?
You can follow Carlos on Twitter @bravesbanter