Newsletter Excerpt: Cody Ehlers

Another guy I saw play some college ball is Cody Ehlers, a first baseman drafted by the Yankees in the 11th round last year out of the University of Missouri. He's not a huge athlete and is small for a first baseman at 5-11, 185, but when I saw him play in college he showed some good bat speed and a fine idea of the strike zone. He hit just .191 in the New York-Penn League last year, very disappointing. But Ehlers has made some adjustments, and is off to a .333/.469/.571 start for the Charleston River Dogs in the Sally League. In 20 games, he's drawn 17 walks against 11 strikeouts in 63 at-bats. Ehlers was one of the most dangerous hitters in the Big 12 last year, hitting .364 with 18 homers. . .the batting average ranked fifth in the league, the homers were tied for second. We need to see if he can continue this hot hitting, and of course he is unproven at higher levels, but this is a lot closer to what I expected from his college performance. Since he isn't tall and doesn't impress scouts, he won't get a lot of slack if his performance dips. But the Yankees farm system is not exactly chock-full-o'talent, and continued hitting of this caliber will give him status as a real prospect quickly.

**This blog entry is an excerpt from the John Sickels Baseball Newsletter