Landon Powell's future

by playingwithfire on Apr 12, 2009 2:34 AM EDT

Landon Powell was one of my(and I'm sure a lot of other people's) favorite prospect in baseball 2 years ago. When the A's were still running the over the hill Jason Kendall out there every day and Kurt Suzuki wasn't doing anything to separate himself from Powell.

We all know what happened, his knee gave up on him. At the time a lot of people think the A's will convert him into a 1B because there didn't seems to be a way that he can possibly stay behind the plate with those knees. But he came back and stayed at C. The contact ability isn't there but the patience as well as the power are still there last year in AAA.

In honor of him getting his first MLB hit and ribbie today. I post the question below.

So what do you make of Landon Powell? Is he going to stay a backup catcher until his knee blow out again? Or can he start somewhere and produce similar numbers offensively to guys like Mike Napoli(probably best case) or Chris Snyder?

Poll

What would Landon Powell's peak be?

Victor Martinez

5 votes

Mike Napoli

23 votes

Chris Snyder

16 votes

John Buck/Miguel Olivo(as a Royals fan, I still can't tell the two apart)

35 votes

Jeremy Brown

17 votes

96 votes | Poll has closed

Tweet Comment 8 comments | 0 recs |

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Comments

Not sure its any of those...

The first three options are starting catchers, while the last one retired prior to reaching the majors on a regular basis. I could see him at most as a split time catcher. Maybe more of a Gregg Zaun type.

by asyouwish33 on Apr 12, 2009 3:15 AM EDT reply actions

isn't that what

Olivo/Buck are?

Mourning Guy Carbonneau...
Royals obscure player to watch in ST: Lenny DiNardo

by playingwithfire on Apr 12, 2009 3:20 AM EDT up reply actions

I guess.

Maybe this season, but Buck has usually seen most of the time as starter. I don’t see Powell getting more than 200-250 at bats. I guess Buck/Olivo would be the closest of those options then.

by asyouwish33 on Apr 12, 2009 3:40 AM EDT up reply actions

That's good

nice call, i like that analogy with the bat. leaving aside analogies, I see a guy who at best will start 50% of the time, but in that context will be a plus offensive player (and a better defensive C than Zaun).

i’m not quite sure where that puts him in comparison to the poll players. I guess if Napoli remains a 50% player that’s his upside, with a guy like Mike Redmond or something as a downside.

by scooter on Apr 13, 2009 1:07 PM EDT up reply actions