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Indians prospect Clint Frazier: where is the power?

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Doug Gray

Heading into the MLB draft season two years ago, Georgia high school outfielder Clint Frazier was widely-considered to be one of the top power bats available. The fifth-overall pick by the Cleveland Indians in the '13 June draft, he had an erratic campaign in 2014 resulting in a .266/.349/.411 line for Low-A Lake County in the Midwest League, with 18 doubles and 13 homers, 56 walks and 161 strikeouts.

Although he struck out a lot and the slash line wasn't massively impressive on the surface, that was actually solid production for the pitching-oriented Midwest League, resulting in a 120 wRC+. He started off rather cold but heated up as the season progressed, hitting nine homers and slugging .448 in the second half of the season. There were no real doubts about his raw power and he was able to get to that in games more often as the campaign progressed.

The hope was that his second half would set up him for a breakout 2015 season. So far, that's not happening.

Through 22 games for High-A Lynchburg in the Carolina League, Frazier is hitting just .247/.316/.294 for a wRC+ of 87, with seven walks and 26 strikeouts in 85 at-bats. Again, contact is an issue and I don't think anyone doubted that it would be after all the whiffs last year. However, strikeouts are one thing; where the heck is his power? His ISO has dropped to a mere .047 this year; he has yet to hit a home run. So what's going on here?

Well, sorry to disappoint you but I don't know yet. I'm not sure, but I'm trying to find out. In the meantime, let's crowd-source this.

***Have any of you seen Frazier play this year? If so, what did you see?

***Has anyone read an article or heard anything about what is going on here? If so, please share.

***I will ask around myself and let you know what I discover.

***Perhaps by posing these questions we have ensured that Frazier will get hot right now. The Universe likes to make fools of us all.