Q: Why didn’t more teams view Profar as a shortstop [as opposed to a pitcher]?
Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus:
You know this. One of the things is the amount of eyeball time you give a player. I mean, you can watch a kid throw 20 pitches and come away with a really good feel for what he can do. From those 20 pitches you can see if a player has a good delivery; you can see what the radar gun has to say; you can see him spin a breaking ball and you can determine whether or not you like that. If you want to evaluate a guy as a shortstop you have to see a lot of him. It takes a lot of time to get a handle on what a position player can do; you have to see a lot of at-bats against different type of pitching; you to see him run in different situations; you have to see him field in different situations; can he go to his left; can he go to his right; can he go up-the-middle; can he throw from the hole; can he throw off-balance; can he rush the throw, etc. When you are talking about a guy like Profar, it’s possible that teams just didn’t get enough of a look at him to feel comfortable with him as a shortstop whereas they saw enough of him on the mound to feel comfortable with him as a pitcher. I think that is a huge part of it.
Watching Profar meant spending professional time watching a 15 year old. This, the Rangers did. Nice job, Rangers.
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