BaseBallstotheWall

Max Ramirez — CA/DH/1B, Texas Rangers/Boston Red Sox DOB 10/11/84 Bats Right
2009 Performance:
AAA: .234/.324/.336 35 BB/85 K, .321 BABIP, 20% LD, .102 IsoP

Editor’s Note: With the pending Mike Lowell/Max Ramirez trade, I’ve decided not to choose which team he’ll be playing for next year, but I sure hope it’s the Red Sox

Max Ramirez is a polarizing figure in the prospect community and is a difficult guy to figure out for a couple of reasons, starting with concerns about his position. He came up as a third-baseman before converting to catcher. He’s been traded now three times in his career, so someone has a problem with him. That problem, largely, is that he’s probably not a catcher. He’s relatively short, not exactly in good shape and doesn’t play catcher like a catcher should. He’s probably a below average 3B if he goes back to the position, which relegates him to a DH/1B role. His bat will have to carry him.

That brings us to his bat: it’s pretty good, but it was pretty bad last season. Despite sporting a reasonable .321 BABIP (probably a little low given the 20% line drive rate), he still hit just .236 and OPS’d less than .700, despite being more than age appropriate for the AAA level. Now, he was injured (particularly, there were concerns about his wrists and knees), but there is also definite concern about his weight being a problem. He continued to walk at a good rate (nearly 12%, though that is lower than his performance in the lower minors, it is still more than acceptable) but he also struck out nearly 27% of the time, which looks about on par with his upper minors performance. It seems like he’s hitting more and more balls for flyouts, possibly in an effort to gain more power, but it seems to be taking away from his ability to make contact and to hit for average. I’m not sure if this is something Texas is preaching to him or not.

Historically, the thing that concerns me most with Ramirez is that he seems to have benefited from a career of high BABIPs. He has had 5 instances in his minor league career with a BABIP above .357, which is pretty clearly luck or extreme line drive ability unless you’re super speedy, which Ramirez certainly is not. His line drive percentages have been good for his career, but not THAT good (at or approaching 20% on average). Time will tell whether he was extraordinarily lucky or if he really is that good at making good contact.

On a speculative note, I can see why the Red Sox like Ramirez. I doubt they’re too concerned that he catches, but I think they like the flexibility he’d bring as a reserve in the role. I think they’re more interested in the bat, where they can preach to him to stop trying to hit home runs and to continue to work on line drives and solid contact, which should yield improved performance. He’s not going to be a .300 hitter with that K rate, though I do think it may drop with a different approach. I like his walk rate and I think he could be a .280/.370/.450 type of hitter as he matures, but he needs a chance to play.