The man can flat out hit. Big Q bashed 67 extra base hits in 484 at
bats between Triple-A and the majors last season. That projects to 83 over
600 at bats; the same amount of XBH as Albert Pujols hit last year.
The power will be there. The bigger question is whether Quentin will
get to 600 at bats. His 142 games played last season was a career high.
He also got plunked by 39 pitches last season, and that's not an aberration.
Just ask frequent target Craig Wilson, who broke a finger twice in one year
getting hit by pitches, how easy it is to stay in the lineup when you
continually get plunked. Finally, Quentin inexplicably struggled against
southpaws last year, to the tune of a combined .227 batting average. If
that trend continues, Scott Hairston will steal a significant portion of
Quentin's playing time against lefties.
There are good omens in those points as well. His hit by pitch totals
and walk totals are both high. As someone who can both hit for power and
get on base, Quentin would be an asset in either the #3 or #4 holes in the
lineup. And although he'd rather forget his .227 mark against southpaws,
his .295 batting average against right-handers hints at someone who is not going
to get fooled by major league breaking pitches.
As fantastic a hitter as Carlos Quentin is, his other contributions on the
baseball diamond often get overlooked. He can run a bit, as evidenced by
his 15 successful steals in his last 16 attempts. However, his combined 19
double plays grounded into last year is a cause for some concern.
Defensively, Carlos is well above average. He threw out three base runners
last year in his 400 defensive major league innings after gunning down 11 in
Tucson. He should post double digits in assists this year before teams
stop running on his arm. Fans have already seen Quentin make several
fabulous sliding catches, plus he gets to all of the balls he's supposed to and
more.
If Carlos Quentin does stay healthy all season long, he's going to have a
big, big season. Just 24 years old, Quentin is only going to improve from
there.
2007 Prediction: .279/.390/.519 28 HR 96 RBI
Read more from Keith Glab at
BaseballEvolution.com