Steve Selsky was a 2011 33rd round draft pick out of Arizona who crushed the ball in limited action that season with the AZL Reds before spending just over a week with the Billings Mustangs. He hit a combined .311/.413/.585 with 17 walks and 24 strikeouts.
The Reds started Selsky off in Dayton and struggled some early on. In the month of April he went to the plate 81 times in the month and hit .274/.325/.342. He struck out 18 times and walked just 5 times, showing that he was a bit over-aggressive. His lack of power wasn’t rare for the Midwest League in April, but after the power he showed in 2011 after being drafted, it was lackluster.
In May there were some improvements, but Selsky still showed his struggles. In 104 plate appearances the Arizona product hit .286/.317/.376 on the month. Plate discipline was once again an issue with just 3 walks and 15 strikeouts. The strikeout rate was lowered quite a bit, but he also saw his walk rate that was already low cut in half. His power was up from April, but only slightly and was still much less than expected given his production in 2011.
Selsky split the month of June between Dayton and Bakersfield. With the Dragons he stepped up to the plate 57 times while hitting .283/.333/.472. While the numbers were up, particularly the power, he did strike out 15 times in just 57 plate appearances. Upon his promotion to Bakersfield in June to finish out the month Selsky hit .348/.511/.737 with 8 walks and 7 strikeouts. The improvement in plate discipline was good to see and the power output was quite impressive, though the sample size was just 10 games.
July was just more good hitting with a .304/.360/.598 line in 125 plate appearances. The plate discipline stepped back to where it was in Dayton with 9 walks and 27 strikeouts. The power and hitting overall was nice to see as Selsky had 7 doubles, a triple and 8 home runs for the Blaze on the month, including a stretch where he had a home run in four of five games from the 8th through the 13th.
In August and September Selsky hit a combined .376/.444/.598 over 135 plate appearances with 9 walks and 28 strikeouts. Once again the plate discipline was a question, but the power output was rather impressive once again. In what was likely a random set of events, Selsky was hit by a pitch 7 times in this time after only being hit 6 times in the rest of the season.
| Tm | PA | R | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | CS | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS |
| Dayton | 246 | 27 | 11 | 3 | 3 | 26 | 5 | 1 | 12 | 49 | .281 | .322 | .395 | .717 |
| Bakersfield | 307 | 52 | 21 | 3 | 15 | 48 | 13 | 2 | 26 | 62 | .348 | .420 | .618 | 1.038 |
| Total | 553 | 79 | 32 | 6 | 18 | 74 | 18 | 3 | 38 | 111 | .317 | .377 | .515 | .892 |
Overall Thoughts
Selsky had an interesting year. He didn’t do much in Dayton that was impressive. He struggled to hit for any power and showed off some questionable plate discipline. Despite that, he was promoted to Bakersfield where he showed some improved plate discipline and saw an explosion in power to put up incredible numbers for the Blaze. With that said, the old axiom is that “everyone hits in the California League” and the big difference for his two stops was a huge jump up in power output. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to see him play while he was in Bakersfield, so I don’t know if there was a swing change or if it was simply the California Leagues thin air and small ballparks at play. Plate discipline did improve as the year went along, but it still remains questionable. Overall, Selsky remains an interesting guy and unfortunately I was unable to see if anything changed mechanically while he was with the Blaze, so for now I just have him on the “follow” list rather than higher up despite outstanding numbers on the season.