Which Reds prospect has the best opposite field power?

One of the things that I include in the Prospect Guide each year is spray charts that include the average, slugging percentage and isolated power to each part of the field for hitters that wind up in the Top 40. What those numbers are to the outfield spots are really the only ones that are important. While a few players did double on balls to the shortstop or second baseman (pop ups that weren’t caught, but weren’t errors), it’s the extra-base hits in the outfield that give us a good look at a guys power.

One thing to note of course, is that park factors come into play when looking at things like this. Some parks are more hitter friendly than others, as are some leagues. Here is a quick breakdown of how the different parks and leagues play based on the 2013 season (I have not run the data for the 2014 season on all stadiums yet):

It’s also worth noting that Arizona, Billings and Bakersfield all play in hitter friendly leagues as well. Louisville, Pensacola and Dayton play in leagues that are considered to be neutral.

Now that we have a general idea of which parks play well and which don’t, let’s take a look at which players had the best Isolated Power to the opposite field (all numbers are unadjusted):

The Top 10

Taylor Sparks finds himself at the top of the list once again. He absolutely obliterated the ball when he pulled it and it was more of the same when he went to the opposite field. Billings is a pitchers park, but the league itself is a big hitters league. Even with that, he was so far ahead of everyone else on the list.Only Jesse Winker, also in Billings, topped the .600 mark over the last three seasons. Aristides Aquino is the only other player to beat the .500 mark (2013).

The rest of the list is full of guys who show above-average power in games at times, that is, until we get the final spot on the list and find 19-year-old Hector Vargas. He only slugged .419 last season for the Arizona League Reds and while lone home run on the season was to center, 44% of his hits to right field were of the extra-base variety.

Seven players are on both of the pull power and opposite field power lists. Taylor Sparks, Robert Ramirez, Juan Duran, Marquez Smith, Donald Lutz, Aristides Aquino and Sean Buckley all showed up in both. Not that it’s a big surprise that guys with the best pull power have the best opposite field power, but it’s still worth noting.

How do the rest of the players stack up with opposite field power?

The complete list

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*Editors note: Jose Siri is listed here with a .400 opposite field IsoP, which would rank in the Top 10 above, but I removed him from the above chart since he only had five balls go to the opposite field in 2014*

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