Raul Wallace has been a toolsy player since he originally signed with the Cincinnati Reds in February of 2013. There’s some power in there that’s waiting to come out, but it hasn’t shown up in games just yet. He spent the first two years of his career playing in the Dominican Summer League. The last two seasons have been spent with the Arizona League Reds. Over four years of short-season baseball and 599 plate appearances, he’s only hit six home runs.
Raul Wallace is now 21-years-old. During my trip out to Arizona he was hitting the ball hard almost every time that I saw him. Below you can see him doubling in one game and homering in another game. The double went off of the wall in left-center. The home run, however, was just hilarious. Disclaimer: The wind was definitely blowing out at the time. Still, look at the swing he put on the ball and realize that it went out to left-center.
He can hit the baseball hard, and on the home run, he certainly got the barrel on the ball despite him reaching out and slapping the baseball. You don’t often see home runs on swings like that, though. Wind or not, it was impressive, and rather hilarious as you can hear by the numerous reactions from those that were around at the time (including a few Reds coaches that will remain nameless).
After spending the last two seasons in the Arizona League with the AZL Reds, it will be interesting to see if he moves up to Billings this year and if so, how he performs. The plate approach has been a bit of a problem as he walked just three times with 38 strikeouts in 2015. Last season that improved some, walking 10 times with 46 strikeouts, but it was still a ratio that needs improving.