After signing in January 2021 out of Venezuela, Leonardo Balcazar had to wait until mid-July when the Dominican Summer League began to kick off his professional career. The 17-year-old picked up a hit in his first game, going 1-5. The next day was a big one as the shortstop went 2-4 with a walk, double, steal, and his first career home run. Two days later he was back in the lineup and picked up two more hits and another steal. He went into a bit of a slump after that, going 1-12 with four walks over the next week.
On July 27th the offense came back just as quickly as it had disappeared. Over the next two weeks Balcazar would hit .350 with a double, triple, three more home runs, and he would add five stolen bases just to round things out. Another mini-slump was awaiting, though, as he went 6-26 (.231) over the next two weeks for the DSL Reds. In the final game of that stretch he was hit by a pitch and would miss the next month before returning for the final week of the season where he went 3-13 with a double, triple, and a walk.
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Leonardo Balcazar Scouting Report
Position: Shortstop | B/T: R/R
Height: 5′ 10″ | Weight: 167 lbs | Acquired: International FA (2021)
Born: June 17, 2004
Hitting | He has a good hit-tool with an ability to use the entire field already.
Power | There’s been mixed reports with anywhere from fringe-average to plus power potential down the line.
Speed | He’s got above-average speed.
Defense | The tools are there to be a quality defender that can remain at shortstop.
Arm | He has an above-average arm.
Prior to an injury that cost him the final month of the year, Leonardo Balcazar was among the best hitters on the DSL Reds team that featured several big performers. His average tumbled a bit in his final few weeks, but he showed a good approach at the plate and the power played well throughout the season. The range of his power potential was one of the more interesting pieces of information from the offseason as the range was quite large as to where he could wind up in the future. At just 17-years-old there’s usually some discrepancies in reports, but that one was a wide gap.
Defensively the tools are there to stick at shortstop long term. He is going to have to clean things up as he continues to climb the ladder, though, as he made 11 errors and posted an .894 fielding percentage in his 26 games between shortstop (149 innings) and second base (60.2 innings).
Anytime you are talking about a player that hasn’t made it out of complex leagues yet the risk is going to be quite high. It’s a very long path from the Dominican Summer League to the big leagues with a lot of places that things can hit a snag. But there does seem to be a bit of upside with Leonardo Balcazar, too, particularly if the scouts who believe he’s got plus power down the line are more correct than the ones who think he’s just a bit of a fringy-average power hitter in the future.
Leonardo Balcazar Spray Chart
Interesting Stat on Leonardo Balcazar
His OPS at home was just .618 but on the road it was 1.135.
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Waiting for your comments about DSL Reds’ prospect Johnny Ascanio…
I’m looking forward to seeing Balcazar, Jorge, Ascanio, and pitcher Dualvert Gutierrez stateside this year. Hoping one can make a de la Cruz type of year and make it to Daytona this season.
Doug, kinda off topic question, but what % of minor league ball parks have the equipment to gather statcast data like spin rate, exit velocity etc.? I would think teams would want to have them in all the parks. Obviously knowing if a players barrel rate is increasing would be an indication that they are improving even if not all of their numbers are showing it yet.
All of them. Even the DSL teams have them.
Teams all share the raw data, too. It goes to the Trackman server after the game and then that raw data is available to every organization to do whatever it is that they do with that data. I believe Trackman also offers their own “generic” scouting reports/datasets on players based on the data.
I have Balcazar in my top 20. Only 4 months older than Anthuan Valencia and 4.5 months older the recently signed Ricardo Cabrera. Prior to being injured he was dominating the DSL in spite of one of the lowest BABIP in the league. He was an extra base hit machine and he was playing SS every day. He was 2nd or third in the league in HR and 1st in extra base hits. He was leading off. He was one of the youngest players in the league. This year he should be one of the youngest players in AZL.
It would not surprise me if he put up numbers superior to that of Yerlin Confidan next year even though he is 1.5 years younger than Confidan.
Trade Candidate: Anthony Santander
By Darragh McDonald | February 6, 2022 at 2:42pm CDT
Could Be a Young Middle Of the Order Power Hitter That We Could Trade Middle Prospects For
From Trade Rumors Baltimore Orioles
Trade Candidate: Anthony Santander
By Darragh McDonald | February 6, 2022 at 2:42pm CDT
You can say that again.
Yes, that certainly bears repeating.