Series Review (x2): Neftali Soto

This past week I went back and looked at video of Neftali Soto over the course of two series against the Tennessee Smokies. Here is the stat line that he put up in those two series:

Opp	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	IBB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
@CHC	4	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
@CHC	4	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
@CHC	5	1	0	0	1	0	0	3	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
@CHC	3	0	0	0	0	1	0	2	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
@CHC	5	2	1	0	1	0	0	3	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
@CHC	5	2	0	0	2	0	0	1	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
@CHC	5	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
@CHC	5	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
@CHC	4	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
@CHC	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Total	41	11	4	0	4	1	0	13	.268	.286	.659	.944

Two things stand out from the stat line: Big power and poor plate discipline. Those have kind of been the two things that have followed Soto around for a while now. His plate discipline outside of these two series is actually much better than what shows up here (54 strikeouts and 16 walks – still not good, but not 13-1 bad either). In the two series, Soto saw 143 pitches (3.48 pitches per at bat). You can view the breakdown of the pitch by pitch at the bottom of this post.

Without looking back at the data, two things really stuck with me from watching all of the at bats from Soto in the two series: He really does have a special bat when he puts the barrel on the ball and he seemed to be patient early in the count at times and looked at a few too many good pitches to start off the count.

What I liked was Soto didn’t seem to shy away from going the other way with the ball. In the two series he went to right field multiple times and with some good power a few times, including a line drive HR. When the ball was pitched to the outside corner, he didn’t pull off and try to put the ball into left. I like to see that with power hitters.

What I didn’t like with Soto was that his plate discipline seemed forced. He seemed to take some pitches early in counts that were good pitches to hit, but a few times he was swinging on the first pitch at questionable pitches (fastballs on the outside corner in the bottom of the strikezone). Clearly these sets of games weren’t hit best in terms of plate approach with 1 walk and 13 strikeouts, so perhaps it was a bit more exaggerated than normal, but the numbers do back up a bit of a plate discipline problem for his career.

My opinion on Soto is that right now, he is a promising player to watch. His in game power is among the best in the system (probably the best or second best in terms of current power) today and his hit tool is very strong as well. However his plate discipline continues to be a large question mark on his resume that will need to be improved for him to become the type of hitter that he could be one day. Triple A could be a real challenge at first for him because of the advanced way pitchers tend to work hitters.

Pitch by Pitch breakdown

Pitch	Type	Location	Result	Play Result	P	Notes
1	Fastball	Outside Low	Check swing	Swing K	LH
2	Fastball	Inside Middle	Take	Called K	LH
3	Fastball	Inside Low	Take	Ball	LH
4	Fastball	Outside Middle	Swing	Single (GB to CF)	LH
5	Breaking ball	Low Middle	Swing	GO to SS	LH
6	Fastball	High Middle	Take	Called K	LH
7	Fastball	Low Outside	Take	Ball	LH
8	Fastball	Low Way inside	Take	Ball	LH
9	Fastball	Low Outside	Swing	Foul	LH
10	Fastball	High Inside	Swing	Fly Out to LF	LH	Caught against wall
11	Fastball	Middle Inside	Take	Ball	RH
12	Fastball	Middle low	Swing	Swing K	RH
13	Fastball	Middle low	Swing	Swing K	RH
14	Fastball	Low Way inside	Take	Ball	RH
15	Fastball	Middle way low	Take	Ball	RH
16	Fastball	High Middle	Swings	Double to LF	RH	Off the wall
17	Fastball	Middle Low	Swings	Hard grounder to P	RH
18	Change Up	Low Outside	Swings	GB Double to LF	RH
19	Breaking Ball	Low Inside	Take	Ball	RH
20	Fastball	Middle Inside	Swings	GO to 3B	RH
21	Breaking ball	Low Outside	Swings	Swing K	RH
22	Breaking ball	High outside	Take	Ball	RH
23	Breaking ball	Low Outside	Swings	Foul	RH
24	Fastball	Outside in the dirt	Take	Ball	RH
25	Fastball	Low Outside	Swings	Swing K	RH
26	Breaking ball	Low Outside	Take	Ball	RH
27	Fastball	Low Inside	Take	Called K	RH
28	Fastball	Middle Middle	Swings	HR to CD	RH
29	Breaking ball	Low Outside	Take	Ball	RH
30	Breaking ball	Low Outside	Take	Called K	RH
31	Fastball	Low Outside	Take	Ball	RH
32	Breaking ball	Middle Outside	Take	Ball	RH
33	Breaking ball	Middle Outside	Take	Called K	RH
34	Breaking ball	Low Outside	Swing	Swing K	RH
35	Breaking ball	Middle Outside	Swing	FO to CF	RH
36	Weird Camera	Angle	Takes	Called K	LH
37	Fastball	Weird Angle	Swings	Swing K	LH
38	Fastball	Middle High	Swings	Swing K	LH
39	Fastball	Weird Angle	Swings	Foul	RH
40	Breaking ball	Camera Missed	N/A	N/A	RH
41	Breaking Ball	Low Outside	Swings	Swing K	RH
42	Fastball	Low Inside	Take	Called K	LH
43	Fastball	Low Outside	Swings	Foul	LH
44	Fastball	Middle Outside	Swings	Swing K	LH
45	Change Up	Middle Low	Swings	Swing K	LH
46	Fastball	Low Outside	Swings	Foul	LH
47	Breaking ball	Low Outside	Swings	Foul	LH
48	Fastball	Low Outside	Swings	Foul	LH
49	Fastball	High outside	Swings	Swing K	LH
50	Fastball	High Middle	Swings	GO to SS	RH
51	Camera	Missed	Takes	Ball	RH
52	Fastball	Low Middle	Takes	Ball	RH
53	Fastball	High outside	Takes	Ball	RH
54	Fastball	Low Outside	Takes	Ball	RH
55	Fastball	Middle Middle	Takes	Called K	RH
56	Breaking Ball	Outside Middle	Takes	Ball	RH
57	Change Up	Inside Middle	Swings	Double to LF	RH
58	Fastball	Outside Low	Takes	Called K	RH
59	Breaking Ball	High Middle	Takes	Ball	RH
60	Breaking Ball	Middle Middle	Swings	Swing K	RH
61	Breaking Ball	Middle Inside	Swings	Foul	RH
62	Fastball	Outside Middle	Swings	Foul	RH
63	Breaking Ball	Outside Middle	Swings	Foul	RH
64	Breaking Ball	Middle low	Swings	Foul	RH
65	Fastball	High Middle	Swings	Swing K	RH
66	Change Up	Low Middle	Takes	Called K	RH
67	Breaking Ball	Middle Outside	Swings	HR to RF	RH	Line Drive
68	Fastball	High Inside	Takes	Ball	RH
69	Breaking Ball	Low Inside	Takes	Called K	RH
70	Breaking ball	Low Outside	Takes	Ball	RH
71	Breaking ball	Low Outside	Takes	Ball	RH
72	Fastball	High Inside	Swings	Swing K	RH
73	Fastball	Low Outside	Takes	Called K	RH
74	Fastball	Weird Angle	Takes	Called K	RH
75	Fastball	Weird Angle	Swings	Swing K	RH
76	Fastball	High Middle	Takes	Ball	RH
77	Breaking ball	Inside middle	Takes	Ball	RH
78	Breaking ball	Low Outside	Swings	Foul	RH
79	Fastball	High outside	Takes	Ball	RH
80	Fastball	Low Middle	Swings	Swing K	RH
81	Fastball	Low Inside	Takes	Ball	LH
82	Change Up	Low Middle	Swings	GO to 3B	LH	Reached on error
83	Fastball	Low Middle	Takes	Called K	LH
84	Fastball	Low Outside	Takes	Ball	LH
85	Breaking ball	Low Outside	Takes	Ball	LH
86	Fastball	Low Middle	Swings	LD out to LF	LH	Hit it well, just right at the LF’er.
87	Change Up	Low Outside	Takes	Ball	LH
88	Fastball	Middle Inside	Swings	HR to LCF	LH
89	Fastball	Middle Outside	Swings	HR to RF	RH
90	Breaking ball	Middle Outside	Takes	Ball	RH
91	Breaking Ball	Low Outside	Takes	Ball	RH
92	Fastball	Middle Outside	Swings	Foul	RH
93	Breaking ball	Low Middle	Takes	Ball	RH
94	Change Up	Outside Low	Takes	Called K	RH
95	Fastball	Outside Low	Swings	Swing K	RH
96	Breaking ball	Middle Inside	Takes	Called K	RH
97	Breaking ball	Low Outside	Swings	FO to RF	RH
98	Fastball	High Inside	Takes	Ball	RH
99	Breaking Ball	Middle Inside	Swings	GO to 2B	RH
100	Fastball	Middle Outside	Takes	Called K	RH
101	Breaking Ball	Middle Middle	Swings	LD out to LF	RH	Another one, hit well right at LF’er
102	Fastball	Low Outside	Takes	Ball	RH
103	Fastball	Low Inside	Takes	Ball	RH
104	Fastball	Middle Outside	Swings	Foul	RH
105	Fastball	Low Outside	Swings	Double to RF	RH
106	Fastball	Middle Outside	Takes	Ball	LH
107	Change Up	Middle Outside	Takes	Ball	LH
108	Fastball	Low Outside	Takes	Called K	LH
109	Fastball	Inside Low	Takes	Called K	LH
110	Fastball	High Middle	Swings	Swing K	LH
111	Fastball	Low Inside	Takes	Ball	RH
112	Fastball	Middle Outside	Swings	Foul	RH
113	Fastball	Low Outside	Swings	LD Single to RF	RH
114	Change Up	High Middle	Swings	PU to 1B	RH
115	Fastball	Low Outside	Swings	Swing K	RH
116	Fastball	Inside High	Takes	Ball	RH
117	Fastball	Low Middle	Swings	PU to 2B	RH
118	Fastball	Inside High	Swings	PU to 2B	RH
119	Fastball	Low Outside	Swings	Swing K	RH
120	Change Up	Low Inside	Swings	GO to 3B	RH
121	Fastball	Low Outside	Takes	Called K	RH
122	Fastball	Low Outside	Takes	Ball	RH
123	Fastball	Low Outside	Takes	Ball	RH
124	Fastball	Low Outside	Takes	Ball	RH
125	Fastball	Low Middle	Swings	LD Single to RF	RH
126	Fastball	Middle Inside	Takes	Ball	RH
127	Fastball	Midlle low	Takes	Ball	RH
128	Fastball	Low Outside	Takes	Called K	RH
129	Fastball	Low Outside	Swings	Swing K	RH
130	Fastball	Low Outside	Takes	Called K	RH	Looked outside to me
131	Fastball	Low Outside	Swings	Swing K	RH
132	Fastball	High outside	Takes	Ball	RH
133	Slider	Low Outside	Swings	Swing K	RH
134	Fastball	High Middle	Takes	Ball	RH
135	Change Up	Outside High	Swings	GO to SS	RH
136	Change Up	Low Outside	Swings	Foul	RH
137	Fastball	In the dirt	Takes	Ball	RH
138	Breaking ball	Middle Inside	Takes	Called K	RH
139	Fastball	High Middle	Takes	Ball	RH
140	Fastball	Low Outside	Swings	Swing K	RH
141	Fastball	Middle Inside	Takes	Ball	LH
142	Change Up	Low Middle	Swings	Swing K	LH
143	Fastball	Low Middle	Swings	FO to CF	LH

Cincinnati Reds send Neftali Soto to the White Sox for cash

Neftali Soto reaches base four times Wednesday night vs Cuba