2 The Bigs

By Sal Corso:

This is our first prospect profile. Welcome 2TheBigs. It’s only right that I give you a quick intro into who we actually are and why we started this website. If you are an avid baseball card collector and on “Hobby Twitter”, you may have seen us. We go by CorsoBrosCards. We are fraternal twins, lifelong Yankees fans, and die-hard MLB prospectors. We played baseball our entire lives, or at least through the high school varsity level, before our talents and efforts ran dry. We started collecting baseball cards with our father when we were kids and picked that hobby back up like the rest of the baseball world during the pandemic.

As two 30-year old’s with full-time jobs, we decided that we want to start something new. One of us works in digital advertising at Amazon and the other works in sports communications for the Rutgers men’s college basketball team. As two new fathers, our talents align to create a go-to website for all things MLB prospects. So, here it is. Each week, we’ll cover a new prospect that we are interested in. We’ll give them a potential score, and add them to our full Ranking Sheet.

Now that the official introductions are through, let’s begin prospecting!

If you’re a Yankees fan (as we are), you’ll remember the name Kevin Alcantara. He was the key piece sent out in the Anthony Rizzo trade at the trade deadline in 2021. At 21 years old, Kevin showed signs of life during the 2023 season. He had 102 hits, over 95 games in Single-A, and carried a .786 OPS, which is 14 percent above the average player at that level.

Compared to the top-150 ranked prospects in baseball, he showed promise in some of the most important advanced statistical categories. He is ranked 17^th in hard hit percentage and was in top-half of minor leaguers in strikeout-rate at 24 percent which still slightly high in my opinion. Alcantara showed a drastic improvement from his 29 percent strikeout-rate the year prior at the lower levels. Alcantara however did finish bottom half of minor leaguers in batting average, on-base percentage and OPS.

As most prospectors know, it’s the great hitting statistics, and not so much power ones, that tend to lead to better major league outcomes for these young players.

However, since Alcantara stands at a towering 6-foot-6, we’d like to see him put on some weight this offseason and improve on those power numbers. His hard-hit percentage shows promise, but the consistency is key for this young rising prospect.

On a personal level and as a Yankees fan, I wasn’t too thrilled that they gave him up in the Anthony Rizzo deal. Let’s see if Kevin’s progression in the future supports my thought.

Kevin is now playing in the Arizona Fall League, and his start has not disappointed. In his first week, he launched a two-run walk off home run for the Solar Sox.

We’ll continue to monitor his progression, but we like what we’ve seen so far in his potential. His 1^st Bowman Card comes in the lowest priced Bowman set in the past seven years (2021 Bowman Baseball). The set is not very deep; mainly highlighted by two high prospect failures (Austin Martin and Blaze Jordan). Kevin Alcantara can be a quiet name to add at only about $45 for a raw base auto to your collection.