2 The Bigs

By Sal Corso: August 14th, 2024

The hardest leap in professional baseball is from High-A to Double-A. That’s coming straight from the horse’s mouth (in this case the horse is the actual players). But that clearly doesn’t resonate with everybody, including these two middle-infielders. They didn’t get the memo. In fact, one jumped straight from Single-A to Double-A, and is currently the hottest hitter in all of baseball (maybe outside of Aaron Judge). Let’s cover these two young, intriguing American League Infielders.

If you follow baseball more than just the casual MLB fan, you’ve seen the name. Moore was taken 8^th overall by the Angels in this years’ draft, and has done absolutely everything the team could have hoped for in his first few months in the system. A good hitter and an even better power hitter, it took Christian a quick 11 at-bats in Single-A before the Angels realized it was time to move up (.545/.583/1.000). He skipped High-A and went straight to the Trash Pandas, the best team name in all of Double-A. You’d think he’d see a bit of a correction, but in fact, he got better. In 7 games he’s slashing .481/.533/.1037 with 5 HR and 7 RBI. He’s hit a majority of his homers from center to right, showing he can spray the ball to all spots on the field.

Christian Moore is unlike anything we have ever seen. pic.twitter.com/hTozxz0Zte

— Rocket City Trash Pandas (@trashpandas) August 10, 2024

There’s a lot to like about his swing, not just because it’s currently on a tear. The ball jumps off his bat, and fast. Like all young prospects, he’ll need to continue to work on his discipline, and it’ll be interesting to see that once he cools off a bit, but he’s already very comfortable at the plate, so I’m not worried. The Angels have been one of the most disappointing franchises, never able to give the most talented player of the 2000s-2010s enough help to even compete for a playoff spot. But Moore may follow a string of young draft picks that have jumped early to the pros and could start a young core of talent for 2025 (Neto, Schanuel, O’Hoppe). He also may be the one in the draft that we look back on in a few years and say

“How did those 7 teams pass him?”

Meyer, Anthony and Teel. Every Red Sox fan knows of the organizations “trifecta” of young talent that’s moving up in the system. With their joint promotion to Triple-A, Boston fans can almost taste the rebuild. With Devers, Casas and Raffaela, this team could become a power-house in a loaded AL East as soon as next year. However, the talent does not start and end with the aforementioned players. 2023 conditional (132^nd overall) pick Kristian Campbell has been quietly raking for the organization for the last year-and-a-half.

KRISTIAN CAMPBELL IS NOT HUMAN.

He should be in Triple-A, along with the rest of the Big 4.

Enough is enough. They’ve been “close” to being promoted for nearly two months now.

pic.twitter.com/9htc2YmP1a

— G.G. (@ggeiss_mlb) August 10, 2024

Campbell has a career .338/.451/.558 slash in 113 games across 4 levels. More importantly, since his AA promotion earlier this year, he’s been even better. A .374/.481/.589 slash with 7 HR 32 RBI and 17 SB across 51 games is wildly impressive. He’s kept his K-rate just under 20% and has smashed the ball at a 34% hard-hit rate (6^th among all active AA players). It gets better. This kid is a jack-of-all-trades in the field. Here’s his games started by position breakdown at Double-A:

And he’s played the positions well (only 3 Errors in 400+ Innings). He’s got a (very) straight right-handed swing, which has led to a 30% line-drive rate since his AA promotion, with a nearly even pull-oppo %. The Red Sox have actually tried to get Campbell to pull the ball more, which has led to a bit more power. Here’s his pull-rate/slugging by year/league:

At 22-years-old and standing tall at 6’3’’, Campbell has time to continue and improve that power. As 2TB always says, the hardest tool to develop is the hit one. Campbell has that, the power is just a bonus. Add Kristian to the trifecta mentioned earlier, as he could be just as intriguing of a prospect as Meyer, Teel & Anthony.