Two Major One Minor 081411

This week the three players I'm covering are all short stops. The two Major League players are Jhonny Peralta and Yuniesky Betancourt while the minor league player is Hak-Ju Lee. It also gives a glimpse how international this game is.


Peralta is having one of the better seasons of his career with the Tigers. I picked him up in our draft this year and he is one of the  top performing shortstops in MLB. He is hitting .309/.352/.503 with 16 home runs, 62 RBI, 50 runs and zero steals in 107 games. His power numbers are a clear trade off for his lack speed. He is on track to better his best years of 2005 when he hit .292/.366/.520 with 24 home runs and 78 RBI and 2008 when he hit .276/.331/.473 with 23 home runs and 89 RBI. His production will be counted on as the Tigers try to keep their hold at the top of the American League Central. He was originally signed by the Indians as an amateur free agent in 1999 out of the Dominican Republic.


Betancourt is one of those players that traditionally doesn't put up great numbers. He has a passable .271 career average but doesn't offer much in power or speed and his range at short has been dropping off.  Over the past ten games with the Brewers he is on a hot streak hitting .390 with one home run and eight RBI. That home run was the lone run in a 1-0 victory over the Pirates. The hot streak is unlikely to continue as his nearly identical season .270/.289/.397 and career .271/.295/ .394 lines show. I had high hopes for Betancourt when he initially came to the Royals in 2009 and then lauded Dayton Moore as a quasi genius when he was able to unload him to the Brewers in the Greinke trade after the 2010 season. He originally signed with the Mariners as an amateur free agent in 2005 out of Cuba.


Lee was recently promoted to Double A in the Rays organization and represented the team in the 2010 and 2011 Futures Games. He does offer up the ability to hit for average along with speed on the base paths. At Class A advanced he hit .317/.389/.442 with four home runs, 22 RBI, 81 runs and 28 steals in 96 games. In his three Double A games he is hitting .167/.267/.167 with zero home runs, two RBI, three runs and one steal. Lee is 20 and has a bright future. He originally signed with the Rays as an amateur free agent out of South Korea.