MVN - Most Valuable Network

Prospect Watch: Ryan Antesberger

A 15th round pick out of Illinois State University in this year’s draft, the Marlins feel like they got a bit of a sleeper on their hands in Ryan Anetsberger. When he first showed up on the Illinois State campus, he was a thin shortstop known more for his glove than his bat. Ryan’s now a legit bat at the hot corner with good gap power, and of course the glove/arm combination is still there.

The Marlins liked how he looked in the Cape Cod League, and were more impressed after he was named the MVP at the National Baseball Congress World Series from another summer league. In his final season at Illinois State, Ryan hit .328/.398/.484 with 5 homeruns in 186 at bats. That performance got him named to the 2nd team All-Missouri Valley Conference. The Marlins decided to skip the Gulf Coast League with him and have him go straight to short season Jamestown. In 222 at bats with the Jammers, he hit .266/.331/.446 with 7 homeruns and was selected to the NYPL All Star Team.

Ryan should be in Greensboro all year as a 22 year old and like many of the college players in the SALLY league, I would expect him to put up big numbers. He got off to a slow start in Greensboro this year before finishing April strong. He is currently hitting .296/.377/.365 in 115 at bats. The batting average and on base percentage are great, but the lack of slugging right now is a bit surprising. He has just 8 extra base hits, all being doubles. Now I’m not expecting a .500 slugging percentage from him, but certainly atleast another .100 added to his .365. I think the extra power will come as he continues to get more comfortable in the batter’s box. Looking at all his splits, from his monthly ones, to lhp vs rhp, to day vs night, his overall numbers stay very consistent.

Ryan has been playing mostly third base for the Grasshoppers and after a rough start (6 errors in 10 days), he’s played a very good hot corner. With uber prospect Matt Dominguez getting close to coming back from mono, it will be interesting to see where Antesberger moves to. More than likely, he will end up at first base. But don’t worry, the power will come.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 7th, 2008 at 1:17 pm and is filed under Prospect Watch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.