Athletics promotes the first basic player Nick Kurtz in Majors, according to MLB.com. The to themselves have not announced the move, and they did not announce a corresponding decision to erase a list place.
Kurtz, 22, opened the season in Triple-A, where he struck .321 / .385 / .655 with seven circuits in 20 games. He was one of the triple-free leaders of the output speed, although he had trouble establishing both contacts and consistent results against left-handers.
Will add them Kurtz to a programming that includes three other promising strikers under the age of 25: Jacob Wilson’s shortcoming stop, Lawrence Butler, and his first goal colleague Tyler Soderstrom, one of the members The best home strikers in the majors this year.
Kurtz was choice n ° 4 of last summer draft by Wake Forest. CBS Sports ranked it as the class 4 of the class at the time, writing the following of his game:
Kurtz recovered from an early crisis and a shoulder injury, offering 14 circuits over a period of 10 games to inaugurate in April. At the end of the season, he found himself directing the NCAA in walks, both in the form of a rate and counting, taking a free pass in 30% of his trips on the plate. (By way of reference, Barry Bonds had a 32% walking rate in 2002.) We cannot deny the power of the average Kurtz or his discipline, and on his credit, he establishes a solid contact rate when he proposes. There are nevertheless some factors that work against him. Some evaluators have wondered if its extreme selectivity is a damage that makes it pass from successful land; We are inclined to think that it is easier to teach a striker to increase his aggressiveness than Vice Versa. The biggest problem, in our opinion, is that he is a first college player. You have to return to CJ Cron in 2011 to find a first round of those who have since had a decent career. We put it here despite our lowering feelings on the profile because we suspect a team – perhaps even athletics, which chooses n ° 4 – will neglect disappointments like Spencer Torkelson, Andrew Vaughn and Pavin Smith to take the plunge.
The arrival of Kurtz was placed by the sudden will of athletics to use Brent Rooker in the outside field. Rooker had not appeared before in the outside field for almost a year after having undergone an injury in the forearm.
