My Favorite Under The Radar Prospect
Who doesn’t love prospects? Big name prospects bring hope to a franchise and fan base that one day they will be on the major league team helping the club win. The top prospects are reported on constantly and followed by various media outlets as they work their way to the majors. But this is just a select few, only the top prospects that MLB and various sites like to rank and organize. Many times guys fall through the cracks, and aren’t in the same spotlight as the big name prospects the media and fans talk about on a regular basis. I’m here to change that for one guy in particular.
With most pieces I write I try to stay bias-free as much as possible, however this a piece about MY favorite minor leaguer who doesn’t get a lot of media attention so yeah I’m gonna be a little biased here. It’s funny how we discover players sometimes. A little under a year ago I was digging through old Oregon Baseball box scores when I came across one game that seemed to have little to no meaning, a 15–4 blowout win against the University of Portland in 2016. I wasn’t even around back then, still a senior in high school, but decided to check it out. I mean they did score 15 runs there had to be some offense. But it was a performance on Portland that actually caught my eye, a two home run game by the catcher Cooper Hummel. After seeing this I clinked on Hummel to read his bio and learned that, like myself, Hummel is an Oregon native from Lake Oswego which isn’t too far from where I grew up. This is something I respected as there are not a lot of Oregon natives in pro ball in comparison to other states. I also learned the Hummel was drafted in the 18th round by the Brewers in 2016. Upon learning this I went to his minor league page to check out his stats and I was impressed.
Hummel started out in Rookie ball with the Helena Brewers. In 2016 he struggled a bit slashing .176/.359/.275. An OBP higher than your slugging is well not exactly ideal. However his walk rate 20%, was better than his strikeout rate 19% which is a good sign of plate discipline. After spending the rest of 2016 in rookie ball he skipped short season A and low A and went straight to high A ball. In his first season at high A in 2017 he was better slashing .244/.368/.381. Again showed good discipline but not a lot of power. He spent the 2018 season again with Carolina and this is where he really started to come into his own. The Brewers moved him from behind the plate to the outfield which allowed his offense to really take off. He was named an MILB organizational All Star for the Brewers and showed some pop increasing his slugging from .381 to .410 and doubling his home runs from 4 to 8. He also got on base at a .397 clip which is very good. And finally in his most recent minor league season in 2019 Hummel did very well. He was promoted to double a to begin the season and didn’t disappoint hitting 17 home runs with a .249/.384/.450 slash line which led him to his second consecutive organizational all star award, not bad for a guy taken in the 18th round.
While surface level stats are great I wanted to dig a little deeper. There is not a ton of minor league stats out there but I was able to find some splits from his 2019 season. One thing I really like about Hummel is that he is a switch hitter. This allows him to stay in the lineup vs lefties and righties. His better side might be the right side where he slashed .272/.399/.491 against lefties. Against righties he put up a respectable .237/.377/.430. Another thing I noticed in Hummel’s splits is that he seems to have a really good approach at the plate. With two outs Hummel slashed .279/.449/.510. He also excels with runners in scoring position slashing .308/.462/.495. This shows that Hummel has a good approach, he does his most damage in situations where a lot of players may struggle by trying to do too much at the plate. Lastly I wanted to see if his performance is sustainable or if he was just having really good BABIP luck. His BABIP in 2019 was .301, which is right where BABIP tends to even out at meaning that the numbers he was putting up are definitely sustainable. I also wanted to see his swing in action and It was hard to find a lot of video on Hummel but I was able to find this highlight reel from 2018.
https://www.milb.com/video/cooper-hummel-highlights-c2493550983?t=playerid-669450
Hummel has a pretty good swing. He doesn’t have a stereotypical power hitter frame at only 5'10 but he has a strong lower half probably from his catching days that allows him to generate power. He stays back on his back leg really well which allows him to accelerate through the zone. I also really like his hands during his load. They are in a good position to hit and allows him to stay inside the baseball with a short compact swing instead of having a long swing and losing his lower half. You can see this on display in the video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akfHzzIvPgU
Despite his recent success Hummel was not on any Brewers top prospects lists and overlooked by a lot of the media outlets that cover prospects, probably due to his age and 18th round selection. However, two encouraging signs show that the Brewers may be noticing his performance. The first came in May of last year. During the pandemic teams cut a lot of players to save money and prepare for the reworking of the minor leagues. This led to a lot of teams cutting prospects who were in their mid to late 20s that had reached High A or Double A in order to create room for their 2020 draft class prospects and whittle down their minor league numbers since they would be losing a couple teams at the end of the year. At 26 Hummel fit the mold of players that teams were cutting, but the Brewers kept him throughout the season and off-season. He was not invited to their alternate site so I don’t know how the Brewers handled his development in 2020 but the second encouraging sign came this spring when Hummel was invited to minor league mini camp. This is a minor league camp that is happening in conjunction with major league camp. This is an honor given that due to covid teams are only allowed to have a certain amount of players so the fact that he was chosen to take part of this is a great sign that the Brewers value him despite not being a highly talked about prospect. My guess is that he will start the season in Triple A. Hummel has a good chance to make the team is he performs well in Triple A. The outfield may be a little crowded with the addition of Jackie Bradley Jr but the Brewers are always looking for offense and given his versatility with experience in the outfield and behind the plate this gives him a couple routes to the majors. Hummel is a player I will be keeping an eye on in 2021 and someone that if he gets a chance, could surprise a lot of people.
