Draft Prospects Brett Baty, Hudson Head Both Had Seasons To Remember

Image credit: Brett Baty (Photo by Bill Mitchell)

With the lack of exceptional pitchers available in this year’s draft, teams could be drafting more bats than ever. And two of the high school players in this year’s BA 500 are putting up historical numbers in terms of their production at the plate.

Third baseman Brett Baty, the No. 15 player on the BA 500, and outfielder Hudson Head, the No. 128 player, are both hitting over .600 this season. More specifically, Baty is hitting .624 and Head is hitting .615.

It’s nearly impossible to quantify the variation of difficulty throughout different classes of high school baseball in each state. However, Baty and Head are both playing for Texas high schools, and Texas is generally considered one of the states with the highest level of competition for baseball, making their achievements even more impressive.

Since 2009, Javier Baez’s .771 average set a new standard for batting average for a draft prospects. Here’s the best high school seasons by draft prospects during the Baseball America era, which began in 1981.

Year	Player	Position	Location	AVG	AB	R	H	HR	RBI
2011	Javier Baez	SS	Jacksonville, Fla.	.771	83	46	64	22	52
2004	Billy Killian	C	Stanwood, Mich.	.766	30	21	23	4	12
1989	Gordon Powell	3B	Cincinnati, Ohio	.727	44	13	32	8	26
2011	Trevor Mitsui	1B	Shorewood, Wash.	.712	52	39	37	13	26
2005	Andrew McCutchen	OF	Fort Meade, Fla.	.709	55	28	39	16	42
1992	Todd Helton	OF	Knoxville, Tenn.	.700	70	47	49	10	39
2000	Jason Belcher	C/3B	Walnut Ridge, Ark.	.676	74	67	50	15	59
2006	Matt Sulentic	OF	Dallas, Texas	.676	74	47	50	19	58
1997	Jayson Werth	C	Chatham, Ill.	.671	70	52	47	11	43
2010	Kaleb Cowart	INF	Adel, Ga.	.654	107	55	70	11	59
1988	Rico Brogna	1B	Watertown, Conn.	.648	37	20	24	2	23
1998	Gerald Laird	C	Westminster, Calif.	.648	88		57	5	33
2005	Cameron Maybin	OF	Arden, N.C.	.646	65	57	42	14	36
2000	Adrian Gonzalez	1B	Chula Vista, Calif.	.645	76	42	49	13	34
1984	Terry Green	SS	Stringtown, Okla.	.640	75	42	48	8	29
2011	Dante Bichette Jr.	3B	Orlando, Fla.	.640	86	58	55	10	40
2010	Manny Machado	3B	Hialeah Gardens, Fla.	.639	86	43	55	12	56
1995	Michael Barrett	SS	Atlanta, Ga.	.638	105	67	64	9	55
2006	Adrian Cardenas	2B	Miami Lakes, Fla.	.630	108	47	68	17	56
2016	Nolan Jones	3B	Bensalem, Pa.	.630	46	28	29	6	27
2017	Heliot Ramos	OF	Guaynabo, P.R.	.628	43		27	9
1996	Brent Abernathy	SS	Atlanta, Ga.	.627	110	66	69	11	41
2009	J.R. Murphy	C	Bradenton, Fla.	.627	102		64	11
1999	Josh Wilson	SS	Pittsburgh, Pa.	.625	48		30	7	24
2017	Terry Fuller	1B	Griffin, Ga.	.625	80		50	13
1986	Phil Clark	C	Crockett, Texas	.623	69	38	43	11	36
2017	Luis Campusano	C	Augusta, Ga.	.622	90		56	6
1984	Shawn Abner	OF	Mechanicsburg,Pa.	.620	50	25	31	5	18
1984	Erik Pappas	C	Chicago, Ill.	.615	39	18	24	4	19
2000	Kevin Cust	C	Flemington, N.J.	.615	52	23	32	12	30
1991	Manny Ramirez	OF	New York, N.Y.	.614	39	25	24	6	26
2002	B.J. Upton	SS	Chesapeake, Va.	.614	70	51	43	10	47
1993	John Roskos	C	Rio Rancho, N.M.	.613	62	39	38	15	42
1997	Scott Ackerman	C	Oregon City, Ore.	.612	85	41	52	8	42
2007	Gary Brown	OF/2B	Walnut, Calif.	.612	80	44	49	4	21
1996	John Oliver	OF	Lehman, Pa.	.610	77	47	47	11	40
2014	J.J. Matijevic	1B	North Huntingdon, Pa.	.607	56	29	34	10	37
1997	Darnell McDonald	OF	Englewood, Colo.	.606	66	37	40	10	35
1994	Terrance Long	1B	Millbrook, Ala.	.604	96	48	58	13	46
2012	Albert Almora	OF	Hialeah Gardens, Fla.	.603	73	42	44	6	34
1988	Mark Lewis	SS	Hamilton, Ohio	.600	100	62	60	14	64
1989	Brad Wilson	C	Hiawassee, Ga.	.600	65	38	39	21	52
2015	Nick Shumpert	SS	Highlands Ranch, Colo.	.600	55	29	33	5	14

From 1984 to 2009, only 32 other high school BA draft prospects (who ranked in the Top 100 in the 1980s or early 1990s and in the Top 200 in the mid-1990s to 2009) have hit at least .600 in a season, highlighted by big names such as Manny Ramirez and Adrian Gonzalez who hit .614 and .645, respectively.

Of those 32 prospects, 13 of them were able to accomplish this milestone in a state considered to be a hotbed for draft prospects: California, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas.

Andrew McCutchen is the standout of those 13 prospects, batting .709 in his senior year of high school. 

We took a look at how these high school phenoms translated to the majors, if they even made it that far.

Of those 32 prospects, 21 of them made it to the majors at some point, or about 65.6 percent. Four of those 21 players played fewer than 100 games in the majors.

Cameron Maybin, John Ryan Murphy and McCutchen are still currently active MLB players, so we did not factor them into the following statistics.

Although these high school stars were incredible hitters at a young age, those averages don’t necessarily carry over into the pros.

Of the 29 inactive players from the list of prospects, the combined batting average in the majors was just .159. If you ignore the prospects who never made it all the way to the big leagues, the average raises to .257, but one would probably expect a little more from some of the greatest high school hitters in recent history.

The inactive players who made it to the majors at some point played an average of a little over 820 games in their careers, or a bit more than five complete regular seasons.

Of the high school prospects, Ramirez played the most games in the majors with 2302, while Gary Brown played the least of everybody who made it to the majors at some point with just seven games. However, Brown was able to continue his strong hitting form from high school with a major league career batting average of .429 through those seven games.

Ramirez and Todd Helton were the only other players to hit over .300 in their major league careers. Ramirez hit .312, and Helton was slightly better at .316.