Monday, July 23, 2012

Round 20: James Brooks, SS, University of Utah

(via James Roh, Provo (UT) Daily Herald)
Baseball-Reference
Utah Bio
James Brooks tags on the Australian Baseball Digest

Pre-draft rankings:
#10 prospect in Utah by Baseball America (not in top 500)

Sean's one sentence analysis: This Australian isn't your average SS, with nice pop and defense but poor plate discipline.

Other analysis and notes:
Middle infielders with pop are hard to find, so I like this pick, especially in the 20th round. Brooks hit .303/.361/.333 in 10 games for the GCL Nats before moving up to Auburn, where he's only 1/19. At 23 (24 in October), he needs to start hitting (and hitting for power) if he wants to move up the organizational ladder. His 2 BB/14 K ratio so far isn't helping, either, but all of this is in an extremely small sample size period (15 total games), so take it with a grain of salt.

Brooks was the Pac 12 leader in doubles this year with 21 and was 5th in the league with 10 HR. He was second on the Utes in batting average (.304), third in OBP (.363) and first in slugging percentage (.529).

From Bubba Brown, the Utah Daily Chronicle, 4/19/12: “I don’t know,” Brooks said of his power surge. “I was trying to put my finger on it the other day, but honestly I don’t know. I think I might be more selective at what I’m swinging. There isn’t any magical secret that I have.”

Utah's official site had a short 10 question Q&A with Brooks last March.

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