Joey
Bart

4/11/18 - 6’3/225, Junior. Large framed, durable bodied catcher who brings a physical presence to the field. His defensive skills, arm strength and raw power tools separate him from the other catchers in the 2018 college draft class. In addition to plus arm strength, he set up tight behind the batter, showed a very quick and easy catch/throw transfer with a smooth release and accurate throws with good carry to second base between innings; POP times ranged from 1.75 to 1.91. One game throw at 1.93 which was wide to the shortstop side of second base. This season he has thrown out seven of 15 (47%) base runners attempting to steal while last spring he caught 10 of 26 (38%) runners. The caught stealing percentage is obviously very good, as is the low number of attempts due to his well-earned reputation as a run game stopper. At times, he caught the borderline low pitch with his glove arm angled down, making the pitch appear lower, instead of getting his arm horizontal to the ground and presenting it more strike-like to the umpire. Has strong hands and already receives well overall, making this a fairly easy adjustment in the future. He is a confident backstop who calls most of the pitches and makes all the plays. Offensively, showed plus raw pull power with bat strength. Displayed average bat speed in batting practice, more slider bat speed in the game. Sets up in an upright, slightly open hitting stance. Creates some length with a bat tilt toward the pitcher for his load. Takes a soft stride, but overstrides and gets his foot down late. He is forced to rush his swing by pulling off with his front shoulder, taking his hands with him and sacrificing power to the middle and opposite fields. His hands do not work independent of his shoulder, taking the bat head in and out of the zone. This approach gives him holes and swing/miss as evidenced by a strikeout rate of 24% in 2017 and a current rate of 19% at the halfway point this season. He runs surprisingly well for someone his size, clocking a 4.29 on a 6-3 groundout during Friday night’s game, as well as scoring from second base on a one out, three-hopper which was almost directly at the left fielder. Showed good instincts as he was off on the crack of the bat and never hesitated as he rounded third base. All things considered he is the top catching prospect I’ve seen thus far this spring. He profiles as a power hitting catcher with an above average defensive package. As a college catcher from a major conference, he is a lower risk pick and most likely will be selected somewhere in second half of the first round.