Jason Heyward is a 20 year old phenom in the Atlanta Braves minor league system, who like Michael Taylor, I recently mentioned in my post about young African-American talent in the major and minor leagues . The 6’4 220lbs. outfielder is known for his batting eye and mature approach at the plate and at just 20 years old has already reached Double-A ball. Obviously, when such a young prospect is more than holding his own in Double-A; he’s going to be projected not only as a star, but also as a possible future Hall of Famer. Heyward also happens to be left-handed, so Ken Griffey, Jr. is one possible comparison for him, however, there is some question if he can hit for as much power as Griffey did in his prime. Heyward has also been compared to Dave Parker, Billy Williams, and Fred McGriff; which would put him in the 25-40 HR range rather than Griffey’s 40+.
Here are Jason Heyward’s stats for the season to date:
.315 AVG/17 HR/58 RBI/.400 OBP/.559 SLG/.959 OPS/8 SB
You can check out Jason Heyward’s career minor league stats on his Baseball Reference player page and his First Inning player page.
Here is where Jason Heyward ranks among minor league prospects:
Ranking in ScoutingBook (8/25/2009): #9
Ranking in Baseball America 2009: #5
Ranking in Baseball Prospectus: #10
Ranking in MiLB.com 2009 Season Preview: #3
Ranking from ESPN: #3
Here is everything you need to know about Jason Heyward:
The Braves drafted Heyward in the first round in 2007, out of high school in McDonough, Georgia. The 14th overall pick, he was well-known to scouts as an extremely toolsy outfielder with a good measure of polish, but his stock was hurt slightly on draft day because his senior year, while impressive, wasn't quite as good as people expected. He was pitched around frequently, and there was likely also an element of overexposure, as scouts had seen so much of him that they began to nitpick his flaws and not focus enough on his strengths. Even at 14th overall, he looked like an underdraft in the minds of many experts, and so far his pro career has been stellar. His work ethic and intangibles are rated very highly.
(Minor League Ball)
Heyward is 6-4, 220, a left-handed hitter and thrower, born August 9, 1989. Tools-wise, his raw power is rated as excellent and he's made strides tapping into it this year. His speed is a tick above average, and scouts like his baserunning instincts. He also features a strong throwing arm and is a sound defensive right fielder. Heyward's strike zone judgment is also very good. Physically, he's shown some vulnerability to nagging injuries and missed time with a strained hip flexor and a painful abdominal muscle earlier this year, though he's avoided any surgeries or long-term DL trips. (Minor League Ball)
Heyward is very polished for his age. He was solid last year in the South Atlantic League, posting a +23 percent OPS for Rome and hitting .323/388/.483 overall, with 15 steals in 18 attempts and a 49/74 BB/K ratio in 449 at-bats. This year, he's been even better, hitting .296/.369/.519 in 49 games for Myrtle Beach, then a stunning .400/.493/.673 in his first 16 games since being promoted to Double-A Mississippi. His tremendous 10/4 BB/K in his first 55 at-bats at that level demonstrates his excellent feel for hitting. He's now 20-for-24 as a career basestealer, and scouts continue to praise his defense and baserunning instincts. The one knock they had on him entering '09 was home run power, as he hit just 11 last year in 127 games. He's already hit 11 this year in 65 games, while maintaining his batting average and OBP skills. (Minor League Ball)
The first round of the 2007 draft looks like it's going to turn out a half-dozen stars or well above-average big leaguers, if not more, with Heyward at the top of the list of its high school products. Even at age 17, Heyward was a physical specimen, already 6-4 and well-built with room to add muscle as he gets older. He controls the strike zone well, both laying off pitches out of the zone and working himself into hitters' counts; his contact rate was one of the best in the South Atlantic League this year despite his relative youth. He gets his arms extended well, setting up slightly away from his body, so the ball down or over the outer half is well within his reach. Atlanta has moved him from center to right field; he has a plus arm and above-average range now that he's out of the middle of the field. His upside is just a question of power; he's going to hit for average and be an asset in the field. His swing and body point to 30-plus homers a year, which, coupled with a healthy on-base percentage and defensive value, would make him one of the most valuable players in the game. (ESPN - Keith Law)
Hidden behind a talented farm system down in Atlanta, Heyward has quietly produced stellar numbers since his rookie year at A ball. Having drawn comparisons to Willie McCovey and Dave Parker, this young outfielder has all five tools that scouts drool over. He’s athletic in that large frame, actually knows how to play defense (a plus because that might help him raise through the minors faster), and has the patience of a hitter much older than him. If you want to compare his Cube numbers to professional MLB players think of James Loney, Mark Grace, and Conor Jackson (but as it has already been established, this isn’t the most accurate way to compare a player as it just compiles his numbers and rates them against his peers at the same level he is at). However, Jason should prove to be more than those players. (RazzBall)
He hasn’t hit the number of homers some other prospects have, but he hits for average and gap power as of now which should translate into more homers in the future as he shortens his swing and fills out his body. One knock that some scouts have is that he is too patient of a hitter and often times doesn’t hit or swing at the best pitch for him to drive. I am not sure how I feel about this, but really, this should be a good thing. Some hitters don’t know how not to swing. This should be something that he and his hitting coaches should be able to change. He has the work ethic for this to probably happen, and a positive note about a highly tout prospect – he is quite humble. Something I think we all can appreciate. (RazzBall)
"Even at an early age, when he put on a Braves uniform, he looked like he physically fit with the types of bodies that we see with major league players," Braves farm director Kurt Kemp said. "And then when you looked at all the areas of his game—his natural hitting ability, his raw power, how well he throws, how well he runs for a man of his size and the work that he does as an outfielder—there was just not anything that you didn't like about him." "He is just a terrific young man, first and foremost," Kemp said. "He comes from a great family and he has been from day one respectful, hard-working—all of the good qualities that you like to see in a young man, he possesses those things. He has never acted as if he was a first-round draft choice, but he works as hard as any draft choice that we have. He was a first-round draft choice, but he takes instruction as well as any player that we have."
(Baseball America)
If scouts in California were worried that Stanton was too reckless with his swing, scouts on the other side of the country in Georgia had the opposite concern with Heyward. That is, why wouldn't he swing the bat more often? "Senior year, I did walk a good bit more than I ever have in my whole time playing baseball," Heyward said. "They definitely pitched around me a little bit. You could tell, when we were up by five or six runs, they'd put me on base. That's kind of expected in high school, but then there were teams that tried to challenge me, and that's when I tried to make them pay. It didn't happen the majority of the time, but I tried to make it happen." Scouts tell stories of how they went in to see Heyward multiple times, only to come away without seeing him swing in a game. How can a team invest millions in a high school player when no one gets to see him hit? "He had a lot better plate discipline than people realized," one American League scouting director said, "and people confused that with him not being aggressive. He made a fool of some people by being more disciplined than they gave him credit for." (Baseball America)
"I'm friends with a lot of coaches in the county, and they would tell me before the game they're not going to throw to him," Shadden said. "As far as his approach at the plate, he's the most disciplined hitter I think I've ever seen and I've ever coached, period. I've never seen anybody who's got an eye as good as he did. He saw the ball better than anybody and he could fight any pitch off until he got the one that he wanted. "He was so disciplined at the plate there were times that he'd let one go by and I'm like, 'Dadgum man. Come on, swing it.' You know, 3-2, he's got the count worked out, and then he makes it hurt that way too. There weren't a lot of times when he lost composure or anything like that. He knew the game, he was a smart player—he just knew the game. He knew what he needed to do, so telling him anything was just reminding him." For many young hitters, getting pitched around so much could turn into a recipe for bad habits, swinging at pitches out of the strike zone or at least out of a player's hitting zone. It didn't seem to change Heyward. "It's definitely tempting for any hitter who's not getting pitched to, because it's hard to get only one pitch to see a game to get a good swing off of," Heyward said. "You've got to be ready to go because at the big league level, you're not going to get a cookie every time. It's a little tempting, but I had to stay within myself, and that's what everyone wanted to see—me not getting too aggressive and staying within myself." "Certain guys have a pretty good feel from a young age about the strike zone," Braves hitting coordinator Leon Roberts said. "They've been coached pretty good when they were young—Little League, junior high, high school, summer ball, whatever. What happens is, somebody has sort of looked after him or impressed upon him how to hit good pitches and take bad pitches, and through time he's developed a pretty good eye and a pretty good strike zone." (Baseball America)
Heyward will blow out the candles on his 20th birthday cake in a week and a half, but he probably won't have to wait until his 21st birthday to reach the major leagues given his current pace. Heyward, the No. 1 prospect in baseball, is hitting .416/.495/.714 with 13 walks and nine strikeouts in 22 games with Mississippi. Heyward's offensive tools and feel for the strike zone are already outstanding, but the scary thing is that he's still a little less than a decade away from his peak years. (Baseball America)
This power-hitting outfielder was, like Freeman, a steal from the 2007 draft. The Braves nabbed the Georgia native with the 14th overall pick of the draft. An advanced hitter for a prep signee, Heyward has a career line of .312/.379/.491 in 733 at-bats – and he’s still just 19 years old. Earlier this season in high-A ball, Heyward hit .296/.369/.519 with 10 homers in 189 at-bats, while missing time with an injury. In a good pitcher’s park, the left-handed hitter posted a walk rate of 10 BB% and a strikeout rate of 15.9 K%. Since his promotion to double-A, Heyward is hitting .346/.438/.615 with three doubles and two triples in eight games. Neither Freeman nor Heyward should see the Majors this season, but they should both be kept in mind for 2010… They could both be up before the MLB All-Star break, depending on the big league club’s playoff hopes. (FanGraphs)
Heyward flourished in his first week in Double-A and earned the No. 1 ranking on our Midseason Top 25 Prospects. The '07 first-round pick had an invitation to the Carolina League's all-star game but missed it with a hip injury. He'll make up for that absence by playing in the Futures Game this Sunday in St. Louis. Heyward finished out his time in the CL with a .296/.369/.519 line with 10 home runs for high Class A Myrtle Beach. Four of Heyward's first seven hits in Mississippi went for extra bases and he legged out two triples. He could force his way into Atlanta's outfield picture sometime next year. (Baseball America)
Recently promoted to Double-A at the age of 19, this is how Heyward has handled his first 32 plate appearances above Double-A: four singles, three doubles, two triples, four walks, no strikeouts. That’s how you announce that the best prospect in baseball has arrived on the scene. A big left-handed premium bat with power and plate discipline, Heyward profiles as an elite hitter with some defensive value. He could be in Atlanta next year, taking the mantle from Chipper Jones as the next great Braves hitter. (FanGraphs)
Atlanta's hulking 6-foot-4, 220-pound prize prospect continues to impress. After receiving a seven-game cameo with Myrtle Beach to finish out the 2008 season, Heyward started the 2009 season with the Pelicans. The Braves believed his power would come once he began to use his hands more effectively. He is starting to show his true power potential and has smacked nine home runs this season in 139 ABs. Two of those came this past week and he's just two homers shy of his entire home run output of 11 during the 2008 season. With a .561 slugging percentage in a park known for depressing power, it's fair to say that the 19-year-old is starting to tap into his raw power. (Baseball America)
Say Heyward, but don't say it just yet. A real treasure for the Braves as 2007's 14th overall pick, the left-handed Heyward has been lauded for his developing plate discipline and 30-homer power potential for a couple of years now. He could have a future in right field for Atlanta, but with Jeff Francoeur locked in there for a long time to come, it's more likely that he'll go to left field or first base, both positions where the Braves lack a viable long-term prospect. We're penciling 2011 beside his name, but if the Braves get desperate, he could see action sooner. (ScoutingBook)
Outfielder Jason Heyward is a name you should remember in 2009. He had a solid first full season in the Majors after being a first-round pick out of high school in 2007, but he could blossom into a future superstar. The 19-year-old slugger hit .323/.388/.483 with 11 home runs and 15 stolen bases. He also earned 22 at-bats in High-A ball late in the year. Still in his teens, Heyward is an athletic 6′4” 220 lbs and his strong arm is well suited to right field. (FanGraphs)
More: Minor League Prospect Watch
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