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Geovany Soto

By faketeams

Geovany Soto is a 24-year-old catcher in his third season at AAA, and what a charm is has been. In a third fewer ABs, he has doubled his 2006 HR total and nearly surpassed his career-high doubles total. His season did not go unnoticed as he was named to the 2007 XM Satellite Futures Game. However, this boost in production seems surprising as Soto showed little offensive progress when he repeated the level in 2006. Going for the three-peat set the impression that Soto had peaked despite being just 24-years-old.

Prospect guru John Sickels had this to say about Geovany:

With two seasons under his belt, it's now clear waht kind of skills [he] brings...a strong arm...solid defensive catcher...line drive swing, a touch of gap power, and good strike zone judgment...But his level swing will not produce many home runs....

Baseball America also implied a stagnation of skills when it mentioned that Soto repeated his 2005 AAAseason in 2006 after impressing in Spring Training 2006. However, the prospect ranked #17 in the Cubs organization at the beginning of the season also elicited these postives:

...the most well-rounded of the system's catchers...enough bat-handling ability and strength to project as a .260 hitter with double-digit homers...patience at the plate...below-average runner but agile for a catcher...

What has likely occurred is Soto learned to adjust his line drive swing to get some loft on the ball. If that change is taken with him to Chicago, then, at 24-years-old, Soto has a chance to do what former catcher Michael Barrett did at the plate - sans fighting with his teammates.

Year Team Lg Age Level G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO AVG OBP SLG CR XBH
2001 Az Cubs Ariz 18 Rk 41 150 18 39 16 0 1 20 15 33 0.26 0.339 0.387 78.0% 17
2002 Az Cubs Ariz 19 Rk 44 156 24 42 10 2 3 24 13 35 0.269 0.333 0.417 77.6% 15
2002 Boise Nwest 19 A- 1 5 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.4 0.4 0.4 80.0% 0
2003 Daytona FSL 20 A+ 89 297 26 72 12 2 2 38 31 58 0.242 0.313 0.316 80.5% 16
2004 W. Tenn Sou 21 AA 104 332 47 90 16 0 9 48 40 71 0.271 0.355 0.401 78.6% 25
2005 Iowa PCL 22 AAA 91 292 30 74 14 0 4 39 4 8 77 0.253 0.357 0.342 73.6% 18
2006 Iowa PCL 23 AAA 108 342 34 93 21 0 6 38 41 74 0.272 0.353 0.386 78.4% 27
2007 Iowa PCL 24 AAA 69 226 32 77 19 0 12 55 30 55 0.341 0.412 0.584 75.7% 31
2005 Chi Cubs MLB 22 MLB 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 100.0% 0
2006 Chi Cubs MLB 23 MLB 11 25 1 5 1 0 0 2 0 5 0.2 0.231 0.24 80.0% 1

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