Prospect Q&A: Brian Barton

[consigliere]

Good stuff from Kline here:

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/pr ... 63799.html

[Mr. MacPhisto]

Great interview. I love this bit:

"Nobody's critiquing themselves when they're batting .400. You bat .250 and everything's wrong again. Once I realized not to really concentrate on the results, but on the process of everything, it took a lot of pressure off."

That's a fantastic outlook. It's so easy to press when your average is down and try to change everything over, focusing so much on the BA. Looks like he's got his head together on hitting, although his Ks are still high. The OBP is excellent though.

Both Barton and Brown have started off well in Akron. Barton looks like he may have 20HR+ power and can hit both righties and lefties. His K-rate improved when he went to Akron last year, so here's hoping that he can focus in on that a bit more this year. If so, we might see him in Cleveland sooner rather than later.

[Steve Buffum]

What is actually wrong with his knee?

[consigliere]

All I know is in the season opener last year, he tweaked it coming out of the batter's box when trying to run after a hit. After that, he was sidelined for a few games and returned.

From my first farm report 4/14 last year on the site (my God has this evolved):

http://www.theclevelandfan.com/article_ ... php?id=281

Kinston outfielder Brian Barton got off on the wrong foot, literally. After singling in his first at bat of the season, he was taken out after tweaking his knee leaving the batter’s box. No ETA on his return

Then, in the 4/21 followup:

http://www.theclevelandfan.com/article_ ... php?id=305

Outfielder Brian Barton has returned from injury to the Kinston lineup, and his bat has helped jumpstart the offense (2-4 with 2 HRs and 4 RBI Thursday).

And that was the last I ever heard of the injury all year.....I'll see if I can dig up some info on it soon.

[skatingtripods]

I saw Barton at Lake County a couple of years ago and my father and I were impressed. I've followed the minors, but I never really had him on the radar.

He looked very athletic in RF and put a few good swings on the ball. He might just be future trade bait, but I hope the kid does succeed somewhere.