ALEX VARGAS
6/5/86; NDFA '05; Dominican Republic
L/L; 6-2, 195
| Level |
BA |
OBP |
SA |
AB |
2B |
3B |
HR |
BB |
K |
SB |
CS |
| 2005 DSL |
.308 |
|
.398 |
221 |
12 |
1 |
2 |
17 |
37 |
7 |
|
| 2006
DSL |
.300 |
.367 |
.354 |
240 |
11 |
1 |
0 |
25 |
31 |
11 |
5 |
| 2007 R |
.291 |
.333 |
.494 |
79 |
6 |
2 |
2 |
5 |
13 |
2 |
1 |
| 2008
R |
.285 |
.335 |
.375 |
144 |
8 |
1 |
1 |
12 |
13 |
4 |
1 |
Vargas was the closest thing to a hitting
prospect that the Pirates got out of Latin America during Dave Littlefield's
inept regime. He's hit for average in the DSL
and
developed good plate discipline, but didn't show much power. He did, however, hit for
good power in the GCL in his first year there. He wasn't young to
be making his debut in rookie ball. For some reason, he played only
sparingly until late in the GCL season as the team preferred starting non-prospect Tom Hagan. I
have no idea why they’d do that, but hopefully that sort of nonsense will
end with the new front office. Despite the fact that he had a good year in 2007,
the Pirates sent him back to the GCL to start 2008, possibly an
indication that they don't consider him a prospect. He served as the primary firstbaseman
this time and improved his plate discipline, but showed much less power. He struggled with LHPs, posting a
.601 OPS against them as compared to .757 against RHPs. Vargas will be 23 when the 2009 season opens so his window of opportunity may be about closed.
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