Austin Barnes, C

[easygoer13]

I did not know that about Skip...is it his D or his bat ?....I had heard that he was still swinging it well....


I will say this they drafted Barnes to be a catcher first....his bat if it stays respectable he will be with the big club sometime in the future as from the catching spot has all that you want...perhaps on the small side but no more then Santiago was who caught what 14 years in the Bigs...

[Mainge]

I did not know that about Skip...is it his D or his bat ?....I had heard that he was still swinging it well....


I will say this they drafted Barnes to be a catcher first....his bat if it stays respectable he will be with the big club sometime in the future as from the catching spot has all that you want...perhaps on the small side but no more then Santiago was who caught what 14 years in the Bigs...

Skip owns a .221 career batting average. Batting .194 this year

[easygoer13]

I did not know that about Skip....I asked someone the other day about him and they said had 15 HR's or something like that...so I thought he must be doing OK....

[Mainge]

He's got 5.

Pro baseball chewed him up and spit him out.

[easygoer13]

WOW....I guess they were wrong....Skip from what I could tell was a good kid...but thats why at the next level it comes many times it comes down to how strong are you mentally....I mean there a lot of gifted guys physically but you can't only get by on that at the next level...

[Mainge]

Amen to that.

[easygoer13]

Did Skip have 17 HR's last year...I know I was told he hit in the teens....

[Mainge]

He did in a repeat year. Still only batted .245 and struck out in 30% of his at-bats.

[easygoer13]

If you caught the Texas vs ASU game today...you may have saw some of what I was speaking about with Barnes....in the 7th with runners on the corners and 1 out a ball was hit to 3rd and the Richio made a nice play and came home with the throw...Barnes caught it and tagged the runner out not a tough play but....he was a little tangled up with the runner and shed him while never taking his eyes off the runners and allowing them to move up....not a tough play but points to his instincts and IQ....

[LocoMarlinFan]

Signed

http://florida.marlins.mlb.com/team/...11&team_id=146

[easygoer13]

Barnes made his first start last night and had 2 hits and threw out 2 trying to steal....I think your going see value in the pick....

Looks like the comments about his size may have been pre mature...he is now listed at 5'10 and 190....still not large but not 5'9 and 174 either

[Bucklin12]

Bonus was $95,000 according to BA.

[easygoer13]

off to a great start with the Jammers. Hitting much better than what was excepted. Only 4 SO in 70 AB's hit safely in 15 of 19 games.

[easygoer13]

solid start

Barnes...looks to be off to a nice start....302 ave good for 7th best in the league throwing out 46% of runners

[emkayseven]

Austin Barnes started the South Atlantic League all-star game at catcher, but that’s not where he’s spending most of his time these days.

Barnes, the Riverside Poly product who went to college at Arizona State, is mostly seeing duty at second base for the Greensboro (N.C.) Grasshoppers.

While his season is facing a brief interruption because of an injury — he was placed on the seven-day disabled list after being hurt in Tuesday’s game — he’s earned his all-star honors by batting .317 with five home runs and 41 RBIs in 76 games for the Grasshoppers, a class-A affiliate of the Miami Marlins. He was a ninth-round pick of the Marlins in 2011, after batting .320 in 43 games as a junior at Arizona State.

“I just feel like I got in a groove at the plate, putting some good at-bats together,” Barnes said in a Thursday phone conversation, “which is putting me in some good situations to hit.”

Barnes has caught nine games and played 67 at second base for the Grasshoppers, after 31 games as a catcher and 12 at second a year ago for Jamestown of the short-season New York-Penn League.

“It’s just a chance to get me more at-bats during the season,” he said. “Catchers aren’t playing every day because of the stress of the position; they rotate more.“

Wherever they want to put me, it’s fine with me. I feel good at both positions. … If I can show some versatility, I think that helps.”

Adaptability has definitely been a part of Barnes’ playing history. A middle infielder at Poly, he was converted to catcher at Arizona State, “because we were pretty deep in the infield,” he said. “Catching seemed like the better fit at the time. Then I get drafted as a catcher, and in my first season in pro ball, I’m catching a lot. … It’s a lot of going back and forth, but that’s fine. I just like to play.”

Barnes’ current injury came at second, when he had his legs taken out by a baserunner and landed on his shoulder, suffering a strained of the capsule (the ligaments around the joint).

“I won’t need surgery or anything,” he said. “They don’t think it’s my labrum, which is good. … I’m only going to miss four or five games.”

This is Barnes’ first full-length professional season, and he’s learning how to deal with the grind, particularly during the high-heat, high-humidity part of the schedule.

“You’ve definitely got to take care of your body and prepare yourself to play every day,” he said. “Because it can wear on you a little bit.”

Challenges include trying to eat right with a travel schedule not conducive to the effort — “Sometimes the only thing open is not the healthiest stuff, but you’ve got to eat” — and the bus rides that define minor-league baseball, which can be eight to 10 hours for Greensboro.

“We actually have a pretty nice bus,” he said. “It’s like a sleeper bus; we have beds we switch off using. … It’s not too bad. It’s tough sometimes, but you’ve got to learn to play with it. You’re not going to feel the greatest every time you go out on the field, and sometimes you’ve just got to push through it.”

http://blog.pe.com/alumni-report/201...econd-catcher/