Thursday, May 15, 2008 | By Alex Eisenberg

Prospect Quick Hit: Scouting Oriole Prospect Brandon Tripp

Brandon Tripp is a mostly an unknown prospect in the Baltimore Oriole organization. Drafted out of Cal State Fullerton in the 12th round of the 2006 MLB draft,Tripp struggled mightily to open up his professional career. He posted just a .650 OPS to go along with a meager .096 ISO-power, while striking out 28% of the time.

However, after retooling his swing, Tripp posted a .907 OPS to go along with a .243 ISO power that looks even more impressive considering he played half his games in a heavy pitcher's park in Low-A Delmarva. What adjustments did Tripp make to his swing after his 2006 season? Let's go to the video:

Brandon Tripp

Tripp's draft video is on the left; Tripp in 2007 is on the right and it should be noted that the 2007 video is missing a few frames. Both animations are of Tripp swinging and missing, ironically enough.

My observations for the adjustments Tripp made: more upright in his stance, legs are closer together, and notice his right arm position? His arm is much more bent, indicating he is holding his bat a little higher and a little closer to his body. However, before swinging he drops his hands a little (his loading process), almost to the point of where his hands were in his draft video. This extra movement (or load) gives Tripp more power without really lengthing his swing.

I'm not crazy about the foot twist he uses to rotate his hips, but if it works for him then I see no need to change things.

Other Notes

In addition to his plus-power, Tripp sports an above average batting eye, walking in 11% of his plate appearances last year and 9.2% of his plate appearances this year.

Tripp is also known to be a good athlete. When drafted, he was more of a toolsy guy and to this day he is still learning to turn those tools into production. Ideally he is a corner OF, but he could play CF if needed.

However...

Tripp is a player that still has contact issues. He swings and misses a lot. His K% lowered in 2007 to 25.6% of the time, but that number is still much higher than it needs to be. This year, he is striking out in 26.7% of his plate appearances. The high number of strikeouts puts a cap on his overall batting average.

Consistency is also an issue for Tripp. For two or so weeks at a time last year, he couldn't hit anything. I noticed in his game logs once he began to awake from a cold streak, he would start hitting a few more line drives. Before you knew it, Tripp would then go on a 6-game tear before going cold again.

Tripp was unconcious in April last year. His line in April was .420/.490/.705 with a K% of just 16.8%. He went cold in May and June (.711 and .658 OPS), but that was partly due to a wrist injury he suffered after being hit by a pitch. Tripp bounced back in July and August with OPS's that were over .900. However, his K% increased each month, peaking at 37.5% in August.

Future Role

Tripp is having a solid year thus far in A+ Frederick (.817 OPS), but has yet to replicate the success he had in Delmarva a year ago. Down the line, Tripp has the potential to be a left hand side of a platoon in LF or RF due to the fact he hits RHP much better than LHP. However, given his consistency issues and propensity for striking out, Tripp is also a major risk to count on being even a contributor at the big league level.

Grade:
6 Upside, Low Probability
3 Downside, Low-Average Probability

For an explanation of this grading scale, please click here

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