Hottest hitting prospects to end the season — one for each team
The old adage goes that it’s not how you start, but how you finish. The 30 hitters below certainly have taken that to heart.
Looking at the last 30 days, here are the prospects who are finishing the year with a bang. There are nine Top 100 prospects, but the list consists of players up and down Top 30 lists across baseball.
Roden first joined Triple-A Buffalo in mid-June and entered August with just a .234 average and .684 OPS through his first 30 games with the Bisons. He’s been a menace in the box ever since with a .386/.460/.670 line and as many extra-base hits (13) as he has strikeouts over 100 plate appearances in the last 30 days. Toronto has struggled to develop a homegrown outfielder in recent years, but Roden is playing his way into MLB consideration by next spring.
Orioles: Samuel Basallo C/1B (No. 2/MLB No. 10)
The 20-year-old Basallo had a sluggish July, hitting .226/.333/.355 with Double-A Bowie. But he got back to doing Basallo-like things in August, with a .337/.393/.531 line and earned a bump up to Triple-A near the end of the month. An 0-for-13 start to his September has tempered his overall numbers over the last 30 days, but he’s still way ahead of the curve by reaching the highest level of the Minors at such a young age.
