Los Angeles Angels prospect Lucas Ramirez hit a pair of home runs for Brazil against Team USA, and he's still hitting.
The Los Angeles Angels didn’t have a lot of their big stars playing in the WBC last month, and the big news surrounding the team was that Mike Trout wouldn’t be playing because of his health issues. This seems a little laughable now, but the Angels did have a couple of players step up and provide some big moments.
One was Lucas Ramirez, whose big claim to fame before the WBC was that he's the son of star hitter Manny Ramirez. Lucas is just 20 years old, and he’s been toiling in the low minors for the Angels, but the pair of home runs he hit for Brazil against Team USA put Ramirez on the map in a big way.
Ramirez was largely forgotten after that, but it turns out he’s using the WBC as a springboard to do bigger things. According to Ian Cundall of Baseball America, Ramirez is one of five breakout prospects from the WBC who are delivering some impressive post-tournament performances.
Ramirez plays for Low-A Rancho Cucamonga, and it’s his first full season with an Angels affiliate. His current slash line is .373/.422/.593, and Ramirez has eight extra-base hits in 64 plate appearances. According to Cundall, that’s almost halfway to his entire extra-base hit total for all of last season, and he’s currently tied for eighth in the California League in average and total bases.
The outfielder has also been the best hitter so far on a team that features No. 5 prospect, Gabriel Davalillo and No. 21 prospect Hayden Alvarez.
There are several keys to this performance upgrade, according to Cundall. One is that Ramirez is using all fields, and the 6’3”, 205 pound outfielder has cut his groundball rate by almost ten percent. A lot of those groundouts are turning into line drives, and while the left-hand hitting Ramirez still hits mostly to the pull side, his pull rate is down seven percent after being close to 50 percent last year.
Another key factor is that Ramirez is filling out. According to Cundall, Ramirez looks visually stronger, and he’s doing a better job of using his legs in his swing. His strikeout rate is still high at 28.3 percent, the writer added, so getting that down is the next step along with improving his overall contact rate.
The Angels promote prospects quickly, and Ramirez has a chance of becoming a Top 30 prospect for the Halos. That would give him a new level of visibility, especially if he can make it to either High-A or Double-A this season, and that would also be an impressive validation of what a positive experience in the WBC can do for young, less-known prospects.