TEMPE, Ariz. – Nearly every day for a decade, as he remembers it, Taylor Lindsey and his mom would head to the batting cages in his hometown of Scottsdale, not far from where he’s holed up with the Angels in camp this spring.
His mom, a former basketball player at Arizona State, would toss him ball after ball and recite a single piece of advice to her only son, dating to age 4 and continuing until high school.
“She would just tell me, ‘See the ball, hit the ball, it can’t be that hard,’” Lindsey said Thursday. “So, it wasn’t that hard.”
Even now Lindsey, 22, makes hitting look easy – and a little unusual. Rated by Baseball America as the Angels’ top prospect, the left-hander positions his hands lower than normal while gripping his bat at the plate, allowing for quick, straightforward contact and low strikeout totals.
He hit .274 with 17 home runs at Double-A Arkansas last season as one of the youngest players in the Texas League, and stands likely to debut at Triple-A Salt Lake in 2014, with a potential call-up in play sooner rather than later.
“I think everyone has seen the talent and the potential he has,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said of Lindsey, who’s in his third big league camp this spring. “There’s no doubt he can be an everyday second baseman in the major leagues.”
Scioscia compared Lindsey’s hitting ability to that of a former Angel with a similar high-contact profile in a left-handed package.
“Much like Adam Kennedy, he just has a knack for putting the barrel on the ball,” Scioscia said. “He’s one of those guys that can just hit.”
Lindsey remarkably did not strike out during his senior season at Scottsdale’s Desert Mountain High, while hitting almost .600 with 13 homers. In 567 plate appearances last season, he struck out 91 times – his highest total to date, but still an acceptable mark from a power hitter.
He said his strikeout rate increased because he took more pitches in an effort to garner more walks, which he did, going from 29 to 48.
The next step is getting his defense major-league ready.
“He’s making good strides on the defensive end,” Scioscia said. “Like most kids that have a skill set, it’s got to be refined for consistency. He can make all the plays at second – that’s not the issue. The issue is doing it consistently.”
Lindsey said his focus this spring is figuring out how to avoid a poor start to his regular season. He went 0 for 18 to begin 2013 and finished April hitting .208 before hitting .310 in May, .287 in June and July and .269 in August.
“I’m the guy that starts every year kind of slow,” he said. “I think I could’ve hit for a higher average last year, because the start I had wasn’t good at all. I got in my head too much.”
LAST YEAR’S NO. 1
A year ago at this time, third baseman Kaleb Cowart was the consensus top prospect in the Angels’ system, described by many evaluators as a sure thing to be at least an average major league starter.
Then 2013 happened, and Cowart, 21, struggled with a .221 average in a full Double-A season, hitting just six homers and striking out 124 times while wearing down in August. That pushed him firmly off the national prospect map, but also taught him a few things about the game he had previously dominated.
“I learned how to deal with failure,” Cowart said. “It’s going to make me a better baseball player.”
He’s also hoping offseason weight gain and added strength will make him better. Cowart said he bulked up to 227 pounds from a low of 205 by eating 5,000 calories a day – including four massive shakes equaling 250 grams of protein daily.
Cowart spent most of the winter training alongside the New York Yankees’ Brian McCann and Atlanta Braves’ Freddie Freeman at the Goldin Athletic Training Facility in Atlanta, three hours from his hometown of Adel, Ga.
He’s expected to repeat Double-A in 2014.
NOTES
The Angels announced that 26 of their 29 spring-training games will be broadcast on Fox Sports West or Prime Ticket, including national broadcasts March 3 and 4. … Former Angels slugger Tim Salmon is a guest instructor in camp this week along with ex-pitcher Chuck Finley. Salmon helped throw batting practice Thursday.
Contact the writer: pmoura@ocregister.com
