Welch was signed out of Alice Springs, Australia, and joined the Mets organization in 2007. He played both first base and third base; however, has since become a full time first baseman. In 2007, for the GCL Mets. Welch hit .288/.346/.353/.699.
2008 was spent for a short time with Savannah (.263 in 19 at bats), but most of the season fir Kingsport. Stats: .281/.316/447/.763 in 52 at bats. He also had his first four professional home runs.
This year, Welch also spent a short time in Savannah (.239 in 92 at bats), but was sent off to St. Lucie when he couldn’t work himself into the Sand Gnat starting lineup. He started out on fire, hitting .337 in July, but followed that up with a .223 August. His yearly stats for Lucy: .278/.350/.408/.762
His three year minor league totals are respectful: 719-AB, .275/.328/.408/.736, 12-HR, 96-RBI
Forecast: Here’s the rub. The Mets, like most clubs, define a first baseman as a guy that runs slow, can’t field, but knows how to hit the snot out of the ball, especially over the fence, in bounds. Right now, all signs point to Ike Davis for the job for the 2010-2015 seasons, so what happens to someone that has only gone above .400 slugging in one year. Davis is a lock for 2010, Nick Evans will probably be long gone and Welsh has at least three more seasons to pump it up. Look for him to start 2010 in Binghamton, simply because there is no one ahead of him right now.
I wrote on Feb 10:- Stephan Welsh – the Welsh story was interesting last year… he was lost as the 3rd firstbaseman with Savannah (.239 in 92-AB) and got bumped “up” to Lucy so he would get some field time as the backup… so what happens? .278/.350/.412/.762 in 216-AB, only 37-K. We may see him start 2010 back at Lucy again, but since there really is no one between him and Davis, send the boy up to Binghamton and let him freeze his mitt off…
5-24-10: - Stefan Welch – 1B – A+ - the 21-yr. old Aussie has produced stats of .311/.352/.485/.837, in 167-AB, which is his second successful year at the A+ level. No one is really in his way; however, Marshall Hubbard is playing at Binghamton, and Eric Campbell, who recently was promoted, can also play first there. They may be no slot for Welsh until next season.
6-19-10: - Yes, I know the Mets aren’t currently in need of a first base prospect; however, it’s not bad news to have someone down on the farm that can fill in some day in the future. For now, that would be either Mike Jacobs or Nick Evans, but come 2012, Stefan Welsh may wind up to be the first option of something bad happened to Ike Davis. Welsh was wallowing in Savannah last year as a third option and was sent to St. Lucie to get some play time. The rest, as they say, was history. So far this season, at Lucy, Stefan has produced: .308/.360/.477/.837 in 237-AB, which includes 4-HR, 18-2B, and 43-RBIs.The 6-3 Aussie turns 22 in August.
2011 Forecast: - The 22-year old finished the 2010 season, hitting .256/.325/.395/.721 for St. Lucie, in 496-Abs. He also hit 8-HR and drove in 68 runs. I’m sure Stefan was hoping to have a better Australian off-season, but he hit only .201 for Adelaide. He did; however, have 7-HR in only 154-AB. The assumption is he will move on to Binghamton in 2011.
5-27-11: - Did you ever notice that when one positional player steps up, others playing the same position on another franchise team begin to produce more? Case in point is Allan Dykstra (B-Mets) and Stefan Welsh (St. Lucie). Dykstra has raised the bar the past month, hitting a career high .500-SLG going into Friday’s game. At the same time, Welsh went into Friday night’s game hitting .314//429/.486/.914 in the past 10 games, and had three more hits last night, including his 6th home run of the season.
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