Tom Brennan - AA Jeff McNeil 2018 vs. AA Matt Rudick 2023

The Binghamton hat Jeff wore in 2018 fits Matt Rudick nicely right now.

Back before 2018, I felt like a lone voice in support of Jeff McNeil.

He had missed most of 2016 and 2017 with injuries in the minors, and felt to me a lot like a fellow injured, high average, low power hitter in Jayce Boyd, who ultimately fell short of the majors, despite being a career .290 minors hitter. 

Then, in 2018, Jeff scorched and obliterated AA and AAA pitching, then got promoted to the Mets with several weeks left and scorched and obliterated major league pitching.

He has somewhat exceeded my hopes and expectations going into 2018.

He has startled everyone else, who rationalized a low ceiling for Jeff.

35 games into that season in AA, McNeil was hitting .328/.403/.715.  

No doubt, having Prodigious Pete being Batman to his Robin was helpful to Jeff offensively.

Matt Rudick, I noted last year, was sucking it up in Brooklyn thru July, under .200.  Surely another wastrel.

But from August 1 on, he got on base 66 times in 36 games.

He was thrust into my Top 30, even if the cognoscenti did not deign to add him to their Top 30.

So, and this time much to my surprise, what has Matt Rudick done after 35 AA games?

.322 (6 points lower than McNeil), .463 OBP (60 points HIGHER than McNeil), and .559 slug (OK, 156 points below McNeil's pace, but Jeff slowed up in that regard somewhat thereafter).

So, Rudick's slash line in his first 35 games is quite comparable to McNeil's in his first 35 AA games in his miraculous 2018 season.

And Rudick has no Pete Alonso on his team to help make for a team hitting party atmosphere. 

All to say: 

I guess EVERYONE should start looking at 13th round, 5'6" Matt Rudick SERIOUSLY, and not be dismissing him like, you know, the way most everyone was dismissing Jeff McNeil...who went on to become a future NL batting champ.

I'm on the Rudick Train. He still needs to convince me.  But I am on board, with a ticket, and have taken my seat. And I'm sitting in the Jeff McNeil car of the Rudick Train. That car goes further than most cars do.

So, I now think, will Rudick.