Jay Bruce and his 2007 season
The 2007 season for Reds outfielder Jay Bruce was an extraordinary one. After spending the 2006 season at Dayton and hitting .290 with 42 doubles and 16 home runs, he was promoted to, the then High-A team in Sarasota. Bruce was only 20 at the time and man was it something special for the first-round pick in the 2005 draft out of Beaumont, Texas.
Bruce played 67 games in Sarasota compiling a .325/.379/.586 slash line. In 298 plate appearances he slapped 87 hits around the park, 27 of them doubles and 11 clearing the wall. He struck out 67 times in his stop in Sarasota, but the power was good enough to overlook the strikeouts. He was promoted to Double-A Chattanooga to see how he would fare there.
Chattanooga was a short stop for him. He played just 16 games for the Lookouts, recording 22 hits, 11 of them for extra bases. He did strikeout 20 times in 74 plate appearances, but again if you can hit for power, you can overlook the strikeouts to a degree. After just 83 games at two different levels, he had made his way to the highest level of the minor leagues.
He had finally made it to Louisville to show what he could do against some of the best talent the minor leagues had to offer. He didn’t shy away as he remained consistent with his production. At 20 years of age, he was seven and a half years younger than the average player in Triple-A.
His average dropped a bit here with Louisville, but he was still providing power, slugging .567. He had just over 200 plate appearances to end the year recording 57 hits in the process. He again showed the extra base hit ability smashing 11 home runs and 12 doubles. He also showed some speed, stretching out two triples.
It wasn’t just about the offense that was impressive for Bruce. He also had a cannon for an arm and had the ability to play center and right field. He played the majority of the time in center field with over 100 games played at the position and totaled 9 assists. He played just 33 games in right field for the entire season, 11 with Louisville. In those 11 games he had two assists and turned one double play in 25 chances.
Overall for the 2007 season he hit .319, with 46 doubles, 26 home runs and also stole eight bags. In the outfield he was rated 22 runs above average combined for both center and right field by baseball-reference. These numbers earned him the Baseball America Minor League Player of the Year Award for the 2007 season.
When the 2008 Baseball America prospect rankings were released, Bruce saw his name at the top of the list. He landed in front of current big leaguers, Evan Longoria, David Price, Clayton Kershaw and current teammate Homer Bailey who were all in the top ten. 2007 was a crazy season for Jay Bruce and it is always good to look back at those great Minor League seasons, especially on this Throwback Thursday!
