Corey Seager saw all the draft reports out of high school listing him as a third baseman.
He read every word questioning if he could stick at shortstop as he made his way up the minors.
At first, the questions confused and irritated him. As he got drafted and ascended the Dodgers system, they motivated him.
“That’s kind of been something since I was drafted that’s been brought up,” Seager said by phone during the Dodgers penultimate regular-season series in San Diego. “‘I wasn’t gonna play short. I was gonna move to third,’ so that was something that I always worked hard at. I kind of used it as a little edge to prove people wrong and prove that I could play there to people who really had never even seen me play.”
Lost in all the criticism was year after year Seager made every play at shortstop, all the while showing an offensive skill set as gifted as any young prospect this side of Mike Trout or Kris Bryant.
This story is from the October 21 2016 edition of Baseball America.
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This story is from the October 21 2016 edition of Baseball America.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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Wood Has Towering Upside- Nationals rookie James Wood also stands 6-foot-7 and also has game-changing power.
Aaron Judge and Oneil Cruz are 6-foot7 sluggers who stand out for their power in this year’s MLB Best Tools voting. Wood spent half of this season with Triple-A Rochester before making his MLB debut on July 1. While he was in the International League, he captured managers’ attention. Wood unanimously won Best Power Prospect and also claimed Most Exciting Player in a survey of league skippers. Wood hit .353/.463/.595 with 10 home runs in 52 games for Rochester. His .242 isolated slugging was the best for a player 21 or younger at Triple-A this season.
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