Keep Your Eye on: Drew Stubbs

Drew Stubbs plays CF for the Cincinnati Reds and is a young and exciting player at the age of 26. He is also arguably the most underrated player in the major leagues. He has only played about one year and two months in the show but he shows promising talent from all aspects of the game.

What can be improved upon: I will start with the negatives about Stubbs. There are a just a few.

What I find that he can improve on is his OBP; a .329 OBP in 2010 was right around the average mark in the majors last year but could be higher in my mind.

I also have a little problem with his doubles numbers: just 19 doubles. If he continues to hit a low number of doubles, then his home run totals will become inconsistent in his career because he would have nothing to "back up his homers" so to speak and will go "barren".

Stubbs also shows capability to strike out a lot. His 32.7% strike out rate is a little absurd. Actually, it's really absurd. The league average in 2010 was 20.7% so obviously he needs to cut down on the punch outs or else he is going to have some tough times later on.

The upside: Stubbs's upside is very good. He shows control in center field and does a lot of things right at the plate.

First of all, Stubbs's plate discipline is very good. He shows that he can control the strike zone. He saw 4.02 P/PA in 2010 and 3.88 in a small sample size in 2009 so he shows that he can really be pesky to pitchers at the plate. His O-Swing% was a mere 25.1% versus a 29.3% league average. According to F-Strike%, which measures the percentage of first pitch seen by a hitter, Stubbs saw 62.1% first pitch strikes compared a league average 58.8%.

Second, this guy is fast. He stole 30 bases last year and will most likely be a steals threat for the majority of his career.

Not only is he fast, he also has power. He smacked 22 long balls last year and his power is expected to grow.

Stubbs has a very nice and extremely simple stance. He is able to turn on pitches to pull them as well as go the other way. His stance is very balanced through his whole swing.

In total, Stubbs is currently a 20-20 guy and maybe even a 20-30 player. There is definitely potential for 30-30 for at least one year. He has an above average ISO of .189 and has a walk rate that is slightly above average at 9.4%. He has a great deal of potential and is still young. He had a 3.4 WAR with a neutral UZR of O (although, he had a DRS (Defensive Runs Saved) of 8).

Surprised? You should be. That's why he is underrated. Keep an eye on him. He is going to be good.

(Stats in courtesy of: espn.com and fangraphs.com)