Tulane is known in the college baseball world for its two-way stars. An recent example would be Micah Owings. They even use their affinity for the two-way player as a recuruting tool. Brian Bogusevic is another Tulane two-way product.

In 2005 he was selected one pick after Jacoby Ellsbury. The Houston Astros decided to use Brian exclusively as a pitcher in their minor league system. Ranked the #19 prospect in the Astros organization as a pitcher in 2008 by Baseball America, Bogusevic was merly adequate as a starter from 2005 to 2007. His minor league ERA’s were always around 4 and he allowed over a hit per inning. His SO/BB ratio was solid, anywhere from 2:1 to 3:1 and he kept the ball in the park.

Spending most of the 2008 season in AA Corpus Christi as a starter, Brian again allowed over a hit per inning and he watched his strikeout rate decline from around 7 per 9 IP all the way down to 3 per 9. Mid-stream the Astro’s decided to make the switch and suddenly Bogusevic was an outfielder. So how did he do?

Is a .371 batting average respectable? Brian simply owned AA pitching with that .371 BA, a .447 OBP & a .556 SLG for an overall OPS of 1.003. He walked 16 times vs 24 strikeouts and was successful in eight of nine stolen base attempts.

Baseball America 2008 Prospect Guide

…his bat, power, raw speed and right-field arm were all plus tools at Tulane.

A hamstring injury from late in the year at Corpus Chrisit has carried over, limiting Bogusevic’s playing time in the 2008 Arizona Fall League. Currently in seven games and fifteen AB’s he’s currently hitting an even .400.

YouTube Video

A great catch from 2005:

2008 AFL at-bat