Jay Bruce’s Wacky SO/BB Ratio

To us the biggest surprise of Jay Bruce’s debut isn’t his high average, rbi’s etc. Those will all logically come down. What really surprised us is his SO/BB ratio!

Jay Bruce Career SO/BB Numbers

As you can see, throughout Jay Bruce’s minor league career he has been a power hitter with a high strikeout to plate appearance ratio and an even lower SO/BB ratio. Typically these raise red flags for a prospect but Bruce’s power and young age have eased concerns considerably.

Jay Bruce’s 2008 MLB Stats

So far in his awesome MLB stint Bruce has K’d only 8 times and walked 10.

Unless Bruce has had a sudden epiphany we can expect to see a drop in his SO/BB ratio. Of course I doubt he’ll hit .430 all season long either 🙂

Don’t get me wrong here, I’m not trying to beat up on a 21 year prospect. (We pushed for an August 2007 call-up & ranked Bruce as our #1 prospect heading into 2008). I think once his SO/BB ratio comes back down to earth and near career norms we’ll get a better feel for what Bruce’s final 2008 stat line will be.