Christian Moore

The Eyes Have It

Christian Moore

Chris Blessing

Aug 22 2024 3:04am

Christian Moore

Chris Blessing

Aug 22 2024

The MLB draft was five weeks ago and multiple draftees have made it to Double-A, including two Top 10 picks, Nick Kurtz (1B, OAK) and Christian Moore (2B, LAA), who were high school teammates at Baylor School in Chattanooga, TN. A few years ago, this would be rare. Now, it’s commonplace. Last year, the Angels promoted Nolan Schanuel to the big leagues in August after drafting him in the first round of the 2023 draft. Kurtz, with the Athletics, isn’t likely on the Schanuel track. However, speculation is rampant the Angels plan on calling Moore up to the big leagues soon. Let’s dive in deeper on Moore.

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Christian Moore (2B, LAA) – Moore was in Chattanooga last week with the Angels’ Double-A affiliate, Rocket City. A member of the University of Tennessee National Championship team this year, the 21-year-old Moore has put up video game numbers in his debut. In 14 games between Low-A and Double-A coming into play on Tuesday, Moore is slashing .414/.469/.776 with 6 HR and 3 2B. He was 5-for-23 (.217) with four singles and a double in the Chattanooga series, playing six of the seven contests. I saw each at-bat. I also scouted Moore during the Tennessee intrasquad scrimmages in Chattanooga last November.

Moore was included in my first-year player draft potential rating buckets article published the week of the draft. I rated Moore a 7B. I start writing the buckets article the day after the draft and it is based off of snap evaluations. This was what I wrote about Moore:

"Moore was the Triple Crown winner in the SEC this season, which was a remarkable feat, especially with Charlie Condon and Jac Caglianone also in the league. Performance-wise, he looks to be an 8 potential rated player. However, he’s at physical maturity and has a poor wood bat track record. I scouted above-average power with an average hit tool in the fall during Tennessee’s fall camp. It’s also a profile limited to 2B. The more I dig in on the profile and the player, the less I like."

Even the best evaluators panic when, in a short sample, a player goes on a rampage like Moore’s to start his career. It’s a strange place to live where you want to be right but you also don’t want to actively root for a player to struggle to be correct. It’s a business for me and I want to be right all the time even though I know projection is a slippery slope to ride. I had the same sentiments this year during Rece Hinds’ (OF, CIN) rampage to start his career, even though I know Hinds to be an extremely streaky performer, which I saw with my own eyes the past two seasons in Chattanooga and the Arizona Fall League. Guys tell you who they are. Scouting Moore for the Buckets article, I saw a prospect without a carry tool. In my look last week, I’m looking for the carry tool to potentially elevate Moore to a higher rating than a 7B. If I don’t see it, the rating is staying a 7B rating.

In my look, I saw a hitter selling out for theatrics and struggling to make contact. Of the 45 swings Moore took in the series, he whiffed on 21 of them (47%). He incorporates a slightly closed stance, with his knees bent but his upper half is upright. His hands are high and cocked back with his bat wiggling just off his right shoulder. As the pitch is delivered, his upper half becomes more compact as his hands travel slightly to the hit position, resulting in a small bat wrap before Moore’s hands are ready to move forward into his swing. He coils his lower half energy to his back hip and utilizes a toe tap stride as his hips and swing are moving forward. It’s plus bat speed, which plays in-game as above-average due to the bat wrap, delaying his swing reactions. Moore incorporates an uppercut trajectory swing, geared towards over-the-fence pull power.

For the most part, the RHH Moore cuts off the plate, hunting for FBs or hangers on the inside half. Most of his swings-and-misses came on breakers or change-ups away and FB above his hands, even though he did well to lay off FBs out of the zone. His ABs against Chase Petty (RHP, CIN) and former big leaguer Patrick Weigel were especially rough to watch because each guy possesses an MLB-level SL and Moore struggled to touch them. Speaking to draft scout contacts, this was a concern, especially when Moore wasn’t on one of his heaters.

As I wrote in my Buckets evaluation, Moore is at physical projection. He’s listed 6'1", 210 lbs. It’s lean muscle with little body fat. It’s raw plus power, mostly to the pull side. He’s strong enough to hit it out the other way, but his opposite field home runs are more about pitches traveling deep in the zone because of late reactions than Moore purposely going the other way. He’s hit 5 HR in 12 Double-A games and abuses mistake pitches at a great frequency. In an AB against Rhett Lowder (RHP, CIN), Moore just missed a HR off the LCF wall on a hanging SL for a 2B. It was the only loud contact Lowder gave up in his start. It’s potential plus power but will likely play above-average in the big leagues.

Is above-average power enough to carry the profile to an 8-potential rating? I say yes. With streaky hitters like Moore, it’s a difficult to project a baseline BA. His strike zone judgement is about average. He also seems to do well with adjustments in game to how guys are pitching him. He struggled significantly against the SL and CU in my look, which worries me that the BA will suffer. All those factors combined with the profile being at physical projection and close to the big leagues, it’s an 8D player potential rating with a great likelihood it ends up a 7-player outcome. It is not a Top 50 fantasy prospect profile and likely fits best for me in the 50-to-75 range.
Potential Rating: 8D
ETA for 29 teams: 2025; ETA for Angels: potentially next week

PLAYER POTENTIAL RATING Guide
Scale of (1-10) representing a player’s upside potential
10 - Hall of Fame-type player
9 - Elite player
8 - Solid regular
7 - Average regular
6 - Platoon player
5 - Major League reserve player
4 - Top minor league player
3 - Average minor league player
2 - Minor league reserve player
1 - Minor league roster filler

PROBABILITY RATING
Scale of (A-E) representing the player’s realistic chances of achieving their potential
A - 90% probability of reaching potential
B - 70% probability of reaching potential
C - 50% probability of reaching potential
D - 30% probability of reaching potential
E - 10% probability of reaching potential