As I pour through prospect list after prospect list (ranking szn baby!), I always find myself gravitating toward the bottom half of the top 100s. Finding a less heralded guy that I can see has the talent to be a big name in a years time is a passion of mine. So, let’s talk about an outfielder in the Los Angeles Dodgers system Mike Sirota.

During his first year of full season ball, after being drafted out of Northeastern University in the 2024 MLB Draft, Mike Sirota more than held his own. Starting with A-Level Rancho Cucamonga, he quickly produced and moved up to the High-A Great Lakes Loons. In his 33 games at that higher level he raked to the tune of a 184 wRc+, indicating he was 84 percent better than the league average hitter, while slashing .316/.452/.556/1.008 and racking up six home runs and four stolen bases. Even more impressively, his walk to strikeout ratio was almost a perfect one to one, walking 21.3% of the time and striking out 21.9% of the time.

Not only are the numbers a sight for sore eyes, but he brings some serious intangibles to the ballpark as well. He showed maximum hustle out of the box at all times, routinely stretching singles into doubles to pair with his modest contact percentage of 74.5% at Great Lakes. Despite his contact rate currently grading as only average, his good bat speed and compact swing give me hope for improvement in that statistic, and when we can see higher level minor league results and Statcast data that can be further monitored with zone swing and contact percentage information.

Now, these results have all his arrows pointing way up, so now it’s time for my favorite thing – raining on my own parade.

However exciting he appeared to be in High-A, after diving deep into some film on Mike Sirota I came away with a few interesting insights into what I would like to call orange flags, or yield signs, if you will. Not a full red flag, but something I can see causing a problem down the road. If he can address, fix, or prove that none of these are true problems, then it will be all aboard the hype train and I will gladly be the conductor.

In the batter’s box, Sirota sports an athletic stance with minimal movement and a slight bat waggle as a timing mechanism. When he’s loading his swing he employs a small to medium sized leg kick and tends to land with his feet in an open position as he follows through. A stance flying slightly open is one thing, but during my time reviewing the tape it appeared his stance ended around 20-25 degrees more open than it started. For a comparison to some Major Leaguers, Aaron Judge and Alejandro Kirk both wind up about five to ten degrees open, Junior Caminero and his teammate Yandy Díaz both wind up about neutral, and Willson Contreras and Fernando Tatis Jr. wind up about five to ten degrees closed in their stance.

This means that Sirota’s estimated 20-25 degree opening (admittedly based on subjective assessment of video and not confirmed with any advanced analytics or Statcast data) would land well beyond what would be considered common among most successful big leaguers. So, I hear you loud and clear, “why should I care?” Good question!

Although to this point he can handle fastballs and can cover much of the plate on those pitches, a very open stance would leave him extremely susceptible to premium velocity on the outer third of the plate, as well as outside breaking pitches from right handers, and changeups from left handers. Flying open is often considered to be akin to “selling out for power” and can drive success for lower level minor leaguers who are facing pitchers with less velocity and poorer command but can be exposed QUICKLY at higher levels. 

So, to wrap this all up, we have an exciting ball player with a power over hit profile and plus speed, a hustler mentality out of the box with a seemingly good motor, and some great statistics in his first full season experience. If he can continue to mash at higher levels while maintaining a good walk to strikeout ratio, while also adding in some success against premium velocity and outside breaking stuff, and finally mixing in some sixty grade speed, then baby, you’ve got a prospect stew going.