ADK

Hunter Bishop, OF

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Scouting report

Bishop changed his college commitment late (he was originally going to play two sports at Washington), and headed to ASU. After struggling as an underclassman, he arrived for his junior season with a better body and quieter swing, and exploded, slashing .342/.479/.748 in 2019. He sent many non-conference pitches rocketing into Phoenix's midnight sky before he started seeing -- and swinging over the top of -- Pac-12 breaking balls. He was hitting .450 when PAC play began, struck out in 26% of his plate appearances, and finished hitting .342. Whether this was a real problem was the subject of many draft room debates, as was Bishop's relatively short track record of performance. Because the 2020 season was banged due to COVID, we still have very little quantifiable idea of how Bishop will handle a better cross section of breaking balls than he saw early in his junior year. He crushed middle-in pitches at the alt site but continued to waive at back foot breaking stuff. If he can indeed learn to lay off of those or drop the bat head and hit them, then he's going to be a star. Bishop has rare physical tools. He's a plus runner and will post 70 run times to first on occasion, has solid feel for center field and huge, playable power. It's unclear why his arm strength dipped as a junior when it was an asset earlier in his career, but it's not a significant part of the skillset and I heard nothing odd about his pre-draft medical, so for now I'm looking the other way. He's a Pick to Click who just needs to generate a little more confidence in his hit tool. (Alternate site, Fall Instructional League)