After a career high four home runs in 2015, the former 1st-round pick from the University of Virginia has already matched last year’s home run total in his first 10 games this year. One of those was on a fastball up in the zone on a 2-0 count, in which Papi was able to square-up the pitch and hit it over the fence in right center field. On another home run swing, he did a good job going down in the zone for the fastball by dropping the barrel, but not his hands. After striking out 118 times in High A in his 2015 campaign, Papi has taken a better approach against sliders and changeups, laying off those pitches in the dirt, and his overall approach and pitch recognition skills have shown clear improvement since my viewings in 2015. He’s hitting a solid .302 in his first 55 PAs, but his .456 OBP shows that he’s making the right adjustments this year. – Reggie Yinger
