Whereas Jeff Luhnow said that Jarred Cosart "won't be the only player" to make his major-league debut this season, it's not going to be Jon Homerton anytime soon. OKC manager Tony DeFrancesco told the Austin American-Statesman that Singleton still needs work.
DeFrancesco:
Right now, where he’s at, he’s definitely not ready for big-league
pitching and that atmosphere. Our goal is that when
he does get an opportunity, he goes there and stays for a long time.
In 25 games for OKC this season, Homerton is hitting .209/.291/.286 with five extra-base hits, 38K:1BB in 103PAs and hasn't gone yard since June 22.
Singleton, who is still only 21 years old, hit .237/.396/.395 in his first 12 games; .189/.200/.208 in his last 13. And on this six-game road trip, he's hitting .120/.120/.160 (3x25) with 10K:0BB in 25PAs.
Is it time to be worried? No. Not at all. He's really young. Really young. As in, in the 176 PAs he's taken, 163 of them have come against older pitchers. He's the youngest player on the RedHawks' roster in a league where the average pitcher is 26.6 years old. And he missed the first 50 games of the season. So he really only has 25 games at a level where he has to make adjustments (because he destroyed Low-A and Double-A).
I was asked on Twitter when we should be worried about Singleton. I replied "2014." Let's back that up to 2015.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
