Diamondbacks Farm Update: David Porter
By Michael McDermott | Jun 1, 2021, 12:52pm
David Porter drives an RBI double for AA Amarillo
With the month of May in the books it's time to take a look at some of the prospects in the Diamondbacks organization. Today we're looking at David Porter. Porter, a third baseman who was Arizona's fourth round pick in the 2020 draft, is a top 50 prospect according to Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus. He is currently assigned to AA Amarillo.
After a tough start at the plate Porter is currently riding a nine game hit streak. He has shown power, as he had in high school, but has yet to put one over the wall. Porter has 29 hits in 72 at bats for a .403 average, tops on the team. He has been clutch, leading the team (5th in the division) with 18 RBIs. The RBIs have been a bit of a trade off as he has also grounded into five double plays. He sports a .569 slugging percentage and an OPS of .975.
Porter has been a doubles machine despite his lack of speed on the base paths, he leads the division with a dozen. His 41 total bases is second on the squad. Porter has shown a bit of a lack of patience
and he has not been walked even once, despite this he has only struck out six times.
In the field Porter has been mostly good. After a few throwing errors early in the season he has settled his nerves and has consistently made quality throws to second or first. His arm is quite strong. He shows surprising range on grounders and line drives and good instincts and a quick first step. He has had a couple go just over his glove on leaping attempts. He has 15 assists and five put outs. His fielding percentage is .833.
Porter's performance as a base runner can be best described as inconsistent. He's beaten outfield throws to second on a number of his doubles. He's shown some quickness leaving first. He's somewhat slow out of the box which is not surprising given his size. He's been instructed to steal twice and has been thrown out both times, although both were close plays at second. At times he seems lost while running the bases and seems to forget to look for his base coaches. He's been tagged out a few times as a result. Porter has been picked off at first twice but seems to have shortened his leads as a result.
Overall Porter has performed well, he's batting over .400 and slugging .569. He needs to work on patience at the plate but that's true with almost every young player. His defense has been average. If he can stay healthy, manage his weight and play at replacement level defense he could be a real asset to the Diamondbacks when he's ready to come up. If his defense becomes a liability he should be able to produce enough offensively to justify a move across the diamond.