Freese Overcomes Late Start in Baseball

David Freese has become a household name amongst the baseball community over the past two weeks.

It’s not difficult to see why. It’s an incredibly easy story to tell. Freese attended high school in Wildwood, MO — which is just 30 miles away from St. Louis — and spent his childhood dreaming of playing professional baseball for the Cardinals. You can almost picture him as a fifth or sixth grade boy out taking grounders at the neighborhood ballpark, pretending to be Ozzie Smith at shortstop and firing the baseball over to Gregg Jefferies at first base.

Now, at 28-years-old, he is the National League Championship Series MVP and a hometown hero, after hitting .425/.465/.850 with five doubles and four home runs through the first two series of the postseason for the very team about which he grew up dreaming.

That is not what makes David Freese an interesting baseball story, though. That is simply the story that generates page views and sells newspapers, especially amongst the St. Louis Cardinals’ fanbase.

What makes him interesting in terms of baseball, however, is the fact that he was not drafted until age 24 by San Diego (9th round, 2006) because he chose to enjoy time away from baseball before returning to play at the junior college level. Freese started his professional career behind the learning curve and was largely written off as a prospect because of it.

So, when the St. Louis chose to trade Cardinals’ legend Jim Edmonds to San Diego in December of 2007 for a 25-year-old corner infielder in High-A, the baseball blogosphere shrugged off the deal as the Cardinals’ getting what they could for an aging center fielder in the waning years of his career.

After all, scouts were not exactly bursting at the seams with praise. Freese hit .302/.400/.489 in High-A Lake Elsinore, but was still not included amongst the Top 10 Prospects in the Padres’ system in 2007, as compiled by Baseball America.

But Freese just continued to mash in the minors. After the trade to St. Louis, the Cardinals challenged him with a promotion directly to Triple-A Memphis. He responded with 26 home runs and a .244 ISO in 131 games to pair with a .306/.361/.550 triple-slash line.

Granted that power production benefited from the launching pad better known as the Pacific Coast League, but people within the game began to take notice.

Baseball America ranked Freese as the 9th-best prospect in the Cardinals’ system in their 2009 Prospect Handbook, stating that he “has the ability to drive the ball the opposite way with authority.” 20 of his 26 home runs in 2008 were either to center or right field. Then, our very own Marc Hulet followed up the next season by ranking the third baseman one position higher at #8.

Freese went on to make his big league debut in 2009 and has continued to do what he has always done as a professional, which is hit the baseball. Over his three-year career, he owns a .346 wOBA and, this year, ranked fourth in the NL amongst third basemen with a .348 wOBA. That’s better production than Ryan Zimmerman, David Wright, and Ryan Roberts in ’11.

He also has displayed sound technical hitting skills. He proved the scouting report previously cited to be true by leading the St. Louis Cardinals with six home runs to the opposite field in 2011 — allowing the baseball to travel back into his stance nicely and focusing on keeping inside the baseball. Breaking balls, fastballs, or anything in between, David Freese has the natural ability to drive it to right field with significant power.

Although the power is certainly present in the bat and has been readily present during the postseason, Freese has not driven the ball for as much power in the big leagues as scouts previously predicted. His career ISO is only .131. His numbers still look good as the mediocre ISO was buoyed by a .356 BABIP, which is unlikely to be sustainable going forward. Still, he’s shown potential to hit for more power, so a drop in BABIP could be offset by a jump in ISO.

It’s also important to note that he will turn 29 next year, which means he is traditionally considered to be “in his prime” right now. Not much room for improvement exists at this point in his career. Then again, not much that Freese has done throughout his career can really be seen as traditional — from walking away from baseball after high school to entering professional baseball at 24.

David Freese serves as a wonderful feel-good story because he is a hometown boy who walked away from the NLCS with the MVP trophy. Perhaps more interesting, though, he shows that there are many paths to the big leagues, and sometimes the winding road is the more interesting path.