What's wrong with Michael Almanzar?

Michael Almanzar was perhaps the most highly touted Dominican signing of Theo's tenure. Almanzar signed for $1.5 million as a 16-year old in 2007. Almanzar is just 18 now and in his second minor league season, but his struggles are becoming increasingly apparent. Last season Almanzar was promoted to Greenville after dominating the Gulf Coast League. Despite his struggles after the promotion, he began this year back in Greenville before being sent down to Lowell last month.

His stat line between Greenville and Lowell is .198/.257/.266. Almanzar's walk and strikeout rates are roughly the same as last season, although his BABIP has dipped to .257 this year (.331 last season). He has nearly the same amount of at-bats this point in the season as he did all of last year and so far his line-drive rate is down from 19.7% in '08 to 10.9% in '09. Meanwhile his IF/F rate is up 6% from 14.4 to 20.5. He has shown no offensive improvement this year even since his demotion to Lowell. He has just 1 extra-base hit since June.

It is far to early to give up on Almanzar. He has the physical tools but is extremely raw. It could be just a matter of getting more ABs and adjusting to minor league pitching. Whatever the case, Almanzar will have to correct some major flaws before getting back on track.