There isn’t much that Jase Bowen can’t do when he’s on the baseball field. Since turning pro, the 2019 11th round pick has played every position except shortstop and catcher, and has been very versatile offensively as well.
What he may have done the best has hit the ball — really, really hard for that matter.
The Florida State League is one of the few to have pitch tracking available through Baseball Savant, so we were able to get an idea at just how hard some of the players were hitting the ball last year.
Bowen played in 98 games for the Marauders in 2022 before getting promoted, and although he didn’t finish the season with them, still led the team in home runs (14) and RBI (66), while finishing in the top three in hits (102), stolen bases (20) and extra-base hits (33).
The added power really wasn’t a surprise once you saw just how hard he was hitting the baseball.
| Jase Bowen | Major League Average | |
| 88.4 mph | Exit Velocity | 88.4 mph |
| 11.69° | Launch Angle | 12.1° |
| 6.47% | Barrel% | 6.75 |
| 3.83% | Barrels/Plate Appearance | 4.6% |
| 32% | Sweet Spot% | 33% |
| 38.8% | Hard Hit% | 35.8% |
When it comes to some of the base hitting analytics, Bowen is already hitting at, or better than what the average is at the major league level.
Bowen had 247 batted ball events last year in Bradenton that we were able to track, and almost 100 of them (97) had an exit velocity of at least 95 mph. One thing that I’ve noticed with a lot of the Bradenton hitters this year is that there has been some decent EV, but not much when it comes to lift, limiting their power potential, and actually their odds of getting on base.
Exit velocity and launch angle isn’t the say all, be all, but there is merit in why it’s tracked so hard. Just using Bowen as an example, he hit .521 on batted balls when the exit velocity was 95 mph or higher – what is labeled as a ‘hard hit’.
Looking at the other side, when the EV is 94.9 or less, he has just a .343 average. That’s nearly a 200 point difference just when he makes solid contact on the ball. Over the course of the season, that’s quite a few extra hits, and that’s why it’s encouraging that he has a hard hit rate higher than what the major league average is.
Bowen was also incredibly efficient when hitting line drives, something he did 23.8% of the time while in Bradenton. What’s more eye popping about it was his average on those line drives.
On the 59 line drives he picked up with the Marauders (a batted ball event with a launch angle of 10° and 25°), he recorded a .790 average. Of the nearly 1,200 batted ball events I recorded from over 10 Bradenton players that was nearly 60 points higher than the overall average when it comes to line drive average.
After initially struggling in Greensboro upon his promotion, Bowen started to show off some of that power, finishing with eight total extra-base hits.
If you are looking for a player that can truly take advantage of the hitter friendly park that is First National Bank Field in 2023, Bowen might be at the very top of the list.
Highlight of the Day
Pirates Prospects Daily
By Tim Williams
**We had a new Discussion feature today, with Jeff Reed and Anthony Murphy being joined by NMR from the comments to break down the Pirates’ top 100 prospects.
**Missed yesterday? Anthony looked at Yohan Ramirez as a bullpen option for the 2023 Pirates.
Song of the Day
Pirates Prospects Weekly
Our new Discussion feature had Jeff Reed, Anthony Murphy, and NMR discussing the Pirates on the top 100 prospect lists.
Pirates Discussion: The Pirates on the Top 100 Prospect Lists
John Dreker will have the latest Pirates Winter Report on Saturday.
Anthony began writing over 10 years ago, starting a personal blog to cover the 2011 MLB draft, where the Pirates selected first overall. After bouncing around many websites covering hockey, he refocused his attention to baseball, his first love when it comes to sports. He eventually found himself here at Pirates Prospects in late 2021, where he covers the team’s four full season minor league affiliates.
Bowen made some good progress over his prior season in 2021
https://www.minorleaguesplits.com/mls/cgi-bin/player.cgi?player=687749/Jase-Bowen
And he’s been healthy this winter so there is reason to believe he should be better next season
Pirates desperately need to get aboard the launch angle revolution haha. They’ve wasted what little hard contact they make for years. Get a swing coach and some biomechanics staff!
And have them work exclusively with Ke-Bryan
Cruz puts too many on the ground, too.
And CSN.
I like Bowen, but it seems that the Pirates do not view him as an infielder. The bar for hitting is higher for outfielders. I am not sure he has the power. It’s hard to tell as Bradenton (really the whole FSL) sucks the power out of most hitters.
I want to be corrected on this if I’m way off, but the McNeil extension makes me think that the Reynolds extension wasn’t as bad as some if not many had made it seem. Granted Reynolds is younger, I guess it depends who you think Reynolds is, is he a 5 WAR player or a 3?
Bowen is prime to follow the Gorski path, repeating a level to hopefully find consistency, oldish for A+ and hopefully will see his power flourish in Greensboro…….the Gorski story is not finished, but that was a very interesting chapter last year.
Matt frazier’s breakout became a fluke, hoping between gorski and bowen we can get one to outplay their expectations!
Anthony, this brings up a question I’ve been wanting to ask for a while given the rising importance on batted ball data. Do you have any idea if BS will be adding additional leagues this season?
It’s my understanding that since the automated strike zone is coming to AAA, we SHOULD have tracking for the Indy games. Idk if we are going to get it for High A and Double A yet, but some of these numbers I find online leads me to believe it’s out there, just not available for everyone.
The oppo power and hitting the ball to all fields is encouraging too.
Hard not to like Jase Bowen. Got that blue collar approach – just put him in the lineup anywhere except on the bump or behind the plate and he will give the team high quality AB’s. Only place he could improve is BB/K numbers which were 38/110 at BRD.
Get that balance under 2/1 while maintaining all of the other positives will be his challenge.
2023 R5
IN
*Priest
*Gonzo
Pitching and playing for their Taxi squad life
Nicolas
Cheng
Head
Bowen- Head to head with Head?
Carmen Mlod + more