AngelsWin.com Today: AngelsWin.Com Top 30 Prospects: #7 SS Nonie Williams

[AngelsWin.com]

Prospect: Nonie Williams                   Rank: 7

2015/16: UR                                          Position(s): Shortstop

Level: Rookie Ball                                 Age: Entering Age 19 season in 2017.

Height: 6’2”                                           Weight: 200 lb.

               Present – Future

Hitting Ability         40  50

Power                       50  65

Base Running         65  60

Patience                   40  50

Fielding                    50  50

Range                       50  50

Arm                           60  65

Overall                      45  55

 

Floor: Utility Infielder in the high minors.

Ceiling: All-star caliber infielder or outfielder.

Likely Outcome: A starting third baseman in MLB.

Summary: Nonie Williams may have the highest upside of any player in the Angels minor league system.  And believe it or not, that actually means something now, with other upside prospects like Jahmai Jones, Matt Thaiss, Brandon Marsh and Michael Hermosillo in the system.  While he was taken in the third round of the draft, the consensus was that the Angels genuinely got a steal when they scooped up Williams.  It is true that several sourced had Nonie ticketed for the second round, and it’s also true the Angels signed him for borderline first round money.  That’s what it costs to get someone with Williams potential.  Had Williams waited one more year, it’s hard to say where he might’ve gone in the draft.  He technically would’ve been a high school senior but because of home-schooling schedules being slightly modified, he’d also be 19 years old instead of 18 like the rest of the prospects he’d be compared with.  The age difference certain could’ve hurt him, but one additional year of development, one additional year of scouts having the opportunity to come watch him play, it’s likely Nonie would’ve left the board in the first round.

Upon reaching the Angels training facility, they immediately realized what they have, may truly be special.   It starts and ends with his bat speed, which has long been observed but only recently quantified.  Not only did Williams come with the highest bat speed in the 2016 draft class, but also the highest amount of bat speed in perhaps all of minor league baseball.  We’ve yet to fully understand whether or not this will transfer over to game time production, sometimes it does sometimes it doesn’t.  But what we do know is that it makes for a potential offensive juggernaut.  Comparable bat speeds in the last five years are Randal Grichuk and Bryce Harper, who both are incredibly strong individuals, but as we’ve seen, sometimes it just doesn’t transfer into the game.  So we’ll see with Williams.

Nonie’s intangibles are off the charts, but in a more tangible sense, his foot speed, bat speed and power are very well charted, and very impressive.  He has the chance to hit 30 homers in the future and steal 30 bases.  While he began his career as a shortstop, few scouts envision this being Nonie’s permanent home.  He has the athleticism, arm strength and glove to stick at shortstop, but not necessarily the grace or range.  It’s for this reason scouts openly wonder where his future home may be.  He has the size and tools of a third baseman, but the range to potentially be an excellent second baseman as well.  There’s also some talk of moving out to the outfield.  As of right now, third base and second base seem the likeliest future homes for Nonie.  Williams is a switch hitter and offers different looks from each side.  From the right hand side, Williams is more contact oriented, with a more line-drive approach.  From the left side his natural power comes into play and he whips the bat through the zone with eye-popping speed and loft.  This swing is longer and more prone to a swing and miss, but there also seems to be more power from the left-handed side.

Most of the time, there’s at least some discussion as to whether a player will hit for power or not, but with Nonie, there’s only observation.  He has the strength to hit oppo homers or turn on a ball.  Williams can also fly down the line.  It isn’t a freight train type of fly like Mike Trout or a dear gracefully gliding across the land like Peter Bourjos was, but it is somewhere in between.  There’s effort, but as Williams gets bigger and stronger, he’ll likely lose a step, which is fine, he’ll always likely have above average speed, at least until his mid-30’s if he’s fortunate to still be playing ball.  While Nonie’s numbers from this past season aren’t terribly impressive (.244 BA, gap power and speed, but no home runs and poor plate discipline), he continued to improve as the year went on, enough so that there shouldn’t be any cause for concern.

What to expect next season: Nonie should be ticketed for Orem next season, though there is some talk about him making the jump to A Ball.  While the talent is certainly there, I’d expect Williams to continue to refine his approach at the plate in the Pioneer League in 2017.  It’ll be interesting to see where the Angels decide to play him.  It usually isn’t good to move players around too much this early in their professional career, as it’s a lot to take in, so the Angels won’t give him the utility role just yet.  But my guess is Williams will play the majority of his games at third base in the future.  As for the pace of his development, that’s really dictated by his own progression.  Being as raw as Nonie is, it’s probably best to simplify the game by keeping him at shortstop for now, and allowing him to really get his feet under him by spending an additional season in short season ball in Orem.  I know Angels fans are likely clamoring to get this upside talent into A Ball as soon as they can, but with guys like Williams, you just have to let them grow first.

Estimated Time of Arrival: 2021, as a 23 year old.

Grade as a prospect: B-

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[Glen]

He looks a lot like Mike Trout.

[greginpsca]

I have a feeling this kid will end the season in San Bernardino, and end next season in Salt Lake.

[Chuck]

2 hours ago, greginpsca said:

I have a feeling this kid will end the season in San Bernardino, and end next season in Salt Lake.

That would be great! Though it's also likely that the Angels will take it slow with Williams, much like what they're doing with Jones. 

[totdprods]

Sure seems like we have a lot of talent set to land around the time Trout's contract is up. Gives some credence to the belief that there is an internal effort to build a team that'd be hard for Trout to leave. 

[Angel Oracle]

Could he be the future 3B in about 4 years?   Has the arm but not the greatest range to play SS, plus Simmons will only be 31 in 2021.  

[totdprods]

I think a switch-hitting young 3B with pop and speed would be wonderful, especially coupled with Simmons. Everyone knows Baldoquin will be holding down 2B for years :| 

Shouldn't discount the possibility that Eppler deals from this farm too, so I'm not going to get too worked up about a 2021 line-up just yet. I just hope that whenever Eppler decides to deal, it's done more for a young Andrelton Simmons type. 

[Second Base]

This kid is what you call a lottery ticket.

[Chuck]

53 minutes ago, totdprods said:

I think a switch-hitting young 3B with pop and speed would be wonderful, especially coupled with Simmons. Everyone knows Baldoquin will be holding down 2B for years :| 

Shouldn't discount the possibility that Eppler deals from this farm too, so I'm not going to get too worked up about a 2021 line-up just yet. I just hope that whenever Eppler decides to deal, it's done more for a young Andrelton Simmons type. 

I know you were being sarcastic, but I've been really impressed with Fletcher at 2B and his approach at the plate. 

It's feasible that we have an infield in 2021 of:

1B Thaiss

2B Fletcher

SS Simmons

3B Williams

with an outfield of:

LF Jones

CF Trout

RF Hermosillo 

C  Ward

[totdprods]

10 minutes ago, Chuckster70 said:

I know you were being sarcastic, but I've been really impressed with Fletcher at 2B and his approach at the plate. 

It's feasible that we have an infield in 2021 of:

1B Thaiss

2B Fletcher

SS Simmons

3B Williams

with an outfield of:

LF Jones

CF Trout

RF Hermosillo 

C  Ward

I like Fletcher a lot too. My hope is we extend Espinosa for a year or two, and Fletch bumps him into a super-sub role sometime in '18.

There's no way we don't deal a couple of those guys too...it's too much part of the Angels/Yankees MO, plus we will see a major signing or two. Marsh slots into that too, and I think we will see some more drafting/amateur signings that align with a 2021 beyond window. They have to be trying to tempt Trout with a good, young team built around him, but also need to be prepping for a Troutless Angels team.

[Inside Pitch]

Nonie is the biggest bust or boon guy we have drafted in a long time.  Possibly since Grichuk.  He is pretty raw for a guy that has played a lot of baseball -- like, it wouldn't surprise me if he went to the batters box, faced the wrong way.... and still got a hit...  

[Dugout]

 He probably played less baseball than any other kid in the draft. He comes from a cold climate state with bad competition, and he skipped his Junior summer of baseball by reclassifying to the 2016 class. On another website I saw that he only played 18 HS games compared to Florida or southern California who plays 30-40 quality HS games. He got paid for his extreme tool set(off the charts).

 He was a first rounder in the 2017 draft, so I think that the Angels got two first rounders last year. If he pans out this could be a big piece for a long time. I saw that he hit .326 the last 10 games last year, so Im ready to watch him get going.

[Angelsjunky]

@Inside Pitch, or Chevy Clarke and Ryan Bolden.

[Second Base]

2 hours ago, Dugout said:

 He probably played less baseball than any other kid in the draft. He comes from a cold climate state with bad competition, and he skipped his Junior summer of baseball by reclassifying to the 2016 class. On another website I saw that he only played 18 HS games compared to Florida or southern California who plays 30-40 quality HS games. He got paid for his extreme tool set(off the charts).

 He was a first rounder in the 2017 draft, so I think that the Angels got two first rounders last year. If he pans out this could be a big piece for a long time. I saw that he hit .326 the last 10 games last year, so Im ready to watch him get going.

The Angels may have drafted more than one first round pick. Thaiss obviously, Nonie likely was this year, Brandon Marsh very likely would have been had he gone to college. Chris Rodriguez and Cole Duensing also would have gone in the first round if they pitched in college as they did for the Angels last year.

As I've said before, that was the best Angels draft since 2009, which was probably the best draft class this team has ever had. 

Nonie has the upside to be that player everyone looks back on, astonished he lasted as long as he did on the board.

[Docwaukee]

chances are that we're not going to hear anything good about Williams for at least another two years.  So your best bet is to put him in the back of your mind and wait for his 2020 breakout season at age 21 in A+.  

11 hours ago, greginpsca said:

I have a feeling this kid will end the season in San Bernardino, and end next season in Salt Lake.

if he does this it means he's become one of the top prospects in baseball reaching AAA at age 20.  Would love to see it.  

His biggest asset right now is his makeup.  Something that's often missing from the 'off the charts tools' guy.  

I would be very surprised to see him in full season ball next year.  It actually wouldn't totally surprise me if he started in the AZL again with an in season promo to Orem.  I also agree that they'll keep him at SS for now.  

 

[Inside Pitch]

1 hour ago, Angelsjunky said:

@Inside Pitch, or Chevy Clarke and Ryan Bolden.

Bolden maybe -- I never saw Clarke as having that big time upside -- speed wise maybe.  But he didn't have the full set of tools Williams has.

[Second Base]

19 minutes ago, Dochalo said:

chances are that we're not going to hear anything good about Williams for at least another two years.  So your best bet is to put him in the back of your mind and wait for his 2020 breakout season at age 21 in A+.  

if he does this it means he's become one of the top prospects in baseball reaching AAA at age 20.  Would love to see it.  

His biggest asset right now is his makeup.  Something that's often missing from the 'off the charts tools' guy.  

I would be very surprised to see him in full season ball next year.  It actually wouldn't totally surprise me if he started in the AZL again with an in season promo to Orem.  I also agree that they'll keep him at SS for now.  

 

Just s guess, but I think he'll go to Orem and do well there. In 2018 as a 20 year old, he'll go to A Ball and I think he'll struggle quite a bit. He'll repeat the first half of 2019 in A Ball as a 21 year old, and will have his breakout. They'll promote him to Inland Empire by June and he'll hit something like 20 HR's in only 80 games in the Cal League. He'lol probably even for to the Fall League too. In 2020 he'll go to AA and simply be ok. In 2021, he'll spend the first month repeating AA before going to Salt Lake, and getting a September call up. 2022 he'll be our starting third baseman.

[arch stanton]

After seeing the video of his swing, my guess would be that they'll want to tweak the LH swing which will keep him at a lower level initially but once he gets the hang he'll cruise through

[Dugout]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAiTMm81y8Y

I like this video until we find something new.

[Angel Oracle]

Dare to dream big:  ultimately the AL's equivalent to another Nolan who plays 3B in the NL?

[tdawg87]

Nonie sounds like the name of a black stripper. "Naughty Nonie" is workin' the pole tonight.