It can go unnoticed, a rookie minor-leaguer’s progress.
Especially when he is 14 months out of high school.
Izaac Pacheco’s first year of professional baseball has been stunningly strong, given that, yes, he is 19 and only a year from leaving home and his prep days at Friendswood, Texas.
Pacheco plays third base (mostly), bats left-handed, and was the Tigers’ second-round pick in 2021. He rolled Sunday into TigerTown’s parking lot with a .267 batting average, .342 on-base mark, eight home runs, and a .758 OPS.
He has been remarkably consistent playing for the low Single-A Lakeland Flying Tigers when just as easily he could have spent the summer in TigerTown’s adjacent lots playing in the entry-level Florida Complex League.