The avg. age in BA is for everyone, not the age of serious prospects. Also, age 22 in high-A represents very different rate of progress for al LA kid, H.S. pick like De la Cruz, or college pick. He is moving slowly for a solid H.S. prospect -- partly Covid and partly that he repeated low-A. Still, an .807 OPS at Lakewood is high enough and 8 HR is enough both to make him a legit prospect and say that he is ready to move to Reading. Perhaps he played 1B because that is where he would be asked to play at Allentown. I'm not at all concerned about him being 22 at high-A, because not unusual for it to take longer for this tall a guy to see everything come together. Also can take longer for a power hitter to grow, strengthwise, into his power and because Lakewood is such a bad park for a power hitter. He strikes out a ton, but so did Ryan Howard. Interestingly, Howard was also 22 at Lakewood, but it was only low-A, and put up numbers very similar to what De la Cruz is achieving.
