3 reasons why Zach Neto will be baseball's next star shortstop

The Los Angeles Angels selected Zach Neto with the 13th pick in the first round of last year's MLB Draft. He was drafted out of college and you could tell immediately that he was going to be fast-tracked to the majors.

After just 44 minor league games, Neto got the call. He was an Angel. This came out of nowhere as Gio Urshela looked like a capable option, but with the team needing a spark, Neto was the player they called upon.

The rookie shortstop started his career with one hit in 16 at-bats. This had people thinking Perry Minasian might've jumped the gun. Nope. Since then he's been unbelievable and looks not only to be the Angels shortstop of the future but one of the best shortstops in all of baseball.

It's only been 54 games but it looks like the Angels struck gold with Zach Neto. He continues to impress and has only been getting better. There will always be bumps in the road, but he truly does look like baseball's next star shortstop. Here're three reasons why.

LA Angels shortstop Zach Neto is starting to hit for power

We've all seen and rave about his plate discipline and ability to put bat on ball, but now we're starting to see the power come along. In his short stint in the minors, Neto did hit for some power as he hit eight home runs in 44 games. That's a 29 home run pace in a 162-game season.

While I don't expect Neto to be a 30 home run guy, who's to say he can't hit 20? After hitting mostly singles to begin his career, we're starting to see his power come along.

Neto went his first 22 games without a home run. Of his 18 hits in those games, only four went for extra bases. All four were doubles. There's nothing wrong with hitting singles, but he just wasn't hitting for much power at all.

Ever since he hit his first home run he's looked a lot more capable driving the baseball.

In the last three games alone Neto has hit three home runs and two doubles. Two of the three home runs came in one game.

Neto has six home runs in 54 games played in his rookie season which puts him on pace to hit 17 home runs over a full 162-game season. Getting 20 home runs in a season out of a shortstop who does seemingly everything else at an elite level would be outstanding.

Since we've seen him hit for more power of late, who really knows what his ceiling is in that department? It'll definitely be exciting to see.

LA Angels shortstop Zach Neto is already an elite defender

We all heard about Neto's bat. He crushed the ball in the minor leagues and even if we didn't expect him to be quite this good this quickly, we did expect him to hit at this level.

What wasn't really talked about nearly as much as it should have is his defense. His bat his been great, but his glove has been even better.

The Angels defense struggled mightily in the early parts of this season, particularly before Neto came along. Since his promotion, things have really steadied.

Neto himself looks awesome at a very important defensive position. He has 3 DRS which has him tied for ninth among big league shortstops. Every shortstop ahead of him has played more innings, most piling more than 50 innings than the Angels shortstop.

Neto has not only made the routine plays but he's made plenty of acrobatic plays you only see the special defenders make like this.

It's very hard to be an elite shortstop while being a negative on defense and as a rookie, Neto has shown he has the make-up of a future Gold Glover out there.