Wishful fans think every prospect IS the next Seaver or Aaron. Experts (scouts/writers/coaches) think they see similarities between a prospect and Seaver and Aaron. For clarification, go back and read what THIS forum said about Seager/Pederson before they were brought up.
Folks did think that Loney would be an Olerud/Grace type player and win a batting title. And i thought that Choi would be an Adam Dunn type player.
I never expected Loney to be a big power hitter. Those expectations were reserved for Kemp, LaRoche, and Guzman (smh, at least Kemp lived up to it for the most part). But yes, I do remember hearing the Grace projections often - that Loney would own the outfield gaps. Obviously that didn't materialize.
Choi would have been a poor mans Dunn with lots of walks and HR's while giving excellent defense at 1B.
dunn averaged twice as many hr and drew twice as many walks and k'd twice as many times although they were similar defensively; both with negative dwar that's not poor man, that's like welfare/food stamps