The season has barely begun for the Mets in the Dominican Summer League and already there are people vying to make the types of impressions that Wilmer Flores and Vicente Lupo once did. Consider Met prospect Hansel Moreno who is part of a tremendously talented class of players in the lowest division of Met prospects. Let us take a moment and take a look at those who are off to strong starts.
Hansel Moreno, SS – 6’3”/157Lbs – .304/.429/.478 – Moreno is a switch hitting shortstop who, at 18, is clearly having a great start to his season. His stat line is only 8 games old, so don’t look too far into this.
Rigoberto Terrazas, 3B – 6’0”/160 Lbs – .344/.419/.469 – Terrazas has a good amount of walks in 19 games (9) and he’s hitting plenty of doubles (6). The key for him is that third baseman need to hit homers.
Angel Manzanarez, SS – 6’0”/152 Lbs – .333/.413/.348 – Manzanarez is a more typical leadoff hitter with a strong ability to take pitches and do damage once he’s on base. He has 6 stolen bases in 16 games.
Carlos Sanchez, C – 5’11”/170 Lbs – .299/.333/.494 – Sanchez is a power hitting catcher who definitely strikes out to often (16 times in 18 games) but 7 doubles, a triple and 2 home runs will make you forget that.
Nicolas Debora, P – 6’5”/170 Lbs – 1.89 ERA/0.74 WHIP/2 BB/21 K – Debora hasn’t been used to start games but with 19 innings in his first 5 outings, he’ll be starting soon.
Ronald Guedez, P – 6’1”/160 Lbs – 0.64 ERA/0.71 WHIP/0 BB/15 K – Guedez is having a fine start to the year and owes his strong start to his immaculate control through his first three starts.
Alderson names some others: Yoel Romero, Edgardo Fermin, Daniel Guzman, Jhoander Chourio, Jose Moreno, Jurgen Jiminez, Agustin Castilla, Claudio Geraldo, Yordin Araujo and Luis Lebron as prospects to watch but fans should be wary. The DSL, more than any other league, provides misleading results for players that never seem to reach their potentials as they come up through the minors. Having watched the DSL for a long time, I’ll tell you that these teams have more talent than is normal. Hopefully that translates to impact players reaching the majors in the next 4-5 seasons.
AAA:
Jayce Boyd is enjoying Las Vegas – He’s batting .296 at AAA but he desperately needs to prove he can also hit for power if he ever wants to make it in Flushing.
Why don’t I write about Travis Taijeron? – In his last 10 games Taijeron is hitting .207 and has struck out 12 times. In 59 games at AAA this season he’s struck out 65 times.
Steven Matz waiting – He bounces back from a rough start on 6/11 to throw 7 strong innings as he awaits the Mets to call his name.
AA:
Michael Conforto is taking AA in stride – 19 games into his AA tenure and he owns a .377/.482/.623 line. That will come down, but it can come down a lot and still be quite good.
Brandon Nimmo picking up where he left off – He’s been back for 7 games and he has 9 hits in that time.
Michael Fulmer is figuring it out – He owns a 3.14 ERA in Binghamton and his control has become an issue, but he’s been getting better as the season goes on.
A+:
Dominic Smith has melted my face – He’s hitting .405 over his last 10 games, he just hasn’t cooled off since he got hot almost a month ago. He’s almost hitting .300 on the season.
John Gant has proven he deserved a promotion – Gant was promoted from Savannah and has already established himself as a potential sleeper candidate for 2016.
A:
Wuilmer Becerra is going to turn heads – Once his bat finds leverage in a friendlier ballpark he is going to be doing major damage.
Casey Meisner too good – He’s over-due for a promotion. It’ll come any day now.
David Roseboom also ready for more – The Mets seem to be stashing quality arms in Savannah because of over-crowding in Port St. Lucie.
David, when talking about Terrazas, don’t you think slugging at that level is almost as important as HRs
Yes and No
Home runs in the DSL are pretty cheap. If Terrazas manages the same pace through the rest of the summer he’s moving up to rookie ball but if he has power it should be capable of hitting a few homers.
Dave, I read about how the Yankees signed 10 out of the top 30 international free agents over the past year. Meanwhile, the Mets have been quiet, even losing out on the lesser Guerrero. When Omar was GM, this felt like a source of strength and focus in the organization, nowadays that’s not my (admittedly under-informed sense). Yet you write about this “tremendously talented class of players.”
I’m confused by it all. How do you know they are tremendously talented? Is the organization do a great job in this area? Also, if the organization is placing on emphasis on plate discipline, one wonders if they might bypass the type of raw athleticism that typically emerges from the international markets. (Please forgive the cultural generalities about “not walking off the island,” etc.)
BTW, does Paul DePodesta speak Spanish? I’ve long wondered, but have never seen it confirmed or denied.
None of these guys were “Top Prospect Signings” however with the international market you often see players succeed who are not “Top Prospects” and you often see “Top Prospects” do nothing. What it feels like Sandy Alderson has done is gone for quantity over quality so we see a multitude of players in DSL that could be worth watching instead of one “Big” player we need to hang our hats on.
It’s not that any one player has tremendous talent, but the total amount of talent is tremendous compared to previous seasons. Consider, I’ve listed 17 players in the DSL and in previous seasons I might only name 3-5.
For an indication of what David’s talking about, check out this list of the top 20 international signing bonuses from 2008. It’s not loaded with MLB stars
http://www.baseballamerica.com/online/prospects/international-affairs/2008/266917.html
I get that all drafting, scouting, and signing is a crapshoot at any level. There are no sure things. But what’s your point in relation to the Mets?
Do you think it’s wise that they are not spending internationally? Because as a shallow sort of fellow, I kind of prefer the Yankees approach.
But I’m a Democrat. I always want to throw money at the problem.
The Mets had gone with the Yankee approach in the past with Omar Minaya but I haven’t seen that pan out.
I’d like them to have signed Jose Abreu, Jorge Soler, Hector Oliveira, Yasiel Puig, Rusney Castillo or Yoan Moncada, but that’s crazy talk.
Omar signed Familia, Robles, Meija, Tejada, and Flores. Montero is always a debate. In general, no great impact player, no Reyes or Carlos Gomez (both signed by Steve Phillips), but not a washout either.
It takes so long for these guys to make it or break it that GM’s are usually signing these guys for the next GM.
The ones who get the most money are the ones who excel at age 15/16. Not everyone who’s top of the heap at age 15 will be top of the heap at age 25. I’d rather sign a group of players at age 15/16 than just one.
Agreed
Who says you sign just one? You are making an either/or leap that doesn’t make sense.
It’s not one versus many but with the latest changes in the last CBA harder choices do have to get made.
Previously teams could sign as many of these guys as they wanted for as much money as they wanted to spend. Now there are spending caps, so there is some tradeoff between money per player and how many players you can sign.
My post was a response to your complaint that the Mets weren’t signing any of the top guys. The top guys aren’t necessarily the ones you want to be signing, anyway.
If the choice is signing one of the big guys plus however many you have the ability to sign with the money left in your international pool or signing more mid-level guys — I opt for the latter.
In the top 40 International Bonus signings of all time, there’s been one star — Miguel Cabrera and he ranks 36th on the list. The jury’s still out on a few, most notably Miguel Sano, but the vast majority of them have been busts.
http://www.baseballamerica.com/international/top-40-international-bonuses-time/
Thank you!
Editor’s Note – This post deleted for violating our Comment Policy.
I suppose the int’l market is very much like the domestic market except without a draft. It has talent of every level, including ML ready talent. Do you think they’ll institute a draft?
That is my hope
An international Draft will chase some of the Pimps out of the Latin Market; however, it may also reduce the money available to the “player farms” that some of these “market makers” run.
It could make for a more honest system, but it may reduce total opportunity for these programs. Somebody needs to get paid for the cost of running these things, and they don;t have the general at large economy— “Little League” or school programs.
Melted your face, I cracked up at that. Always a fantastic read!