Sorry about the lack of updating. The wife and I are trying to sell our place while looking for a new one. Lots of house work to make sure that our house sells quickly. Now back to prospects.
Jesus is the crown jewel in the Yankee farm system. An elite bat that according to most scouts will play anywhere. BA said he had an 80 contact with an 80 power. That is elite of the elite. Only downside is Montero is supposed to have below average defense. I wonder if he could eventually be a 40 defender which would be below MLB average.
Montero’s bat has been compared to Mike Piazza. This is a truly scary thing for teams in the AL East who would have to face Montero multiple times. I say that because looking at Piazza’s numbers they are truly scary for opponents of the Yankees. His OPS + was 144 for his career, that is amazing.
On the downside Piazza wasn’t very good defensively. This is another reason that Montero get’s the Piazza comparison. Piazza allowed a ton of SB and only caught over 30% once in his career. He was considered to give up on average 5.4 runs a year on his defense. Piazza was big behind the plate and wasn’t a good receiver. Something that Montero according to scouts
It’s hard to see Piazza’s skills would be total since the stat WAR doesn’t go that far back and doesn’t include defense. That being said if Montero could be 120-130 OPS + player then the Yankees will be happy. He would be Jorge Posada. Something that Yankee fans have had no problem with even thou most would say Posada is a 40 defender.
The funny thing about Posada is that he developed late in his career. Looking at his minor stats Posada only did 1 thing better than Montero, that being drawing walks. His minor league walk to strikeout ratio was a lot better than Montero. Other than that Montero was the better hitter. I do think that Montero could end up being a 130-135 OPS + guy. Even if he gave up an average of 5 runs for his defense I think that the Yankees would take that.
Montero also could improve defensively. Hearing from Yankee brass the kid seems to take his defense faults personally and works very hard on that. I don’t take the SB numbers very seriously in the minors because most pitchers down there don’t hold runners on well. This year should be the year where we see how good or bad Montero is defensively concerning the running game. AAA guys are a lot better of holding men on 1st base. Also Baseball America has said his defense has improved each year. That is a positive that I think the Yankees take to heart.
In the end Montero only has to catch until he can shift to 1st base or permanent DH, something that probably would be at age 27. By then he would have started to lose some athleticism that his body has. Getting 6 years of catching from the guy wouldn’t be bad with his bat. The guy is a masher and I think it will play anywhere.
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