July 30: Friday Mets Links (Wilmer Flores Edition)
The Daily Stache – The Mets seem to be shying away from making any moves as the trade deadline approaches.
OnTheBlack – Kerel Cooper shares his favorite Strawberry/Gooden memories.
Mack’s Mets – The Brooklyn Cyclones won again last night, thanks in part to a 9th inning suicide squeeze. The Cyclones now have a five-game lead on the second-place Staten Island Yankees.
MetsBlog – Matt Cerrone quotes Mike Newman from Scouting the Sally on Wilmer Flores’ potential as a hitter. I have to say I agree with Newman – Flores’ swing is somewhat underwhelming. But mechanics can be taught and improved – especially if Flores has the God-given talent to work with.
Check out the videos below. Hopefully, Joe can chime in on this topic:
While the OBP is definitely alarming, keep in mind that when you can hit .336 you clearly don’t have to take as many pitches to get a hit. Really his problem is more just a pure ability to make contact (just one K every 7.3 AB). Yes he needs to see more pitches and make progress with his power, but at 19 or so do you really expect him to his for power yet? i can see that really developing in AA or next year in A+. He still has to likely change positions too an once he fills out a bit that will happen.
But despite his huge hitch/curl of the bat, he does bring the bat into the zone extremely quickly. You can’t teach that kind of bat speed. And as you said, he does have great hand/eye coordination, which also can’t be taught.
A proper swing can be taught. Hopefully the Mets do some teaching.
Same with his swing.
If he switches to a more powerful stroke and he is simply not yet ready to be a power hitter than you are only going to hurt him. This is what off seasons and winter/fall leagues are for. Though it is not like he is completely devoid of power. He has 10 HRs in 400+ at bats, which is not great but its not terrible. Plus he is a pretty consistent .437 for the year at both levels in slugging.
Really in my eyes you have to look at Flores as the best prospect in the system because he is so young playing so well at advanced A ball. That is special. His ceiling could be anywhere from Alex Gonzalez to Miguel Cabrera depending on how both his skills and his body develop in the next few years. I say Cabrera only because scouts have said how similar they looked at similar ages, but Cabrera was what 20 when he came up to the bigs and was hitting? And Cabrera did not completely fill out until a few years in Miami, so patience is needed with Flores. No, I don’t expect Flores to be Cabrera, don’t bother calling me out on that.