"System ‘Bats’ Progress Report"

This is the third part of a 3-part progress reports. The first two covered starter and relief pitching. This one breaks out the everyday players that are showing the ability to excel at a major league level.

I wish there were more: 

CF – AA – Matt den Dekker – Matt has everything it takes to be a great centerfielder… speed, superb defensive skills, and the ability to gap hit. All he has to do now is have a little patience both in the system and with a bat in his hands. There have been players that had a decent career striking out this much, but there hasn’t been many and most of them hit a lot of home runs.. My guess is he’s at least the 4^th outfielder in 2014. 

3B (1B) – A+ - Wilmer Flores – I sure wish David Wright and the Mets would do the nasty so we could get on to having Flores play first base. I guess he will remain at third until that happens. We know he’s not going back to short, and, if we didn’t know better, he’s never getting out of A+ ball. This stinks of a showcase going on. My prediction: if he stays a Met… will take over 1B from Ike in 2014.

RF – A+ - Cory Vaughn – now, this is truly an enigma wrapped in a riddle. First he’s hot, then he’s cold… then he’s a top BA leader and later leads his league in homers but has a shitty BA. Which one of these guys are real?  Put it all together and he’s Roberto Clemente. Go the other way and he’s Roberta Flack. Prediction: A huge, gigantic flop that will play for the Long Island Ducks someday.

CF – A+ - Darrell Cecilliani – Cory’s gumba. It seems on the surface that DC’s injury prone, but, in both cases they were caused by stupid decisions, not genetic abnormalities. Darrell could be one of those great leadoff hitters. He has the speed and I could see him winning a few Golden Gloves along the way. Time will tell, and, of course, only one person can play centerfield in a given game, right?

OF – A – Gilbert Gomez – I’ve been high on Gomez since his days in the DSL. All reports I receive is he’s only 2^nd in tools to Cesar Puello, who seems to always be hurt. Gomez filled in admirably last season at St. Lucie and is currently tearing it up as the leadoff hitter in Savannah. This is the guy to keep an eye on. This is your next all-star outfielder.

OF Brandon Nimmo, 3B Elvis Sanchez, OF Vincente Lupo and SS Phillip Evans did not make this list because they haven’t done enough yet at the pro level to warrant their prospect tag. Puello, Zach Lutz, and Reese Havens were left off because of their prepensely to injury. IF Jefry Marte just fell below the minimum standards for the list.