Post Draft: MM's Top 25- #5 OF Cesar Puello

Now that the draft is over, Mack's Mets will be reviewing the performances of our organizational Top 25 prospects and re-ranking them based on their individual performances, perceived place on the depth chart, and recent draft signings.

Look at the top of our page and click on the "Top 25 Prospects" link to find the rest of the current rankings that we have done already.

Mack's Mets #5 organizational prospect is......

#5 OF Cesar Puello (LR:#23)
Bats: R Throws: R
Height: 6' 2" Weight: 195 lb
Acquired: 2007 International Signing, Dominican Republic

2013: (AA) .328/.405/.550, 16 HR, 73 RBI, 24 SB (77%), 28 BB, 82 K
2012: (A+) .260/.328/.423, 4 HR, 21 RBI, 19 SB (90%), 7 BB, 58 K
2011: (A+) .259/.313/.397, 10 HR, 50 RBI, 19 SB (68%), 18 BB, 103 K
2010: (A) .292/.375/.359, 1 HR, 34 RBI, 45 SB (82%), 32 BB, 82 K
2009: (R) .296/.373/.423, 5 HR, 23 RBI, 15 SB (75%), 10 BB, 51 K

Many of us had left Cesar Puello for dead before this season began. Scouts all around baseball felt that, despite his excellent tools, his hitting abilities were good but not good enough to absorb a 23% K rate with a 3% BB rate. Well we were all proven wrong. Puello has resurrected his prospect status in Binghamton blasting a career high 16 HR and drawing career highs in BB rate (7.5%) as well as Isolated Power (.222). Puello's season is now over with the issuance of a 50 game suspension for his involved in BioGenesis last season, but the results, post PED's mind you, are more than enough to get re-excited about him again.

An often overlooked quality when writers talk about On Base Percentages, is the ability to induce HBP's. Yes folks, this is a tool and a quality tool at that. Puello's 7.5% BB rate may not look impressive but when you add in his 16 HBP's this season that rate jumps up to a much more appealing 11.7%. For those of you who believe that its just luck, Puello's has been hit a total of 94 times in just under 2,000 PA's (4.7%) which is actually almost equal to his amount of BBs (100 or 5%). We'll see Puello in Spring Training next season but he'll most likely be assigned to Las Vegas to continue working on his plate vision.