Reese Kaplan - Out in the West Texas Town of El Paso

While most of the writers were focusing their attention on the number one draft pick just recently brought into the fold – Michael Conforto – the Mets selected a local El Paso guy by the name of Eudor Garcia-Pacheco with their fourth pick.  This selection flew somewhat under the radar as he wasn’t all that heavily touted until putting together what his coach, Rob Martinez, called “Nintendo Numbers” during his last season playing for the El Paso Community College team.  I spent some time today talking to Coach Martinez to get his take on what the Mets have gotten for themselves.

How good was he?  Well, there’s the .460 batting average over the entire season for starters.  It got to the point that Martinez cautioned him to learn to take walks because pitchers were going to stop throwing him strikes.  His plate discipline is what impressed his coach the most.  He had a very quiet stance with no wasted motion and was able to hit the ball using the entire field.

His home run and RBI prowess also evolved mightily in his final year, clubbing 14 homers and driving in 63 runs in just 51 games.  While he is not a prototypical slugger that’s projected to be a 30 HR guy, Martinez felt he certainly could be penciled in confidently for the 20s.  However, 30 would not be out of the question.  He said he’d been watching Eudor play since his high school days and the power was always there.  It’s the plate discipline that kicked in this year that resulted in both a Division 1 scholarship and the draft selection by the Mets.

“Eudor is the best hitter I’ve seen in my college coaching career.  He’s got an advanced bat with a 60 rating for power.  His work ethic is good and right now the sky’s the limit,” said Coach Martinez.  “He’s the kind of guy who should put up the same number of walks as he does strikeouts.  In fact, he only struck out 20 times over a 2 year period.”

As a physical specimen, he’s not the long and rangy type you expect from a young power hitter.  In fact, I volunteered that minus the gut, he projects to be a similar player to Pablo Sandoval – at 225 he’s a bit stocky for his 5’11” height.   He seconded that comparison.   

“He looks chubbier than he is,” said Martinez.  “He’s quick for his size."  

A lot has been made of his future position in the Mets organization.  Right now, being a 3^rd baseman for the Mets is kind of like for the last decade being a shortstop prospect for the Yankees.  You’d better find a new place on the diamond or start looking for another team.  Martinez and I discussed where he might wind up and he felt that he could be a plus player at 1^st base or even play LF.  His arm is a tick below average but he felt it carries well once he releases it. 

In Kingsport Eudor has gotten off to a flying start, batting .282 with 1 HR and 11 RBIs over his first 71 ABs.  They have him hitting cleanup which is a testament to the production that expect that he will deliver. 

On a sidebar note, Coach Martinez also gave an unsolicited ringing endorsement of Gavin Cecchini.  He said that he needs to work on his consistency with the bat, but he was very impressive and poised in the field and showed enough offense that he felt he will ascend to the majors.   Some folks were less than thrilled with Gavin’s selection so high in the draft but it was nice to get this opinion from a baseball professional who got to see him play regularly.