#14 SS Gavin Cecchini (LR: #15)
Bats: R Throws: R
Height: 6' 1" Weight: 180 lb
Age: 20
Acquired: 2012 Rule 4 Draft, 1st Round, Alfred M. Barbe HS (Lake Charles, LA)
2014: (A/A+) .242/.327/.373, 8 HR, 53 RBI, 10 SB (71%), 54 BB, 72 K
2013: (SS-A) .273/.319/.314, 0 HR, 14 RBI, 2 SB (40%), 14 BB, 30 K
2012: (R/SS-A) .240/.307/.321, 1 HR, 22 RBI, 5 SB (56 %), 18 BB, 44 K
Mr. average has been....well average. Ever since being drafted in the 1st round by the Mets over the likes of Courtney Hawkins, Lucas Giolito, Michael Wacha, and Stryker Trahan; Cecchini has been floating around the middle of our Top prospect listing. As we have pointed out in the past, Cecchini does nothing great and he doesn't have any plus tools. What he does have is 5 average to above average tools that projects him to be an unflashy BUT productive all around player.
While on the surface it seems as though Cecchini has been suffering through a tough season, the reality is that he's actually been pretty good. The BABIP baseball gods have been frowning down on Cecchini this season as he carries a batting average on balls in play of a meager .236. This has been weighing down his regular batting average which dropped from .258 in Savannah to .226 in St. Lucie. The more important things to look at are his K and BB rates, both of which have been stellar this season. In the 57 games he's played in St. Lucie, Cecchini is BB'ing in 12.1% of his plate appearances and K'ing in only 13% of them.
Surprisingly, Cecchini has also developed a bit of power and is threatening to finish the season in double digits. After only hitting 3 HR, in 57 games, in the tough SAL environment, Cecchini has smashed 5 additional HRs in the same amount of games in the more even Florida State League. He also has 23 doubles and 4 triples to go with them. His performance this season has convinced me that his power tool has upgraded from below average potential to average for the SS position, capable of hitting 10-12 per season.
Cecchini will finish the year out in St. Lucie but I'll be interested in seeing what the front office's plan is for him this off-season. There's an outside chance that he'll be assigned to a Arizona Fall League team to get him some more AB's and open up the potential to start him in Binghamton for the 2015 season.
Ceiling: Unexciting, albeit, productive MLB SS starter (Alexei Ramirez)
Floor: All around below average MLB SS who starts because the position is so weak (Alexei Amarista)
3 comments:
The Mets have nothing to lose at this point in keeping him back at St. Lucie for another year.
All the bad press about picking him as a first round pick is out there.
I honestly don't know what the Mets have here, but the kid could use a confident, positive year behind him before we move on with this pick.
Mack, agreed with Cecchini staying back in St. Lucie as I've been tossing around next years roster placements for some of our top prospects and then I went ahead and starting putting together the entire minor league rosters and there's some really tough decisions to make as to where we start some guys. Cecchini is one of them, Conforto, Morris, Rosario should be in Brooklyn, but Urena & Garcia, Molina etc..are all going to be interesting.
When I get back home this weekend, I'll forward you what I out together so far to see what you think since as it stands right now, we just have only so many spots available and plenty of guys that could fill them. A good problem to have, but hopefully not at the risk of player development.
Christopher,
"The BABIP baseball gods have been frowning down on Cecchini this season as he carries a batting average on balls in play of a meager .236."
Isn't this the exact (opposite) argument we're saying about Matt Reynolds and his high BABIP being unsustainable and his avg will drop down.
There's something to be said about hitting hard line drives the majority of the time, as they will find holes and make it harder on the defense to make the outs vs Cecchini maybe hitting a lot of weak contact, which makes the plays easier to make.
This is not first hand knowledge as I haven't seen this kid play, just an observation based on the #'s reviewed. Has anyone seen Cecchini in person regularly and can comment on him? I'm just wondering if he's running a low BABIP as a result of his contact or he's just really that unlucky?
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