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6/21/17

Casey Wentworth - On Players like Chance Sisco and Luis Guillorme



On Saturday, I advocated looking into the acquisition of Chance Sisco from Baltimore. He is Baltimore's number one prospect at current, so I realize that it could take a lot for this NY Mets franchise to acquire him. But I thought that I would throw this idea out there anyway. Luis Guillorme is also a young player I have noticed of recent, that is playing second base right now at Binghamton. What I really appreciate about each of these two young players is that they seem to know how to play their position very competently, but also have a really beneficial approach to batting. Both are hitters, natural born hitters and we need that some more here.

I grew up with Mets catching that basically in a nutshell were not naturally born hitters. I never thought catchers could even hit until Cincinatti's Johnny Bench showed up to prove this theory all wrong. You mean catchers can hit? What a premise I thought. Then came along here Gary Carter who we all fell totally in love with. Finally, we had a NY Mets catcher who could not only hit for average, but hit homer uns as well. I was spoiled. And it has not ever gone away. I want this back very badly now. I do, I do, I do.

What Sisco (or someone like him young and tall at this early age 22) represents to me is wonderful hitting from the catcher position and someone to add into the 2018 catching equation here, along with Kevin Plawecki and Tomas Nido. The law of averages being the crucial course to take in this day of so few really good hitting catchers. But understand this too, when you have a catcher at age 22 with decent batting skills and approach, you can be somewhat assured that in time their power game will probably increase as they age and grow into their own optimal upper-body strength (i.e. here Mike Piazza who if my memory serves me correctly was not really a home run guy right off the bat, and of course withholding any 'roid discussions that may exist. This is what I like about Sisco and to me he appears to be a pretty good bet to take for this team, or someone like him.

Now Guillorme is, I find, a very interesting middle infielder. He has that aggressiveness at the two bag (sort of like Wally Backman did) and has really shortstop range at second, which I relish especially if you have a shortstop with that same characteristic of range going on. Luis is also 22 years old and still developing his power stroke. He will I believe, but even so, the man has shown the ability to hit for batting average. I would see if possibly he could be elevated to the AAA Vegas level maybe by mid-July, so that we can see just how far along he is with his own development and whether or not he could be figured into the 2018 NY Mets equation.

I am also very impressed with Wilmer Flores' batting this season. We all knew Wilmer could play, that he had game, and a power bat. But now, it appears that he is adding in the final pieve of his own personal batting puzzle...consistency at the plate. I am delighted by this and delighted for him. Although it feels like Wilmer has been here a NY Met since the 1990's, he is just now 25 years old. And he too is just now beginning to reach his ultimate power and strength game.

Yes kids, there is hope in Mudsville, I mean Metsville. Hang on baby the fun may just be now starting. And it is good! Please though, just get me one more lefty starter Mr. Met. Someone young to tie-in with all this good stuff on the way.

5 comments:

  1. I guess I was a little surprised at "never thought catchers could hit" line. I thought they were rare, to be sure--the Hope Diamonds in a pile of glass shards--but weren't you & I brought up on Yogi & Campy? Bench was in that class along with and maybe Piazza (his D gets crit for his CS rate, but he could field his position with any of them). Carter is a smidge behind and quite possibly Josh Gibson left them all in the dust.

    I remember the Sporting News putting Steve Chilcott in that class BTW and I for one didn't condemn that pick then nor now for a freak shoulder accident and a by-passed HOF #2 pick.

    And I was musing about this the other day. It's 2020 & Andres Gimmenez pushes Amed to 3B (where he becomes the real M.Machado), Guillorme at 2B & D.Smith at 1B provide a the best shut-down IF since Ventura-Ordo-Fonz & Ole. Sisco would go nice with that.

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  2. Sorry, Casey --thought Mack wrote the article.

    You probably weren't around to see Yogi, Campy (or Josh Gibson).

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  3. Hey I knew Josh Gibson... Josh Gibson is a friend of mine... well, you know the rest...

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  4. Mackey Sasser was a guy who could hit. Throwing back to the pitcher, well, that's another story entirely.

    I thought I remember Jason (Goggles) Phillips as having been a good hitter, but other than his outlier year of .298/11/53 in under 500 ABs, he never amounted to much.

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  5. I've said it before, but Luis Guillorme is a badass. Will probably never develop power, and he really could improve his stock if he could draw the occasional walk, but he rarely K's, is hitting close to .300 in AA, and while he's not Ordonez (no one is) he is a plus plus fielder. I'd take him and Rosario up the middle in a heartbeat.

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