Ahh, so that explains the weird visceral reaction I had to seeing that guy's face.
Yoan Moncada
- Thread starter The Gray Eagle
- Start date
Also, this was his first RHH HR of 2016. All 9 had been as a LHH. It was strange, since he'd hit for more power from the right side in 2015.
Power comes from the hips, not the kick. He's got beautiful balance to not come over that closed front leg.
AA numbers update:
2 more HR yesterday, bringing him to 7 HR in 21 G. Updated Portand slash .329/.415/.683/1.098.
7 SB/1 CS, although also picked off multiple times including 2nd base pickoff.
Over last 10, discipline improving via 9bb/12k.
Have to wonder when 3B/LF experiment begins.
2 more HR yesterday, bringing him to 7 HR in 21 G. Updated Portand slash .329/.415/.683/1.098.
7 SB/1 CS, although also picked off multiple times including 2nd base pickoff.
Over last 10, discipline improving via 9bb/12k.
Have to wonder when 3B/LF experiment begins.
.508 OPS as a RH hitter.
1.221 OPS as a LH hitter.
SSS but I would guess they want to see improvement there before moving him up to AAA.
1.221 OPS as a LH hitter.
SSS but I would guess they want to see improvement there before moving him up to AAA.
How many times is multiple? I thought pick offs went into books as caught stealings?
Sure. But that would be a nice strong side of a platoon with Chris Young, once Young returns.
My guess, splits aside, is that Moncada sits in AA until 8/31, then comes to the big leagues when rosters expand.
Does the rule still exist to allow someone who wasn't on the 25-man roster on 8/31 to be on the playoffs roster if there is an injury? (I seem to recall it was referred to originally and colloquially as the Francisco Rodriguez rule)
Seems like Moncada is likely also the best PR option in the organization for when you must have that one stolen base.
I am pretty sure it does exist, and Carson Smith's spot (on the 60 day DL) would be available to anyone who is in the organization by 8/31.
"A pick-off is considered to be a baserunning mistake, even if it not usually captured in individual statistics as it is not a caught stealing."
http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Pick-off
A pickoff is not counted as a CS, only as a PO, if the runner is tagged out returning to the original base. However, if the runner gets hung up and is thrown out trying to advance, it goes down as a CS and a PO.
Hazen is on EEI now and Merloni just asked about moving Moncada. He said they are getting to the point where they are thinking about moving him to a new position. Says pretty much any position is on the table, he should be able to handle any of them.
I was penning a post yesterday about Moncada's silly stats and was going to write that he's too good to not play in the bigs this year yadda yadda. When I got to the K rate, I stopped writing my post. In Salem, the K rate was 21%. In Portland it's now at 29%. Even though he's hitting the ball hard, I would imagine that they'd want him to work on that a bit. Do we know if it's a pitch recognition issue or more of a chasing outside the zone?
I don't really know but I think it was Keith Law who said that, among the top of the prospect rankings, he thinks Moncada is a guy who is more likely to struggle early.
Went to the noon game today, took some shots of Moncada in action:
This was a double he stung down the LF line:
This was a double he stung down the LF line:
For those curious what he's responding to--Moncada was a late scratch from the lineup, so it wasn't a scheduled day off, and it was going around Twitter he wasn't seen around the dugout, etc etc.
Rob Bradford @bradfo 2m2 minutes ago
I should clarify previous tweet: When talking about Moncada possibly being promoted by end of week, I'm talking Triple-A
I should clarify previous tweet: When talking about Moncada possibly being promoted by end of week, I'm talking Triple-A
First right-handed HR for Portland; second right-handed HR overall this season (Futures Game).
Starting at 3B tonight.
Starting at 3B tonight.
Speier in today's 108 Stitches:
"Yoan Moncada played for Portland on Saturday for the first time since August 12; he went 0-for-5 with four strikeouts while committing a pair of errors in his second game at third base. While rust undoubtedly played a part in his tough day, his .277/.359/.541 line in Portland comes with a 31 percent strikeout rate at that level, contributing to the view articulated by farm director Ben Crockett that Moncada continues to be challenged in Double A in a way that Benintendi no longer was at the time of his promotion."
"Yoan Moncada played for Portland on Saturday for the first time since August 12; he went 0-for-5 with four strikeouts while committing a pair of errors in his second game at third base. While rust undoubtedly played a part in his tough day, his .277/.359/.541 line in Portland comes with a 31 percent strikeout rate at that level, contributing to the view articulated by farm director Ben Crockett that Moncada continues to be challenged in Double A in a way that Benintendi no longer was at the time of his promotion."
Here is a new scouting report for Yoan Moncada from 2080 Baseball written by "former Los Angeles Angels director of baseball operations Tory Hernandez"... "After leaving the Angels in 2012, Tory headed up the Pro Scouting Department for the Boras Corporation until 2014."
Gentlemen, start your boners.
http://2080baseball.com/reports/yoan-moncada/
tl;dr: 60 floor 65 ceiling / risk: low
Gentlemen, start your boners.
http://2080baseball.com/reports/yoan-moncada/
tl;dr: 60 floor 65 ceiling / risk: low
Scouting report's summary described him as a potential all-star with a chance to be league MVP. Compared him to Robinson Cano with more speed. Expects him to hit 20 HRs a year in his prime and possibly lead the league in SB's.
Boners boners everywhere.
Boners boners everywhere.
The Robinson Cano comparison is pretty ridiculous. Moncada strikes out at twice the rate of Cano. Unfortunately, he has quite a bit of work to do in order to not become Brandon Wood. Even Mark Trumbo, who struck out over 180 times in an MLB season, struck out at a much lesser rate than Moncada (as did Adam Dunn and others). I forget who said it here years ago, but strikeout rates for minor league hitters is a very strong predictor of MLB success. Has there ever been a league MVP that struck out in 24% of the minor league plate appearances? And actually, I'm finding just one: Ryan Howard.
Perhaps he can defy the odds, but the strikeouts are at least concerning.
Perhaps he can defy the odds, but the strikeouts are at least concerning.
Based on his brief encounter with major-league sliders, there is at least the possibility that he can't hit the breaking pitch. That deficiency defeated Rusney Castillo.
Moncada: even toolsier than Toolsney.
Wily Mo failed in the majors. Yoan Moncada was called up too soon and will be back in the minors next year after getting a taste of the majors.
I don't see the issue here.
I don't see the issue here.
In a partial season? At age 21? In his 2nd year of US baseball following a 2 year layoff? While increasing his walk rate significantly? And switch hitting?
Not seeing any need to conclude anything other than he'll probably need to start next season in the minors.
Yes I believe it still is. If he can fix it, great. It's still something I'm worried about with him going forward. To claim it isn't something worth monitoring moving forward would be stupid IMO.
It was one year off (you're thinking of Castillo). And while, yes, there's no need to conclude anything yet, it is in fact something to keep an eye on. If he can't lay off a slider, he will get eaten alive. 124 Ks in 491 PAs is not good when you're facing AA level breaking pitches. Now, there's a reason he;s still ranked as highly as he is despite that and in part it's the view you're taking, that's he's only 21 and he has plenty of time to learn to use his tools. It's not time to go Chicken Little on him, but it does bear watching. I think he'd be best served planning to spend almost all of next year in the minors unless he shows a drastic drop in K rate. It was only 20 ABs, but he was flailing at breaking stuff away. Not just production wise but mentally he needs to do better before anyone starts planning on him taking a roster spot;
207 PA. I am concerned about his k rate, I would be much more concerned if it was 491 PA and not 207. His K rate in Salem was only 21.1%. He also was scorching everything he saw in Portland for awhile, so he probably starting swinging for the fences on top of that.
Not sure what you're trying to parse here. He had 491 minor league PAs last year and struck out 124 times. The year before he struck out 83 times in 363 PAs in Greenville. That's not good.
If it makes you feel better that he struck out less in Salem than he did in Portland, well, we don't agree there. A step up in competition level means better opponents. If he can't adjust that's an issue. And I think it's wishful thinking that he was swinging for the fences and that led to it. I think the much more obvious and likely scenario is the book got out on him and he couldn't adjust to the adjustments.
Again, it's not time to panic. He's got great tools and there's every reason to hope he can improve on it. But his K rate sucks and is getting worse, not better and it's not going to get easier.
The author cites Cano as a comp. It's lazy, inaccurate and based on nothing more than his left handed swing resembling Cano's and the fact they play 2B. Cano had 261 Ks in over 2100 minor league PAs. Moncada shows no such ability to control a strike zone. Yet, at least. The guy is a stud prospect, but someone else made the point about Brandon Wood. He has work to do and anyone expecting him to be a reliable player on the ML roster before 2018 is probably fooling themselves.
If it makes you feel better that he struck out less in Salem than he did in Portland, well, we don't agree there. A step up in competition level means better opponents. If he can't adjust that's an issue. And I think it's wishful thinking that he was swinging for the fences and that led to it. I think the much more obvious and likely scenario is the book got out on him and he couldn't adjust to the adjustments.
Again, it's not time to panic. He's got great tools and there's every reason to hope he can improve on it. But his K rate sucks and is getting worse, not better and it's not going to get easier.
The author cites Cano as a comp. It's lazy, inaccurate and based on nothing more than his left handed swing resembling Cano's and the fact they play 2B. Cano had 261 Ks in over 2100 minor league PAs. Moncada shows no such ability to control a strike zone. Yet, at least. The guy is a stud prospect, but someone else made the point about Brandon Wood. He has work to do and anyone expecting him to be a reliable player on the ML roster before 2018 is probably fooling themselves.
You cited he had 491 AA PA, he did not. If you don't see a huge difference between the 2 sample sizes for a prospect of Moncada's age, good for you. I'm not even disagreeing with your overall point. But if he had a 30%+ k rate in 491 AA PA this season, he would not be the number 1 prospect in all of baseball.
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