Top prospect

[Slacker Mills]

If May is your measure, top prospect hitter is a three-way choice between Sanoja, Edwards and Otto Lopez with Mesa Jr. in the hunt. The three would make a productive top three in the batting order in Miami. Age considered, I'd lean Sanoja.

[Ely Sussman]

5 hours ago, Slacker Mills said:

If May is your measure, top prospect hitter is a three-way choice between Sanoja, Edwards and Otto Lopez with Mesa Jr. in the hunt. The three would make a productive top three in the batting order in Miami. Age considered, I'd lean Sanoja.

Well I'd say this reinforces why prospect rankings should not be based on single-month snapshots haha. Of that bunch, I have to give a lot of credit to Lopez—he's been a brilliant addition.

I will dedicate an article to Sanoja on Monday.

[One Regend]

Victor Mesa Jr is probably the best impact bat we have in our system right now.

Mesa Jr has made great strides, going from a guy with no pop to a guy with a 15-HR bat with the potenial for more, and great defense in the outfield. He has played well in AAA, but here's the problem I see with him, and it's been a problem that I have been seeing with A LOT of our hitter prospects since the 2018 firesale: They're doing well in AAA, but they're not exactly slaughtering the competition. They're knocking on the door, but they are not bulldozing the door down with a tractor.

Not once have I seen our "vaunted" prospects have an OPS above 1.000 in AAA in their audition to be called up. Troy Johnston came the closest last year with a .948 OPS, and it was a crime how he was left unprotected in Rule 5 for a Marlins organization starved for impact bats. (He's off to a slow start, but I hope he gets that power stroke back that put him on the radar in the first place.)

All in all, this continues a frustrating trend for post-2017 hitting prospects: Doing fine in AAA but not killing the competition there. As for every single prospect we've had since 2017 that have done this? They have all turned out to be AAAA players.

[Ely Sussman]

5 hours ago, One Regend said:

All in all, this continues a frustrating trend for post-2017 hitting prospects: Doing fine in AAA but not killing the competition there. As for every single prospect we've had since 2017 that have done this? They have all turned out to be AAAA players.

Under non-COVID circumstances, I wonder how Jazz would've performed there. That's where he was supposed to be in 2020. Coincidentally, he turned out better than any of the other prospects despite unintentionally skipping that level.

[One Regend]

3 hours ago, Ely Sussman said:

Under non-COVID circumstances, I wonder how Jazz would've performed there. That's where he was supposed to be in 2020. Coincidentally, he turned out better than any of the other prospects despite unintentionally skipping that level.

To be honest, that is a question we will never find out. Granted, AAA numbers don't always tell the story. Some guy can post pedestrian numbers in AAA (Ex: Max Muncy before he came to the Dodgers system) and turn out to be a quality piece of the core. But that rarely happens these days, so we need that certainty of dominance to feel somewhat confident that a prospect of ours can be more than just a bat that can only be used in platoon roles.

Right now, an example of such a AAAA player with the profiling of a platoon role ceiling is Jesus Sanchez, and I greatly fear that with such poor numbers against lefties, Jazz is slowly heading in that direction too.