Edit. Nevermind post below...just saw he sees Martes as a reliever .... It is Quintana. It isn't much a slight on Martes. Pitchers are just harder to project and I believe he's one of the guys that puts more value in position players than most due to this.
http://2080baseball.com/reports/francis-martes/ Report on Martes from a 2080baseball.com writer who saw him in the AFL Power pitcher. Polished beyond his years; fastball/curveball combo play right now in the big leagues and present two well-above-average pitches to dominate big league hitters; changeup shows flashes of being at least an average third pitch. Potential frontline starter fronting a championship-caliber rotation. If changeup can be even just a tick below average pitch, will be separator between dominant ace and a #3 type. Could make a case for him getting to a #2 starter.
Derek Fisher...what's everyone's take on him? Has always been described as having a sweet swing and being a pure hitter, but he never hit .300 in college and the strikeouts are quite high. He's shown he can take walks, is it a matter of him being too patient and getting too deep into counts or does he really have contact issues? Started to turn things around in AAA, but I have some major concerns about him...
Reliever? He has three solid pitches and has good stamina. I don't see him being a relief pitcher unless it is a last resort.
Baseball Prospectus Top 10 Spoiler 1. Francis Martes 2. Kyle Tucker 3. David Paulino 4. Franklin Perez 5. Forrest Whitley 6. Miguelangel Sierra 7. Ramon Laureano 8. D.J. Fisher 9. Teoscar Hernandez 10. Daz Cameron Others of Note Garrett Stubbs Jonathan Arauz Gilberto Celestino J.D. Davis Dean Deetz (The question BP poses: Could he be a closer?)
I don't know of anybody calling him a pure hitter. Offensively his upside seems to be good year Colby Rasmus, good speed, good pop, strikes out a ton. Unlike Rasmus, most scouts don't like his defense, and he has a sub par arm. Any prospect that has a low average/high K rate combo isn't one I value all that highly. He does walk , but I'm just not sure he'll be able to carry a high enough average make him a plus hitter. That could change if scout are misreading his defensive value (he is really fast, maybe he still has plus range despite bad reads), but he seems to be an all bat prospect right now.
The pure hitter descriptions are from his draft scouting report and high school report. Obviously he hasn't lived up to that billing.
Fisher's offensive upside is a lesser Springer. Low-avg, high power, some speed (although game speed plays low). Defensively, Fisher being an average LF is about the max of his upside.
They're consistently the high people on Miguelangel Sierra. Sickels had him down at #20. The only big top prospects list left is Fangraphs I guess, but AL West is going last in his series.
Yep..because people not wanting to trade a young MLB pitcher who was above average last year in his cup of coffee, and the top two prospects is the same as one high risk high reward prospect.
How do they differentiate between amphetamines and meth? That's a shame, I had hopes for that guy eventually.
Thanks. I was thinking along the lines of the MLB testing protocol, where one may be considered a PED and the other a "drug of abuse".
Amphetamines (greenies) were the drug of choice back in the late 60s, early 70s. Not sure when they became a violation.
??? I know. "Leaded" and "Unleaded" coffee in the clubhouse. There are different kinds of uppers these days, I don't know how MLB treats, say mollies (recreational drugs), versus prescription drugs. So I asked. If anyone knows the ins-n-outs of their drug program I'd be interested to know.