Your point is well made. Pitchers tend to "catch up" to unfamiliar players. I am optimistic though. All the signs point to him being special.
Eh, not at all the same. Alvarez has destroyed the minors and has prospect sheen. Hitters that do that tend to be realllllly good bets. This pretty clearly isn’t lightning in a bottle, it’s just who he is. Nobody is going to have a 1.500 OPS full time, but he’s going to be really good. Saw something that said that the numbers he had in AAA basically are such that guys who do that don’t bust. This start isn’t a mirage or fluke- it’s just continuation of that.
Exactly. His HR Tuesday night was unbelievable. For almost any other hitter, that doesn’t leave the park. And the oppo bomb he hit last night was amazing. Is he going to homer in 75% of his games? Probably not. Is his walk rate going to be this high? Probably not, but based on his minor league stats, this guy is going to be special.
White had a 1.013 OPS in AAA. Alvarez had a 1.184 OPS in AAA. Since Alvarez is only 21 however that's a much higher projection. MLB pitchers will figure out how to pitch him and he'll probably struggle for a bit. I do really like his eye for the ball and he doesn't look like a deer in headlights the way Tucker did. It will be interesting to see how good he'll end up being in the bigs, but so far it looks very promising.
I think at worst, he is going to be a poor man's Aaron Judge. He's proven that he has the same power because that's measurable. He's also shown in the minor leagues and in the majors that he is more patient at the plate than Judge so he will walk more. Yes, pitchers will figure him out and I think he will have issues with pitchers that can throw some heat, but at this point it's pretty safe to say, he's going to be a good to great major league hitter. Edit: BTW, Aaron Judge never had the power or OBP that Yordan has shown in the minors. His stats were worse. I'm really surprised that Alvarez's prospect rankings weren't higher considering his measurable power. Maybe he just found it with the ~15 pounds he gained in the last year.
The real kudos goes to Luhnow. Who knows how bad Alvarez would have been had Jeff not left him down an extra few weeks to “work on some things”?
While you may be sarcastic, the reality is that the kudos actually do go to Luhnow. As a result of holding him down, Alvarez will be an Astro for an extra year.
Am i missing something or has yordan not had a blurb on espns home page? I have been looking for one but the wander franco article has been up for a week and kuechel gets love but no write up on yordan. I may be wrong so link the standalone article.
In this ballpark, he should hit 50+ dingers multiple years. I mean like 5-10 seasons. This guy really looks special.
