It will be interesting to see how it plays out. He's clearly raking right now. If he's struggling against high fastballs, but can hit just about anything else, I would think there's potential to be a really good role player. You can sit him against the Javier types that live at the top of the zone, and give him starts against sinker/slider RHP that might give a RHH difficulties. He could also potentially be a weapon off the bench against turbosinker relievers ala Graveman who might be less inclined to throw high fastballs. Whether or not he could justify that kind of role on the Astros without being able to play SS, i'm not sure. I think a fairly likely outcome is that he's traded this summer to some team that thinks he can be some kind of regular.
I was thinking that about Yainer Diaz.... And for those of you that say but he's a catcher that can hit!!! We can't trade him!! He's only played 18 games at catcher and 30 games at other positions including 22 at 1B. That tells you a lot of what they think about him behind the plate...
Great to see from him. One of the 5 highest ceiling prospects in the system. Really hoping he gets a good amount of time in AA this season.
Maturity is a problem. He doesn’t put in the work studying hitters or developing relationships with pitchers. They are hoping his bat translates everywhere OR with a little more maturity he embraces catching. The issue isn’t supposed to be defensive ability of tools. There are cases of guys figuring it out later, Wilson Contreras comes to mind as someone like that. He was a mess behind the plate for a long time.
He needs to figure it out quick because he will be eligible for the rule 5 draft again in the offseason. Astros didn't protect him last year. That's why I thought he might be a trade candidate. If Bryan de la Cruz can get you a Yimi Garcia rental then Diaz could also be a useful trade piece.
Was that it? I thought it was a combination of pitchers pitching to his weak area of the zone plus his weight and conditioning. I really liked him, and I love tall, L/L power hitting 1B.
The Hooks win today 17-4. Wilber Abreu goes 2 for 3 with 4 walks. Yanier Diaz goes 3 for 4 with 3 walks. In total the NW Arkansas pitchers walked 16 batters
Luis Guerrero was 2-46 through the first two months of the season for Corpus. He went 2-4 with a homer and scored 4 runs.
I thought Guerrero had a chance for a breakout this season. He’s tooled up and they played him at 5 different positions last season. He has a good combo of power and speed. But he hasn’t played consistently this season and it looks like when he has played he’s been timid. Hopefully he starts getting consistent run and adjusts to the higher level.
I liked him too, and the conditioning and lack of awareness all were part of the same issue. He didn’t handle adversity or setback well at all. Most people can handle some degree of stress or failure without quitting or emotionally or mentally shutting down but some like Reed and Appel couldn’t.
