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This one should generate a bit of discussion. Wisdom somewhat emerging, Gorman and Nunez, Montero etc. How do you rank them?
Memphis – Patrick WisdomSpringfield – Evan Mendoza
Palm Beach – Elehuris Montero
Peoria – Nolan Gorman, Yariel Gonzalez
State College – Edwin Figuera, Stanley Espinal
Johnson City – Liam Sabino
GCL Cardinals – Raffy Ozuna, Josh Shaw
Dominican – Malcolm Nunez, Ramon Mendoza, Francisco Hernandez
Let the games begin
The system is jammed with 3B prospects and there are some impressive names there. Don’t discount JC third baseman Liam Sabino. Yes, he’s a 35th rounder this season, but what I like is that he looked like a 35th rd. pick at GCL. When he moved up to JC his offensive numbers nearly doubled in each category. He has cut down on his K/AB rate and hasn’t committed an error in the field.
I’m not saying his projection is up there with Gorman or Montero but it looks like he’ll move up to SC in ’19.
RANKING of team’s most used at 3B.
Gorman
Montero
Nunoz
Mendoza
Wisdom
Figuera
Sabino
OzunaYGonzalez plays many positions; Espinal plays both 1B/3B; Shaw has played mostly 2B. This was tougher than I thought…. too much projected talent and on the field as well.
Gorman
Monteiro
NunezI dont want to even think aboit the possibility st least 1 of those 3 isnt our 3b of the future!
Gorman I think will stay at third. Starts next season at Peoria, could move fast.
Montero ia a hitting machine. Not sure if he’ll stay at 3rd. I’d say he’ll start at AA.
Nunez defensive numbers were good. Can’t wait to see him play in the States.
Mendoza I think will improve next season. Should start at Memphis, unless Wisdom is still there.Montero has played all his minor league games at 3B or DH. I know that the defensive numbers are shabby but he has the perfect build for third, 6′-3″. Would you be suggesting 1B or OF?
He can make better progress up the system at first.
I think it may be Gorman, Nunez, and Montero. Nunez is only 17, and he doesn’t strike out Seems to have good bat control. Gorman is 18 and has power. Montero seems to have emerged this year as having some power after a couple of years with little power. But, he is a couple of years older.
Right now, it’s all Gorman. But, Nunez is interesting at 17.
1) Montero (top 40 overall prospect)
2) Gorman (top 50 overall)gap
3) Nunez (top 150, maybe even 100 if you squint)
big gap
4) Mendoza (top 300 perhaps)
Very Large Gap
all others
I would take issue a bit with your characterization of Montero’s defensive numbers, Nyq. Too many errors, and the E/DP ratio is below average. But his range appears to be above average, as his annual defensive runs saved are in fact very solid, every year, per the Baseball Prospectus site. To wit:
2015 +7 runs in 57 games
2016 +3 runs in 61 games
2017 +3 runs in 52 games
2018 +3 runs in 103 Peoria games
2018 + half a run in just 16 Palm Beach tiltsFive stops, five positive run values. While I suspect that Gorman is the long term resident at 3rd, I don’t think we should dismiss Montero out of hand. Could be that Gorman is agile enough for the keystone, based on what I saw a couple weeks back. Never can tell.
You can’t dismiss Mendoza entirely. (If you read the Shore interview with him) He has recently won defensive awards for his play at 3B in both the FSL and TL. He is taking some time to adjust to AA pitching but he may surprise us.
Top 40 overall for Montero? That’s aggressive.
I like Mendoza a lot too. The top 3-4 guys are all probably in the Cardinals overall top 20. Could Mendoza shift over to 2B? He is 6’2 / 200 lbs, but the bat would play better there. He’s made 9 starts at SS this year for Springfield.
You’ll find that Figuera is really a middle infielder pushed to 3b because of Perez at ss and Dunn at 2b.
This is from VEB’s weekly story on the affiliates:
Player of the Week
Liam Sabino (INF/OF): .467/.543/.733, 5 R, 6 2B, 3B, 5 RBI, 4 BB, 6 K, HBPSabino was drafted in the 35th round of the 2018 draft and was assigned to the GCL Cardinals. Sabino struggled through 81 PA in the GCL, putting up 64 wRC+ in that span. He was promoted to Johnson City in early August and has dominated the competition since, with 198 wRC+ through his first 53 PA. This week, Sabino put up six consecutive multi-hit games and collected 14 hits on 30 AB. Seven of those 14 hits went for extra bases. Sabino is showing great defensive versatility as he’s logged time at first, second, third, and both corner outfield spots.
Too soon to say much on Sabino as he has only hit at one level and he is 2 years older than most of the league.
I still like Mendoza, even if the bat hasn’t progressed at Springfield just yet. He’s just a few days off from this being his age 21 season and the defense appears to be legit. He’s had two dominant stints at two different levels so it’s possible he’ll just need to adjust to higher level pitching and take off again next year. Perhaps he’s a David Freese with better defense in the future.
As for the overall, I’d say Gorman, Montero, Nunez, Mendoza, Wisdom, Sabino. The rest, we will have to see. But the future at third looks good.
I wonder who will play 3B at Memphis next season if Wisdom is elsewhere (either Stlouis or ? ).Mendoza is still finding his footing at AA but he is supposed to be a very good defensive 3B ( Kenny Reitz type) who could possibly develop a little more offense as he get older.Still I think Memphis could get by with a defensive 3B who might possibly give you 5-8 HRs 50 RBIs and .260-.270 .
Young was drafted as a third baseman and has started there in 40 games in his 3 pro career seasons. Because he is so versatile, he was moved around to accommodate other infielders. Always an option there.
We already have as possible infielders at Memphis Sosa, Sbrock, Urias, and Edmond. One of them can easily slide over to 3rd. Young may or may not be ready for Memphis. Not a great concern I dont think
Top 40 for Montero will likely be aggressive compared to other outlets, Pads. But I see no reasonable alternative.
At 19 he’s won the Midwest League batting title and the league MVP award, and moreover when he was promoted to the Florida State League a couple weeks back, he was on pace to be the first teenager in the 56-year history of the MWL to lead in both batting and extra base hits. (And don’t forget, he also hit very well last year and was an All-Star in the GCL.)
Additionally, he’s played in two pitcher’s parks this season. Montero’s road OPS was 55 points higher than home at Peoria, and is 85 points higher at Palm Beach. So even his outstanding overall numbers may be underestimating his current true talent.
In other words the bat projects as elite. And as cited in a previous post above, Montero’s glovework has garnered positive run values 5 out of 5 possible times, per the metrics at Baseball Prospectus. This by no means guarantees he’ll be a good major league defender at 3rd base…but to me it strongly implies that despite his error totals he at the very least is not a poor defender right now, and probably pretty good in fact.
And if all that weren’t enough, there’s one other positive marker for success. Eleh’s plate discipline at Peoria was markedly stronger down the stretch, as was his power.
First half: .307/.359/.483 with a 16/56 BB/K, excellent for a teen in the MWL, but blah strikezone control.
Second half: .347/.416/.604 with a 17/25 BB/K, great numbers for anyone of any age at any level or league.
I’m just another internet blowhard, mostly. But you are very kind, Pugs. Thank you for the sentiments.
Robert,
I’m a bit late in getting back to this. But, I am curious as to why Montero would be ranked above Nunez or Gorman.It appears to me that Montero blossomed somewhat this year at the age of 20 (birthday in August). Prior to this year, he had not really been an offensive force. I think he had nine total home runs in three seasons until hitting about 17 this year. I don’t know what the increase in power is due to. Maturity?
Gorman seems to have the power game down at age 17. He kind of exploded on to the scene. If he is a third baseman, an 18-year old with that much power at JC and Peoria would seem to be on a rapid pace to high success.
I am just as intrigued by Nunez for other reasons. He is only 17, and he had a good year. He had a very good K/BB ratio as compared to so many of the strikeout artists that we have now. He had a good year for a 17-year old.
Neither Gorman nor Nunez seemed to need a couple of years to develop their offense.
RememberDiz, I am not Bob, but I wanted to note that in addition to the home runs, Gorman’s K rate at Peoria is 37.6 percent and he is currently batting .217. So more work is clearly needed. Nunez and Montero will both be MVPs this season, but the DSL is a looooooooong way from the Midwest League, which in turn is a long way from St. Louis.
It is great to have three good 3B prospects to watch. And I haven’t given up on Mendoza, either. I also like Young, but I consider second base his primary position.
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