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You have to be impressed with this kid. His offensive #s are off the chart. AND 1 error in 42 games… 26 walks 26 strike out. It just keeps coming. Hurry to Busch, please.
Carioca started this by asking “has anyone been paying attention to this guy” on July 30th. Enough said.
Oh yeah, you got it, CC. There’s Wander Franco, and no one else is close.
How anybody above the high school level, much less a 17-year-old, can register an isolated slugging of .250+ while fanning less than 6% of the time is beyond me. It just does not happen. Well, maybe it happens. I didn’t even check! But I doubt if it’s happened 5 times in the last 20 years at any level of pro baseball.
Among Appy League guys with 180 plate appearances this year, Franco is *easily* the hardest to strike out, and also has the 4th-best isolated slugging. Crazy. (And like Nunez, he didn’t even turn 17 until March. So they’re both young-ish 17-year-olds, on top of everything else.)
As for 2019, C-27, I would think Johnson City, yes. But I’m sure the club will wait until Spring Training to see how Nunez looks. Maybe he gets the Daric Barton Treatment. You may recall that Barton –as an 18-year-old, like Nunez will be next year — was kept in Extended Spring until mid-late May or so, then sent straight to Peoria rather than a short season team. Man, I wish there were such a thing as full-season rookieball, so guys like Nunez (and Ivan Herrera and Joerlin De Los Santos and Jhon Torres and Ramon Mendoza and Adanson Cruz, et. al.,) could get at-bats in April and May against their age-peers. But then, smarter folks than I have probably considered such a scheme, and thought better of it. Maybe too much of a physical grind for the kids?
At any rate, assuming Gorman starts next year in the Midwest League, I could see Nolan getting promoted after 30 or 40 games, and Nunez inheriting the Peoria hot corner. But even if Nunez spends all of 2019 in the Appy League, he’ll still be plenty young for that level of competition.
You guys really have me excited about this kid. What…..what if we had a total freak of nature on our hands and this kid ends up making Albert Pujols look like Albert Brooks with bat in hand. I know it’s a long shot, but it’s possible we could have an absolute monster in our midst.
I agree Bob with your timeline for Nunez – the Barton tratment. Start in EST but go straight to Peoria. But the Cards have not been afraid in recent years to let guys fail in Peoria and then pull.them back when shirt season ball starts. If I remeber correctly, Kelly, Perez, and Machado all have done that.
I’m glad Robert brought up Joerlin De Los Santos because there’s another player whose production has been off the charts. The batting average is way up there among the league leaders, but so are his stolen base totals and that can’t be ignored. Our DSL teams are loaded with talent….real offensive talent. You’ve got to hand it to our talent evaluators in the Cardinal employ, they are exceptional. They’ve done an impeccable job filling two rosters with quality players.
CC, since Nunez is that close in terms of plate appearances, he is going to win the batting race. Even if they have to give him a handful of o’fers to reach the minimum, he has a 53 point lead over the second-place hitter (who happens to be De Los Santos at .362).
Now that Mercado is gone, De Los Santos leads the system with 28 steals. I had him on my honorable mentions list for August, but there was a space on my spreadsheet before his name and he didn’t get copied into the article. Definitely a player to watch.
With the DSL season ending today, Malcom Nunez won the league Triple Crown despite missing nearly half the season due to being a July 2nd signing. He finished the year hitting .415 with 13 homers and 59 RBI. #STLCards
— Derek Shore (@D_Shore23) August 25, 2018
The nice thing about Joerlin is that he’s still just 17, a half year older than Nunez. Now Brian Sanchez dominated the DSL a few years ago and he’s nothing special at JC now(an understatement), but he was also a few years older – which I remember Brian Walton harping about.
I have to admit the Sanchez and Nunez comparison had already crossed my mind, but the latter is both better and younger.
Comparing the DSL seasons of Malcom Nunez and Brian Sanchez is like comparing Ted Danson to George Costanza. Just in case, for the uninitiated:
Ted and George both lost their hair… 😉
On the baseball side, Sanchez was the 2016 DSL league MVP. A number of folks here were talking him up.
As the DSL has expanded, the quality of pitching has gone down. The league ERA this season is 4.86 vs. 4.46 in 2016.
Fair point, Brian. Pitching quality might be down some. But every DSL batter had said advantage, and Nunez did win the batting title by more than 50 points, and the slugging by around 130. And of course he’s real young.
Anyway, doing a deeper dive, the overall OPS has been climbing in the DSL lately, but only gently. On balance, and despite the cited 2-year ERA bump, the league batting numbers remain well within historic norms, so the 2018 increase isn’t enough that I’d factor it in to any individual player analysis. Recent seasons:
2018 .668
2017 .663
2016 .654
2015 .680
2014 .671
2013 .647
2012 .667As you can see, this year isn’t a sore thumb.
Nunez’ season in some ways does seem too good to be true, I know. I understand the skepticism. And if I were to have a Nunez micro-concern, it would be the fact that SO MANY Cardinal batters in the DSL had wonderful 2018 seasons (both Blue and Red teams) that just maybe their run environment(s) for some reason were particularly advantageous. Easy park conditions, markedly less foul territory, better batter’s eye in CF, whatever. Were I truly all-in on Malcom, he’d be in my top 30 or 40 prospects, rather than top 125 or so.People want to know if Nunez is for real. But honestly, I think the better question is, if this kid, as BA’s Ben Badler recently said, “is a strong, physical player with plus raw power and a huge arm at third base,” married to an exceptional track record of dominating the Cuban Junior Leagues domestically and dominating on behalf of Cuba during international competitions, then why was he not a consensus top 3 or 4 signee on July 2?
But then, people still ask how Mike Trout lasted until the 24th pick. Or Albert Pujols and Jim Thome (and a certain current Redbird star) until the 13th round.
Really excited to see what Nunez can do in the states next year. His stats are off the charts. And unlike Sanchez, whom I liked, his strikeout rate is low.
I am hoping Nunez gets an invitation to instructional camp and if so, I will be checking him out closely.
Nunoz is miles ahead of any Card’s hitters in the DSL, but of the pitchers JULIO PUELLO 6’4″ RHP is tops.
7-0 2.05ERA 1.07WHIP 74.2IP/82Ks and hitters are only batting .210 against him.
Excellent numbers. A prospect to also keep an eye on.
Several starters from the Blue team look very good. This should give them a chance to win the DSL. Playoffs start next Tuesday against Rangers1 team.
DSL Blue manager Fray Peniche has been at his job for a long time, but he may have outsmarted himself on Monday. He moved Munoz to first base and the teen made two crucial errors that may have cost them the playoff game. I bet Munoz will be back at third today.
I wonder who are the best players who played in the DSL in the last ten years? I may have to research this.
It seems Nunez has a lot going for him. Hard contact, high average, and good defense. Old school play most certainly. We shall see how he does in the States.
Is there any easy way to look at top ten OPS guys in the DSL over the 10yr to 5yr ago time frame and their stats since? I’ve tried 30-40 different ways and can’t get a thing.
MLB graduates (per MILB.com) that I recognize from the DSL since ’07. I am sure there are more though, and I did not include pitchers.
Jean Segura & Starlin Castro in 2007
Starling Marte in 2008
Odubel Herrera in 2009
Xander Bogarts in 2010
Jose Peraza in 2011
Gabriel GUerrero in 2012 (Vlad’s nephew who made recent debut with Reds)
Victor Robles in 2014
Wade Infante in 2015 (included for reference, since he has not played full season ball yet)Bottom line is it may take some time for Nunez to make it. But Nunez numbers are off the charts compared to most. Brian Sanchez’s season is the only one with superior numbers. Howevr Sanchez played a full season at 2-3 years older, and his contact rate was low. And again, Sanchez hasn’t played full season ball yet either.
Two articles today on DSL Triple Crown winner Malcom Nuñez. The 1st compares #stlcards top hitters, with Nuñez' being our DSL Player of the Year. ($) The 2nd, a free article, shows how the 17 y/o 3B man was cheated out of the rookie-level league MVP Award. https://t.co/4Pmwtf4aN8 pic.twitter.com/l2sYZEwR7h
— Brian Walton (@B_Walton) October 4, 2018
Thanks for the nice article on the MVP robbery, Brian! Must’ve been the signing bonus. Good thing the major leagues don’t work that way, or Albert Pujols would have never won any MVPs at all.
Favorite Nunez trivia:
Malcom hit more homers in 164 at-bats than the combined totals of the two DSL Royals teams in 4,399 AB’s.All the posting on the Dexter Fowler thread. and the references to the Jason Heyward trade got me thinking about the reason we traded for Heyward in the first place, the passing of the late, potentially great, Oscar Taveras. ALso, I still believe the loss of Heyward, if you want to call it that, led to the signing of Fowler.
Since there isn’t anything we may be able to do with Fowler, I decided to compare OT’s DSL year. He hit .257. Perhaps most noteworthy are his 8 triples.
Enter Malcolm Nunez in 2018. He rocked the DSL to the tune of a triple crown. As far as I can tell, NUnez’ year was unprecedented. We may not be sure what to expect until he produces state side in 2019. but a comparison to something beyond Taveras is possible. Maybe the bar is set too high, but I could see him start at Johnson City, and end up at Peoria. a la 1st round pick Gorman.
Bottom line is there is a lot to be excited about.
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