Daily Prospect Notes: 6/5

Daily notes on prospects from lead prospect analyst Eric Longenhagen. Read previous installments here.

Michael Paez, INF, New York NL (Profile)
Level: Low-A   Age: 22   Org Rank: NR   Top 100: NR
Line: 4-for-5, HR

Notes
Paez was the best prospect on Coastal Carolina’s 2016 College World Series championship team. He’s 5-foot-8 but has sneaky pull power to which he’s always been able to get in games despite high strikeout totals. He’s 22 and a college hitter at Low-A so his season .306/.404/.543 line needs to be taken with a large grain of salt, but he could be a big-league bench piece as a power-before-hit infielder who can play second and third base.

Austin Meadows, CF, Pittsburgh (Profile)
Level: Triple-A   Age: 22   Org Rank: 1   Top 100: 5
Line: 3-for-5, 2 2B

Notes
Meadows has started to hit after a horrendous April that ended with him beneath the Mendoza line. He’s now hitting .260 after a .300/.358/.445 May, and he used the opposite field much more during that time. Meadows had success in 2016 as a pull-heavy hitter (it’s where he gets to most of his power and that power is what made him an elite prospect), so it’s going to be interesting to watch if this new approach to contact is permanent or if it was a temporary adjustment to get him back to basics after the tough month.

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Notes from the Deep South
I spent the weekend at the NCAA Regional in Fayetteville, Arkansas, watching Arkansas, Missouri State, Oklahoma State, and Oral Roberts. There were several early-round prospects at the regional, led by Missouri State 3B Jake Burger, who is likely to go somewhere in the middle of round one. Burger had a bad infield on Friday and mixed performance in games over the weekend, showing good lateral range (he’s a 40 runner and has good straight-line speed for his size) and above-average, max-effort arm strength but poor flexibility. I do think he’ll have to move to first base at some point, but he should stick at third for a little while. He didn’t have a great weekend at the plate but showed his trademark raw power during batting practice and was very short to the ball in games. As noted, I think he’s likely to go in the middle of round one — perhaps to the Kansas City Royals.

Also of note from Missouri State was sophomore shortstop Jeremy Eierman, who hit two home runs on Friday, including a walk-off the opposite way. He’s a got a plus arm, has all-fields game power (obviously), and a chance to hit. He’ll have to prove he can stay at short, but there’s already talk about him having first-round talent for next year’s draft.

Arkansas doesn’t have an elite prospect but several who might go anywhere from rounds three to five. RHP Trevor Stephan struck out 12 Oral Roberts hitters on Friday night. He’s huge (listed at 6-foot-5, 225) and has a deceptive delivery that makes it look like the ball is exploding out from behind his glove. He sat mostly 91-94 with lots of 2s and 3s. Stephan has a cross-body delivery that allows his stuff to play up against righties, but he lacks the offspeed stuff and command to deal with pro left-handed hitters right now. He used a low-80s curveball pretty heavily. It’s average and could be above, especially if he learns how to locate it more consistently. He fits in the fifth to seventh round for me but could go higher than that if a team thinks they can coax more out of his secondaries.

Razorbacks 1B Chad Spanberger has created some third-round buzz lately with his dominant SEC tournament performance. He went 8-for-19 with five homers in Hoover. He’s a big, somewhat stiff, 6-foot-3, 235, and he has plus raw power (he has 19 homers this year). There’s a lot of swing and miss here for a first-base-only profile, though, and his track record of success is relatively short. RHP Blaine Knight was mostly 90-92, touched some 3s and 4s early.

Oral Roberts’ best prospect is catcher Matt Whatley. He body comps to Travis d’Arnaud, with a short, muscular build that isn’t overly bulky as to limit his mobility. He’s an excellent defensive catcher (potentially plus, for me) with quiet hands, a plus arm, and a good ground game. He takes aggressive, uppercut swings that have virtually zero fundamental merit, but it’s the only way Whatley can generate the kind of bat speed needed to do damage and it’s still fringey. He might yank 15-20 doubles down the line at peak, but it’s hard to envision him being more than a 30 hitter unless there’s a change to his approach. He might reach the big leagues as a glove-first backup, and he’s a better defender than most of the other college catchers in the draft. I think he fits into the fourth- to sixth-round range.

Oklahoma State has a trio of interesting prospects in senior RHP Trey Cobb, OF Garrett McCain, and 3B Garrett Benge. Cobb has pitched in more games than anyone in the history of the program and sits 90-93 with an above-average slider. He likely fits in the seventh- to ninth-round range. McCain led the Big 12 in OBP, reaching at a .494 clip. He has a unique stance, vaguely reminiscent of Craig Counsell and is a plus runner with above-average bat speed. His approach to contact leads to lots of ground balls and, provided he can play center field, he profiles as a bench outfielder. Benge, who bats left and throws right, hit for the cycle on Friday with an opposite-field home run and a triple he pulled down the right-field line. He has a natural opposite-field stroke and good feel for contact. Scouts want to see him at second base in pro ball (he has an above-average arm when he’s really stepping into a throw, but it isn’t accurate and his arm is fringey when he has to make throws from tough platforms) and have some concerns about his power translating to wood. That said, he could hit enough to carve out a bench role if he can play multiple positions. Area scouts are a bit skeptical of that, but his bat is interesting.





Eric Longenhagen is from Catasauqua, PA and currently lives in Tempe, AZ. He spent four years working for the Phillies Triple-A affiliate, two with Baseball Info Solutions and two contributing to prospect coverage at ESPN.com. Previous work can also be found at Sports On Earth, CrashburnAlley and Prospect Insider.

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Pongermember
6 years ago

How much better is Burger expected to be than a guy like JD Davis?