.
Q. What's this stuff about Almonte having a real high ceiling?
A. Mojician sez,
.
.
What Stearns was thinking of, I believe, was (1) his opinion that Almonte has a plus glove in CF along with (2) a Boggs/Gwynn/Ichiro type of plate coverage. The plate coverage does make Almonte look like a VERY tough out sometimes.
Multiple All Star games, eh. Imagine what Almonte looked like in the box? Like he could hit absolutely anything.
Q. Wade Boggs? Ichiro? Huh?
A. Take a look at this base hit. Almonte sits on his back leg in Wade Boggs "Weight and Wait" style, taking a LONG look at the ball. Then, despite the fact that Almonte is leaning up the 1B line (guessing inside location), he is able to take a high-and-up fastball hard the other way. Remember Ichiro doing that?
Almonte hit .300/.400/.500 at Tacoma last year, looking at times like he was overmatching those fringe-MLB pitchers. I imagine that's what Stearns was seeing.
.
Q. So why did he strike out 25% of the time in his visit to Seattle?
A. Right. He doesn't have the performance record to justify Boggs-type expectations. But then again, he's a VERY late bloomer, for other reasons.
Almonte was jumping at the ball, to some extent, in his first look at the bigs. Understandable! This kind of hitter can really hit his stride when he's taking the ball hard the other way. His swing-and-miss rate was only 8%; there may be a bread-and-butter game out there for Almonte, that he hasn't quite found yet.
Very possible that he needs to relax into a Wade Boggs Lite approach, smacking line drives to LF and letting the HR's come. He did pretty good for a nervous rookie, stayed relatively calm.
.
Q. Can he play a good CF?
A. Gordon says he can; that's the best information you and I will get. Here is
a G-Money quote from last May. Gordon's main caution is simply that Almonte gets hurt a lot, which makes sense in view of his Charles Barkley frame.
I'd be very surprised if he stole bases effectively. It's not like he's going to play any kinda Michael Bourn game out there, I don't imagine. He's a different kind of player - in the UP scenario he creates a real "hard" 5.0 runs per game, and plays an average/solid CF. But do you think that Brett Gardner could make the 2014 M's roster?
A 3-4 WAR player, making league minimum, now yer ...
(Peanut oil gets real hot; you "flash cook" with it. We went to Five Guys last week; they use 100.00% pure you-know-what. The fries were sensational. Zduriencik's prospects, unfortunately, have been soaking in room-temperature canola oil with the heating elements shorted out.)
.
Q. If he's so talented, why didn't we hear about him earlier?
A. About 30% of readers probably don't know this story ...
severe alcoholism had been retarding his career. Fascinating, to me, that Franklin Gutierrez is in his Bible study group. Almonte has a "touched by an angel" story as to his shoulder healing ... maybe he and Gutierrez should each pray for the
other's health ;- )
.
Q. How about as a 4th OF?
A. Almonte is going to get a long look from the Mariners; that much is a guarantee. He's already BEEN in Safeco and played well, and nothing bad has happened since.
We'll see. This one isn't going to be decided by blog vote. He'll go out and play, and his career will find its level. Sooner rather than later. If Almonte makes the team, as a backup, and he plays like Brett Gardner, then he's going to replace a starter eventually.
BABVA,
Dr D
Q.
