1
I would say yes probably.
Hes a tools guy with scouts raving about his in-game hitting skill.
Great signing.
Is Esteilon Peguero Already the No. 4 Prospect?
Fun facts to know and tell about the 17-year-old Dominican:
- Esteilon Peguero was considered the No. 1 Latin American prospect available this year.
- Peguero got $2.9M, the 4th-highest Latin American signing bonus ever. Bigger than Felix, Miguel Cabrera, Roberto Clemente, anybody -- except for Michael Ynoa, a 6-7 RHP signed by the A's in 08 and is now out with TJ surgery ($4.25M); Miguel Sano, a 3b signed in 09 by the Twins ($3.15M); and Gary Sanchez, a C signed in 09 by NYY ($3.0M), all of whom acquitted themselves well in their first teenage action stateside (before Ynoa's injury, that is).
- Peguero's $2.9M is the 4th-highest Mariner signing bonus ever -- behind The Talented Mr. Ackley ($6M), Ichiro ($5M) and that guy who can't crack the Pirates roster, but was an awesome HR-hitting catcher at the time ($3.4M).
- Most consider that Peguero would have been a top-10 draft pick had he come out of a U.S. high school.
- The M's Dominican scouting group that signed Peguero also identified and signed Michael Pineda and Guillermo Pimentel. Pimentel had 7 doubles, 6 triples and 6 HR in 51 games for a .451 SLG at age 17 in rookie ball, but it's best we gloss over his eye ratio.
- Jason Churchill opines re E. Peguero:
- best Mariners international prospect since Felix
- maybe already the No. 4 prospect after Ackley, Pineda & Franklin
- should be able to play 2b in majors (though Ms say they expect him to stick at SS, but they always say that . . .)
- scouts rank him ahead of Triunfel in terms of athleticism and likely strength; Triunfel better arm and bat speed, but it's close
- scout sez: "Esty's swing is fluid, and, boy, BP is fun to watch."
So, here is BP to watch:
Never tried to embed YouTube before, but maybe that will actually work. If not: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1mgu3P2p-U
And some very brief fielding/throw, then more BP: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuVO79c3ekI
After the Top 3, I would rank the No. 4 prospect to be "whomever gets taken with the No. 2 pick" (which I presume to be either Gerrit Cole or Matt Purke, but there's a ways to go). BA ranked Taijuan Walker and Pimentel at 4 and 5 -- which are tools projections with not much track record to go by. If you're going to do it that way, then Peguero certainly leaps ahead of both of those two. I myself would put Josh Lueke next but some people don't give much credit to pure bullpen guys (unless and until they become "proven closers"), and there's all that other stuff too. On the field, though, Lueke was everything you could ask for.
The Top 3 + Felix + Smoak + E. Peguero + No. 2 draft pick is going to give us a lot of top-shelf talent to work with, for sure. Nice to see.
Comments
2
Willingham for a couple of middling prospects. Hard to believe we couldn't beat the offer by the A's, we must not have been interested in solidifying LF. I guess we are going to go with Bradley and Saunders.
3
So he's probably in line to make at least $6M or so. Odd to see Oakland more willing to take on salary than the Ms, but this seems purely economic.
Given Z's comments, I do not think they will go to Opening Day without bringing in another player or two to challenge Saunders -- just cheaper ones.
4
Let's go with assuming he'd be a top 10 draft pick if he'd been a domestic selection, as the scout suggests.
Last year there were a couple of SS drafted in the top 10 picks of the first round.
Machado was out of HS, drafted #3, and Baseball America ranks him the #1 prospect in the Orioles' system.
Christian Colon was a college player (age 21) drafted #4, and BA put him at #6 in the Royals' system, behind a trifecta of interesting hitters in Hosmer (drafted #3), Myers (3rd round catcher who CRUSHED the MWL at 19 better than Nick Franklin) and Moustakas (#2 pick who ripped AA & AAA limb from limb). I wouldn't have put Colon any higher than that either.
Michael Choice was an OF selected #10 by the As. BA ranks him as the #3 player in the As system, behind Grant Green and Chris Carter. Also a very defensible move.
#1) Ackley
#2) Pineda
#3) Franklin
#4) Peguero
Yeah, I can definitely see that working out that way. I'm not the sort to just bump a kid to the head of the list based on his draft status, but Peguero looks good in ways that most latin teens do not. Please let him know how to take a walk, or be willing to learn...
Knowing we're adding another top talent to the system the second we draft in June, and even ANOTHER if Paxton signs...we're doing all right on this whole restocking thing. It's so nice to have a GM who values cheap talent and doesn't want to supply the rest of the league with all the worthwhile talent we sign.
I would rather have a "we have to trade Richie Sexson because Jim Thome is blocking him" situation than the tumbleweeds that have been rolling through our prospect development halls for the last decade.
~G
5
The sobering thought here is Triunfel, whose career hopes are by no means dashed against the rocks, but they're definitely more subdued than they were a coupla years ago.
Pile guy after guy like this into the system, and eventually you strike it rich on one or two and manage some reasonable production out of a handful of others. The way of thinking that has a limited number of options for a given position on the diamond is archaic at best, and simply foolish at worst. If you're good at finding and developing starting pitching, then focus on that and trade excesses for things you aren't as good at (like, say, MIF's or catchers?). If you never develop an excess, then you're doing something very wrong.
We need some excesses. We've got an excess of AAA-level talent right now, which is great, but we've got to convert some more of that into ML-roster contributors (like with the Cleto/Ryan trade, at the very least).
The M's haven't had an honest-to-goodness excess at a position since I've been following the team. Which has been a decade. We came close when we had Nageotte, Blackley and a few others in the high minors and a strong ML rotation, but even then we never did anything with it except allow attrition to destroy their collective value.