Abraham Almonte
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During the ROOT telecast they gushed about Abraham Almonte on Monday afternoon (in May - Dr D). They quoted a notable scout saying, "Almonte is good enough to be in Seattle right now," which is scout-speak for "Almonte could step into the lineup in Seattle and improve their team immediately."
There isn't much in Almonte's statline to go off. If you just joined us, the Mariners took him back from NYY for Shawn Kelley, and he's never been an org top-10 prospect. He is 24 and has hit .264/.343/.391 in 8 minor league seasons, with an EYE around 0.60; we told you there wasn't much there. It's an important excuse that his 2010 season was lost to a shoulder injury.
That said, some players are scouting projections, guys who don't do much and then, at such and such an age, "suddenly" blossom. Garrett Jones spent 11 seasons in the minors with stats about like Almonte's, and then suddenly slugged .567 as a 28-year-old rookie. Raul Ibanez. Ryan Howard was a laughingstock, in Seattle, until he became an MVP. Jason Varitek. Jose Bautista, pretty much. You don't have to be a sabermetric player. Org's chase the dream on physically-gifted players.
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BaseballHQ didn't even have Almonte in their book this winter. The year before they gave him an "8E" grade, slim chance at being a major leaguer with a cap of "above average regular."
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Supposing for a second that the scout is right, and that Almonte is some sort of 5-tool late bloomer, what are we talking about here?
Kirby Puckett body. Almonte's a short, stocky guy, quite fast, and plays CF. Naturally, a bunch of sabermetricians assure you that he won't play CF in the majors, as they did with Michael Saunders. Maybe it's true with Almonte; I wouldn't know. He played CF for the Rainiers in their 11-10 win on Monday.
Almonte looks kind of like Trayvon Robinson physically; his swing and stats don't.
Strong "hitter's box" swing. Going off YouTube, he seems to have a Jim Thome type of swing in which he revolves his entire body to the ball as a unit, "bludgeoning" it two-handed as if he were swinging a sledgehammer. It seems to give him a natural plate coverage, as Thome had, since he's not "whippy." He just kind of moves himself to the ball ... I dunno what I'm sayin'. His swing isn't long, how's that.
He adjusted to the PCL in a real hurry. All he's doing is "see ball, hit ball" which was Kirby's approach.
Batspeed. Everybody gives Almonte credit for a real quick bat, which is very unusual as it intersects with the paragraph above. But, yeah, that's his calling card -- a Jim Thome type of "hitter's triangle" yet with quickness. I'm intrigued by the convergence of:
- "Chesty" swing, with good zone coverage, and patient approach
- Quick swing
- Scout's gushing
I dunno. It was a bizarre thing to hear on TV, so that's what YouTube had to add to the discussion. It's possible that Almonte is hitting .400 because he's suddenly overmatching the pitchers, as the scout seemed to believe.
I'll believe Almonte when I see him -- hit like Kirby in the AL, that is - but he's off to one whale of a start in the PCL.
Cheers,
Dr D