I would love to see Montero up and platooning, starting tonight. Alas, it is less that Hart isn't going to play much RF than it is we're still not convinced that Smoak isn't a RHB mini-masher. Each RH homer he hits just further anchors him as a fulltime !B. The fact that his "improved" RH bat is whacking at a .246-.283-.421 rate right now gets missed. He's walked twice and K'ed14 times as a RH batter. Basically this season mirrors his career averages from the right side, except for an extra homer.
But he's going to be in there all the time. I've grown to accept it.
were he a 1st year guy and we were still hoping to find a plateau leap I would worry less about it. Alas, there's no leap coming.
He has increased his LH OPS from .723 (career) to .764. I suppose that is a mini-plateau. He is on pace for 105 RBI;s, though. That's a fine number considering he isn't batting behind a bunch of OBP heroes.
As soon as Saunders can roam around CF, replacing Gillespie with Montero would be a fine move.
Misty water-colored memories are all most of us have of Mr. Zero Expectations back when he had Expectations that were Non-Zero.
But all you have to do is pull up his player page on trusty baseball-reference.com and it smacks you right in the face:
- Baseball America 2010 No. 4 prospect
- Baseball Prospectus 2010 No. 4 prospect
- Baseball America 2011 No. 3 prospect
- Baseball Prospectus 2011 No. 3 prospect
- Baseball America 2012 No. 6 prospect
- Baseball Prospectus 2012 No. 7 prospect
- MLB.com 2012 No. 12 prospect
People would go … “OK, Bryce Harper, and this Trout kid the Angels have is lookin’ really good. And, of course, Jesus Montero.”
It was just natural to consider Montero an instant MLB hitting star. And not just by shlubs hacking away at their home computers. These guys are supposed to be the super-genius class, and they repeatedly slotted Montero at the very top with Stephen Strasburg and Trout and Giancarlo Stanton (he was still “Mike”) and Harper … and ahead of Jurickson Profar and Manny Machado and many many more.
In fact, the Expectations were about as Non-Zero as they come.
But it’s been a long three years.
Full article at MarinerBrainstorm.com here.
Home page here.
Comments
Moe, I think Lloyd is going to make Saunders PROVE himself for another month before he gets any full time playing in CF... so until then, we will have an unsettled OF.
I wonder how much more rope / opportunities Romero and Gillespie have though...