June 25, 2015

What Scouts Are Saying

June 25, 2015

by Baseball Prospectus

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Many of our authors make a habit of speaking to scouts and other talent evaluators in order to bring you the best baseball information available. Not all of the tidbits gleaned from those conversations make it into our articles, but we don't want them to go to waste. Instead, we'll be collecting them in a regular feature called "What Scouts Are Saying," which will be open to participation from the entire BP staff.

Orioles Low-A 3B/DH Jomar Reyes: “I just love his approach. I mean it's an extremely mature all-fields approach, and it's rare with a guy like him. Big-bodied kid, 18 years old. You normally see kids with his type of strength try to yank everything and get big. He stays on the ball and loves the right-center gap. He's going to hit.”

Athletics Double-A 3B/DH Renato Nunez: “One guy I liked a lot in my recent stop in the Texas League was Renato Nunez. Had seen him last year and thought he might struggle against better arms, and he has. But he’s a young kid with a good foundation. Works hard, takes instruction. His aggressiveness is going to take a while to tone down into a usable approach, but I think the hit [tool] can end up playing better than he tends to get credit for.”

Rangers Double-A C Jorge Alfaro: “He’s exactly the kind of guy that needed every last pitch of developmental experience he’s going to miss now because of the injury. Skills are still there, with the power and the arm, but he just wasn’t improving at the rate you’d like to see. The receiving, the footwork, the game-calling, the approach at the plate—all very raw still. He really needs the reps, that injury was a real shame.”

Marlins Low-A RHP Tyler Kolek: “He doesn’t look good. The body looks sloppy and the arm action remains rigid. He struggles to repeat. The velocity is down and the breaking ball wasn’t even average. You would never guess he was a first-rounder.”

Dodgers High-A 1B/OF Cody Bellinger: “If you had told me last year that he’d have plus raw power, I’d have said you’re crazy, but he does. Of course, it only plays on fastballs. He’s lost on anything that moves.”

Rockies High-A 3B Ryan McMahon: “McMahon might be the best player in this [Cal-Carolina All-Star] game. The body, the bat, the work ethic, it's all there. He'll be a guy to watch how he gets handled. He's still so young and with Arenado there they can afford to be patient, and they should. But he can be a very good major-league third baseman if they bring him up right."

Giants Double-A RHP Tyler Beede: “Beede has not looked good recently. He’s getting a lot of different advice from different members of Giants’ brass and it’s thrown him all out of whack. He’s overthinking and working slow, which I hadn’t seen him do before. He’s never been like that. He looked very uncomfortable out there.”