Notes from the Field: April 19, 2016

Franmil Reyes, OF, San Diego Padres (High-A Lake Elsinore)

Reyes has a huge body with extreme natural length and strength, but the bat remains quite raw and mechanically unrefined. There's a bunch of length into the zone, and his lower half was a mess in both looks. He'll jump between a leg kick and double toe-tap from pitch to pitch, and he opens up on stride, bailing out his front side and losing lower-half engagement. That leads to poor barrel control and a lot of weak, rolled-over contact. The raw power is easy plus, but he's got a long way to go before he'll be able to get to it consistently in game. The bat will need to carry him, as he's a true 20 runner with no second gear and poor baserunning instincts, and he doesn't show the athleticism to hold down his current RF assignment. -Wilson Karaman

Johan Mieses, RF, Los Angeles Dodgers (High-A Rancho Cucamonga)

Mieses has put on a bunch of good weight since I last saw him in August, adding strength across his chest and base. The frame retains additional projection with ample athleticism to spare. The swing hadn't made nearly as much progress in the intervening time, however, and he appeared stuck between adjustments at times. There's a hitch in his load with an aggressive, late waggle of the bat forward that he doesn't always control, leading to an inconsistent launch and added length into the zone that undermines his barrel delivery. And he both rolled on his front toe as a timing mechanism at times while also showing the leg kick I saw last year on other swings. The leg kick remains high and inconsistent as a weight transfer mechanism, and he has a tendency to get out on the front side and steep into the zone, leading to ample soft fly ball contact. Still, the physical tools tantalize: his bat speed is excellent thanks to very strong wrists and quick hips, and he creates leverage to drive the ball hard when he catches one flush. He shows outstanding natural track-and-close ability in right field, with all-out ball hawking skills. He can get too fast for the game at times and make poor decisions on in-between balls, but I'll chalk that up more to youthful exuberance. The arm pushes true plus as well, with the velocity and carry required of a right fielder, though he'll come out of his mechanics and misfire badly at times.

Hunter Renfroe, RF, San Diego Padres (Triple-A El Paso)
In a fair encapsulation of who he is as a prospect right now, Renfroe lined a low fastball for a ringing double to deep left-center in his first at-bat—and followed it up with three strikeouts. At the plate, his hands are active, and he has a small hitch as part of his load. He uses a high leg kick as a timing mechanism and has a long stroke with a lofted finish. The bat doesn’t stay in the zone long, and he has a pronounced head yank. Between that and a plan to take the first pitch in seemingly every at-bat, Renfroe often found himself in poor hitter’s counts and he swung and missed several times throughout the content. Strikeouts are always going to be part of his game, but he’s not firing on all cylinders right now. -Brendan Gawlowski

Jordan Patterson, RF, Colorado Rockies (Triple-A Albuquerque)
At 6-foot-4, 215 pounds, Patterson has an ideal frame for a right fielder. He has long limbs and while he's a bit on the thin side right now, he could develop more power as he fills out his frame. The knock on his offensive game thus far in his career has been a tendency to chase, winding up in poor counts, but I saw nothing but good at bats in my viewings. He appeared to know the strike zone well, working a few walks and only swinging at pitches he could handle. At the plate, he uses a wide base. He has above-average bat speed and enough loft in his swing to project average power or a tick above down the line. For a 24-year-old in Triple-A, he's a volatile prospect, but he's taken strides throughout his time in Colorado's system and I wouldn't be shocked if he turns into an average regular. -Brendan Gawlowski

Mike Ford, 1B, New York Yankees (High-A Tampa)
Ford has a large mature body with good strength but lacks projection. Working from a slightly open stance and with a knee tuck for load, he lets the ball travel deep as he has an all-fields approach. In BP he shows average raw pop to the pull-side and center field with good backspin on hits, but it plays to below-average in-game due to his approach and flat swing plane. He does have average bat speed, so it isn't all strength-based, so the raw could get higher in-game down the road. Defensively he is average at first, as he is somewhat stiff around the bag and isn't that great an athlete. His arm is fine for the position but wasn't challenged during my looks. He is not much of a runner as the best time I got him at was 4.34, so the bat is the calling card. As a first-base only profile, the bat won't be enough to carry Ford, limiting him to org-player status. -Steve Givarz

Manuel Margot, CF, San Diego Padres (Triple-A El Paso)
Defensively, Margot plays a strong center field. He’s a plus runner, gets good jumps, and takes efficient routes to the ball. His arm was fringe-average in the throws viewed, most notably a softly-thrown sell-out to the plate on a single to short center. Margot’s athleticism also shines at the plate. He has above average bat speed and was out ahead of every fastball he swung at. He also covers the plate well, and he lined a single to left on a fastball on the outer part of the dish. He was susceptible to spin, chasing a couple of breaking balls in the dirt. Still, he demonstrated a plan at the plate, and as a 21-year-old in Triple-A, he’s way ahead of the game.

Tayron Guerrero, RHP, San Diego Padres (Triple-A El Paso)
Guerrero worked an inning of relief, flashing a 70 fastball and a plus slider, but the stuff generally played much lower than that. His delivery isn’t violent, but his pronounced spinal tilt, deep arm action, and poor upper- and lower-half synchronization are not conducive to good command. First the good: Guerrero’s heater reached 97, sitting 94-95, with plus tail; at 6-foot-8, he gets good plane on the pitch as well. He got a couple of whiffs with the pitch, and nobody was able to square one up. His best sliders were two-plane breakers, one of which hit 90 mph and dropped off a table as it reached the plate. Now the bad: he spiked all but one or two of his sliders and his plan with the heater was to aim it down the middle and hope it moved somewhere good. There’s late inning upside here, but Guerrero needs considerable refinement.

Elniery Garcia, LHP, Philadelphia Phillies (High-A Clearwater)
Garcia had a second straight outing of shutout ball. He had good command of fastball and kept the ball down resulting in a 9:3 groundball:flyball ratio for balls in play. He threw 84 pitches in 6 2/3 innings, 56 of em for strikes, resulting in five whiffs against just two walks. While this was a positive outing for Garcia, it's unclear how much of his success is due to an offensively-challenged Jupiter squad that had been held scoreless for three straight games. -Thomas Desmidt