Prospect Insider - M's out front for international star

M's out front for international star

By Jason A. Churchill

By 03-23-2011

A source tells me this week that the Seattle Mariners are the early but heavy favorites to ultimately sign Dominican outfield prospect Ilian Hernandez when the July signing period begins. I don't have a ton of reliable information on Hernandez as a player, but was told that he certainly looks the part.

Hernandez is expected to command among the bigger bonuses of the summer.

m\'s-out-front-for-international-star

Comments
The following 25 comment(s) for this article are shown below:

1. By: brockfs1 on 03-23-2011 15:10:10
Sweet! Good work Jason.

2. By: Adam P. Boyd on 03-23-2011 15:10:48
Sweet. Engle has been on fire, like always.

You and the PI crew has been killing it all spring too, JAC, keep up the ownage.

3. By: rhettfieldsted on 03-23-2011 17:56:09
well the fourth highest link when you google this guy's name is spanish for "the sensation of the block" so hey...all signs point to stardom

4. By: 24fan4life on 03-23-2011 18:23:42
Off topic a little. I think all the Steve Baron doubters should look out. At this point I have full trust in jack and crew.

5. By: rjfrik on 03-23-2011 21:04:01
I was and am a doubter. He is still in A ball. Until he at least makes it to AA I will still doubt the selection. But he had a good spring. Maybe the complete overhaul of the swing will work. We shall see.

I would love to eat crow on that pick

6. By: rocketdawg31 on 03-23-2011 21:30:09

Few have ragged on Baron in here as much as I have. And I expressed much outrage several times when Baron came into the fold.

Like rjfrik, I'm a doubter for now.

And I agree- I'd rather he makes me look dumb and becomes something the big team can get some use out of... than be someone I could point to as "See how right I was?" and straggle to a few years of a career in A-ball.

7. By: Jason A. Churchill on 03-23-2011 21:38:46
What has Baron done to remove any doubt?

The problem wasn't that he completely sucks and has zero chance to make the big leagues, the porblems is that he has a limited ceiling, is still years away and was picked before much better, safer talents with higher ceilings such as Rex Brothers, Aaron Miller, Matt Davidson, Max Stassi, Luke Bailey, Paxton, Tyler Skaggs, Billy Hamilton and Andrew Oliver.

If Baron was the 93rd player taken in the 2009 draft and not the 33rd, I know I wouldn't have said much, except maybe "good reward pick."

8. By: bavasisabum on 03-23-2011 22:26:24
Jason in your last article you said Paxton was throwing mid 90's. I was under the impression he was more of a low 90's guy. Has he added some zip on his fastball or is it just a bullpen inflation.

9. By: Jason A. Churchill on 03-23-2011 23:07:17
He was 92-96 in the bullpen session, to be clear. He was more in the upper range, though.

But this was a bullpen session, like you said, not a 90-120 pitch start. At Kentucky, he was generally 91-93, but in some instances would spike to 96.

10. By: rotoenquire on 03-24-2011 00:34:41
ANY chance Rendon falls to the M's?

11. By: Adam P. Boyd on 03-24-2011 00:46:18
There is a chance Rendon falls PAST the M's.

http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/blog?name=mlb_draft&id=6233275

An ESPN Insider article Jason wrote on how he might.

12. By: Jason A. Churchill on 03-24-2011 00:59:25
If the draft were today and the Pirates simply took the BPA, they'd probably take Cole.

13. By: 24fan4life on 03-24-2011 01:01:47
It's true, baron hasn't done anything, yet. But, look out he may just turn out better than first thought.

14. By: 24fan4life on 03-24-2011 01:05:01
Jason, who would you take if it wasn't Rendon?

15. By: Jason A. Churchill on 03-24-2011 01:12:31
Re: Baron,

My first thought was "from the sound of it, not a big league bat, backup career at best."

That hasn't changed, but I hope he becomes a superstar.

If Cole goes No. 1 and Rendon isn't an option for whatever reason, I'd go Bubba Starling or Francisco Lindor.

16. By: 24fan4life on 03-24-2011 01:25:29
Of what I've seen of Starlings bat, it looks clean and quick. I love power bats like that. Pujols is someone that has a very simple swing but creates great power.
Lindor seems like a great all-around talent and someone that would stay around even if he became a star. He just seems loyal like that.

17. By: Edman on 03-24-2011 11:22:26
I never worry too much about what you see from an kid out of high school. In some ways, depending on their talent level, it makes sense to get them into organized instruction before they get off to college, especially if they have raw tools.

We're not going to know what we have in Baron for probably at least another year. Kids out of high school are more moldable than College kids, IMHO. College ball is too much about winning and not enough about developing a kid's skills. Almost every college program is under scutiny to win, especially the major programs.

Seattle scouted Franklin well, but he's the exception, not the rule.

18. By: Adam B. on 03-24-2011 18:51:18
In regards to Zduriencik and the players drafted/acquired under his management, I think we all need to take a deep breath and hold off on the deification just yet.

Certainly the man has a long track record of successes in Milwaukee, but none of his acquired prospects--With the exception of Ackley (who was the obvious choice)--are close to being successful major-league players yet.

I'm not saying Zduriencik isn't good at what he does, I'm just saying that we're basing some heavy praise on what remains-for now, unfulfilled promise.

So before we look at a minute sample sizes of Steve Baron's offensive approach and declare it another scouting victory for ole' GMZ, we need to check the collective hubris at the door and get some more perspective.

19. By: maqman on 03-26-2011 14:11:15
I thought drafting Baron so high was a mistake but he just might turn out to be worthwhile, time will tell. As for the draft I'm hoping for Cole first and Rendon second. Starling is "advised" by Boras and committed to Nebraska as QB, so he has options and won't sign cheap.

20. By: Lailoken on 03-26-2011 17:07:19
Adam B, the book isn't written on GMZ yet. Agree on that, but writing that Ackley is the only player "drafted/acquired under his management" who is "close to being (a) successful major-league player" is selling his record a little short.

Inferring that you mean prospect-types, I'll skip past (DTFT, Aardsma, League, Branyan, Figgins, Cust, Olivo, etc.)

Smoak (25-man)
Lueke (25-man)
Wilhelmson (25-man)
Cortes (40-man)
Robles (40-man)
Chavez (40-man)
Pryor (fast track)
Franklin (fast track, already tasted AA)

Others:

French (40-man, but not that close to successful)
Roe (40-man, but not that close to successful)
Carp (40-man, but not that close to successful)

I'm sure there's more, that's off the top of my head. In two years he's added a lot to the farm system.

21. By: StandinPat on 03-26-2011 18:10:57
So Z doesn't get credit for adding young, cheap, relatively unproven talents like Vargas, Guti, Aardsma, French and Ryan for basically nothing? Sorry Adam, but I gotta call BS on your post. In a very short time Jack has added talent to every level of the organization, including the MLB level, without much int he way of resources to work with.

Prospects take time to develop so trying to call him out after only two years is a crock as well.

22. By: Adam B. on 03-29-2011 15:04:04
And I get to call your "BS" in turn.

No one here is talking about talent in general, we're talking about drafting and developing talent. Zduriencik didn't draft or develop ANY of those players, which is kind of the point.

23. By: StandinPat on 03-29-2011 17:47:43
Maybe you should go back and re-read what you you wrote

"In regards to Zduriencik and the players drafted/acquired under his management"

"No one here is talking about talent in general, we're talking about drafting and developing talent"

Actually that's precisely what you were talking about.

"drafted/acquired" does not exclude talent that was "acquired" via trade.

And again, his first draft was just over a year and a half ago. Just how many players from that draft should be knocking at the door? I count only 3 from the entire draft that have thus far spent significant time at the MLB level, and those were all college draftees as well. What of Prep players? So Nick Franklin is still a couple years away from the bigs as 20 year old with only 1 full year of professional ball under his belt and that means Jack hasn't done a good job of drafting talent?

Sorry, that still wreaks of BS

24. By: Adam B. on 03-29-2011 23:32:40
Again thank you for REITERATING my point while ignoring the gist of what I was saying.

You are correct in that I didn't specify that I meant acquiring prospects. The original post was about how people are fawning over GMZ for the talented prospects he unearthed. As you say, his first draft was only a year and a half ago.--BINGO, A+, ding ding ding!

I wasn't discussing talent in general, I was discussing prospects/minor-league players GMZ has drafted/"acquired" with an eye towards development (Smoak, Lueke, Chavez, etc...)

Re-read my post and you'll find I'm targeting my criticism towards people who are already considering players like Nick Franklin, Steve Baron and James Paxton sure fire all-stars instead of players who were selected little over a year ago and still playing in the minor leagues.

And if you're still smelling BS. then I really can't help you, because it isn't mine.

25. By: on 03-31-2011 12:16:57
"Again thank you for REITERATING my point while ignoring the gist of what I was saying."

I caught the exact gist of what you were saying, it was just quite simply incorrect and uninformed.

"You are correct in that I didn't specify that I meant acquiring prospects."

"Didn't specify" isn't exactly accurate. "Said something quite different than" is much more apt. You said "drafted/acquired" which would include players both drafted and traded for. That isn't a matter of clarification so much as it is contradiction.

"I wasn't discussing talent in general, I was discussing prospects/minor-league players GMZ has drafted/"acquired" with an eye towards development (Smoak, Lueke, Chavez, etc...)"

Those players weren't drafted by the Ms, so again we are back to square one on the whole drafted v acquired thing, as those are in fact two different animals.

"Re-read my post and you'll find I'm targeting my criticism towards people who are already considering players like Nick Franklin, Steve Baron and James Paxton sure fire all-stars instead of players who were selected little over a year ago and still playing in the minor leagues."

And this Adam, is BS. Paxton just signed(and everyone knew it would take a while) and Baron/Franklin are both prep players. To criticize this regime because their prep draftees haven't matriculated to the majors in just over a year is asinine. Most college players don't even move that fast.

Go back and look at the last two drafts and count the number of teams with multiple players knocking at the door to the majors and you'll find them few are far between, hence my labeling your criticism of the Ms brass for this BS, as is your criticism of the drafts being directed at Jack. You do realize Tom McNamara, not Jack Zdurencik, is in charge of the draft right?

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