Tasos Katopodis - Getty Images
8 months ago: CHICAGO, IL - SEPTEMBER 25: Salvador Perez #13 of the Kansas City Royals hits against the Chicago White Sox September 25, 2011 at U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
The Royals catchers have never been great at hitting. The are usually just good enough to be average. In 2011, it was really no different. Here are the OPS for all AL and Royals catchers over the past 5 years.
| Year | AL | Royals |
| 2011 | 0.696 | 0.693 |
| 2010 | 0.686 | 0.628 |
| 2009 | 0.724 | 0.814 |
| 2008 | 0.715 | 0.678 |
| 2007 | 0.713 | 0.663 |
| 5 Year Average | 0.705 | 0.703 |
Over the past 5 years, the Royals catchers have been almost exactly league average. The average value would have looked a little better without Jason Kendall's 0.615 OPS in 118 games in 2010. This league average trend will probably continue in 2012 with switch-hitting Brayan Pena and right-handed Salvador Perez.
I would expect to Perez to get 2/3rds of the starts and all the starts versus LHP. This playing time expectation is not written in stone, but I expect the powers to be will take a long look at him this season. Oliver projections (available at the hardballtimes.com) have him hitting a triple slash line of 0.263/0.292/0.386 for an OPS of 0.678. This value is just under about where the league average has been over the last couple of years.
For Brayan, the outlook is not as rosy. His Oliver projection has him hitting 0.241/0.282/0.346 with an OPS of 0.628. This value is in line with his OPS over the last couple of years (0.626 in 2010 and 0.652 in 2011). The key to look at here is that about 1/3 of his PA were against LHP. I would hope that Ned starts him only against RHP. He does much better against RHP (career 0.676 OPS) than LHP (career 0.603 OPS).
The two catchers look to have an OPS somewhere near the 0.675 value, which would be just below the league average over the last couple of years. What do you think? Is it more of the same with "average-ish" producing catchers? Better than league production? Worse?
0 recs | 113 comments
I don't expect much out of Sal
If he can post a .650 OPS and be great defensively, that’s fine by me.
RoyalsRetro - January 24, 2012
One person has voted "worse than league average."
SCOTT!Jack Marsh - January 24, 2012
Right now, 3 votes
And only one of those was mine. ;)
Scott McKinney - January 24, 2012
I'm the fourth
I expect Sal to be good, but not this year.
Loose Seal - January 24, 2012
There is no way
He will do worse! He will do average or better!
Themis - January 24, 2012
Mark my words
Salvador perez will finish with a BA significantly higher than 263.
Kansas City Keith - January 24, 2012
Noted
Mas Cervezas - January 24, 2012 via mobile
I wonder
If polls were put out on this site for every position on the diamond, is there a single poll where a plurality would vote for “worse than league average”? If you include SP’s, perhaps. But I doubt it for any other position. I think the Royals are likely to be below average at 2B, SS, CF and C, but I think it would likely be close for many of them.
Scott McKinney - January 24, 2012
I don't really care as long as Perez's wOBA is higher than Cain's ;)
Jeff Zimmerman - January 24, 2012
It reminds of polls showing very low approval ratings for Congress as a whole
But much higher for their own representatives.
It would be interesting to rank the Royals regulars by WAR once all the projections are out.
thelaundry - January 24, 2012
I don't know what the average production at each of those positions are
But it wouldn’t surprise me if you’re right. Escobar’s a pretty bad hitter. It’s tough to project how Giavotella will do, but 2B could certainly wind up below average. (Tho Gio could also be well above average offensively.) I don’t know what the average CF hits (I bet it’s lower than you might expect), but Cain’s projected .259/.314/.370 seems like it should be below average.
At catcher tho, I think Perez will be above average offensively. ZiPS projects Perez to hit .274/.303/.393, and I think that projection undersells his power. Most of that projection is based off of his minor league career where he didn’t show much power, but his power started developing last year and he hit some absolute bombs in his short time in the Majors. ZiPS expects 10 HRs, but I’d bet on 12-15 HRs with a slugging % a bit north of .400.
kcdc1 - January 24, 2012
Just to be clear, I’m not just talking about hitting. I’m talking about average total value overall (let’s say 2.0 WAR). Even adding in defense and positional adjustment, my bet would be that those four positions are below average for the Royals, although three of them could be very close to 2 WAR.
Scott McKinney - January 24, 2012
is 2.0WAR an (accepted) average per position
or per player?
I’ll throw 3B under the bus next season as being below league average, in trade for CF. I think there’s no way that Cain does anything but excites us all. Honestly, there’s a great chance the outfield does fantastic this year while the infield continues to underwhelm, from a WAR perspective.
ChrisCEIT - January 24, 2012
2.0 WAR is approximately average per full-time player. And since a full-time player usually isn’t going to play 162 games, then probably average for an entire position for a team would be a bit higher.
In my personal opinion, over his cost controlled years, I think Cain projects as a roughly average player. But I think in his first full year in the majors, I would expect something worse than that.
Scott McKinney - January 24, 2012
I really only asked the WAR question
because I was questioning what’s “below average” and “above average” and that .2 or so is important there.
I just have a hunch on Cain, because I want so bad for the whole Melky story to be written this year where he’s again exposed as a fat slob. He just needs to have Sabean give him 2 more years and $19M first. I totally buy into Cain being worth 10WAR over the next 5 years, but wouldn’t mind if 3.6 of them were next year, just as a fancy thought.
ChrisCEIT - January 24, 2012
I'm bullish on Cain too
Bearish on Moose.
RoyalsRetro - January 24, 2012
I'm cowish on Butler
SagehenMacGyver47 - January 24, 2012
I'm flamino-ish on Getz
Loose Seal - January 24, 2012
Flamingo-ish
that is
Loose Seal - January 24, 2012
Getz seems more like a squirrel.
Bronzillo - January 24, 2012
Getz is gay squirrel.
SagehenMacGyver47 - January 24, 2012
with buttless squirrel chaps?
Bronzillo - January 24, 2012
so Loose Seal is Flemmish on Getz?
buddyball - January 24, 2012
I feel good about Sal and Esky's chances to break 2 WAR
Escobar might not be a TTL 10 defender at SS, but he’s definitely above average. And you have to hit pretty darn badly to fail to reach 2 WAR as a full-time SS with above average defense. For reference, Jason Bartlett’s 2011 season with a 81 wRC and a -0.9 UZR registered 1.8 fWAR. ZiPS projects Escobar at an 83 OPS+.
Perez is a similar story—the positional adjustment component for an every day catcher is huge. There’s a chance that he falls flat on his face, but if Perez can keep his strikeout rate low as he has throughout his career and knock a dozen balls over the fence, he’ll hit 2 WAR. The UZR component for catchers seems like a crapshoot, but Perez is supposed to be good defensively, so that might favor him as well.
I don’t know what to expect from Cain or Giavotella. They might be good or they might be bad. Cain’s strikeout rates concern me, but he’ll hopefully be a very good defender.
kcdc1 - January 24, 2012
I don’t know that it would be difficult for Aldices to get less than 2.0 WAR. If he were only +6 defensively, rather than +10, he would have been a 1.8 WAR player last year. That doesn’t mean he’s definitely not going to hit 2 WAR in 2012, but I think it would be fairly easy for him to miss that mark, especially if the run environment isn’t as low as it was last year.
Scott McKinney - January 24, 2012
Sure, it’s possible. But I’d estimate a 70% chance that he hits 2 fWAR or higher. While his UZR score will probably regress a bit, regression (and development) should help his hitting a little.
kcdc1 - January 24, 2012
I like Escobar...
but if his defense or offense declines even just a little bit, we got issues. Big issues. And the Royals are back to trotting out a fail SS again.
Yodazilla - January 24, 2012
They did mush better in 2011 than 2010
Kansas City has what may be its ideal infield of the future, catcher of the future and two possible Gold Glove winners in the outfield right now.
I just don’t believe Salvador, will do worst at all nor our defense.
Themis - January 24, 2012
the middle infield
is pretty weak but who really looks at those postions for offensive power, you’ve got to be lanky for range and trim to turn those double plays, to me those guys ought to be hitting 8 and 9 and play like mad men on the field.
Kansas City Keith - January 24, 2012
I bet if you did a poll on "utility infielder", it would be below average
buddyball - January 24, 2012
+1
and +1
SagehenMacGyver47 - January 24, 2012
and + hands
DickHowser4ever - January 24, 2012
for reference.
Fangraphs has it’s “fans” giving Gia 1.6WAR in 127 games, Escobar 3.0 in 155, Cain 3.4 in 139, and Perez 3.3 in 130.
ChrisCEIT - January 24, 2012
I think those numbers for Escobar, Cain and Perez are nuts. I’d be shocked if any of those three hit 3 WAR in 2012.
Scott McKinney - January 24, 2012
No way Cain's getting 3.4
I could see Escobar with 3 if his hitting improves, if not then no chance. Gia’s about right. Perez…yeah, not 3.3.
Yodazilla - January 24, 2012
Not likely, but never know.
hawkinscm87 - January 24, 2012
It reminds me of the stat....
80% of drivers think they are above average drivers.
HarryL - January 24, 2012
...and something like 50% of people think they're in the top 5% at what they do in their industry.
meaning there are some seriously self-deluded people walking around.
Everyone thinks they are in possession of three qualities that most other humans don’t have: common sense, sense of humor, and being good in bed. Very few will admit to being deficient in any of these three areas and yet it’s been my experience that most people are lucky to possess even one of these attributes. (btw, I don’t have common sense, I would be the wrong person to assess my prowess in the sack, and given that I’ve been a professional stand-up comic for over 20 years, I’ll give myself a pass on whether I have a sense of humor.)
setupunchtag - January 25, 2012
We have self-esteem that makes us think we're better than others
even when it’s not so. Remember, half the US population is of below average intelligence.
I’m pretty good at common sense, or at least thinking of something sensible when we’re in trouble. You all can judge my sense of humor by yourselves. Good in bed? My wife hasn’t divorced me for being lousy in the sack, so I must be OK.
And I’m a terrible driver, one of the worst you’ve seen outside Bogotá.
Juancho - January 25, 2012
I think I am really in the top 5%
of English teachers in Spain. The competition’s not too stiff; it’s not exactly engineering majors at MIT. I’m also well in the top 5% of translators; much of my work comes from people/companies that went for somebody cheap and got a cheap job that needs to be fixed. That’s how I got the textbook translating job. As for the trilingual porn, you need to know your specific vocabulary, but worse than that, you have to think like a member of the audience and come up with translations that would appeal to him.
Juancho - January 25, 2012
I Somehow Became
Good at sex while I was married. I’m as surprised at the reviews since I’ve been single as I can be.
philofthenorth - January 26, 2012
It's an incredibly fascinating subject
The technical theory is called the Dunning-Kruger effect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
People who unskilled in an area tend to have grossly inflated self-evaluation, while the most skilled people tend to have deflated self-evaluation. And sometimes, people who are mediocre in a subject area actually have lower self-evaluations than people who are bad in the subject. The theory is that the least-skilled people are so un-skilled that they have no recognition that they’re so bad. Meanwhile, more skilled people recognize their faults and start to de-value their own talents.
Loose Seal - January 25, 2012
I've Been Aware
Of some version of this for a long time. I’m glad to see it confirmed by academia.
philofthenorth - January 26, 2012
I think Perez can end up around league average
That would be disappointing to many fans, but if he is able to stay healthy and play well defensively, that would be a pretty successful season considering his age and how aggressively he was promoted. I expect he’ll start slow, heat up with the weather and tail off at the end from fatigue and overuse. No data there, just a guess.
thelaundry - January 24, 2012
Wouldn't disappoint me at all
How many catchers are league-average in their second year? Very few, I bet.
Juancho - January 24, 2012
If he throws out a few runners at first base
Like Yadier always does, fans will love him no matter how much he stinks behind the plate.
Heck, I know fans that still love Kendall.
RoyalsRetro - January 24, 2012
I had some guy gush all over Kendall the other day.
I told him he was freaking insane and that it had been a hell of a long time since he played for the pirates. Guy called me a stupid Royals fan and walked out. I assume I won the argument because he left and he was also a dumbass.
mitchfreakingmaier! - January 24, 2012
Salvador "the savior" Perez or Sal for short
Would beg to differ.
The yankees had thier 4 horseman core of the team and now we have then in play- with re enforcements
Core players
Hosmer
Escobar
Billy
Gordon
Moose and Gia are still iffy to me as well as Cain – its yet to be seen. IMHO of course…
Mas Cervezas - January 24, 2012 via mobile
Yeah
I don’t know shit about Cain or much about this Sanchez we traded for Melky but he better not pitch like garbage for the Royals that’s the last thing we need.
Kansas City Keith - January 24, 2012
Sanchez just might be a stop gap instead of a core player
Giving Monty time to prove in AAA and possibly kelvin Herrera… Maybe JUST maybe Noel Arguelles …
Mas Cervezas - January 24, 2012 via mobile
Hoping for Kelvin Herrera to be the answer isn't prudent.
The club seems to have settled on Herrera in the pen. His injury history looks to have necessitated this.
Old Man Duggan - January 24, 2012
Sal = Posada, Herrera = Mariano
pwnd
SagehenMacGyver47 - January 24, 2012
Who knows?
I think we look pretty decent, with a mega-young catcher as starter, who is good defensively and may hit a little. Maybe even pretty well. And he sure has plenty of upside. The backup is an experienced vet who can switch-hit and is at least adequate defensively. If your starter went down he could fill in for a couple of months and keep his ERA+ above 80.
Juancho - January 24, 2012
Very astute
Mas Cervezas - January 24, 2012 via mobile
I've read many Royals fans post that Salvador Perez has huge upside
If his upside potential is huge, why is it that prospect evaluators didn’t see that. They certainly saw him as a pretty good prospect, but he never made BA’s top 100 list. And their prospect rankings (like just about all prospect evaluators) are based primarily on upside potential. They didn’t see it. Why do we? Because we liked what we saw in 158 MLB PA’s?
Scott McKinney - January 24, 2012
I'm going with the "because he plays for the Royals" response
For $500 Alex..
Mas Cervezas - January 24, 2012 via mobile
You can't bet $500 on Jeopardy unless you hit the Daily Double
… and you need to phrase your response in the form of a question.
All Jeopardy references must be made with some semblance of authenticity. Otherwise, why even try acting like a civilized society?
Bronzillo - January 24, 2012
The guy just asthetically
does it for me I don’t crunch a bunch of numbers about guys, but what I do is watch the games. It’s hard to deny that the guy has excellent bat control, good bat speed, with a monster frame you put those things together and you’re going to get a hell of a batter in time.
Kansas City Keith - January 24, 2012
Greg Schaum had been following Perez since 2008.
So I have been too. He has plenty of talent. Isn’t he projected to be something like .270/.320/.400 this year? If the trend for avg is still around .695OPS, then I definitely think higher.
royal_in_cincinnati - January 24, 2012
I think because he has skyrocketed in the last year or so
He pretty much came out of nowhere to become a good prospect, and I guess the thinking is he is still on an upward trajectory. I don’t know.
RoyalsRetro - January 24, 2012
I do think that he was a bit raw for prospect evaluators to consider putting in their top 100 lists heading into 2011.
I know Goldstein was high on him heading into the season. If the Royals hadn’t been so aggressive in their promotion of him, I think you’d have likely seen him on at least a few Top 100 lists this year.
Old Man Duggan - January 24, 2012
Lots of young, very raw players are in the top 100 every year
Especially ones who have gotten has high as High-A. And even though he’d had a full season in high-A in 2010, he didn’t make the 2011 top 100.
Scott McKinney - January 24, 2012
This is true.
But generally these very raw whippersnappers flash at least a couple of tools that you could slap a future grade of 70 or 80 on, and a lot of times those would be on both sides of the ball.
Coming out of 2010, his bat was viewed as very raw still. I don’t think you could have found many scouts/prospect analysts who didn’t like the defensive package, but I don’t think you’d have found many applying anything above a 40 on anything offensively because he’d been so raw.
Those raw players you are speaking of would typically have high-grade power or speed to go along with another high-grade defensive tool (typically arm/glove, respectively). Basing anything in Perez’s offensive profile on his 2010 would simply have too speculative for any analyst at that point in time. Obviously, I’ve been speaking in generalities out of sheer laziness, but there’s a pattern here.
Old Man Duggan - January 24, 2012
Exactly
And without any particularly impressive hitting tools (even if very raw), I don’t think it’s fair to say that he has huge upside.
Scott McKinney - January 24, 2012
I don't know that all prospects on Top 100 lists have huge upside.
In fact, I’d argue against this fact. Making a Top 100 list usually means that the player projects to be an average Major Leaguer. Alcides Escobar was #12 based almost entirely on his defense, with his bat likely limiting his prospective WAR output to 3.0 in a season even after his Gold Glove caliber defense. The two are actually very similar, as Escobar didn’t appear on a list until after his AA campaign in 2008. With raw LA players, I think evaluators are reticent to elevate defense-first prospects until they’ve advanced to the higher levels and had their mettle tested.
Old Man Duggan - January 24, 2012
Yes, not all top 100 prospects have huge upside. But my point was that never having been a top 100 prospect, it’s hard to imagine that he has huge upside.
I have no idea if this is actually true. But they’ve never said that Perez had the great offensive tools you’d expect from a prospect with huge upside.
I don’t know the frequency, but I know at least sometimes they rank very talented, but very raw Latin prospects who haven’t had particularly good minor league numbers in the top 100. Carlos Beltran made #93 on the BA list after his age 19 seasons in Low-A Spokane and Lansing where he put up a combined OPS of .723. That was all about tools and upside. He hadn’t even hit well in rookie ball at age 18.
Scott McKinney - January 24, 2012
Yes.
But even if his hit-tool wasn’t projectable yet, his glove and speed were at least 70-grade, and his arm was certainly above 50-grade. He had already flashed decent power, certainly enough to project a future grade of 40-50 onto. Also, his walk-rate was 12.35% in Low-A that season. Do the Royals have any prospects that walk at that rate?
Old Man Duggan - January 24, 2012
Yes, Beltran had some impressive tools
And that’s the point. He showed some very good raw talent, and thus potentially big upside. Perez didn’t show that much in the way of tools or raw talent, so I don’t know why we should expect huge upside now.
Scott McKinney - January 24, 2012
Again, I don't think I'm advocating huge upside in evaluating Perez.
You’re citing a Puerto Rican CFer who was draft eligible and came up in a 2nd-world environment and comparing that with a LA non-draft eligible C who was going to be more raw by default. Most of these raw LA prospects you’re citing are SS or CF who almost by default are going to be flashing plus-speed therefore bringing something to the table that a LA C cannot, a plus on the offensive side of the prospect evaluation equation.
I think, by-and-large, LA defense-first catchers are not going to be cracking that Top 100 list until they’ve reached AA as a sort of vetting process. There are very few Gary Sanchezes out there.
Old Man Duggan - January 24, 2012
I should say, 'we've cited'
Old Man Duggan - January 24, 2012
To be clear,
I voted worse than league average. I was simply making the point that he’d likely have made these hallowed lists were he not so aggressively promoted this year. I expect major regression in 2012. But expect at least a few seasons of above-average WAR from The Savior, based largely on his defense and decent offense down the line.
Old Man Duggan - January 24, 2012
That’s possible, but I don’t know. It’s not like he dominated in AA. His .756 OPS there was decent, right around league average. Does that and a nice 150 PA in the majors vault you to a top 100 prospect?
Scott McKinney - January 24, 2012
werent the royals talking about him being up soon
after the 2010/before 2011 season? and we all thought they were crazy? someone in the organization saw something
billybeingbilly - January 24, 2012
When would he have appeared on national top prospect lists?
He was an international signing at 16 years old, spent 4 years as a nondescript rookie leaguer, then he had something of an “Hey, I can hit a little” campaign in Wilmington in 2010 with a league average 100 wRC+. So the 2010-2011 offseason would have been the only time that he’d have any reason to show up on national prospect lists, but at that point, he had 4 years of crappy offense under his belt and one league average season. The one decent year showed promise, but at that point, he was more of a sleeper than a star.
Then in 2011, he showed the decent bat was real and had success at AA, AAA and MLB in a whirlwind tour of baseballs upper levels. I suspect that the prospect rankers would be all over him this offseason if he hadn’t burnt his rookie status.
kcdc1 - January 24, 2012
First, this assumes that top prospect rankings are mostly about the stats a player puts up. It’s more about tools. And they clearly didn’t love his tools. Second, the fact that he hadn’t put up much in the way of numbers should tell us something about him.
Scott McKinney - January 24, 2012
With a latin kid that’s been in the minors for years, it’s hard to see how they’d get put a prospect in the top 100 without at least decent numbers, regardless of tools. And of course, 16 year-olds don’t often put up good numbers.
Come to think of it, I’ll bet that BA’s Top 100 list has historically undervalued international Latin American signings. I bet it’s happened a lot where a kid is good for his age, but doesn’t put up numbers, and then at 19 or 20, he takes some huge steps forward and reaches the Majors in a year and a half which is too quick for BA to account for his rising stock.
kcdc1 - January 24, 2012
Just after a quick look at his MiLB wRC+, why weren't scouts higher on him?
He hit at or above league average in three of the four most-recent seasons, and he was young for the level each time.
In 2007, he had 99 PA at Rookie ball with a wRC+ of 70.
In 2008, same level, wRC+ of 133 in 95 PA.
As I look again while typing this, 2009 must have been what soured most evaluators. He started fine at the Rookie ball level, 104 wRC+ for 259 PA, then his move to A didn’t go well, 29 wRC+ in 137 PA, and they moved him back down a level.
But in 2010, he hit exactly league average in a full season at High A.
In 2011, he hit well enough in AA (100 wRC+), then again after moving to AAA (108 wRC+).
I’m trying to find some other average-ish hitting catchers to compare MiLB wRC’s with, but most of them are too old to have MiLB stats on Fangraphs. My question – is hitting around league average in the minors good enough for a catcher? We know guys like Weiters or McCann put up numbers more like 120+ throughout their minor league careers, but those guys are on a different level. The only comp I’ve found is Ryan Hanigan who put up average-ish numbers in the minors until he repeated AAA a couple times, and now he has hit league average in two MLB seasons.
SagehenMacGyver47 - January 24, 2012
The opinion that prospect evaluators have on a prospect is mostly about his tools, not his stats
Clearly they didn’t love his tools.
Scott McKinney - January 24, 2012
There are tons of prospects that don't make top 100 lists that excel in the MLB.
Isn’t is 1 in 3 top 100 prospects flame out? So why does it matter if he was or was not in any top 100 lists? He has a great make up to be a catcher. Pitchers LOVE throwing to him. He always made contact in the minors, but never took a walk. Projections have him hitting .270/.330/.400 or better this year. Why don’t you believe in the projects for him?
royal_in_cincinnati - January 24, 2012
I’m not saying that he’s not going to succeed in the majors because he wasn’t a top 100 prospect. I was just speaking to the issue of upside potential. Many Royals fans describe him as having huge upside potential. Typically prospects with huge upside potential become top 100 prospects. Perez never was. I think this speaks to the issue of whether or not he really does have huge upside potential. I think that’s an open question. Is he a supremely talented player who could become great? Or is he just a talented player who could become above average?
The best projection system whose numbers have been publicly released so far (ZiPS) has him at .274/.303/.393 I believe CAIRO projected him worse than that. Projection systems like Bill James and Rotochamp aren’t to be trusted, in my opinion. But that kind of hitting is pretty good for a catcher. But projections for rookies are very difficult. They are based on MLE’s and the little bit of MLB data that the player has. So such predictions have very wide error bars. I think it likely that he’ll underperform those numbers in 2012. One reason for this is that prospect evaluators have never loved his tools. They’ved liked them. Did he suddenly become a much more talented player in 2011? He may well have. I’m skeptical. I’d be much more willing to accept this leap if he had been described as a supremely talented, but raw prospect. He has not be described in that way before.
Scott McKinney - January 24, 2012
Also, most top 100 prospects fail
But I’m pretty sure the success rate for non-top 100 prospects is even worse.
Scott McKinney - January 24, 2012
I said league average,
And for what it’s worth, Bill James and Rotochamp (both via FanGraphs) have Perez hitting at least .283/.317/.413 with a .319 wOBA (these are the lesser figures of the two combined projections). A .730 OPS. Not exactly a world-beater, but would be better than league average.
JKWard - January 24, 2012
I shouldn't have said at least
JKWard - January 24, 2012
Well, first we give him a chance
Then we see if he gets better, stays the same, or gets worse. If he gets too much worse we send him down and use Brayan.
Just a wild-ass guess but I say Perez will have a RC+ over 90 this year.
Prospect evaluators know more about evaluating players than we do, but that doesn’t mean they must be right and us wrong.
Juancho - January 24, 2012
If sal doesn't have the bat speed...
His defense more than makes up for it
Mas Cervezas - January 24, 2012 via mobile
He does have the bat speed
Kansas City Keith - January 24, 2012
Definitely, but on what are we basing our opinion of Perez’s big upside (and perhaps that he’ll realize a significant amount of that potential)? What we saw in fewer than 40 MLB games? The stats he put up in those games?
Scott McKinney - January 24, 2012
Age
not many catchers (if any) show what he showed at that age. small sample size and whatnt, but that was ridiculous. if he was 23-24 when he did it I don’t think you’d see quite as much of the upside talk
kcgregory - January 24, 2012
My eyes saw a guy who looks like he'll hit for power.
My eyes are untrained. But that’s what they saw.
I don’t recall any scouting reports that ever projected him as a power hitter, so I’m curious whether something has changed in the last year or so or whether my untrained eyes are wrong.
kcemigre - January 24, 2012
The bat was definitely viewed as raw heading into 2011.
I’m sure his frame lent itself towards a possibility for power in the future.
Old Man Duggan - January 24, 2012
Perez is the only guy at Omaha
that I said Who the FUCK Is That? but that’s probably because I already knew who Dyson and Suppan were.
Maybe it’s unfair to give him a free pass with “upside” but he sure looks the part of a guy who’ll do much more at the plate than he has, and his age does play a factor in that too.
ChrisCEIT - January 24, 2012
You watch alot of games and that counts for something IMO.
I saw him play in AA 3 times last year and he homered all 3 times I saw him. Obviously sample size be damned, I’m bullish on him.
mitchfreakingmaier! - January 24, 2012
Nobodys even
really talking about Sal’s arm either the guys got a cannon people are gonna figure out real quick it aint easy to run on him either.
Kansas City Keith - January 24, 2012
Sal does have an elongated swing it seems
And he could very well have some tendency issues that weren’t revealed last year. And in the future, his size may become an issue with him sticking behind the plate.
But the truth is the bar just really isn’t set that high.
JKWard - January 24, 2012
In case you all don't know
Prince, is signing a 9 year contract with the Tigers. He will replace Cabrera at first and Cabrera will be DH for the tigers. Tigers have not yet confirmed. Although, it looks like it’s a for sure thing.
Themis - January 24, 2012
There is a fanshot of this on the front page
Scott McKinney - January 24, 2012
Thks, I missed the fanshot :)
Themis - January 24, 2012
Salvador Perez
Perez has the chance to be an all-star one day, and that day may not be far off.
R_F - January 24, 2012
All-Star?
Why not MVP? Why are you selling this guy short?
Scott McKinney - January 24, 2012
yadi is a very good comp in every way for sal...
and he’s a multiple time all-star…its not an extreme opinion
billybeingbilly - January 24, 2012
Really doesn't take much to be an All-star catcher
A flukey first half of a season can do the trick I would think.
RoyalsRetro - January 24, 2012
or BFIB behind you
billybeingbilly - January 24, 2012
Royals 2012 All-Star: Aaron Crow
Enough said, I think…
Yodazilla - January 24, 2012
2011*
Yodazilla - January 24, 2012
If Ken Harvey can be
Anything is possible
RoyalsRetro - January 24, 2012
Can we all just agree Brayan Pena will have a breakout season?
hawkinscm87 - January 24, 2012
Look at that smile and tell me that he WON'T have a breakout season
Yodazilla - January 24, 2012
better than league average if Max Ramirez gets significant at bats
marbotty - January 25, 2012
Only if "produce" only means hitting
Scott McKinney - January 25, 2012
ramirez cant even hit...
he hasnt had any significant run of success since 2008 in AA
billybeingbilly - January 25, 2012
that's what i thought we were talking about
marbotty - January 25, 2012
thats still crazy talk
billybeingbilly - January 26, 2012
My early guesses:
Perez – 550 PAs, .250/.276/.347/.623 – ~.269 wOBA
great defense
Manny Pina or Brayan Pena – 150 PAs .250 wOBA for Pina, .278 wOBA for Pena.
stlfan - January 25, 2012
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