I already did an upside/downside post in another thread, so I'll do it again with the clear one. Upside is Lorenzo Cain with a tick more HR pop. Downside is the Andrelton Simmons of CF.
I've also seen McCutchen named as a comp.
Can you please let me know who comped him to Cutch so I can be sure to mock them for the rest of my life?
Cutch has been a solidly negative defender in CF his entire career. Pache is supposedly the best defensive player in the minors at any position.
Your comp of Simmons in CF is probably fairly reasonable as one of his higher end outcomes. His non-injury floor is a defensive sub 5th OFer.
Can you please let me know who comped him to Cutch so I can be sure to mock them for the rest of my life?
Cutch has been a solidly negative defender in CF his entire career. Pache is supposedly the best defensive player in the minors at any position.
Your comp of Simmons in CF is probably fairly reasonable as one of his higher end outcomes. His non-injury floor is a defensive sub 5th OFer.
He wasn't meaning on both sides, but I'm talking about Big Ben. The guy that now writes for a Twins fansided site.
Yeah I think a lot depends on just how good his defense really is. Is it young Peter Bourjos good or is it Byron Buxton/Kevin Kiermaier good? All I have heard is that he is the best CF in the minors defensively. If it really is that kind of good, his hit/power tools probably only need to get to 45/50ish levels for him to be a valuable major league piece. That type of transcendental defense can lead to some obscene WAR numbers. Kiermaier was a 7.5 win player in '15 with an OPS of .718 and an OBP that didn't crack .300.
I'm not saying that his defense is on that level. I truly don't know. But if it is, his bat only has to be below average-average for him to be a valuable piece. Now, if his bat actually becomes good too.... look out.
Yeah I think a lot depends on just how good his defense really is. Is it young Peter Bourjos good or is it Byron Buxton/Kevin Kiermaier good? All I have heard is that he is the best CF in the minors defensively. If it really is that kind of good, his hit/power tools probably only need to get to 45/50ish levels for him to be a valuable major league piece. That type of transcendental defense can lead to some obscene WAR numbers. Kiermaier was a 7.5 win player in '15 with an OPS of .718 and an OBP that didn't crack .300.
I'm not saying that his defense is on that level. I truly don't know. But if it is, his bat only has to be below average-average for him to be a valuable piece. Now, if his bat actually becomes good too.... look out.
I'll preface this by saying that I have never expected much out of him because of what I saw him do at the plate. With that out of the way....
It's hard to explain how just how good he is defensively, you just have to see it. His feet seem to instantly know where the ball is going to land in the outfield so he always takes perfect routes to the landing spot, a lot like Andruw did. Probably not as good at that as Andruw was, but he is also faster than Andruw. He also has a big time arm. I don't know what the evaluators say about it, but it certainly looks like it should be at the top of any grading scale. Every time I saw him in Rome I was blown away, I just didn't expect to see that level of skill in little Rome Georgia.
Pache seems like one of the best candidates to have another meteoric rise in the rankings. Hopefully he actually made the adjustments necessary to produce some power.
Who seems like a good comp for Pache, assuming that he does end up developing above average power? I haven't seen anyone make this comp, but would Buxton be reasonable? When it comes to speed and defense they seem very similar.
Pray that Pache learns to recognize the slider down-and-away. That kills Buxton the same way it bedevils Swanson. As for speed, Buxton is the fastest player in the majors, so that's a steep task for Pache to match.
Faster than Hamilton?
Faster than Hamilton?
I can't find the Fangraphs blog post from last year, but it had Buxton as the fastest player in the majors. But Statcast has Hamilton as the fastest with Buxton second.