Wednesday, January 7, 2015

DrB's 2015 Giants Top 50 Prospects: #14 Adalberto Mejia

Adalberto Mejia, LHP.  DOB:  6/20/1993.  6'3", 195 lbs.

2011 DSL:  5-2, 1.42, 76 IP, 0.95 BB%, 8.41 K%, .272 BABIP
2012 Low A:  10-7, 3.97, 106.2 IP, 1.77 BB%, 6.67 K%, .332 BABIP
2013 High A:  7-4, 3.31, 87 IP, 2.38 BB%, 9.21 K%, .277 BABIP
2014 AA:        7-9, 4.67, 108 IP, 2.58 BB%, 6.83 K%, .326 BABIP

Adalberto Mejia was signed out of the DR in 2010 at age 17.  He is a big LHP who is almost certainly heavier than his listed weight.  He showed an uncanny ability to not walk batters from the get-go.  The Giants jumped him all the way to full-season ball at age 18 for his second pro season where he again impressed with his control/command but suffered a dip in his K rate and got BABIP'd.  He then had a solid season in 2013 with San Jose interrupted by an oblique strain.  Moving on up to AA for 2014, he had a similar season to his Augusta experience with a dip in K rate and a jump in BABIP.

Mejia throws a 2-seam FB in the low 90's that he keeps down in the zone.  Despite this repertoire, he is an extreme flyball pitcher.  He also has a slider that breaks sharply when it's on and a sinking changeup he can put on the outside corner against RH batters.  He has a nice, easy low 3/4 delivery and almost looks like he is playing catch with the catcher at times.

Early this offseason, he got hit with a 50 game suspension for using a prohibited diet pill that is available OTC in the DR.  The drug is not a big deal in itself.  What is more worrisome is why he felt he needed to take something like that.   He's a big kid who looks like he might have an extra layer or two, but I saw video of him from Richmond and he did not look any bigger than in San Jose or Augusta.

He loses the first 2 months of 2015.  I think we will see him surface in Arizona in June to ramp up before moving back up to Richmond or AAA Sacramento for the rest of the season.  I think he will be OK.  He needs to get more consistency out of his secondary stuff, but it's already good when he's on.  He probably projects to a ceiling of #3 starter, much like Ty Blach.

14 comments:

  1. Nothing like a clean slate for Mejia ;-)

    Hey, #14 sure looks a lot better than #1, but these rankings don't matter anyway. The point is that Mejia and Crick have some work to do in Richmond, VA.

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  2. Stay away from soft drinks and avoid simple carbohydrates like rice, pasta and etc.

    That should help with keeping his weight down.

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    1. Great! Take away everything I crave. ;-)

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    2. I tell my patients to limit concentrated sweets to desserts at 2 meals per week, avoid sugared soft drinks and fruit juices, and avoid simple carbohydrates(anything white- white bread, white rice, white pasta, etc. Baked Potato is OK depending on what you put on it.).

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    3. I tell my patients no bread, no pasta, no coke.

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    4. Gotta add fruit juices. They are concentrated sweets and concentrated calories. Americans consume huge quantities of juice which has about as high a glycemic index as you can get. Juicing is one of the biggest health frauds perpetrated on the American public yet!

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  3. Would it be the worst thing in the world to offer Ichiro Suzuki a low salary with a decent amount of incentives to platoon in LF with Gregor Blanco? Playing part time last year he still managed to hit .284. He is only 13 stolen bases away from 500 which is a marketing opportunity and there is a huge Asian population that would pay to come see the best Asian player to put on an MLB uniform. DrB, would you be against this?

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    Replies
    1. Don't the Giants need a right handed batter to platoon with Blanco? And some power?

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    2. Ichiro is a poor man's Gregor Blanco at this point in his career. Need a RH batter if you are going to platoon. I think Maxwell just might fit that bill.

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    3. I could see adding Ichiro if he was cheap. More for the simple reason that I'm nervous about Pagan's return from injury, and Blanco may be needed in CF frequently. Back injuries frequently recur (I'm way too familiar with this), and I don't want to depend on Angel every day. Admitted, a RH bat would be great, but I wouldn't mind an inexpensive year of Ichiro.

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  4. So the Braves DFA Tyler Pastornicky should we pick him up and hope a change in scenery works for him?

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  5. i think our infield is pretty set. We also have Duffy, Adrianza and Arias. Scutaro is still technically on the roster but I think probably has played his last game and might never play again. Ishikawa can also play 1B. I just don't see the need unless they want depth and store him at AAA for a while.

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  6. BTW, there was an article today in Fangraphs about who the next Garrett Richards might be. It gets back to the old formula of velocity plus low BB%. Who should show up on the list but Adalberto. We all know about his low walk rate, but apparently he had an average FB velocity in AA of 92.5 last year with a peak of 93. Wow! If his peak is 93 and his average is 92.5, that is uncannily consistent! Maybe he needs to vary his speeds a little more?

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