Thursday, January 15, 2015

DrB's 2015 Giants Top 50 Prospects: #22 Johneshwy Fargas

Johneshwy Fargas, OF.  DOB:  12/15/1994.  B-R, T-R.  6'1', 162 lbs.

2013 AZL:  .299/.393/.351, 8 SB, 10.0 BB%, 12.2 K%, 90 PA.
2014 SS:     .240/.373/.329, 3 HR, 15 SB, 11.5 BB%, 13.0 K%, 208 PA.

If anybody out there knows how to pronounce this guy's first name, let's hear it.  Until I find out differently I'm calling him John's Highway.  I read somewhere there's a John's Highway in Puerto Rico, but I Googled it and nothing came up.  At any rate, Johneshwy Fargas is the last of the Tools Trio of Mikey Edie, Gustavo Cabrera and him.  Not that there are no other players in the system with tools, but these 3 stand out as having particularly high ceilings and are 3 very similar players.   I like Fargas a lot and would not count him out of being the best of the 3.  He certainly is tooled up with a recorded time of 6.55 in the 60 yard dash and clocked at 97 MPH on a throw from the OF.  The bat, as always with these types, is the big question.  His contact rates and plate discipline at his first two pro stops are encouraging.  He has good bat speed and oodles of room to fill out his frame so the power potential is there too.  Augusta would be the next logical stop for him.  That will be a serious test of the bat.  If you are looking for a deep sleeper for your dynasty fantasy baseball league, I think Fargas might be your guy.

20 comments:

  1. Fargas started off hot in 2014 then turned into, well, meh. You have to love his walk and K numbers though. He is still very young. My thing is his size. He is 6'1 and 162 lbs. I was his size in high school but a little taller. Talk about being frail. He needs to gain a good 15-20 lbs of muscle mass. Wish him the best in 2015 and hope he bulks up. Someone tell Duffy the same thing.

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    1. Totally. The guy is 21 and should be closer to 180-190lbs. If we don't hear of him being much bigger by the end of the year, I'm not holding out for any power from this guy.

      Alan

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    2. Fact remains that he's scrawny. Just because he's 6'1" and has the weight of a 16yr old doesn't mean he's going to fill out. Let's hope he does but he should weigh 20lbs more by age 20.

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  2. lol. I went to FOUR 'name pronunciation' websites. They don't even have his name. Maybe it's just one of those made up names you see pop up. I know a lot of the flower children/hippies made up some crazy things so my younger brother went to school some 'uniquely named' kids... So when I'm looking at the name, I'm just thinking:

    Johnes Highway...

    It's probably not. But I can't help thinking it.

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  3. Let's put this to rest. According to the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes roster it is pronounced:

    Johneshwy (joe-NAY-shoe-e)

    This is the correct way because this PDF gives the announcers the way to pronounce their names:

    http://www.milb.com/documents/4/1/2/84238412/7_10_Volcanoes_Roster_q0kr0osk.pdf

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  4. Still better than eh-u-HEN-ee-oh Velez

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  5. IMO Fargas was the only positional player to stand out on the 2014 SK Volcanoes roster at the beginning of the season, other than T. Relaford(whose defense was fun to watch at the games I attended). Fargas currently has a "slappy" swing at times, but makes solid contact. I don't quite view his frame like Duffy's, I think he has a better chance to fill out more. He's definitely toolsy and I look forward to seeing if he's assigned to Augusta next year and gets a decent amount of playing time.

    OCGiant

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    1. I believe Fargas already weighs more than 163 lbs based on pictures I've seen. I agree that his frame has more room to fill out than Duffy's. If you saw Duff's Pop on TV during his MLB debut, you would conclude that the Duffster is probably not going to fill out much more if at all. Duff Sr. is one skinny dude!

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    2. Very true regarding Duffy! I did catch a glimpse of his Pops on TV during his debut and he's very skinny. It's going to be quite the battle to not only put on weight, but to keep it!
      I've been lurking for some time, just wanted to say great stuff, and keep up the good work.

      OCGiant

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  6. mlb is forcing the milb to test a pitch clock

    http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/54615/pitch-clock-hey-theres-already-a-rule

    note, unlike the mlb, even the games that are broadcast in the aaa and aa dont have a plethora of commercials....so not sure how this will speed up the game

    but i think its absurd

    nfl games now run about 3.5 hours

    nba games....close to 3, with the final 2 minutes running up to 30 minutes, thanks to all the time outs

    tv has made the game longer....not the game itself

    bacci

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    1. The TV theory has been all but proven to be untrue. Check out an article entitled Turning Back the Clock in The Hardball Times posted on Fangraphs. The indy Atlantic League, which certainly has no TV found it's average game length increased to 3 hours almost the same as MLB. The instituted some rules on their own to speed up their games: 1. Limiting timeouts 2. Reducing warmup pitches between innings. 3. Automatic award of first base on signal from manager for intentional walks. 4. Enforcing existing rules re. batters not stepping out of the batter's box between pitches and the 12 second pitch clock when runners are not on base. 5. Generally encouraging umps to exert their authority to control the pace of play.

      These measures were successful in significantly reducing average game length.

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  7. I'm not sure that I want to reduce the games' length, any more than I want to speed up the time I take in solving hard crossword puzzles, say. There are ball games that as I watch I wish were over, but those would be annoying or dull or clumsy (or leading to a Giants' loss) anyhow. Games that I savor, I have no particular wish to see end.

    Obviously, a ball game, like any other activity, needs to have a tempo that sustains one's interest. But the tempo can be andante rather than allegro, and can be gauged only crudely by keeping an impatient eye on the clock.

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  8. I don't think it really has anything to do with time. It has to do with appealing to fans who are not in the demographic. Currently 70% of baseball fans are men, 83% of baseball fans are caucasian and almost 70-75% of baseball fans are over the age of 35. In making the games more up tempo and quick they believe it will appeal to a younger audience and possibly attract other ethnic groups such as black and latinos. For example, 45% of basketball fans are black compared to only 9% for baseball. In the end it is all about money. They want to speed up the game to rebrand the MLB. I am all for it if it is done right and does not take the integrity away from the game.

    Link where I got my info from:
    http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/02/which-sports-have-the-whitest-richest-oldest-fans/283626/

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