The Dominican Summer League is unique in that many of the players are a full year or even 2 years younger than the youngest players drafted out of high school. This creates problems with trying to rank all but the most elite of the international prospects. A few years ago we created a separate category of prospect we named after the original Dominican Dandy, the incomparable Juan Marichal. Here are some of the top names from the 2013 team:
Gustavo Cabrera, OF. B-R, T-R. 6' 2", 190 lbs. DOB 1/23/1996.
DSL: .247/.379/.360, 7 2B, 4 3B, 2 HR, 30 BB, 54 K, 21 SB, 186 AB. Gustavo was widely ranked as having the top tools of the 2012 international signing period. The big question was with the hit tool. The above numbers might not strike you as anything special, but look at his second half slash line: .314/.477/.500! SSS, but that is darn good for any league and off the charts in the DSL where the pitchers tend to be way ahead of the hitters in their development.
Then, just after the season, disaster struck! Cabrera put his hand through a plate glass window or glass table in his home and was flown to the U.S. for emergency surgery to repair a severe laceration of his right wrist. At this point, we do not know if the injury included nerve damage, but from the published descriptions, it is hard to imagine that it did not. Recovery estimates have ranged from him being ready in time for the start of short season ball to a full calendar year. I have not seen any recent reports of his rehab progress.
Had it not been for the injury, I would have ranked Gustavo #2 in the Top 50. With the injury being so serious, I don't think you can really rank him at all until he proves he's recovered and can play. Not wanting to ignore him completely, I decided to discuss him in the Dominican Dandies section. Just keep your fingers crossed and send up a prayer or thought for his complete recovery, because this kid is a special talent.
Natanial Javier, 3B. B-R, T-R. 6'3", 185 lbs. DOB: 10/10/1995.
DSL: .229/.276/.326, 13 2B, 2 3B, 2 HR, 12 BB, 43 K, 236 AB. Javier was the other big international signing for the Giants from 2012. It's hard to imagine a worse start for a touted prospect. First, he put up the above slash line in his pro debut, then was slapped with a 50 game suspension for violated the substance policy. Assuming the suspension begins with the start of the DSL season in June, he will miss most or all of the 2014 season which is huge from a development standpoint.
Jean Angomas, OF. B-L, T-R. 6'0", 175 lbs. DOB 6/5/1995.
DSL: .286/.384/.383, 7 2B, 5 3B, 9 SB, 25 BB, 17 K, 175 AB. Less heralded than Cabrera or Javier, Angomas may end up being the top prospect from the Giants 2012 international signing class just by default. Showed nice plate discipline for such a young age and power may come as his body matures.
Carlos Valdez, OF. B-R, T-R. 5'11", 180 lbs. DOB: 6/22/1994.
DSL: .273/.377/.474, 5 HR, 20 BB, 22 K, 132 AB. Brought his BA up from the .220's in his second DSL campaign. Hopefully it will be enough to earn him a promotion to Arizona for 2014.
Kleiber Rivas, C. B-L, T-R. 5'11", 200 lbs. DOB: 6/22/1995.
DSL: .250/.358/.371, 2 HR, 19 BB, 15 K, 116 AB. Still young even though this was a repeat year in the DSL. Again, hopefully this earns him a promotion to Arizona.
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IFA should be interesting this year, the Giants will have a slightly bigger budget. The word is the Yanks have 6 guys landed at 2MM a pop and more on the way, 20MM in spending in total now planned. This is blowing through the strategy of incurring penalties rang up by the Rays 2 years ago and the Cubs/Rangers last year.
ReplyDeleteThe Giants have a rep for following the rules and being pretty conservative. So we'll see. Last year the 4 big names were SS Kelvin Beltre, OF Mikey Edie, SS Manuel Geraldo and LHP Deiyerbert Bolivar. The Giants apparently exceeded their bonus pool by 300-400K (source: BA) but nobody listed yet as extra. The info that I have is that Beltre was 650K, Edie was mid-six figures (I guess 500K) and Geraldo was 375K. So no big splashes last year.
Thinking good thoughts for GUSTAVO.