Prospects of the day - Guerra, Garcia, Gomez

The 3 G's, the G- men, ...the Future?

Deolis Guerra P R R 6′ 5″ 200 17 04-17-1989

Guerra was one of top 2 International prospects secured by the Mets last year. The Mets inked the 16 year old Guerra in July 2005 for $700,000, and he made his professional debut with Hagerstown on May 6, 2006. He actually signed the same day as fellow prospect Fernando Martinez. OnDeck ranks Guerra as the 8th Mets prospect. His pitches include a 91-92 mph fastball, and a developing change-up. It’s hard to judge a 17 year old playing organized ball, but Hagerstown has purposely limited Guerra’s pitches so far this season. The SAL’s youngest player, Guerra never allowed more than two earned runs in any of his 17 outings. The Mets did keep him on tight pitch counts, but his 2.20 ERA still would have ranked third in the league if he had enough innings to qualify. He excelled at age 17 mainly on the strength of his changeup, showing an advanced feel for the pitch. The changeup has plus arm action on it which is very rare for a person this young. It is fairlt straight, but has a little fade and parachutes at the end. His fastball is already in the 86-90 range and should add velocity as he matures. The Mets feel Guerra needs to find more velocity and develop a breaking ball. Simply changing his speeds isn’t enough for a major league pitcher. Gotham Baseball updated their Mets prospect list in August 2006 and Guerra was ranked 7th. InsidePitch published their prospect list in November 2006 and had him 10th overall. In December 2006 Scout.com listed Guerra as on of the top 10 Mets prospects going into 2007 and the 132nd best overall outfield prospect in all of baseball. Fantasyinfocentral.com currently has him as the 4th top Mets prospect. Baseball Prospectus updated their top Mets prospect list in December 2006 and ranked Guerra #9.

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Carlos Gomez OF R R 6′ 2″ 175 20 12-04-1985

Carlos came out of the DSL Mets system in 2003, and made his pro debut with Kingsport in 2004. Baseball America named him the 6th best Mets prospect, plus tagged him as the best base runner and outfield arm. Scout.com had him the 8th prospect. In 2005, at Hagerstown, Gomez hit .275/.331/.376, and stole 64 bases. In 2006, he had 41 steals in 50 attempts. His K-rate of 1 K per 4.4 Abs is excellent and is clearly the best defensive outfielder in the Mets minor league system. He seemed overmatched when he first jumped to AA; however, he hit .341 after July 1st. Gomez was named 3rd best Mets prospect/fastest player/best outfield arm by Baseball America. OnDeck has him #6. He’s very aggressive on the base paths, and an excellent bunter. Has ability to drive the ball as well.and was reported to have the best raw tools in the organization. InsidePitch ranks him as the #1 Mets prospect, RotoWorld has him #4, BA #6, and John Sickles rates him C+. Has been tagged “best arm in the business”, tons of raw power”, “blazing speed”, and “aggressive at the plate.” Many scouts say hi raw tools are better than Lastings Milledge, though his power isn’t there yet, similar to Milledge. Gomez’s main flaw is his plate discipline, and he has walked an outrageously low thirteen times in 294 at bats. He also has difficulty facing left-hand pitchers, particularly ones with great breaking balls. Some in the organization believe that if Gomez continues to improve his skills he could become the team’s right-fielder of the future. Scout.com updated their 2006 prospect ratings and now ranks Gomez #87. Gotham Baseball updated their prospect list in August 2006 and listed Gomez as #2. Baseball America named Gomez as the top Mets prospect in 2006. Also in 2006, Michel Abreu and Gomez were co-winners at Binghamton (AA) of the Eastern League. Baseball America listed the top 20 2006 prospects for the Eastern league and ranked Gomez #8. He played 2006 winter ball for Escongido of the Dominican League. InsidePitch listed him, in Nov 2001, as the top Mets prospect in the system. In December 2006 Scout.com listed Gomez as one of the top 10 Mets prospects and the 22nd best outfield prospect in all of baseball. Fantasyinfocentral.com currently lists Gomez as the 3rd top Mets prospect. Baseball Prospectus updated their top 10 Mets prospect list in December 2006 and placed Gomez as the #4 ranked prospect, with a second tier “very good prospect” tag.

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Emmanuel Garcia 2B L R 6′ 2″ 180 20 03-04-1986

Garcia was a member of the 2004 Baseball Canada Junior National Team. He made his minor league debut (Garcia went undrafted in 2004 because of baseball’s shortage of work visas) with the GCL Mets in 2005 (.339, 17SB, 43 R) and won the Sterling Award, given out by the Mets organization for best player at each level. In 2005, Baseball America ranked Garcia as the 20th top prospect in the Gulf Coast league. OnDeck ranked him the 14th top Mets prospect in 2006. OnDeck also updated their ratings at the end of the 2006 season and ranked Garcia as the 9th best batter in the Appalachian League (146.50 rating) and 15th overall prospect in the league. Baseball America said “Garcia’s above-average speed might be his best tool, as he finished third in the league with 19 stolen bases, with his bat is a close second. Managers were uniformly impressed with his actions, range and body control at shortstop…”. The Mets named Garcia the winner of the Sterling Award for the top player on the 2006 Kingsport team of the Appalachian League.

via Macksmets.com, which is a great site, check it out