Where did he come from?

This is one of my favorite questions as a prospect analyst. When these kids make it up to the majors and begin to find success, everyone asks, “Where did this kid come from?”

Most recently, this came in the form of Kole Calhoun and Mike Trout, but there were a couple before that, and sure to be a few more in the future. This would also be the part where I smugly respond, “Well Angels fans that actually pay attention to MWAH knew this was coming two years ago. Try to keep up.” This goes against my nature because I feel like a jerk whenever I say things like this in real life. I hate to be accused of being pretentious. But then again, this blog is captained by an Ivy League grad (not one of the good ones as he says), and what’s the point of him attending an Ivy League school if we can’t collectively rub people’s noses in it on occasion? Sure beats my relatively economically attained degree from a purposefully unnamed university in California (it was awesome).

Did we just get off topic? Oh yeah, back to rubbing it in people’s faces when we discover potential greatness earlier than everyone else. Here are some kids (I can say that now because I’m older than they are) that burst onto the scene this year, which made me ask “where the **** did this guy come from?”

1) SS Juan Moreno – Orem
Moreno always had a good hit tool and great plate discipline in the Dominican Republic as a teenager, and on defense he scuffled quite a bit at shortstop. He for sure looked like he’d be forced to move to second base, and even then we weren’t sure if the bat would translate to a higher level of play. Moreno may or may not be in the MWAH Top 30, but this season, he’s gone about answering many of the questions we had. He’s looked much better at SS, is beginning to finally fill into his frame and has kept hitting. He even added base stealing to his resume (the talent was always there, just not the results).

2) RHP Eduardo Paredes – A Ball
Like Moreno, we already knew about Paredes from the previous couple seasons. Last we heard though, he began to experience diminished velocity by the end of the year, and his BB/9 looked like it was unsustainably low. The same rings true this year, the difference being that Paredes was throwing in the high 90’s and even touching triple digits earlier in the year, while still pounding the strike zone. Granted, his command isn’t the greatest, but he can still pump it within the boundaries. As the season has wore on, we’ve seen his velocity once again diminish, now down to the point where he’s merely throwing 94-95 on most nights. Now it’s becoming clear that if the Angels can get him to work on his conditioning, they may legitimately have something here.

3) OF Ayendy Perez – A Ball
Ayendy was a personal favorite of mine from a couple years ago when he was in the Dominican Republic. Blessed with excellent plate discipline, a good enough bat and elite speed, he seemed like the perfect candidate to really burst onto the scene. But then the Angels kept him in the Dominican Republic for a year too long (this used to be, and still is to an extent, a very conservative organization when it comes to promoting prospects). This undercut his status and made me wait a year longer before getting an eye on him. As he came stateside last season, I felt he was old for his developmental level, his numbers were adequate but didn’t jump out and his plate discipline had all but disappeared. I didn’t give up on his as much as I simply put him aside with a stack of prospects already a mile high I was not so closely watching. The Angels kept him in Arizona to begin the year, allowing him to further refine his skills, and then once the June draft came, they promoted him along with a couple other new draftees up to A Ball in Burlington. The results have been VERY promising. Perez is hitting for a high average, the plate discipline is back in a big way and he’s been very aggressive on the bases. Now he’s impressing at an age appropriate level. I see no reason why he couldn’t be an 4^th OF option in his mid-20’s.

4) OF Alex Abbott – Orem
Last season after Abbott was drafted, I watched his scouting video and saw something in his swing that I liked. I texted someone in the know and was excited to hear “keep your eye on this kid, there’s huge upside here”. Woah. I didn’t get to see him in Arizona last season, and from everything I’ve heard, he was very raw but the athleticism was just oozing from his pores. This year in Orem, we’ve seen a little bit of it. He looks like he’s packed on some muscle, and judging by his XBH, he certainly has. Abbott still has plus speed and makeup, which hasn’t translated to games the way it can yet, but maybe it will. Still just 20 years old, Abbott has a long way to go, but if he makes it, he very well could be a Calhoun type of player.

5) 3B Kaleb Cowart – MLB
OK, so this one is a little unfair. We and everyone else knew about him four years ago. It isn’t as if we forgot about him, he’s been a fixture in the Top 30 for years now. But I specifically said last season that I adamantly refused to put Kaleb Cowart back in the Top 30 this year on principle alone. I’d already been burned enough times and had learned my lesson. But then God, in his infinite wisdom, chose to teach me a lesson in humility, and at the same time grant some wishes. Kaleb Cowart started the season back in A Ball and just when all looked lost, he earned an unwarranted promotion up to AAA due to a David Freese injury which forced the Angels to promote Kyle Kubitza. But then Cowart started tearing it up. I tried writing it off as a Salt Lake inflated performance, but he just kept doing it, even whe other guys weren’t. He still swings and misses too much. The plate discipline is only OK. Despite immense strength and athleticism, it doesn’t look like he’ll ever be the prototypical power hitting corner infielder we’d hoped he would be, but he now looks like a decent MLB third baseman. With elite defense, lots of gap power, youth and upside in his corner, suddenly Kaleb Cowart is a prospect worth something, and I will have learned a small lesson in pride, and will be forced to put him back in the Top 30 again, for the sixth year in a row.