The Angels farm system has very few high-end athletes in their system thanks to years of drafting “safe” in order to rebuild a baseline of talent. Miguel “Michael” Hermosillo is one of the few exceptions. He’s also incredibly raw, so it remains to be seen if any of that athleticism is ever going to be put to good use.
Miguel Hermosillo
In 10 words or less: So much talent. Unique. Chose baseball over football. Good choice?
Position: OF Born: 1/17/95
Bats: R Throws: R
Height: 5’9″ Weight: 190
Last Year Rank: Unranked
2014 Season Stats
[table id=36 /]
OFFENSE
Contact – C. Miguel is a weird cat. His swing is quick, direct and compact, yet there are refinement issues and thus he doesn’t make as much contact as he should. This doesn’t mean that he’s below average in this department, rather he’s only average. But we see the potential for much more.
Power – C+. Again, just a weird report on Miguel. He has plus strength, both upper and lower body. When he turns on a ball on the inner half, it’s not going to stay in the yard and if it does he’s putting a dent in the OF wall. But he really didn’t hit for much power. Miguel just didn’t square up too many baseballs. However, he does have good power, it just hasn’t shown up in the games yet. Refinement is key.
Discipline – B. Here’s the part where it gets really strange. Miguel has refinement issues which is understandable. He never focused solely on baseball until this year. He’s not doing enough when he makes contact. Yet when he comes to the plate, he has a great concept of the strike zone, how pitchers plan to get him out and what he can do to make things harder on them. That typically doesn’t come without refinement. So despite a less than stellar showing in actual production, Hermosillo is great at working the count and reaching base.
Speed – B+. And the confusion continues. Miguel Hermosillo is quick. Miguel Hermosillo is also fast, athletic and graceful. But he’s not a great base stealer. WHAT? Again, refinement. Maybe it’s a matter of choosing the right count, sliding to the outside of the bag, reading pitchers better. But as we’ve pointed out in every other category, he has the natural ability (or potential) to eventually make pitchers pay for letting him reach base.
DEFENSE
Arm – B+. Miguel has a strong enough arm to play all three outfield positions with ease.
Fielding – B+. I saw Miguel play four times last year and saw him only make one mistake on a ball that technically could’ve been the left fielder’s anyway. He’s a plus defensive OF.
Range – A. Good reads. Uses natural athleticism and speed to close in on balls that normal outfielders just won’t get to.
OVERALL
Performance – C. Miguel did enough things right as a 19-year old playing Rookie Ball for the first time to gain recognition and move on to A Ball. It also may not hurt him to repeat the Pioneer League because a .244 batting average in that environment shows a ton of room for improvement.
Projection – A. If everything breaks right for him, Miguel can really turn into something special, a five-tool star player, but a lot has to go right. For now, he’s just an exciting prospect to watch that might get a lot better.
Grade as a Prospect – C. How many exceptional athletes sign baseball contracts only to not amount to anything? Miguel hasn’t done anything yet, but his combination of power, speed, arm, athleticism and approach make him stand out among other prospects.
Estimated Time of Arrival – 2020. Miguel is only 19 years old. Time is on his side. He can spend another five years climbing the minor league ladder and still reach the majors by his 25th birthday and still have a long a lucrative career in major league baseball.
2014 in Review*
As Scotty mentioned, this was Hermosillo’s first full year of playing baseball and only baseball. There were expected to be some bumps along the way. All things considered, it wasn’t that bad. The Halos have had some rough experiences with similar freak athlete types trying to lock into baseball. Think back to someone like Chevy Clarke, a 2010 first round bust for the Halos, who was similarly raw and athletic but was just a disaster, performance-wise.
Hermosillo didn’t exactly light the world on fire, but he put up league average offensive numbers in the Pioneer League. The 13.4% walk rate is particularly intriguing though as the typical M.O. for the “raw” ballplayer is for them to just swing at everything all the time. He did strike out a bit much, but not alarmingly so, especially when you pair it with all of those walks. What really hurt him is that he just didn’t square up very many baseballs, with just a 10.4% line drive rate. That’s… not good.
The lack of steals can be a bit discouraging, but this isn’t unusual for players who haven’t been able to focus on learning the game. If anything, I’d consider it a positive sign that he was more selective about his steal attempts and not just trying to jackrabbit around the bases every chance he got, resulting in him getting caught 45%.
Actually, the more you think about it, his plate discipline, instincts in the outfield and conservative base stealing approach might suggest that Miguel isn’t as unrefined as we might think.
Looking Ahead*
It will be very interesting to see just how much the Angels decide to push Hermosillo. It might be too much for him to jump to full season ball after only just finishing his first year of focusing on just baseball. It might also do him some good to work on his contact issues at a lower level so he can really focus on just that. However, there has to be a temptation to bump him straight to Burlington to get real sense of whether or not his excellent walk rate is for real. Having him work on making better contact while also trying to prove he can stay disciplined against pitchers who at least have an idea of what they are doing might be too much to do at once though. Then again, there’s something to be said for drinking from a fire hose.
*As we do every year, the scouting reports and grades are provided by Scotty Allen while Garrett Wilson provides the 2014 in Review and Looking Ahead sections.
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