BOSTON—Scouts descended upon Fukuoka, Japan and Tokyo to keep tabs on Cuba and
Japan, two teams with some of the top prospects in the world not yet signed to
contracts with major league teams. South Korea and Taiwan had prospects as well,
but the Koreans were bounced after the first round and the top players in the
tournament not yet in major league organizations were on the Japanese and Cuban
clubs.
Scouts largely agreed that Cuba’s roster had no player at the level of Yoenis
Cespedes,and there was no Japanese player on par with Yu Darvish, but there
were stillseveral players in the WBC who could step in to a major league
team’s 25-man roster immediately and contribute. Younger players such as
19-year-old Cuban infielder Andy Ibanez and 18-year-old Taiwanese righthander
Jen-Ho Tseng stood out for some scouts, but they played so sparingly that the
WBC didn’t offer much of a glimpse into their talent.
1. Masahiro Tanaka, rhp, Japan
Tanaka started Japan’s first WBC game against Brazil in Fukuoka, but he was
pulled quickly and was only used in brief relief appearances the rest of the
tournament. He was scheduled to start the title game before Japan was eliminated
in the semifinals by Puerto Rico.
Tanaka not only has the best stuff in Japan but also has been one of the
country’s top pitchers in recent years. Tanaka, 24, posted a 1.87 ERA with 169
strikeouts and 19 walks in 173 innings last year for Rakuten in Japan’s Nippon
Professional Baseball. The year before, Tanaka led the league in ERA, finished
second to Darvish in strikeouts and won the Sawamura Award, Japan’s equivalent
of the Cy Young. Tanaka’s contract takes him through the 2015 season, but he's
told Rakuten that he wants to pitch in the major leagues and it sounds like the
team will oblige if he wants to go through the posting system.
At his best, Tanaka shows three plus or better pitches. In Fukuoka,his fastball
ranged from 88-94 mph, but he was up to 91-96 mph in the second round in Tokyo.
Tanaka’s velocity is above-average and he throws his fastball for strikes, but
it’s the pitch that gives scouts pause on how he’d fare against major league
hitters. He throws from a high three-quarters arm slot, but at 6-foot-2, 205
pounds he has a drop-and-drive delivery that causes him to sink on his backside
and lose downhill plane on his fastball. That makes the pitch more hittable
than the velocity itself would suggest, which is what happened against Brazil.
Tanaka has two plus secondary weapons, with his 85-87 mph splitter earning 70
grades at its best from some scouts. The splitter has late, sharp tumble and
alleviates the fastball plane concerns from some scouts because of the action
on the pitch. His 82-85 mph slider is another plus pitch with two-plane break.
Tanaka also throws a 71-74 mph curveball early in the count as well. He wraps
his wrist in the back of his arm action but he throws plenty of strikes with
a repeatable delivery. Scouts highest on Tanaka think he has the talent of a
potential No. 2 starter.
2. Jose Fernandez, 2b, Cuba
For many scouts, the 2013 WBC was their first time seeing Fernandez play. Many
of them came away thinking the 25-year-old lefthanded hitter could be an
everyday second baseman in the big leagues immediately. At 5-foot-10, 185 pounds
, Fernandez was leading Cuba’s 2012-13 Serie Nacional in batting average with
a .393/.495/.593 line with 27 walks and just five strikeouts in 185 plate
appearances. Fernandez is built along the lines of Placido Polanco or Howie
Kendrick as a hitter who has excellent plate coverage and sprays line drives to
all fields. Fernandez’s gap power isn’t as impressive as some of his
teammates’, but he has very few holes in his swing and good hand-eye
coordination. He keeps his hands back, which allows him to adjust to breaking
balls or keep his hands inside against good fastballs. He uses his front foot
in a little bit of an unorthodox manner as a timing mechanism, but he’s able
to get it down in time. He’s solid defensively but he’s a better fit at
second base than he would be at shortstop.
3. Yulieski Gourriel, 3b, Cuba
Gourriel is the Jekyll and Hyde player on the Cuban national team. His family
is heavily tied to both Cuban baseball and the government, so scouts believe
there’s basically zero chance he will ever leave. Between that and Gourriel
having so much success at an early age in Cuba, many scouts believe Gourriel
is bored or lacks concentration. He still posts some of the best numbers in
Cuba, but he’ll mix moments of greatness with plays that make scouts question
his effort level.
Gourriel, 28, has a bat wrap that creates length in his swing, but he has the
strength and bat speed to get away with it, showing the ability to catch up to
mid-90s fastballs with a knack for squaring up the ball on the barrel. He has
plus power and gets to it in games with a good hitting approach, showing the
ability to hit to all fields. His hand-eye coordination helps him cover the
plate and leaves him without many holes in his stroke. He has a strong arm with
the tools to be an above-average defender at third base and made some nifty
plays in Japan, but he also makes some head-scratching errors where routine
grounders got by him. That happened with a ninth-inning error that led to the
Netherlands’ winning run in the loss that eliminated Cuba.
Some scouts think he’s a plus runner but don’t see him run hard home to first.
He has some experience at second base in the past and is athletic enough to
move there if needed. Some scouts think Gourriel is the best player on the Cuban
national team with a chance to be a major league all-star, while others think
he’s stagnated in Cuba, but the chance of him ever leaving is slim.
4. Jose Abreu, 1b, Cuba
Abreu has put up cartoonish numbers in Serie Nacional. After hitting .394/.542/
.837 with 35 home runs, 75 walks and 40 strikeouts in 71 games last year, Abreu
is leading Cuba in OBP and slugging with a .382/.535/.735 line in 42 games this
season. So how many MVP awards would Abreu win if he came to the big leagues?
Well, not everyone is even convinced he’d be able to handle major league
pitching.
Abreu, 26, has outstanding power to all fields. He’s a smart hitter, his hands
work well at the plate and he doesn’t have much effort in his righthanded
swing. When he gets a mistake, he makes pitchers pay. The question scouts have
is whether he’s more than just a mistake hitter. Abreu has picked up bad
habits in Cuba, including an unorthodox setup with a double toe tap in his
stride. He cuts himself off and has only fair bat speed, leaving him vulnerable
to even average velocity inside. He can handle curveballs in the strike zone
but he also showed he was susceptible to chasing hard breaking stuff away,
swinging through several sliders at the tournament. With his marginal
athleticism, scouts wonder whether the 6-foot-2, 258-pounder would be able to
make adjustments against big league pitching, which is why some scouts aren’t
wild about him despite his performance record in Cuba and international
competition.
5. Alfredo Despaigne, of, Cuba
Despaigne is one of the most unusual players—and thus a divisive one for scouts
—on the Cuban team. The 26-year-old set the single-season home run record in
Cuba last year with 36 homers while hitting .326/.479/.695 with nearly twice
as many walks (91) as strikeouts (47) in 87 games. Despaigne has dynamite bat
speed and the most raw power in Cuba, grading out as at least a 70 on the
20-80 scale and arguably an 80. During batting practice in Fukuoka, he hit two
balls that traveled between 475-490 feet.At 5-foot-9, 215 pounds, Despaigne has
a Kirby Puckett body type and swings for the fences with every stroke. With a
hitch and a big swing, Despaigne swings and misses at both fastballs and
breaking pitches, but he has the strength and bat speed to crush mistakes.
Despaigne isn’t athletic and doesn’t bring much to the table defensively,
so he’s limited to left field. Scouts who like him think he could be an
average or better starter in the major leagues if he can make adjustments to
his all-or-nothing approach.
6. Yasmany Tomas, of, Cuba
Cuba started the WBC playing longtime national teamer Alexei Bell in right
field. By the end of the tournament, more and more playing time was going to
Tomas, who became one of the breakout players in the WBC. Tomas, 22, has
emerged as one of the top young players in Cuba, hitting .346/.403/.638 in 39
games this season.
At 6-foot-1, 230 pounds, Tomas is a strong righthanded hitter with good bat
speed and at least plus power, as Despaigne and Abreu were the only players
on Cuba with more raw power than him. He can drive the ball out of the park
form right-center field over to his pull side and does a good job of staying
inside the ball and driving pitches to the opposite field at times. He does
have an uppercut stroke that creates some holes in his swing, but he has a
strong finish and uses his wrists well. Tomas had trouble handling quality
breaking pitches, so he’s going to have to make adjustments to either make
more contact or lay off breaking stuff off the plate. Tomas runs well for his
size and has a solid arm that should fit in right field, although with his
thick frame he’s going to have to work to maintain his body. Tomas is a little
more than a year older than Jorge Soler, and while Tomas may be a more advanced
player right now due to his age, the scouting consensus is that Soler is a
better prospect because Soler has more athleticism and has more natural ability
at the plate.
7. Kenta Maeda, rhp, Japan
Maeda is one of the best starting pitchers in Japan, though he showed inconsistent
stuff in the WBC. After sitting at 87-90 mph in the first round against China,
Maeda dominated with stellar command of four pitches—including an 89-93 mph
fastball— in a second-round game against the Netherlands in which he struck
out nine in five scoreless innings with only one hit and no walks allowed. He
looked more uncomfortable in the semifinal game in San Francisco, where he
appeared to have trouble gripping the ball and dealing with the cold.
Maeda doesn’t have a plus pitch, but he’s shown plus command at his best with
the ability to throw all of his pitches for strikes, pitch to both sides of the
plate and change hitters’ eye levels. Maeda, 24, throws from a full windup
with a pause in his delivery, with the athleticism to repeat his mechanics and
field his position well. Maeda’s size (6 feet, 161 pounds) doesn’t give him
great fastball plane, but his fastball plays up because it has good sink and
run and he commands it well. He throws a solid-average slider with short break,
a low-70s curveball that he’ll use early in the count and an occasional
changeup. Some scouts aren’t sold on Maeda’s stuff playing in the big leagues,
but those who like him think he has No. 4 starter potential.
8. Guillermo Heredia, of, Cuba
With Cespedes gone, Cuba turned to the 22-year-old Heredia to take over center
field on their national team. Heredia showed promising tools, though he didn’t
hit much in the WBC. He’s shown more offensive production in Cuba, where he’s
batting .290/.402/.455 with more walks (22) than strikeouts (13) in 178 plate
appearances this season. Heredia, who is 5-foot-10, 180 pounds, played
above-average defense in center field in the WBC. He’s athletic, runs well and
has a strong arm, though it lacks accuracy. He gets good jumps off the bat,
especially on difficult balls hit directly over his head. Heredia has a quick
lefthanded swing and a line-drive stroke, but he tends to push the bat a little
bit and left scouts at the WBC feeling lukewarm on his offense.
9. Frederich Cepeda, of, Cuba
If Cepeda had come to the United States 10 years ago, he would have been an
everyday player for a major league team. Instead, Cepeda settled for becoming
one of the best hitters in Cuba and a dominant force on the international
circuit. He’s hitting .362/.505/.612 with more than twice as many walks (46) as
strikeouts (22) in 44 games in Cuba this season. Cepeda turns 33 in April, so
he’s already into his decline phase, but he still has his believers in the
scouting community.
Cepeda, a switch-hitter, is 5-foot-10, 200 pounds with good bat speed and a
polished offensive approach. Cepeda has sound hitting mechanics, good balance
and rarely expands his strike zone. He lays off borderline pitches, works
himself into good hitters’ counts and is patient enough to either take his
walks or get a good pitch that he can drive with the power for 20-25 home runs.
The question at this point is what role Cepeda would play on a major league
club. He doesn’t offer much defensive value because of his limited range, so
some scouts think he’s a better fit in the American League or as an extra bat
off the bench.
10. Erisbel Arruebarruena, ss, Cuba
When Boston’s Jose Igelsias (23) and Miami’s Adeiny Hechavarria (23) left Cuba
, the island lost two of its best young defensive shortstops. While there are
serious questions about whether Igelsias or Hechavarria will ever hit enough to
hold down major league starting roles, they’re two of the most dazzling
defenders in pro ball. So it’s even more remarkable that Cuba has another
23-year-old in Arruebarruena, who is just as captivating to watch in the field.
At 6 feet, 198 pounds, Arruebarruena is a gifted defender with smooth hands,
quick actions, good range and a strong arm. While Arruebarruena might be a Gold
Glove-caliber defender, he would have to make major adjustments at the plate to
be able to hit major league pitching.He has a long swing, has trouble going the
opposite way even in BP, swings through breaking balls and has below-average
power. If anything, his bat seems to have regressed this past year in Cuba, as
he’s hitting .275/.324/.366 in 42 games in a supercharged offensive
environment, but his defense is enticing.
这篇是关于WBC后的Top 10 Prospects
当然包括田中将大(1)和前田健太(7)
其他清一色都古巴的....
也有提到曾仁和和古巴内野手Andy Ibanez
不过此篇作者认为他们出赛太少和太年轻
所以就没列入了