Baseball America has truly noticed what Cesar Puello has been up to in the last week. Due to the MLB draft taking place tonight, they decided to publish their weekly prospect hot sheet a day early. Boston Red Sox prospect Xander Bogaert took the top billing, but Binghamton Mets outfielder Cesar Puello was hot on his tail at number two.
This comes just a day after Puello was also one of five minor leaguers named in BA’s prospect notebook, as well. While the Biogensis allegations are making a lot of headlines this week, it doesn’t seem to be phasing the outfielder. His name is among those listed to potentially get suspended, but his play on the field doesn’t show that.
Without counting what he did today in the series finale at NYSEG Park today against the Trenton Thunder, Puello hit .471/.500/1.176 with three home runs, three doubles, eight RBIs, and four runs scored over the last six days. He was also a critical part in today’s comeback win against Trenton, going 2-for-4, with two home home runs.
He’s slugging a ridiculous .895 over his last 10 games, and now owns a .320/.397/.602 line with 12 homers and 41 RBIs. This recent hot streak has helped him become the new league leader in slugging percentage and tied for second in home runs. Here’s what they had to say about the B-Mets outfielder over at Baseball America today:
After smacking six extra-base hits this week, Puello leads the Eastern League with a .571 slugging percentage, showing the kind of power-speed potential that intrigued scouts in the past. He’s also swiped 15 bases in 18 tries for Binghamton, and with 10 homers he’s already matched his career-best mark from 2011 at high Class A St. Lucie.
If his plate approach continues to progress, then there’s really not much Puello can’t do on the field. With him being on the Mets’ 40-man roster and the big club’s outfield in shambles, he could be angling for a late-season look. Of course, that push for a big league job may be complicated by his implication in the BioGenesis records that Major League Baseball is investigating.
Whether he eventually gets hit with a suspension or not, we’ve been able to see that Puello can certainly play with distractions around him. He’s had one heck of a week.
(photo courtesy of Gordon Donovan)
I was at NYSEG for two of the three games with Trenton this week. Puello doesn’t just hit a homerun, he blasts a monster shot, an eye-popping moon ball that just soars and soars. This guy is the most exciting player to hit Binghamton since I’ve been following the B-Mets.