(Joshua Dahl/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
Baseball American released their Prospect Hot Sheet for the week covering May 20th-26th with Mets outfield prospect Brandon Nimmo coming in at #11.
The 23-year old hit .417/.517/.833 with four doubles, three triples, five RBI, five walks, four runs scored and struck out only three times. Here is what BA had to say on the former first round picks hot stretch:
Nimmo has stepped up his power production at Triple-A this season while maintaining his fine walk (11.5 percent) and strikeout (17.5 percent) rates. The lefthanded hitter ranked among the minor league leaders this week with seven extra-base hits and five walks.
His good stretch is longer than just the last week, he has reached base in 20 of 21 games in May and has a .977 OPS in that span. Since April 26th, when he went 0 for 4 with four strikeouts, he has hit .361/.451/.577 with ten doubles, four triples, home run, 17 RBI and 16 walks in 24 games.
Overall, for the season he is hitting an even .300 with a .385 on-base percentage and has gone 10 for 32 with runners in scoring position. Coming into the season he was our #5 prospect at MMN despite what was a disappointing 2015 season.
Obviously these numbers have to be taken with a grain of salt coming in the Pacific Coast League but the intriguing part for me is the the balls he has been hitting in the gaps recently. He is also moving better in the outfield right now then he was at the start of the season when he was possibly still nursing the foot injury that kept him out for most of spring training.
Nimmo’s power decline since his 2014 campaign is very concerning. He hit 10 homeruns that year and now he can’t even hit em out in Vegas. He’s a left handed Lagares at the plate with much a better eye.
Lagares with a good eye would be a borderline AS
I wouldn’t worry about the HR’s. He’ll either hit them or won’t. What matters is that the mechanics of his swing are much better now that I’ve seen opening up his hips more and hitting through the baseball with arm extension rather than jamming himself with slap.
The power potential is there as has been reported in BP.
But as long as his game is high on base, hitting in the clutch and gap to gap as well as quality defense, he’s going to help us a lot atop the lineup. and on Defense. HR’s then are gravy and he has the tools to hit those, eventually double digits. He’s strong and fit, closing in on major league ready in swing, contact rates and approach. Now he needs to stay healthy and ready. Once De Aza leaves through whatever circumstance, it’s Nimmo time before September, or in September, and then presumably breaks camp with Mets at start of next season and hopefully sticks long term.
Everyone said the mets reached when they drafted Nimmo and Jose Fernandez went to Marlins with the next pick. Fringe starter 4th outfielder.
Momentum is good! + That’s an impressive 24 game clip. I’m not worried about the power and neither should you. A lot of the fans have wil rotten him off. This is all a net gain. Keep OBPing Nimmo
Agreed about the power, or at least home run power. Could careless if he hits more than 7-8 HR’s. His value is in defense, getting on base and being able to run a little. Health I think is the big thing with him now that he is proving to more aggressive at the dish this year.
I’m not worried about home run power either, he can have good MLB value as a gap hitter.