(Jim Donten/27 Outs Baseball)
On April 26th, Amed Rosario gave everyone a glimpse as to why he’s a great player who will play and thrive in the majors one day.
Rosario was the driving force in the St. Lucie Mets’ 10-5 win over the Charlotte Stone Crabs. In the game, he went 3-5 with a run, triple, homer, and four RBI. He was just a singe short of the cycle. It was a big game in what has been a terrific season this has been for Rosario. He’s hitting .319/.347/.560. In just 22 games, he’s tied his career high in homers. He’s one triple short of tying his career high in that category.
So far this year, Rosario is the Florida State League’s leader in triples, hits, and total bases. He’s third in the league in RBI and slugging. These numbers are impressive for any prospect. They’re more impressive when you consider he’s 20 years old, which makes him about three years younger than the average age of the players in the league. It’s even more impressive when you consider there were questions about his bat when Rosario signed as a 17 year old out of the Dominican Republic.
When Rosario was signed, his defense was seen as a given, if not elite. However, teams were split as to whether Rosario would ever hit. This year he’s starting to quiet those doubts by showing he could be a good hitter in the big leagues.
Despite how far he’s come offensively, and his terrific day at the plate, Rosario wasn’t patting himself on the back:
We won but im having a hard time letting go of my E6. It didnt cost us the game but I've made errors this year that I would make in my sleep
— Amed Rosario (@Amed_Rosario) April 27, 2016
No, Rosario is focusing on how he can improve his game. He’s thinking about what he needs to do to become a better player. He knows he needs to be a good hitter and a great defender. It’s not only an example of why he’s become a much better hitter, it’s also an example why he will continue to become a much better player. It’s part of his #DontBeSurprisedBeReady mantra.
Rosario expects a lot out of himself. He’s his own biggest critic. This is why he’s going to be a terrific major league player one day.
Kid is gonna be ready to take Asdrubal’s place at after the 2017 season…in a perfect world Cabrera can produce enough to warrant a QO to recoup yet another pick
Mets Daddy,
Don’t get ahead of yourself.
A player WILL only thrive in the majors when he actually does.
Until then, we can get excited about a fine prospect having breakout minor league season without stating what the future WILL be. Replace WILL with COULD and then you’re on point.
Will be a different system for sure. If it were the same system, no way he should get one, in his 30’s, deteriorating defense not worth average of top 125 salaries
Seriously?
Absolutely.
I could easily name eons of “can’t miss” prospects who were anything but in majors.
Any writer who pre ordains major league greatness before a player even gets there, or performs to that standard before and after player and opponents make adjustments to mutually offset – that makes me question the judgment of that writer, and how much knowledge and know-how that writer has.
It’s worth remembering that your audience could include people with far more experience and knowledge in the game than you. And that building credibility with these and others requires objectivity, broad perspective and big tent thinking, not just the excitement.of a fan projecting personal desires and scouting reports forward drooling over talent and minor league stats.
To your credit you did discuss mental make up which is important to future success, but again, no one is a major league success, or great major leaguer until that player is – and sustains it.
And I can name a ton of can’t miss prospects that did make it. A vast majority of the time, the ones that didn’t miss have an internal drive and incredible work ethic. That’s what Rosario is exhibiting here.
While I guess technically, it would have been best to have some hedging language in, which is the core of LTF’s gripe, I share your enthusiasm for Rosario and will further point out that many of the “can’t miss” prospects may have been very toolsy, but simply lacked the bat speed that Rosario has. That is a great separator among hitting prospects.
Rosario is seeing more tangible results this year, which no doubt is catching the eye of less serious prospect watchers. And, even for those who follow prospects more closely than the casual fan, its great to see. But the enthusiasm for Rosario prior to this year always stemmed from his lightning quick bat, his complete set of tools and projectable power, and his performing as among the youngest players in the league wherever he has played (including this year).
There are negatives/hedges you can always point out. I could’ve pointed out he’s repeating the Florida State League after finishing 2015 in AA. I could’ve pointed out his swing tends to get long and have a pronounced upper cut. He can have trouble identifying and laying off breaking pitches. These issues lead to him striking out more than you would like.
With that said, that’s not what this piece was about. It was about how he’s working on his game to continuously improve. He knows what he needs to do to become a better player. He knows it’s his defense that needs to be his calling card.
I understand Rosario isn’t perfect, but sometimes we just need to understand the message of a particular article.
I hear you and hope you didn’t get the wrong impression that I shared LTF’s issue. To the contrary, I share your view of Rosario.
As you point out, plenty more has to go right for Rosario to pan out, including simply health, but he has all the attributes that you could want in a prospect, including his attitude.
I don’t, and I apologize if it seems like I was lashing out at you.
No worries at all. It’s often tough to decipher syntax from the written word. Just wanted to make sure you knew I agreed with you. It’s easy to feel very good about Rosario’s and Smith’s chances of panning out. Not meant as a knock against some other prospects, but these guys really seem to have a very strong package.
It doesn’t matter how many you could name that make it, because there’s never guarantee that everyone makes it including those with great mental make up.
The quality of the pitching, speed of the game, playing under the spotlight, injury, defensive shifts, exploitation of weaknesses, 162-game big league grind, struggle and failure, the capacity to adjust to opposition adjustments are some of the factors Rosario will encounter.
He’s a fine prospect and while I’m also excited about his Mets future, he has to actually prove it in the majors and do so consistently. Look what’s happening with Corey Seager after a very good rookie season.
Minor Leagues – 4 Seasons
.307.368.523.891
Major Leagues
.337/.425/.561/.986 – 113 P.A.’s 2015 – 174 OPS+
.188/.235/.250/.485 – Postseason
.242/.303/.384.687 – 109 P.A.’s 2016 – 85 OPS
How ‘Bout Addison Russell?
Minor Leagues –
4 Seasons
.301/.377/.520/.897
Major Leagues –
.239/.311/.383/.693 – 2015-2016
1. You’re citing SSS.
2. You’ve given no input into their mental make ups that would permit me to accept these as w sufficient comp.