The Triple-A All-Star game, which will be taking place on July 17th in Reno, puts the best players of the International League against the best players of the Pacific Coast League. Initially, Zack Wheeler and Andrew Brown were both on the leader boards with regard to All-Star voting. Now that they’re both in the major leagues, they won’t be attending. However, Wilmer Flores has been selected to join the event.
The 21-year-old is playing second base full-time this season, and he’s shown to many that he can handle Triple-A pitching at such a young age. He’s currently hitting .310/.349/.508 with 10 homers, 63 RBIs, 50 runs scored, and 25 doubles. Flores is the PCL leader in RBIs, while he’s only one double off the pace of Dean Anna, who is the league leader in that category.
Prior to the start of 2013, we ranked Flores as the fifth-best prospect in the Mets organization. Here’s part of what we had to say about the every day second baseman for the Las Vegas 51s:
Flores is just 21, and still has time to bulk up and add a little power to that fluid swing of his. He will likely find his highest value at second base, where the power that he already shows would be superb for the position. He will never win a Gold Glove, nor will he ever be a speed demon – but those were never expected of him in the first place. Flores has demonstrated power to all fields, quick reaction time with the bat, and more recently, a discerning eye. He is the most advanced bat in the Mets system, and will likely see time in AAA in 2013. If his bat advances in the way that it did last year…who knows how soon he will breathe the air in Flushing?
He’s shown he can hit, now we’ll continue to wait and see when Flores makes his debut in Flushing.
For now, congratulations to Wilmer on getting selected to the All-Star game! A tremendous honor for him.
I truly feel that the Mets organization is committed to Flores, and 2B is where they´ve decided he fits. So it´s likely Murphy gets traded if Flores can keep it up. That said, if he was one of the key pieces to get Stanton or CarGo, then I think the Mets pull the trigger.
I am happy for Flores. He is having a great season and yet gets very little recognition for it. Good for him.
Dave, I’m sorry for those guys you deal with on MMO. The three of them are going to be the death of me. I ban them all the time and they come back and mock me or threaten me.
For as long as we’ve watched and waited, and given how he really seems to be fulfilling his potential, it would be a shame to never see this guy in a Mets uniform. If he goes, it has to be for a meaningful piece for the present and future. I’m convinced he’s gone in a package with a top pitching prospect for an OF bat or a top young SS. But I’ll be very happy if we see him up in NYC in August.
The question of what to do with Murphy is a tough one. Might not be the end of the world for Murph to be like an Endy Chavez but for the IF. If he spells Flores at 2B occasionally, gets some reps at 1B and buys Wright a few more days off than he’s been getting, there might be plenty of ABs to go around for him so we can keep him around.
That’s the strange part for me. Flores killed it last year and he seemed to be overlooked by most major publications. And then this year, even though its Vegas, he’s doing it again, and we hear nothing. At the last you would think they would all talk about his incredible bat and mention his lack of a real position. But even that seems to be overlooked. How is he not one of the highest rated hitting prospects in all of baseball. Look how young he is and he’s doing it at AAA. Based on his hitting alone the guy should be as prized a prospect as any position player out there. But it doesn’t seem to be the case.
I feel similarly about Puello. What he did in June was historical. And not a peep from anyone other than die hard Mets fans. I listened to Joe and Evan today on the FAN, which I rarely get to do, and they were talking about the Mets lack of position prospects. They mentioned Flores several times but Puello never came up. Not once. How is that even possible??
Agreed. I think the faction of Mets fans who have grown impatient with Flores are misguided. I know it feels like we’ve been waiting forever for this guy, but he’s consistently improved year-by-year all while being one of the youngest players in each league he’s played in. I look forward to seeing him as a Met, but if he has to go in a package for an impact bat, so be it.
Threadjack.
Anyone know why goeddel was pulled after striking out the side in the first? Was there an injury?
Flores- 3 more hits tonite, 2 doubles BA up to .317.
Spoke too soon- Flores 4 for 4 tonite- .319BA
Spoke too soon again
5th hit haha
Was a make up game I think.
5-6 with two doubles!! Mets prospects get shit on all the time. I bet if he was in the Yankees system he would be ranked in the top 25!! Harvey never made the top 20 or top ten pitchers and look at him now! Montero didn’t make the top 100!! Haha crazy!!! Let them keep underestimating our players and we will have the last laugh!!
Just talking about our players getting the shaft pisses me off! How is a 21 year old that’s hitting .320 and leading AAA in rbi’s and in the top 5 in doubles not in the top 100? Can’t use the PCL argument cause he crushed AA last year too! Then Puello comes along with his 5 tools and crushes AA at age 22!! His stats are rediculous yet no love.. I don’t want them to say this steroid thing is why either cause u can’t use that excuse until something actually happens! Montero doesn’t make the list either? Kills me!! Just cause he doesn’t throw 98 mph!!! Look at what Hefner has done with 92 mph lately! Scouts get too caught up with the fastball! I hope we don’t trade any of these three guys so they can prove these scouts wrong and we dominate with our home grown players! We have a lot of amazing kids and they will get their recognition very soon!! LGM!!!!
The steroid thing is going to resolve itself within the next 4-6 weeks. I would imagine the Mets keep Puello down on the farm and wait to see what happens.
I’d like to see a piece evaluating Flores’ true value in a trade right now.
Talk about no love, Wilmer Flores gets the starting nod when Dean Anna is a reserve? Anna has better offensive stats in all categories than Flores with the exception of HR 10vs8. Does MLB post the votes. I know its a third of the vote. Anna should be the starter regardless of his age.