Adopted: Wilmer Flores

[Frayed Knot]

MFS62 wrote: Flores has been en fuego. He's now playing third base and is hitting .323/.355/.523

Gets an 'honorable mention' in BA's 'Hot Prospect' watch this week.
-- For as long as he's been around, it's easy to forget that Wilmer Flores is still just a 20-year-old in the high Class A Florida State League.
Now playing third base for the Mets, Flores is off to a .323/.355/.523 start through 19 games, including an 11-game hitting streak.
With international prospects, it pays to be patient.

[Frayed Knot]

From a BA Q & A:

Q -- Richard (Brooklyn): Do you think wilmer Flores's current hot streak is an abberation or a sign of progress? Thanks

A -- Ben Badler (BA): Probably a little bit of both. When someone like Flores becomes a big deal at 16, people tend to lose patience and forget that this guy is still a 20-year-old in High-A. I'm not saying he's going to be an all-star, but he does have excellent hands at the plate and the power he's starting to show doesn't surprise me. There's very real progress here.

[MFS62]

Three more hits today, including his 5th homer.

Later

[Frayed Knot]

Sickels:

- Is Wilmer Flores finally breaking out?
The New York Mets prospect had a solid April (.293/.319/.463) and has been even better in May (.329/.380/.534), leading to an overall line of .310/.347/.497 with seven homers, nine walks, and 16 strikeouts in 155 at-bats for High-A St. Lucie.
This is his third run through the Florida State League but he's still just 21 years old. It is interesting to note that his offensive improvement coincides with a shift of his defensive position from shortstop to third base this year.
Given that he now has 242 games of High-A on his resume, a promotion to Double-A seems like a good bet sometime soon.


FK: That's some serious slugging (near .200 IsoP) in a FSL where power is tough to come by. The low walks are a concern, although the Ks are low too.

[MFS62]

Wilmer went 2-6 with a walk, a double and 2 RBI in yesterday's 14 inning St. Lucie win.
Most significant, he started the game at second base. No DPs, but no errors, either. (Don't know how many chances for each)


Later

[Frayed Knot]

3-for-4, 1 run scored, 3 RBIs, 1 BB and MVP honors in the Fla St Lg ASG over the weekend.

[Edgy MD]

And that's his swan song (hopefully) in A-ball, as he, Wilfredo Tover, and Francisco Pe�a are heading to AA. Cory F. Mazzoni, too.

[MFS62]

Wilmer went 4-5 yesterday, with 2 doubles and 2 RBI. He's hitting .471 since his promotion to AA.

Later

[Frayed Knot]

John Sickels does an update on Wilmer Flores ...

http://www.minorleagueball.com/2012/8/30/3279956/minor-league-prospect-report-wilmer-flores-3b-new-york-mets#storyjump


... and there's some pretty good stuff in there

- First is the reminder of how young he is. Scouts talk about a phenomenon known as �prospect fatigue� where fans begin to turn away from a promising player simply because it seems like he�s been around forever, something that�s more common with Latin players simply because they tend to sign so young. But Flores is still just 21 with a half-season of AA under his belt and would have the 2nd highest OPS in the Eastern League if he had enough ABs to qualify. That�s a guy who�s not only past his sell date but it�s still solidly in the young for his level territory.

- That his power has picked up. Power is often the last thing to emerge from hitters and the whole �will he?/Won�t he?� question colors the opinion of the player since how much he develops down the road goes a long way in determining how valuable he�ll be. Flores has always had good contact rates but now he�s maintaining that while adding some punch to go along with it (17 HRs in <500 ABs).

- That he�s getting at least decent reports for his defense at 2B & 3B. No one thought he�d ever stay at SS, but many speculated that his skills and lack of foot speed left him no other eventual destination but 1B where the bat would need to be that much better just to maintain some value overall. He still rates as a bat-first guy, but if can he hang at either of those IF spots so much the better.

[Frayed Knot]

And Wilmer also gets the season send-off in BA's (final) weekly 'Hot Sheet'

Why He's Here: .481/.517/.889 (13-for-27), 4 R, 3 2B, 1 3B, 2 HR, 3 RBIs, 2 BB, 4 SO

The Scoop: With international prospects, the key word is patience. We live in a golden era of prospect information, perhaps no more evident than in the scouting reports we now have on international amateur prospects�but it's imperative to remember that the path of Jurickson Profar or Starlin Castro zooming to the big leagues is incredibly rare. Take Flores, whose name has appeared on the pages of Baseball America since he was 15. One of the top international prospects in 2007, Flores signed with the Mets out of Venezuela for $700,000 on his 16th birthday, then made a huge splash the next year in the Rookie-level Appalachian League, where he hit .310/.352/.490 in 59 games playing most of the season as a 16-year-old. By the time Flores was 18, the Mets had already pushed him to high Class A St. Lucie.

Yet when the 2012 season opened, Flores still found himself in St. Lucie. He had struggled the previous year, but at 20, he was still one of the youngest players in the league and had the same preternatural hand-eye coordination that drew the Mets to him. Now the breakout has arrived. After a strong first half in the Florida State League, Flores got the bump to Double-A in June and has hit .323/.374/.506 in 62 games for Binghamton. His power has surged, with his 17 home runs nearly doubling his total of nine from a year ago. The Mets have shuffled Flores around this year at third base, second and first, with third base likely the perfect-world scenario given that he has the arm strength for the position but not nearly enough range to profile at second. So while it may seem like Flores has been a prospect forever, just remember that he just turned 21 a few weeks ago.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Think we might see him in 2013?

[Frayed Knot]

Not to start the year I wouldn't think, but quite possibly at some point in the season.
If he proves at all worthy of handling 2nd base it would help since the other three IF positions are less likely to be open.

[Edgy MD]

Flores had an Alfonzan day yesterday, going 4-5 with two homers and a double. Over his last three games, he's 8-15 with three doubles and those two homers. He's leading the league in RBI, with six more than the next closest guy, and in the Pacific Coast League, you'd think the RBI champ would be a big league vet.

[Frayed Knot]

That Alfonzian day, when combined by the rest of his week, was enough to get Flores the #6 spot on BA's 'Hot List'

.400/.419/.767 (12-for-30), 2 HR, 5 2B, 9 RBIs, 4 R, 1 BB, 7 SO

Talk about linear progression�Flores� OPS has climbed from .715 in April to .873 in May to .950 in June to 1.200 through 11 games this month. He placed an exclamation point on his recent performance with a 4-for-5, two-homer, one-double game yesterday versus Tucson. Flores has very quietly climbed to the top of the PCL heap in three categories�doubles (33), extra-base hits (49) and RBIs (74)�and while he�s had considerably more success in Las Vegas, he still has a .288/.333/.440 batting line in road games. Not bad for a 21-year-old second baseman in Triple-A.

Prospect watchers may want to take note of the Mets in September if the organization ends up promoting a trio of young position players on its 40-man roster�Flores, catcher Travis d�Arnaud and Double-A right fielder Cesar Puello�to make their major league debuts in tandem.

[Edgy MD]

That scenario doesn't bode nicely for the Metly futures of Boid, Moiph, and Buck.

[Frayed Knot]

BA puts Flores on their prospects to watch in the 2nd half list:

-- A participant in tonight�s Triple-A all-star game, Flores has cracked 16 extra-base hits (five HR, 10 2B, one 3B) in the past 26 games for Las Vegas. With an uncharacteristic 22-4 K-BB ratio in that time, he appears to be making a concerted effort to hit for power, and so far it�s been working. Only Albuquerque outfielder Nick Buss has more extra-base hits (17) in this sample. The 21-year-old Flores has played four of his past eight games at first base, suggesting he may be auditioning for a look at that position in New York this summer.

[Edgy MD]

Doesn't it take more than one person involved in an effort to make a "concerted" one?

[MFS62]

Belated welcome to the bigs, Wilmer.
I knew you could do it.
Hope you stay for more than a while.

Later

[Guest themetfairy]

Wilmer isn't shy around cameras -

[fimg=450:jlvhrpya]http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3355/13023758034_a743bd51b6_b.jpg[/fimg:jlvhrpya]