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Adopted Cesar Puello

MFS62

By MFS62
in Adopt-a-Prospect Forum

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MFS62

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When some of my adoptees have made the majors, I kicked them out of the house.
Now there's room in the house.
So, I adopted a new baby boy - Cesar Puello.
He's a (gasp) righthand hitting outfielder who seems to have a lot of potential and a long way to go to reach the majors.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=puello001ces

Welcome to the family, kid. Make us proud.

Later


Frayed Knot FCL Mets

Frayed Knot

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Kevin Goldstein's write-up at Baseball Prospectus:

DOB: 4/1/91
Height/Weight: 6-2/195
Bats/Throws: R/R
Drafted/Signed: 2007, Dominican Republic
2010 Stats: .292/.375/.359 at Low-A (109 G)
Best/Worst Tool: Speed/defense

Year in Review: This teenage Dominican recovered from a slow start to put up impressive numbers at Low-A.

The Good: Puello is arguably the best athlete in the system. He's a plus-plus runner, and some scouts project some power for him down the road based on his size and strength. His arm is another plus tool, and he made some adjustments to his swing as the season went on, leading to more consistent contact.

The Bad: The debate over Puello's power is wide-ranging, as some see him becoming a real power threat, while others see a line-drive swing and more of a leadoff profile. His second-half breakthrough came with a far more aggressive approach at the plate, and he'll need to find some balance there. He's a poor defensive outfielder who needs his speed to make up for poor jumps and routes, which have so far limited him to a corner.

Perfect World Projection: If the power comes as some scouts believe, Puello could become a monster. Without it, he's a unique talent as a corner outfielder with a center fielder's skill set.

Path to the Big Leagues: Puello will make his Florida State League debut just days after his 20th birthday. Even if he begins to drive more balls, it won't show up in the stat sheet until he gets to Double-A.
ETA: 2013.


MFS62 First Round Pick

MFS62

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Thanks, FK.That confirms what I've heard/ read about him from other sources.

Later


Frayed Knot FCL Mets

Frayed Knot

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Edgy DC wrote:
Best/Worst Tool: Speed/defense

That's always an unsettling combo.


Except that I think, with a young player and particularly with an outfielder, defense is probably the one skill that's most possible to learn and improve upon, especially when the tool of raw speed is a given.


  • 5 months later...
Frayed Knot FCL Mets

Frayed Knot

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No Mets on this week's 'Hot Prospects' list in BA, but Puello does merit the honorable mention section

- Mets RF Cesar Puello might finally be starting to get on track after going 10-for-25 this past week with a double, two triples and two home runs (.400/.423/.840). The 20-year-old Dominican outfielder entered the season with high expectations after a strong 2010 campaign in the Sally league, but Puello's strikeouts ticked up (85) while his efficiency in stealing bases (14-for-22) ticked down.


  • 1 month later...
Frayed Knot FCL Mets

Frayed Knot

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More 'honorable mention' ink for Puello:
. . . The Mets shifted 20-year-old Cesar Puello to center field on June 22, and, coincidentally or not, the erstwhile right fielder found a new gear on offense. In 54 games since the switch, he's batting .281/.339/.474 (48-for-171) with 18 extra-base hits (including six homers) and eight steals for high Class A St. Lucie. (He went 10-for-23 with a homer, two doubles and four steals this week.) Scouts believed in Puello's power potential even as he hit only one homer in low Class A a year ago. Now he needs to tighten his strike zone (18 walks, 100 strikeouts) . .


  • 1 year later...
Frayed Knot FCL Mets

Frayed Knot

Old-Timey Member
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Been over 18 months since we've had an update on this guy:
From today's BA:
-- Cesar Puello, rf, Mets: Puello has been a frustrating prospect. He’ll show flashes of brilliance, plus raw power, an above-average arm and the speed that helped him steal 45 bases in 109 games there years ago. Yet he’s never been able to have that breakthrough that some scouts had expected from him. Until, perhaps, this year. Early in his career, Puello struggled with his hitting approach and to generate loft in his swing to be able to tap into his raw power. This year he’s shown a more selective hitting approach and his swing plane has continued to evolve to help him drive the ball out of the park, which is why he’s hitting .305/.369/.508 with five home runs in 33 games at Double-A Binghamton. This might just be the breakout the Mets have been waiting for.


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Squatted and forgotted. The 62 Family


  • 1 month later...
MFS62 First Round Pick

MFS62

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Snippets of what BA wrote on Puello (they mentioned the Biogenesis case but didn't go farther than one sentence):

Just a few years ago, right fielder Cesar Puello stood as one of the organization’s brightest prospects at any position. His intriguing combination of physicality, speed and arm strength contributed to a No. 3 ranking among Mets farmhands entering the 2011 season.

So while trouble turning his tools into production, managing the strike zone and staying healthy caused him to slide to the fringes of the prospect radar, the 22-year-old Puello has enjoyed a stunning resurgence at Double-A Binghamton this season, finally making good on the power potential that led to him being so highly touted.
-------------
Puello advanced to Double-A to begin the 2013 season, and with his April performance he showed signs of improvement when compared with his previous two years. He hit .280/.357/.420 in 15 games—though he didn’t hit a home run—but then something seemed to click for Puello the following month.

On May 3, he hit a home run off Harrisburg lefthander Ian Krol. He went three days before hitting another one off Trenton righthander Jose Ramirez. The day after that, Puello blasted two home runs off Trenton lefty Nik Turley. So began Puello’s prodigious hot streak.

Since that first homer, he has hit .341/.404/.659 with 15 homers and 46 RBIs in 47 games. Puello had another two-homer game on June 6, again against the Thunder. As of July 2—six years to the day since he signed as an amateur—Puello leads the Eastern League with 15 home runs and a .602 slugging percentage.

The homers haven’t been chip shots, either. One, hit off Altoona lefty Nate Baker, was drilled to dead center so hard that it was over the batter’s eye before the center fielder made it to the warning track.

-------------------------------

New Approach, New Mechanics

While Puello finally is tapping into the power that his sturdy frame affords him, those numbers don’t quite tell the whole story. His walk rate hasn’t dramatically increased this season, but according to his Binghamton coaches, Puello’s plate discipline, working in concert with mechanical adjustments and improvements, have keyed his resurgence.

Binghamton manager Pedro Lopez said Puello has been more selective in terms of what he swings at and has refined his perception of the strike zone, picking pitches he can consistently drive rather than falling behind in the count and having to settle for less-desirable offerings.

‘The plate discipline, for me, it’s the No. 1 thing,” Lopez said. “In the past, he would get himself out . . . He would swing at way too many pitches over his head, down and away and stuff, and that didn’t allow him to get good pitches to hit. I mean, no pitcher would throw him a strike if he would keep swinging at those pitches.”

But now that Puello has refined his idea of the strike zone and has cut down on helping pitchers out, his coaches have seen him drive both fastballs and offspeed pitches out of the park and into the gaps.

Binghamton hitting coach Luis Natera said Puello has raised the pre-swing position of his hands this year to above his head, and the action of driving his hands down through the strike zone has helped Puello get more backspin on the ball and drive it farther. Natera also said Puello has made adjustments to draw more power from his lower half.

“Power is the last thing to come,” Natera said. “You have to be a hitter first, and then you let it go. And right now, I think he’s a better hitter.”

-------------------------------
If Puello has a second half to match the first, then the Mets could have first-division-caliber corner outfielder on their hands. The man at the top, general manager Sandy Alderson, has taken notice.

“He’s always been a five-tool guy, a five-tool projection, but not necessarily five-tool performer,” Alderson told Mike Francesca of New York’s WFAN on June 10. “This year he’s put it all together and has been phenomenal over the last couple of weeks.”
Later


Frayed Knot FCL Mets

Frayed Knot

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Wow! I hadn't been tracking him over the last few weeks so that's a serious hot streak.

But even including the slower start he's hitting .329/.392/.596 // 988 for the year with 32 of his 79 hits going for extra bases and, for all the talk about plate discipline being his weakest asset, that's still around an average walk rate. For a 22 y/o at AA and in his first year at a new level, I'll take it.

Is playing RF most of the time (with the occasional game in CF) and is said to have the arm for it.


MFS62 First Round Pick

MFS62

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Edgy MD wrote:
What kind of nonsense play was that? Is there a no-sliding rule for the All-Star Game?

I dunno.
Maybe there is. They don't want another Ray Fosse injury.

Or, more likely, the batter didn't believe my kid had a great arm and thought he could score standing up.
Then when he saw the ball was there, it was too late to slide, so he tried to knock the ball out of the catcher's mitt.


Later


  • 2 weeks later...
Frayed Knot FCL Mets

Frayed Knot

Old-Timey Member
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John Sickels -- New York Mets prospect Cesar Puello went 1-for-3 with a double for Double-A Binghamton yesterday, giving him a season line of .332/.401/.571 with 16 homers and 23 stolen bases. He's been particularly hot lately, hitting .361 in his last 10 games with five doubles, a homer, four steals, and a 6/7 BB/K ratio.
Tools have never been the problem with the 22-year-old Puello, but he's been slowed by injuries and poor plate discipline. He's healthy this year, has tripled his 2012 walk rate, and is now hitting the hell out of the ball. He's flashed this before but didn't sustain it, but this season he got hot in late April and has stayed that way. I didn't have him in my recent Top 75 Prospects update, but he'd definitely be in the 80-100 range and if he keeps playing like this he'll certainly be in the Top 50 for next year.


MFS62 First Round Pick

MFS62

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Thanks, FK.
That gave me a case of Sickels Kvell Euphoria.

Later


  • 2 months later...
MFS62 First Round Pick

MFS62

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Not only has it not gone unsaid, but you just said it twice.
And in other threads as well.


Later


MFS62 First Round Pick

MFS62

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I agree its an issue.
But I prefer to take the glass half full approach that the Biogenesis usage was in the past and that he did not fail a drug test while he was putting up those numbers this year.
Time will tell.

Later


Edgy MD FCL Mets

Edgy MD

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Everything is in the past. Doesn't mean it doesn't speak to the present and future.

And he did fail a test. It may not have been a chemical test, but it was a test nonetheless. The idea that he passed urine tests vindicates his performance kind of ignores the obvious notion that he was playing with a body developed while breaking the rules at an earlier time.


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  • 2 months later...
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