So I was looking at his stats throughout his whole minor league career and it appears he is a pretty good hitter. He's been in the minors since 2011 and is still only in advanced A ball and he will be 26 in February. I can only conclude that his defense isn't so good. Is this the case ? I can't find one bad hitting year for him and he has pretty good pop and his OBP isn't bad either. Help me out here please . I know he is old now for his current level but earlier when he was younger he put up some good seasons.

2 hits tonight.  You started something.

Saw him play tonight and he is a big boy. Hit a no doubt HR to LF where the left fielder didnt even move. His 10th of th year. Not sure why he hasnt moved up.

In another time we might have considered calling up a guy like this but for now there are other catching prospects who need the reps.

IIRC He was a Rule 5 pick in the minor league phase. His bat was always considered legit, but his defense is supposed to be awful. 

Players like him we can quickly find out his value in the winter. If he’s a real prospect he’s going to be Rule 5’d, if teams seen him as an org filler, he could stay.

Even if he doesn't amount to anything, he's 25 with an .881 OPS in high-A. I don't see the harm in at least letting him face AA or AAA pitching, even as a 1B/DH rather than a C. 

He's org filler, but like Flete, they'll move him up next season since he has a great comradery with the other guys, especially the pitchers. Solid soldier for the organization. 

5 hours ago, SoxAce said:

He's org filler, but like Flete, they'll move him up next season since he has a great comradery with the other guys, especially the pitchers. Solid soldier for the organization. 

I think the lesson on guys like this is they'll keep moving up, occasionally some of them will do a Brandon Allen and tear up AA or AAA, and then every so often one or two of them will do a Josh Donaldson where they reach the bigs at 27 or 28 and explode, but the reason I cited a guy who blew up in 2018 at age 27 is I can't remember a guy who did something like that since then. Most of them wind up career minor leaguers or playing in Japan.

The way I see it is he's really unlikely to be valuable unless he develops his defense at catcher (which one presumes is what has kept him in the low minors so long), so moving him up to play him at a different position dilutes his potential value quite a bit — not that it was super high in the first place. And good catchers are sufficiently rare and hard to develop that nobody sees anything wrong with a relatively old guy coming up as a rookie at that position. Look at Kevan Smith, for example.

Carolina league player of the week ! He's a shiny Mercedes  now .

He's a glorified beer league player.  But he can rake. 

Dude just hit 2 homers with 5 ribbies yesterday.

Really no reason for him to not have Keon Barnum's DH/1B job at AA, aside from wanting to keep him for the Dash playoffs 

6 minutes ago, Jose Abreu said:

Really no reason for him to not have Keon Barnum's DH/1B job at AA, aside from wanting to keep him for the Dash playoffs 

You try to make him a catcher as long as you can.  The bat will play anywhere.  If they can get him even to a passable catcher, that is HUGE.

1 minute ago, southsider2k5 said:

You try to make him a catcher as long as you can.  The bat will play anywhere.  If they can get him even to a passable catcher, that is HUGE.

I doubt Mercedes would get selected and hang on a 25 man roster for an entire mlb season given his shaky defense. Big difference between high A pitching and the majors. 

1 minute ago, steveno89 said:

I doubt Mercedes would get selected and hang on a 25 man roster for an entire mlb season given his shaky defense. Big difference between high A pitching and the majors. 

No chance.  He would essentially be a DH/1B as a Rule 5 pick, and there is no way someone takes up a roster spot for a whole season for that.

He and Collins are going crazy today, OPS at Charlotte up over 1.000, likely just hit the game-winning homer for CHARLOTTE...a 3 run blast in the bottom of the 8th in a game they were trailing by seven runs early (9-2 going into the bottom of the 5th inning).

Let's give organizational filler like Mercedes and Mendick a shot, because why the hell not?

Mercedes 3/5, hitting .315...and even our old friend Zack Collins is 4/5 .269 878 OPS.

Edited July 29, 20196 yr by caulfield12