Depth Charts 2022: Corner Outfield
It won't be topped by a Judge, but bring on some mashers!
Photo Credit: Kirk Nawrotzky | Richmond Flying Squirrels
This is the sixth of a series of depth charts, taking a comprehensive look at each position across the entire SF Giants’ organization. So far, we’ve looked at:
Shortstop
Third Base
Ok, I know that I said that shortstop is the glamor position ….but /checks to see if Brandon Crawford is looking/ ….we all know it’s the corner OF we really love! It’s where the bashers live! Home of Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds, Hank, Frank, The Splendid Splinter, Stan the Man, and Yaz (both versions!). Fans of every stripe, chicks or no, dig the long ball. And the long ball lives in the corner.
The Giants, of course, have a curious relationship to outfielders. When I — and many of you, I know — were kids, the Giants were profligate with outfielders, dropping them from their pockets like loose change, leaving them behind everywhere they go, like a forgotten layer of winter clothing. They planted the rosters of major league clubs everywhere with starting outfielders they couldn’t find a use for: Leon Wagner, Willie Kirkland, Jose Cardenal. Need an Alou brother? We’ve got plenty! Shopping for future MVPs, have an Orlando Cepeda or even a George Foster — going cheap!
Here I was, a barely teenaged lad, admiring the youngest, fastest, most athletic outfield in baseball — 22 year-old Gary Matthews, 23 year-old Garry Maddox, and the old man of the group, 27 year-old Bobby Bonds — and before I’d even had time to properly savor, they were all gone, blown by the winds to East Coast teams that had done nothing to deserve them! No matter, I suppose, the replacements arrived almost immediately! Here was 22 year-old Jack Clark finishing 5th in the MVP voting in 1978 — and honestly, he should have finished higher! Then there was Chili Davis, who I once saw start the first game of a double header in Fresno at catcher, the second game in CF, and homer from both sides of the plate along the way.
It was an embarrassment of riches that would never end!
Friends, it ended! It ended for good and ever apparently! As legend has it, super scout George Genovese, who had personally signed a large quantity of the above names off the playgrounds of California, stumped hard for the Giants to draft USC’s Mark McGwire with the 9th pick of the 1984 draft. The organization, in its infinite wisdom, chose University of Tennessee’s Alan Cockrell instead. Their careers …. did not turn out similarly! Believing that his voice had lost its authority within the organization, Genovese took his talents elsewhere (and not just any elsewhere, Dodgersland, if you can believe it) — and with him went any ability whatsoever to scout, sign, and develop a home grown outfielder.
Thus was the Curse of George Genovese born! (Alternatively, you can blame it on their failure to sign 2nd round pick Barry Bonds two years earlier — either curse works fine). The great Grant Brisbee wrote a piece for The Athletic earlier this year in which he looked at the longest positional drought of home grown All Stars for every organization — the Giants’ inability to develop a home grown All Star in the OF simply lapped the field. Davis’ All Star appearance in 1986 was the last time the team sent an outfielder they had developed to the event — and Chili first appeared in the majors more than 40 years ago — and a year later, he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated holding a pack of dynamite in front of a picture of Candlestick Park, so you can see how that ended.
Only seven teams in MLB have failed to send a homegrown OF to the All Star Game in the last 12 years. Holy cow! That’s bad!
Our mission today, then, is pretty straightforward. Find a way to break this pernicious curse — a mean, evil curse that appears to be swallowing poor Heliot Ramos before our very eyes. It’s gonna take something special to get over this particular hump. Bring on the soothsayer, breakout the ancient relics with their obscure codes written in long-dead languages, we’re going curse busting here…
System Depth
First off, I guess we all need to make our piece with the fact that this chart isn’t headlined by a certain 6’7” skyscraper from Fresno State. Sigh.
But don’t sleep on local kid Mitch Haniger’s chances of ending the franchise’s 15 year run without a 30 HR hitter. He blasted 39 longballs for the Mariners in 2021. That would certainly make him a Local Hero in San Francisco if he can repeat the trick.
[By the way, to be perfectly honest with you, I’ve been on vacation for the past two weeks, so if you’re reading this and wondering why it is that I’ve failed to mention the Giants shocking acquisition of ….uh… Mookie Betts, or whomever….well, let’s just blame it on the editorial staff. I’m sure they’re the ones who messed up, not me!]
More seriously, though, there’s an obvious and significant issue laying in the weeds of the above. While we’ve certainly seen Mike Yastrzemski and Austin Slater being good enough at all phases of the game to corporately create one highly productive starting outfielder, their presence in this particularly depth chart suggests that they are not the starting center fielder — where the duo was slightly miscast in 2022. And that suggestion can only be taken up if someone else is! As of yet, that character, whoever it may be, has not appeared in the movie. (and once again, if it transpired that the team somehow traded for Julio Rodriguez last night, remember, it’s the editor’s fault).
This is an aspirational depth chart, then. As I write, the actual starter in right field is…gosh I don’t even know — Luis Gonzalez? LaMonte Wade, Jr.? Blake Sabol? Haniger with Joc Pederson in left? /Shudder. There’s work to do here!
Ah well, Farhan and Pete to their work, we to ours. And ours is casting our gaze lower down the charts. Speaking of aspirational, it certainly does qualify suggesting Vaun Brown might start out in Triple A. With only two at bats in his Double A career, it certainly wouldn’t be surprising to see the 2022 Surprise return to Richmond to actually start a game at that level, before passing it by. So, yes, the likeliest outcome is that I get to see Brown at team workouts in Richmond next spring. But, given the current state of the organization, and given Brown’s physicality, work ethic, drive, and his incredible breakout in 2022, I do think he could withstand the push — and getting aggressive with guys and challenging them isn’t necessarily a bad approach.
One of the promising aspects of the Triple A group — whether or not it includes Brown — is that everybody here is fast enough and athletic enough to handle center field, in at least part time, Slaterish sort of “you might not want it every day but it comes out looking pretty decent in small samples!” way. Heliot Ramos has manned center field all the way up the system, and though his size has always led scouts to think he would have to move away from the position, his instincts and still-impressive speed certainly keep him playable there. That’s important if the bat fails to live up to “starting corner outfield” levels. There’s still a solid 4th OF/UT type fallback for Ramos and Brown both.
Gonzalez has the speed to handle center — and, in fact, has played that position more than any other in the minors. But his defensive mishaps in the corners with the Giants last year didn’t fill me with much confidence that you’d want to try him there. Gonzalez has always carried a bit of a tweener label. Not exactly a center fielder defensively, a little light on power to be a corner outfielder offensively. But he gave the Giants some decent value when they needed a lift last year, and should remain in the picture. I had thought that 2022 was his final option year and there likely wouldn’t be a place on the 2023 team for both Gonzalez and Wade. But, upon closer examination, Gonzalez did not actually use up an option in 2022, as he didn’t spend quite enough days with Sacramento on optional assignment (some of his time in Sacramento came under rehab assignment). That should allow the Giants to keep him around this year.
Bryce Johnson, who happily made his major league debut in 2022 but has since been dropped from the 40-man and outrighted, should spend plenty of time as the starting center fielder on this team, but he’s a brilliant outfielder at all three spots and can move around seamlessly. Johnson doesn’t have the power teams like to see out of even their center fielders these days, but he can give a team speed, defense, and solid at bats from both sides of the plate. Hopefully, he gets another shot at some point. Kid’s a winning ball player!
Corner outfielders with center field speed continues to be the story when we move down to Richmond, where, knock on any hard surface you can find, Hunter Bishop will hopefully be playing at the Double A level for the first time in his career in 2023 — four years after he was drafted out of Arizona State. It’s been a vicious cycle since then for Bishop, with a littany of injuries preventing him from getting the reps he so badly needs in order to work on the swing issues that have plagued him when on the field. While Bishop hit just .235/.320/.406 last year, he did show some positive signs, particularly during June when he posted a .940 OPS and cut his strikeout rate to slightly under 30%. More importantly, he more than doubled — nearly tripled — his career PA total, even in a season that was once again hampered by injuries. The Giants almost certainly will move him up off that performance just to help him feel positive about himself, if for no other reason — returning a kid to the lower levels year after year is a good way to turn them off and lose them, eventually. He hasn’t delivered the results the team hoped when they took him with the 10th overall pick, but there’s still an intriguing package of physical tools here. If only they can keep him on the field so he can work on refining them into game skills.
Across the diamond from Bishop should be another extremely strong kid in whom the team is heavily invested, Jairo Pomares. Like his expected outfield mates, Bishop and Luis Matos, Pomares didn’t really live up to expectations in 2022, hitting .254 with a 33% K rate. The Giants have indicated that they want to push this group upwards, though, and that they’re still bullish on each of these talented players’ future. As we’ll see in a bit, Pomares and Bishop were much more similar offensive players in 2022 than they’re generally perceived to be. In both cases, their paths forward depending on maximizing their ability to murderize a ball with greater consistency. As noted above, Brown may start out in this mix as well, with everyone shuffling around the outfield spots and DH to get consistent at bats.
But even if Brown begins in Richmond, I don’t anticipate him staying there as long as either of the other two. For the most part, I anticipate Hunter and Pomares being spelled by Carter Aldrete (whom we’ve met in several other positions already), as well as some appearances from the apparently re-signed Ismael Munguia and possibly even Simon Whiteman. And, of course, as I discussed extensively in the Shortstop Depth Chart, there’s a strong case for getting Luciano time in the OF this year as he gets closer to being big league ready — in fact, that change could conceivably advance his development as it would take one big bit of work off his plate. Move Luciano to the OF and just let him hit and it’s possible we could see a quick rise from the offensive potential. Now, how exactly the Richmond lineup would be able to juggle a Luciano-Pomares-Bishop-Brown quartet in the corners? I have no idea!
Jared Dupere and Alex Suarez, whom I have penciled in as the regular starters in Eugene, is a tandem that bears more than passing resemblance to the Pomares/Bishop combo a level above them. Dupere, who set the record for most homers in a season at Northeastern, is built like a fire plug, and can really put a jolt into a baseball. He hammered 10 home runs in just 32 games at San Jose, after a late start to the season. He found the going tougher after a promotion to Eugene, however, where he hit just .143, with 19 strikeouts in 53 PA. Dupere is another outfielder who is challenged to make contact (indeed, if I arrange the Giants’ system by contact rate, I find Bishop, Dupere, and Pomares all right next to each other), undermining his above average raw power.
Suarez, like Bishop, oozes physical tools and athleticism, but is still working on the reps needed to actualize those tools into productive baseball skills on a daily basis. One day he looks like a monster, the next he looks awkward and unrefined. It’s entirely possible that the Giants decide that he needs another pass at Low A, after he hit just .231/.296/.412 last year (good for a wRC+ of just 79). But Haines thought Suarez had made as much improvement as any player in the organization by the end of the season, so my guess is they give him the next challenge this year. He’s yet another player who has the speed and defensive chops to play center field, but spent most of last year in RF in deference to Grant McCray. With a strong arm, Suarez is also a natural in right — if he hits!
Victor Bericoto is likely part of the outfield mix in Eugene as well, but as I mentioned in the 1b piece, I don’t think he’s naturally suited to the OF — certainly not in RF. He’s a better 1b than he is a LF, but being able to continue to take reps in the OF will certainly help make him more appealing to clubs than simply being a right-swinging, right-throwing 1b will. That said, as a hitter, he probably has an advantage over either of his teammates. Carter Williams should be part of this roster as well. After spending 2022 bouncing back and forth between Eugene and San Jose, he should be ready for a full-season assignment — he’s started each of the past two seasons in extended spring. Williams hit a blistering 1.094 OPS in 42 games with San Jose in the middle of the season, and certainly doesn’t belong at that level anymore. He was impressive in his end of the year stint back with Eugene, as well, hitting .307 over 19 games in August and September.
San Jose should be the province of college outfielders from the 2022 draft class — which makes that level the equivalent of the Mystery Box from Let’s Make a Deal. You never know quite how the college game will translate to the pros. The best of the group would appear to be Wade Meckler, coming off of a tremendous career at Oregon State, where he posted a .902 OPS. He’s not a big power guy, but he’s athletic and can really hit. He also controls the strikezone with an iron precision. Meckler walked more than he struck out in his junior year in college and kept that trend rolling along in his short introduction to pro ball.
Fifteenth round pick, Tanner O’Tremba, posted some big exit velocities in college at the University of Arizona, but that came with a level of strikeouts that is concerning at the college level (25%). Matt Higgins wasn’t drafted at all, but the UDFA had a legendary career at Bellarmine University in Louisville, where he hit .372/.463/.657 with 45 career home runs. As with Brown, Higgins isn’t young (he’ll turn 24 in the middle of next season), but his performance has certainly been loud!
At the lowest level, there are a variety of guys to be at least a little bit curious about. Eliam Sandoval was putting together a magnificent second pro season in the DSL last year before injuring himself. He hit (.314), he hit for power (5 HR, .535 SLG), and he worked the count (10% BB rate). That’s definitely enough to be getting along with! He seems to be a pure LF profile, but the bat has me intrigued. Mauricio Pierre, on the other hand, has actually looked pretty good in center when I’ve seen him, but he’s played mostly in the corner in games. The Giants gave the 18-year-old Panamanian an extremely challenging assignment last year, pushing him up to the ACL. The results weren’t pretty — he put up a 69 wRC+ and struck out more than 34% of the time — but he never stopped giving pitchers tough at bats. It was a “keep your head above water” type season — I’m still interested in the long, lean, projectible outfielder.
In the Dominican, Moises de la Rosa, who was one of the top signings of last year’s international class, gave indications that he could hit — when he was on the field! As with so many others on the Giants’ DSL squads, that didn’t turn out to be as often as hoped, but his .265/.438/.408 rookie season gave promise of better things to come. Fellow six-figure signee, Erick Arosemena, another Panamanian signee (the Giants have been going to Panama more and more the last few years), was the yin to de la Rosa’s yang. A bundle of unrefined physical tools still working their way into skills, he hit just .178 in 37 games, but with three home runs and four stolen bases. Seven of his 19 hits went for extra bases.
Two others deserve special comment at that level. I mentioned in the 1b depth chart that Guillermo Williamson had interesting hit data last year. He spent most of his time at 1b, but if he could stretch that to LF, it could help him! And lastly, though he’s not a member of the organization, Rayner Arias is a bat that the Giants seem to be very excited about adding. Normally I stay away from the “unofficial” guys, but he seems like too much a part of this picture to ignore.
Prospect Value
Graphic, please:
Thank you.
Let’s be clear: I am definitely prone to recency bias. It’s a true weakness of mine. But even so, when I think about all of the conversations I’ve had this year with scouts, with internal Giants’ sources like Michael Holmes or John Barr or Kyle Haines, with teammates — I just don’t feel like I’m getting too far out over my skis in hanging an above average 55 on Brown.
I know he was 24 in A ball. And I know that he still ran up a 26% K rate. I know he can be pitched to and has some weak areas in his zone that he’ll need to work to improve. But it’s hard to find a player who gets so universally praised for the way he drives himself to achieve — the things he does off the field, both physically and mentally, that put himself in a position of success on the field. Marry his work ethic, his intelligence, and his physicality together and — good health willing (no more knee scares, Vaun!) — it’s hard to see how the end result isn’t a player who can sit solidly in that 3 Win area from year to year — and that could even be light!
People frequently make the Hunter Pence comparison, because Brown has a little of that barely in control frenetic energy that always characterized Pence. Still, I think it’s important to note that Pence was a much better contact hitter as a young prospect coming up. Part of that is the times, but he still maintained strikeout rates in the 16-18% range for the bulk of his career.
But even if Brown has a proclivity for the K — as many players do in this age of the 100 mph whiffle ball — how crazy is it to foresee an outcome that is something like Teoscar Hernandez in terms of hitting, power, and contact, but with outstanding defense and baserunning added into the equation? I can see that outcome from Brown without, I think, getting too giddy. Maybe it’s more of a Mike Yastrzemski outcome, though I think Brown’s swing will cover more of the zone than Yaz has the last couple of years. That would be closer to an average regular outcome and it feels as if that — an honest to god major league average starting RF who was robbed of an All Star appearance by that dumb pandemic season — is a little light for what Brown could be.
I feel like a 20-25 HR, 20-30 SB, strong fielder who can hit in the .250 range isn’t a crazy prediction for Brown at this point. So long as those incredible muscles don’t continually go sproing on him, and those amazing quads don’t put too much pressure on the knee joints! Just watch this dude run (and running isn’t his most impressive feature)!
So, over my skis or not, I’m giving him a 55. Is a fifth year MBA student from a college no one ever heard of who was scouted through a knothole due to pandemic restrictions that prevented anyone from attending his games be enough juju to do some curse breaking? I can see it!
I’ve already written about the scenario that could see Luciano end up in this position, and I still maintain that there’s enough offensive potential for him to be an All Star in that role. As Reggie Jackson once said, if you’re gonna stand in the corner, you’d better lean on the pole, and Luciano can definitely put some lean into it. Yes, you can make that case that, reduced to a LF, rather than crucial infielder, Luciano might end up merely a very good player. But I’ve always thought that the best body comp I’ve ever heard for Luciano is Alfonso Soriano — without the 40 SB speed, of course — and Soriano was an All Star many times over as a LF. It’s a high ceiling offensively, no matter where on the field it comes from (take care of that back, Marco!).
A much harder case to consider is erstwhile #1 prospect Heliot Ramos. In some sense, many of the same things I said about Brown apply to Ramos. Ramos is extremely physical, a bundle of positive energy, an uplifting presence. He also hits the ball as hard or harder than anyone in the organization — literally! His average and 90th percentile exit velocity numbers both led the entire system last year. But, as I’ve discussed ad nauseum this year, all of that hard contact just hasn’t produced value for him because of a swing that is seemingly incapable of meeting the ball out in front of the plate so he can get to his pull side and launch.
Ramos and the Giants spent most of last year trying to make mechanical fixes to that swing to get him more rotational, but the hoped for results never followed. Now, the middle of a season isn’t exactly the best time to be making major mechanical overhauls to a swing, and one can plausibly craft a scenario where an off-season of work could get that light switch on. One thing you hear from hitting coaches is that it’s easier to take a guy who can hit the ball hard and refine where and how they’re hitting it, than it is to take a guy without the ability to hit hard and put more oomph into their bat. From that perspective, Ramos is just a quick swing change away from major success.
But success at the top level has a lot to do with making adjustments. And this is a delicate thing. Players need to make constant adjustments with their bodies and mechanics, making them quickly, but intentionally, without abandoning their process, and seeking the chimera of success through constant tinkering. If that sounds complicated — and almost contradictory — remember, these guys are all wizards. The point is that after watching Ramos try and fail to find a successful adjustment through two years of, essentially, the same issue, it becomes harder for me to believe that he’s going to be one of those major leaguers who can do the kind of “quick fix” analysis and adjustment that keeps big leaguers pumping out consistent production. It’s been hard for Ramos (and the Giants) to get the fix to click in. Quite possibly, there’s something about the way his body is working in the batter’s box — he himself has said that he’s looking for something to make his swing looser, and it’s true that, when I look at his swing, I’m reminded of the old-time term for a certain kind of swing with a muscular stiffness in it: “muscle bound.”
In the end, he’s young enough and athletic enough and strong enough that you can’t lose hope that there’s a major leaguer in there. But he’s also struggled to hit for long enough (essentially, his entire upper minors career) that the ceiling has to be lowered. At this point, if he and the Giants can get to an Austin Slater type of outcome (another player who struggled for years to get the ball in the air), it should definitely be viewed as a success. So I’ll put a Slaterish grade on him: 40+ or 45 role player for now.
The next nut to crack is our Richmond tandem of Bishop and Pomares. These two have, in some ways, very different reputations as hitters and players. Bishop is considered a highly patient hitter, happy to work a walk, while Pomares is thought of as something of a free-swinging hacker. But weirdly, their 2022 seasons produced some incredibly similar results. Consider:
K rates: 32.9%, 32.7%
Contact: 64.3%, 63.1%
Swing rate: 49.8%, 49.3%
In-zone swing rate: 71.7%, 71.9%
It continues like that, almost to the point of eeriness. Their various exit velocity data is nearly identical — their 90th percentile EV as within three-tenths of a mph of each other. By most of the vast array of numbers that the industry now keeps track of, these guys were the same hitter in 2022! Is that surprising? I’ll admit, it is a little to me. Oh, and about their differing reputations as hitters — did you know that Pomares actually had a higher walk rate than Bishop last year (9.3% to 8.7%)? Data is a really a great thing for making you re-think your preconceived notions!
Both of these dudes can hammer a baseball, and both take ferocious swings (I actually wonder if some of Bishop’s shoulder issues aren’t related to the violent effort behind his swing). I think there’s some question about Pomares’ pitch recognition when it comes to offspeed stuff, but I also think he has a little more coverage skills with his bat than Bishop does. One place where their data deviates is in out-of-zone contact — when Bishop chases, he almost always comes up empty, while Pomares can spoil pitches he’s chasing after much more effectively.
There’s no doubt that Bishop is the superior athlete — his speed is still top of the line, while Pomares is basically going to go as far as his bat takes him. Normally, that would spur me to give the nudge to Bishop. But in this case, I actually still have Pomares rated a tick higher. There are a couple of reasons for that. A big one is the two years difference in their age. When you have two guys performing almost identically at the same level, take the 22-year-old, not the 24-year-old. That’s especially true in a case like Pomares’ who lost multiple years of competitive play during the process of escaping from Cuba — at about the same age that Bishop was getting Pac-12 experience.
I also think we saw Pomares improve on some of his underlying skills throughout last season. From June 1 on, he was a .384/.341/.468 hitter with Eugene with a walk rate of 9.4%. The K rate during that period was still far too high (33%), but it does feel like he was working to find a better approach and make better swing decisions. With Bishop, the second half brought a familiar tale of woe — a long stint on the IL. For a player who badly needs reps, his body just hasn’t allowed him to get many of them since turning pro, and it’s been an extensive assortment of different ailments that has kept him out of action (though the shoulder that wiped out 2021 was certainly the most serious). As he gets towards the end of his physical prime (he’ll turn 25 next June), it’s harder and harder to see him reaching the one-time ceiling of a plus defensive CF with plus plus power. For now, Bishop is a soft 40 grade for me, while I still have Pomares as a 45 for the time being. We’ll need to see more adjustments from him in 2023 to stay at that level, however.
There are quite a few other outfielders I’m sticking a hazy 35 on as well, mostly just as a way of noting that I’m keeping track of them. Williams has been used as something of an org player thus far, but there’s something intriguing about his bat to ball skills that is keeping him on my radar. He has a slightly unusual scoop swing, but he gets the barrel to the ball efficiently. Suarez has one of the better non-Bishop athletic bodies in the organization — he’s fast, powerful, graceful, he has tremendous bat speed — but still has plenty of work ahead of him turning those physical gifts into consistent production. In particularly, he’s another guy in the system who needs to find more contact to make all the elements play.
Pierre was overwhelmed in the ACL last year, but he’s another intriguing athlete with a strong, projectible body. I have him on my long-term project lens. Sandoval, on the other hand, is a pure LF type, which means the bat needs to come up big — but he’s performed so far as a pro, and as has been the case in years past with DSL stars like Canario, Toribio, or Bericoto, that’s something to keep an eye on. It’s nearly impossible to grade the DSL kids, but the relatively polished de la Rosa, the relatively toolsy Arosemena, and the relatively powerful Williamson all have something that is worth paying attention to.
All of these guys get 35s from me for the time being — though there are serious gradations in the type of 35. Long term “we’ll see what happens” and upper minors “there’s something interesting here” come out in the wash as the same scouting grade sometimes, but they are still very different things. Though Arias isn’t officially in the org yet, I’ve included him as well, because I’ve heard some exciting buzz about the bat, enough so that I’m separating him from the pack for now with a tentative 40 grade — just to indicate that he’s a little different breed from the other kids working their way up from the international program. Does that buzz turn out to be a better, more productive hitter than the unheralded Sandoval has become? We’ll see! That’s what development is all about.
Let’s add the colors and see what we’ve got:
I’m reminded that, when we go birding, my wife always teases me that she can’t get me interested in any of the “brown birds.” If they don’t have that splash of color, they don’t catch my eye. Same way with these depth charts — it’s the warblers you really want, though the “gray birds” are not without their charm. Everyone’s a prospect and you never know who’s going to surprise, but those colorful birds, they’re the ones we’re chasing for now.
Corner outfield isn’t talked about a lot as a position where the farm could have a dramatic impact in the near future, but with Brown and Luciano both advanced to Double A, and both potential impact hitters at the spot, there might not be another spot on the field with as much possibility for dramatic turnover in the next year or two as this one. Which would be a pretty exciting development after decades of futility and frustration!
I’ll be back with the center fielders on Friday and then There R Giants goes dark for a week while we enjoy our families and celebrate the holidays.
Part of me wants to be over the moon excited about Vaun Brown. The other part of me is holding back a bit until I see him in the upper minors. But the excited part is probably winning out a bit.
Great writing, Roger! Your comment about my favorite corner outfielder from 2021 caught my eye: "we saw Pomares improve on some of his underlying skills throughout last season. From June 1 on, he was a .384/.341/.468 hitter..." I didn't realize he had rebounded so spectacularly after his disasterous (weather related?) start to the season.