There R Giants #44: Esmerlin Vinicio
Photo Credit: Esmerlin Vinicio Instagram Feed
We’re into the There R Giants Top 50. Over the next few months, I’ll write a post on each of the fifty players in my rankings, leading us back to spring. So far, we’ve covered:
Back in those heady days at the beginning of the century, when “Moneyball” was first on the best sellers list, a common target for cocky young internet commentators was the seeming body-obsession of amateur scouting reports. People would put old scouting reports up on a blog, highlight phrases like “high waisted,” “broad shoulders” or “thick lower half,” and do the internet equivalent of pointing and giggling. Those silly old men with their creepy focus on teenaged bodies. “We’re not selling jeans, here!” Enlightened baseball minds concerned themselves with numbers, data, actual production, you know? Not the thickness of rumps. Smug, self-righteousness was the tone of the day. (Ah, youth!)
Twenty years down the line, I hope we have a little better appreciation of the importance that reading physical projection for young bodies plays plays in amateur scouting. Just as the child is the father of the man, the youth’s physical frame contains clues — not a roadmap, surely, but solid hints — as to the future physicality of the man as he attempts to thrive in what is, ultimately, a physical endeavor. It’s the one of the most important — and difficult — aspects of scouting teenaged talent, whether international or domestic.
Today, I’m going to be speaking about the Giants’ intriguing young LHP Esmerlin Vinicio. There are many interesting things to say about him that have nothing whatsoever to do with his body! But rest assured, I will also be talking about this young man’s body, which figures to have a significant impact on his potential career path. Please try to refrain from pointing and giggling at me.
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