Excellent work as always, Roger! I think your great summary of Ramos’s career to this point has finally helped me hit on why I’ve been so much higher on him than I expected coming into this year, even well before he started torching the Cactus League. Marc Delucchi made a comment on your podcast that really stuck with me. He said that Ramos might have untapped upside just by nature of how young he is, and that’s always something I’ve been viciously annoying in reminding fellow Giants fans about. Even in his struggles, he was posting a 119 wRC+ in the Eastern League as a *teenager*. Sure, the Ks are a recurring issue. But Heliot is just now the age of most of this year’s college class, and he’s already experienced all of the highs and lows of pro-ball: Scintillating debut! Followed by an utter slog of a first season, where he had to learn to hold his head above water and saddle up every day tired and worn down in the Southern Atlantic Heat. He made it to San Jose the next year and started mashing! Then he got his first serious injury. But he came back and continued mashing his way to Richmond, where he hit the AA pitcher wall and once again had to slog. But those struggles seemed to once again fuel development, since now he’s talking about granular changes to his approach and learning gamesmanship. Heliot just seems to *get* pro baseball. He’s already years ahead of most of his peers in age group when it comes to the lessons you hope a prospect learns in a MLB environment. He knows the grind. He’s bounced back from slumps. He’s bounced back from bad years. He’s bounced back from injury. And you can see with your own eyes and ears how each of those experiences has made him a smarter, better ball player. I think Heliot’s hidden upside is that he’s a gamer, or whatever term you wanna use: plus-plus makeup, baseball rat, etc. He just keeps improving himself, and with consistency. I think he’ll definitely struggle in his first MLB call up, and likely in his first full season as well. Maybe even start out cold in year 2. But by the time he’s 24-25, I bet his scouting report will look like faint praise compared to the player he becomes, because if the Giants’ coaching is as good as they hope, I see no way Heliot Ramos lets himself stagnate as merely an average or even “good” player.
Excellent work as always, Roger! I think your great summary of Ramos’s career to this point has finally helped me hit on why I’ve been so much higher on him than I expected coming into this year, even well before he started torching the Cactus League. Marc Delucchi made a comment on your podcast that really stuck with me. He said that Ramos might have untapped upside just by nature of how young he is, and that’s always something I’ve been viciously annoying in reminding fellow Giants fans about. Even in his struggles, he was posting a 119 wRC+ in the Eastern League as a *teenager*. Sure, the Ks are a recurring issue. But Heliot is just now the age of most of this year’s college class, and he’s already experienced all of the highs and lows of pro-ball: Scintillating debut! Followed by an utter slog of a first season, where he had to learn to hold his head above water and saddle up every day tired and worn down in the Southern Atlantic Heat. He made it to San Jose the next year and started mashing! Then he got his first serious injury. But he came back and continued mashing his way to Richmond, where he hit the AA pitcher wall and once again had to slog. But those struggles seemed to once again fuel development, since now he’s talking about granular changes to his approach and learning gamesmanship. Heliot just seems to *get* pro baseball. He’s already years ahead of most of his peers in age group when it comes to the lessons you hope a prospect learns in a MLB environment. He knows the grind. He’s bounced back from slumps. He’s bounced back from bad years. He’s bounced back from injury. And you can see with your own eyes and ears how each of those experiences has made him a smarter, better ball player. I think Heliot’s hidden upside is that he’s a gamer, or whatever term you wanna use: plus-plus makeup, baseball rat, etc. He just keeps improving himself, and with consistency. I think he’ll definitely struggle in his first MLB call up, and likely in his first full season as well. Maybe even start out cold in year 2. But by the time he’s 24-25, I bet his scouting report will look like faint praise compared to the player he becomes, because if the Giants’ coaching is as good as they hope, I see no way Heliot Ramos lets himself stagnate as merely an average or even “good” player.