In today's BP, Kevin Goldstein has some disheartening things to say about Mesoraco. It's premium content so I won't quote it, but the gist of it is that he looks heavy ("puffy" is the word used, I believe), and that he's lost his bat speed, which used to be a key strength of his.
Reaction from those who've seen him?
"In baseball, you don't know nothin'"...Yogi Berra
I haven't seen him play, but my reaction to seeing pictures of him recently was "wow, he's sure toned up since I last saw high school pictures of him". Anyhoo, all I care about is production, I'm guessing w/ his bonus money and new found freedom away from mom & dad, it would be easy for him to get into bad eating habits (ie the freshman 15). If he has any sense of awareness as he matures, he'll develop into solid eating/conditioning habits to benefit his career for the long term.
Originally Posted by chicoruiz
I would like to make it very clear that I am not making any accusations, but as an avid gym rat and weightlifter, my alarm bells go off whenever I hear about a guy who has gained muscle tone/mass described as 'puffy'. In weightlifting parlance, that is code for 'I think that guy is on the juice'.
Having seen pictures of Goldstein, I don't think he has ever seen the inside of a gym, so I am hoping this was just an unfortunate turn of a phrase rather than a thinly veiled accusation.
Last edited by Steve4192; 07-09-2008 at 01:12 PM.
For what it's worth, he was directly quoting an unnamed scout.
Reading comprehension is not just an ability, it's a choice
steve, my observation is actually the opposite, again based only on the 2 pictures I've seen of Mes. One was at his draft party, where my first thought was "wow, this kid has some work to do on his body, he's definently "Puffy"", then sometime recently, when I thought he had lost a lot of that chunkiness I saw in HS. Perhaps the original picture was just a bad photo, don't really know. That is all I can offer short of an actual eye witness account of Mes.
I love how some writer from BP quotes an unnamed source and we're suppose to take it as gospel. How many times did this guy watch Mesoraco play? Once? Twice? 10 times? Of course that important bit of information was left out of the "story."
And then we have Reds fans who actually watch the Dragons play live who say that Mesoraco has actually "toned up" his body if anything, a direct contradiction to the BS in BP.
So don't.: I actually like his "scout scoop" columns, you just have to take them for what they are, kind of like the trade-deadline rumor mills. Some good stuff and some BS and no one's pretending to know which is which.
Reading comprehension is not just an ability, it's a choice
There have been several scouts this year who have commented that Mesoraco looks a bit chubby. He will have a much better idea of how to train for a full season by the time this season ends and he has the work ethic to address this. I don't see it as a big issue. He has much bigger issues than that. There is too much focus on Mesoraco to begin with. Despite his decent offensive numbers, he should have stayed in Sarasota all year so they could work hard on his defense daily and then played for the GCL club. In the long run, that would have been what would have benefited him the most. Mesoraco's defense is the issue, not his bat or his conditioning. But when you talk to scouts about how bad he is defensively, they point out that he came from a weak baseball state and is one year out of high school.
I'm not sure how big of a deal this is, but the thing about Mesoraco is that although he was taken out of HS, he is old for his class.
He turned 19 the same month he graduated HS, so he we are now barely a year into his pro career and he's already 20 years old. The complete opposite was the case for a guy like Grady Sizemore who wasn't even 18 when he graduated HS.
When you consider he's probably going to be on the slow track (as a catcher) and the fact that he's struggled offensively so far (sub .650 OPS in 340+ PA's), he may be an old man before he ever helps out the big club. Unless, of course, he's lights out defensively, in which case, his bat won't matter.
At this point in time, it's hard for me to consider him a top 10 prospect in this system. I think the only reason he will still be considered one by the likes of BA (probably around 8th, 9th, or 10th) is because they rated him high out of HS and he was a 1st-rounder.
Or he will be rated that high because of his tools and projection. Which is the same reason he was drafted where he was drafted at.
Yes, but the point is that unless he's Johnny Bench defensively, he's many years away. So, at what point will he slide out of the top prospect lists.
I think next year will be his last year for making the Reds top 10. I hope I'm wrong.
Doesn't really matter if he is many years away. The whole term prospect means what are the prospective chances he has to be a productive major leaguer. Unless that changes, how long it takes him to get there means nothing as long as he projects to be good when he does get there.
It does matter when he is not hitting.
Due to his struggles with the bat, his prospect status has changed since he was drafted.
Not so long as he projects to hit one day.
When he's an old man.
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