Q.  Why a POTD on Montero?

A.  SSI can think of worse things to do with the next month than wallow in the possibilities of a Cliff Lee ransom.  :- )  The Yankees are obviously a very real threat to acquire Lee in July, and serious reports are that the Mariners are asking about Montero as the feature player.

Last year, the Yankees reportedly offered the Mariners "any five prospects / young players" for Felix other than Joba, Hughes, and two other guys who weren't Montero.

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Q.  Who is he?

A.  A 20-year-old behemoth catcher who is argued as (1) a top-100 prospect, (2) a top-50 prospect -- MLB.com has him #40 --, or (3) a top-5 prospect.  I'll go with top-5 a lot quicker than I will top-50.

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Q.  How do you know whether he's the real deal, or a Yankee hype job?

A.  Bill James said in the 1980's, "Major league teams pay entirely too much attention to what their scouts are telling them, and far too little attention to how their players have performed."

Don't know if that's true any more, but I see a lot of sabermetrician scout-wannabes :- ) ignore performance in an attempt to play high school scout.  Montero, at the age of 19, destroyed A+ baseball -- and then hit .320/.370/.540 in the high minors.  As a 19-year-old .... catcher!

That's Gary Carter territory... no, actually Montero looks better than Carter.

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Q.  What, are you comping Montero to Carter?

A.  Similar swings -- the lumberjack two hand chop-the-tree-down swing.  The one with stiff chest and golf-putt triangle, doesn't take the top hand off, doesn't even finish with the bat all the way around.  Little weight bob, head goes down to the ball.

You remember Bucky Jacobsen.  Dude was so strong that he could afford a very short stroke.  Alvin Davis was similar from the left side (and the super-compact stroke allowed Alvin the kind of timing that preceded his big splash as a rookie.

Montero's probably a bit ahead of Carter.  But, of course, there's a good chance that any AAA hero (no matter how young) will disappoint in the majors.  Casey Kotchman looked like Nature's Perfect Prospect when he was in the minors.

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Q.  Will Montero have to move off catcher?

A.  Montero is like 6'4", 240 already, and he's just out of his teens.  LOL.  Of course people assume that.  I can never tell whether they know something, or whether they're just trying to look like a tree full of owls.  :- )

I notice that if the Yankees are considering a 1B switch, they're doing a poor job of preparing him for it.  He hasn't played a single game at 1B this year:  not one game.

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Sometimes you'll move a bat like that off first, just because you think he's going to be an MVP candidate and think his bat is much more important than his defense.  We remember that happening to Carlos Delgado early, who played C/1B in the minors as I recall.  They just didn't want to mess with a HOF-type hitting career.

It would be a very pleasant choice for the M's:  go for the All-Star catcher?  Or get you a .320-hitting 40-50 homer man at first?

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Part 2