Seattle Sports Insider

Guillermo Heredia, Late Inning Dude

Posted by

7/29/16

"He’s a guy who can come in and defend late in the game," Servais said. "Pinch-hit, pinch-run — do those types of things. We will get him some starts here eventually.

"He can play center but, obviously, Leonys (Martin) has done a nice job out there. Heredia will see some time in the corners as well. We’ll get him in there. I’m excited. The reports have been very good."

...

Heredia began the season at Double-A Jackson, where he batted .293 with a .405 on-base percentage in 58 games. Promoted June 23 to Tacoma, he batted .340 with a .385 on-base percentage in 26 games.

"The biggest adjustment was the pitching," Heredia said. "Obviously, it’s different than in Cuba. Here, they focus more on fastball and change-up. Adjusting to that has been the biggest thing."

Flipping through a few back articles ... here's one that says he likes to locker next to countryman Leonys Martin. Here's another one where a scout compared him to "maybe Carlos Lee minus some power" (?!). No, they're not supposed to be hyperlinked. Just tapping the chin.

Plus center fielders who have solid HIT tools and plate patience, well... Denard Span and Dexter Fowler bat .265-.285 and help their clubs a lot. Lorenzo Cain put together a couple of 5-6 WAR seasons based on "soft skills," though he's back under 2 this year. In Safeco, there is room for a two-CF approach and 3+ WAR out of "soft skills" a la Chone Figgins.

....

Coming three days before the trade deadline? Sounds like an "ARM" switch to me. The one that enables the bank of live missile switches. In any case, Heredia has certainly hit much better than his MID forecast.

BABVA,

Dr D

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Comments

Ha!

I really like this! A lot. More than apple pie. AS I posted yesterday

To tell you the truth, I'm more than fine with just sticking Heredia in LF (and playing some CF) and figuring his pedigree isn't far off.

He's been around the block a bit, for a youngish guy, and (despite two years on ice) he's wacked AA-AAA to the tune of .312-.402-.409 w/43 BB's and 41 K's.

I will add that he's better in AAA than in AA.

We're down 0-9 in Wrigley right now....how much can the guy hurt us?

BTW, MLBTR says we're sniffing aroung the Red's Zach Cozart. Actually I would see that as saying something about our continued interest in Bruce...maybe something big happens. But if we love Cozart...are we down on Marte?

But now we have Smith-Guti-Aoki-Martin-Cruz-Heredia who have no other positional slot other than OF. 6 of 13 is a lot. That lasts for about a day or two.