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October 18, 2012

Prospect Profile

Avisail Garcia

by Hudson Belinsky

In the Moneyball movie, a Mets’ scout, attempting to reassure the Beane family that Billy can play professional baseball, says:

Most of the youngsters in the league we have an interest in have one or two tools and we're hoping to develop an extra one. Your son has five, I mean we're looking at a guy that's a potential superstar for us in New York and the time is right now to get him started.

Avisail Garcia has five tools that could be average or better. I often accuse fans of getting too excited about these types of toolsets, as not all tools are created equally, but I’m excited about Garcia because of his five-tool potential. Also, I don’t like it when hypocrites write about baseball.

We’re looking at a player with plus raw power and a swing and bat speed combination that could someday equal an average or better hit tool. He’s 6-foot-4 and has some meat on his bones, but he remains an average-to-slightly-above runner, and he utilizes that speed both on the base paths and in the outfield. Multiple sources call his arm a 60 tool, but 70-grades were also put on the table. But Garcia is sushi raw. He’s made strides to develop his tools, but he’s still a long way from maximizing his potential.

Garcia has appeared in two of Kevin Goldstein’s write-ups on the Tigers’ system. Entering 2011, the Venezuelan outfielder was ranked #15 in the system, dubbed “a big, toolsy outfielder, Garcia has plenty of potential, but it isn't so much in the 'now' category.” Entering 2012, he crept into Detroit’s Top 11, which meant a meatier write-up. Kevin wrote about his fantastic tools and his lousy approach, and offered a projected ETA of 2015. Earlier this week, R.J. Anderson noted that Garcia was “a promising young player, albeit one whose original timeline called for another full season of development time.”

The 21-year-ol