Monday, August 27, 2012

Meet A Prospect : Melky Mesa

With September call ups and an expanded active roster on the way I thought it would be a good time to look at the prospects that we have on the 40 man roster that may not be household names. We will continue our series with AAA affiliate Empire State Yankees OF prospect Melky Mesa.


Melquisdec Mesa was born January 31st, 1987 in Bajos de Haina, Dominican Republic. This is Melky's second season under 40 man roster and Rule 5 Draft protection and he has done nothing to disappoint the Yankees brass thus far. He has impressed so much that he recently has been promoted to AAA Empire State Yankees. The speculation has yet to begin but with a few good weeks in Scranton it could start that the Yankees are looking to and willing to put Melky in place of Nick Swisher in 2013. 

Melky has shown, although raw, some amazing power and even more amazing plate discipline at such a young age in the Yankees system. Melky Mesa has the potential to be a five tool player with great defensive ability and a cannon for an arm, out of this world speed, raw power and discipline at the plate, and even hit for average. He has not quite lived up those expectation yet but he was signed as a 16 year old IFA in 2003 so he has some more time to go. The problem is whether the Yankees will wait out his "Jekyll and Hyde" kind of offensive spurts. 

The closest comparison to a current major leaguer I could come up with would be Alfonso Soriano when he was a Yankee. He could easily hit 30 + home runs in a season and steal 30+ bases and play really solid defense. The problem will be a lack of taking walks and way too many strike outs. I would take another Soriano though if that is what Mesa became. 

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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)