Minor League Discussion & Boxes 9-3-2007

[Guest]

The other key distinction between Hernandez and Zambrano is that Hernandez is nowhere near the height and size of Z. I don't know what Zambrano was listed at when he was Hernandez's age, but Hernandez is listed at 6'2, 165 pounds. That's noticeably shorter and lighter than Z is now.

 

That said, I've read multiple people (not just Oneri) feel he will be able to gain velocity.

 

As craig said, Hernandez doesn't compare to Zambrano in terms of pure FB stuff - he's a low 90s guy and doesn't have the sink that Z used to have. Hernandez does have the advantage on the secondary stuff - plus change, potential plus curve and he obviously has far superior control than Z did.

 

I didn't mean to say he was a better prospect than Zambrano and I don't see any way Hernandez will skip to AA next season (though if I was looking at these sorts of things in 2000, I'd have said the same about Z), but I think his success this season coupled with the Cubs skipping him to low-A at age 18 show how noteworthy he is and that the Z comparisons are valid.

 

BTW, good catch on Z being 17 for half his low-A season. I missed that when perusing Baseball Cube. I also thought Z his 98 in the 9th inning at West Tenn in 2001 (but that really doesn't matter, he was still 18 at the time and stamped himself as a power pitcher that I don't think Hernandez will be).

 

I hope that those people who think he can gain velocity as he fills out and gets older are right and Hernandez gets a spike of a few mph next season (not to compare the two since Guerra is a far superior prospect but that would be similar to Delois Guerra between last season and this).