Scanning the off-season videos

 First, thanks to Guardians Prospective Twitter for collecting these videos posted by various people of our prospects and major leaguers putting in their off-season work.  

Looking at these videos makes me want to do what bloggers do: render uneducated opinions. 

I will put in the disclaimer that even seasoned professional scouts might have a tough time looking at a 10-seocond vidoo clip on the internet to make a judgement on a guy and I am light years short of experience or scouting talent to make such judgements so take my comments below with a grain of salt. 

So......here goes after watching a bunch of videos.on the above Twitter feed.

Brayan Rocchio - Smooth, polished swing.and, in combination with the defense I saw last year, makes me think he is ready to continue his steep ascent up his development curve.   Now let's see if it can translate to success at AAA this season and extension of that success to the majors.

Tyler Freeman - Putting in the work in the weight room.  But the footage posted makes it look like he might be rehabbing a knee injury.   Probably not but it doesn't look like the work I would imagine a baseball player would put in.  Very much like last year with Daniel Espino when I am pretty sure he was shown jumping up to a very high jump box for some unknown reason.  Then, as I recall, an injury popped up on his knee followed by a shoulder injury.  Just sayin'.

Jose Cedeno - Catcher from the Dominican League last summer, his swing is sweet is compact and balanced and he apparently has some defensive chops, as well.  He looks the most polished of our Dominican guys who we have video of this winter.   Keep him away from Tampa Bay or Texas...or anybody else, in a trade.

 Rafael Ramirez - Totally off-balance on his swing in soft-toss BP.  Looks like he needs a lot of work on his swing, especially if he wants to get to whatever powere he might have.

Yerlin Luis - These Dominican guys before they sign are all projection.   Luis stepping across the plate when he is hitting left-handed seems to scream "I need a lot of work on my balance at the plate."

Bryant Capellan - A Dominican pitcher, the Guardians seem to be signing a number of older players, especially pitchers, out of Latin America.  Don't know if they think they can develop these guys faster and so beat the ridiculous Rule 5 rules or if they just think older guys can take advanced coaching better.  But Capellan is 20 and he hasn't broken out of the Dominican League yet.  Probably just an organizational player at this point who just happened to post something on social media showing he is working out and still cares about professional baseball.

Diego Navarro - Again, an older Latin American pitcher still playing in the Dominican, Navarro is a big guy.  Like Capellan, tough to tell what we really have here but at least he is working on his craft.

Manuel Mejias - Another of our young, Latin, catchers, he looks good as a switch hitter with a compact swing and some bulk where future power may come from.  Video of him hitting ooks good to me.

Wagner Castillo - Another, older Latin pitcher who stll hasn't left the DSL, showing he is putting in his work in the off-season.

Angel Contreras - A solid-looking Latin infielder putting in cage work in Columbia.  His swing looks a little long to me with a shoulder bat rest and a hitch before he starts his swing. 

Jordan Jones - A late round draftee who is 25 already but showing a 96 mph fastball consistently in his off-season work.  Obviously, guys like this need secondary pitches and consistency but he has always looked like a potential reliever to me.

Jonathon Martinez - A January 2023 signeee, he looks raw in his video in the field, just getting to balls at the last second and taking backhands instead of sliding in front of the ball.  Again, as raw as raw can be but a lot of work to be done here, it appears.  His hitting looks like it is geared to a HR cut.

Nate Furman - Our 4th round pick this past year, he looks physically solid but his swing looks like he is pull-oriented making contact out in front of the plate.  You might guess that he would be letting pitches get a little deeper in the zone, especially in batting practice.  His swing, as it appears now, could be susceptible to changeups and tailing fastballs away.  Not what I expected to see in a guy as polished is based on his physical maturity, training and bat path.

 Angel Martinez - Looks exactly like what I would like to see in a prospect like him.  Maybe his power surge this past year is for real and we might look at him as more of an offense-first infielder.

Daniel Espino - Good to see him working out, strengthening his pitching arm.  Just really concerning that he missed an entire season with very little information from the Guardians.  Again, if I am remembering right, weird to see him last winter doing jumps up to a ridiculously high box...and then having a knee issue in ST last year.  Could be remembering this wrong, however.

Ryan Webb - Good to see this guy back on the mound gettng his work in this winter, giving an indication that he will come to ST healthy.  Here is a guy who might really take off this year and could be this year's Tanner Bibee.  

Nelson Aranguren - Looks like a big, strong guy who can hit the ball a long way.

Jonathon Rodriguez - I think (and hope) that the teams who slept on him in the Rule 5 this winter live to regret this.  He is a young, strong guy who has made some noise in Puerto Rico this winter.   I think he could make a huge jump this coming season and be one of our top 20, if not top 10 prospects by the end of the season.

Trey Benton - Video of him cranking up his fastball velo this winter is exciting and falls in line with what others have been saying that he might just be the sleeper prospect of 2023.

Welbyn Francisca - Highly touted prospect in the upcoming international signing period, his video has him swinging out of his shoes selling out for power.  Raw and a lot of work to be done here but some size and athleticism on this guy is already visible.

Victor Izturis - Another one of our Latin catching prospects and a highly paid one, at that, his lefthanded swing path looks loopy to me and he appearst to be hitting balls too much off his front foot.  Question marks on this guy but, with his large bonus, obviously huge potential, too.  And he is a catcher!

These aren't nearly all the videos on Guardians Prospective but they are all interesting.  Thanks again to that Twitter site for their great work.