Gson
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Agree with the assessment.. late bloomer.. if "late" can be defined as being 24/25....
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The 2020 Cleveland Indians
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sportscoach
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Oh, Mercado's instincts in CF are a little less than Kevin Kiermaier's? You don't say...
Kiermaier has some of the best CF instincts in the game. Mercado is a converted IF. There's a grand canyon between the two of them in terms of instincts in the field.
You arent wrong, but Mercado has more potential athletically and with the bat than those two, but right now is closer to those guys, with less instincts in the field.
I was trying to make a better comparison in my mind than Brantley. Brantley has very little in common with Mercado if they have anything in common.
Gson
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hmmm.... hearing this over and over... teams considering or planning to go with a six man starting rotations... Perhaps it's due to the potential loss of a starter for illness / injury during the restart.. or the understanding that it's a sprint.. quicker hooks.. are going to be the way of the future..
Who besides the Indians could exploit six man rotations?
Does piggybacking starters make more sense than six man rotations.. You'd need to have seven starters for this to work efficiently.. no?..
Thoughts?
Who besides the Indians could exploit six man rotations?
Does piggybacking starters make more sense than six man rotations.. You'd need to have seven starters for this to work efficiently.. no?..
Thoughts?
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I heard a couple interviews on MLB Network and those managers were NOT thinking of 6 man rotations. Guys are quite stretched out at this point, more than I expected. And in a 60 game race - you don't want to be running less than your best out there. At least that what was said.
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Scenes from a day at Cleveland Indians training camp
By Zack Meisel Jul 6, 2020 15
CLEVELAND — During batting practice on Monday morning, Francisco Lindor told Terry Francona he needed to sanitize his hands.
Lindor handed his manager a bottle, and Francona started to spray. One problem: Lindor didn’t give him hand sanitizer; he supplied him with pine tar.
“Next thing you know,” Lindor said, “he realized his hands were getting more and more sticky. He gave that good, ‘Awww, shit.’”
Francona spent the rest of the morning attempting to remove the residue with rubbing alcohol and tape remover and any other substance he could locate.
“We almost wanted to release him,” Francona joked.
Aside from Delino DeShields, who’s still in Arizona recovering from COVID-19, the Indians have their full squad in Cleveland. On Monday, a limited number of reporters were granted access to Progressive Field for the first time. Here’s a sampling of scenes from the ballpark.
• The media entrance has evolved into a one-stop shop for security clearance, credentialing and wellness checks. To be permitted to enter, reporters must answer a symptoms questionnaire. Any difficulty breathing? Muscle soreness? Fever? Cough? Have you been around anyone dealing with those conditions?
Then, a temperature check, via a green laser that zaps the forehead. (I measured 97.7 degrees, not that anyone was wondering.)
A small bottle of hand sanitizer was waiting at each seat in the press box. The press box can accommodate upwards of 150 people — it was briefly the largest in the league in the mid-‘90s — but the 2020 guidelines allow for only 24 reporters in the room per day. Each assigned seat is followed by five or six empty spots to maintain social distancing.
Reporters must wear masks at all times and are restricted to the press box, the left-field porch, one section in the lower level and a couple of sections in the upper deck.
There is a white dry-erase board in the press box that features the daily lineups for both sides. Though the marker has faded a bit, it still displays the batting orders from the Indians’ final home game of 2019. Oh, to return to simpler times, when Mike Freeman batted fifth and Ryan Flaherty hit ninth. César Hernández, now the Indians’ second baseman, led off for the Phillies.
• The Indians have been splitting their daily routine into two sessions. A group of position players trained in the morning, going through infield work and batting practice. Third-base coach Mike Sarbaugh threw to Francisco Lindor (whose hair remains blue), José Ramírez, Carlos Santana, Oscar Mercado and a handful of others.
The team keeps five green folding chairs, all spread out, behind a giant net that sits behind home plate. Francona and the hitters who are waiting their turns can watch and talk (while wearing masks). Ramírez belted one baseball onto the Gateway Plaza, which used to be reserved for Mike Napoli’s bursts of power.
Roberto Pérez launched a couple of pitches into the empty left-field bleacher seats, which provided that familiar, jarring clang heard during batting practice sessions in a typical summer.
At about 11:15 a.m., players cleared out and masked grounds crew members tended to the field, watering and raking the infield dirt. The next group took the field at about 1:40 p.m.
• Employees have taken on atypical job responsibilities. A member of the ballpark operations team directed media members to stand on social distancing stickers as we lined up outside the entrance gate. A media relations staffer wiped down the seat, table and microphone between Zoom calls in the club’s interview room.
Adam Plutko kicked off an hour and a half of Zoom interviews with reporters. He’s expected to record a four-inning session (about 65 pitches) on Wednesday. That’s in line with how far Plutko stretched out during quarantine, though his training didn’t come without challenges. Before settling on a facility in Dallas, he tried to throw at a deserted high school field, but a security guard gave him the boot. Then, the net he was using busted, so he had to wait a few days until a new one arrived. Those are minor inconveniences in the grand scheme of things, of course. And it’s much different being back at the ballpark.
“I watched Francisco Lindor field groundballs today,” Plutko said, “and it was just mesmerizing to see it again. I’m just glad to be here.”
(Zack Meisel / The Athletic)
• Terry Francona followed Plutko on the Zoom train. Francona said Sunday he was glad the organization is reconsidering the “Indians” nickname. He said that in the wake of his comments, he received “some really, really, really thoughtful texts and emails” from friends and colleagues.
That wasn’t all.
“Then you get the other ones that I think sometimes people are just looking to get mad some days,” Francona said. “I might’ve gotten caught in that. That’s OK. … I will admit that there are people who got my email that I didn’t realize had the ability to get my email. So, for that segment of the population, thanks for sharing your opinions.”
As has become a regular occurrence, one long-tenured member of the beat — no names, that would be disrespectful to Paul Hoynes — struggled with the mute button on his Zoom screen. After several false starts when attempting to ask a question, Francona jumped in and quipped: “Take yourself off mute before I mute you. If I’m helping you with technical things, you are really in trouble.”
• Francisco Lindor joined the conference call next and shared his thoughts on the potential name change.
“I know society is shifting and we are due for some change,” he said. “So along those guidelines, yeah, I’m open for a change in name if it’s going to bring love and happiness and more peace to the world.”
He also said he hasn’t given much thought to his future in Cleveland over the last few months as there are more pressing matters at hand.
“I haven’t really thought about what’s going to happen after this year, or the middle of this year, or next season,” he said. “To be honest, I haven’t thought of that because there’s plenty of other things that I need to think of.
“With this pandemic, we did such a good job the first two months, and then all of a sudden, we started to not follow some of the guidelines. And I get it, we don’t have to live in fear. Don’t live in fear. But respect your neighbor. Respect your surroundings. You might be one person who’s super healthy and nothing happens to you, but somebody else is not as fortunate as you are. So understanding that taking care of yourself will take care of somebody else’s life is huge. I’ve been thinking more about that and all of the changes that we have to make for the team to move forward than thinking about, ‘Am I going to be in Cleveland or not?’ That’s something that’s way down the list.”
• Activity has spilled out of the clubhouse area into other parts of the ballpark. The video team set up shop at a table in front of the Home Plate Club on the main concourse. There are exercise bikes a few sections over, in line with the start of the visitors’ dugout.
Lindor, Pérez and Sandy Alomar Jr. gathered there after the morning session to discuss bicycles. Alomar, who logs 4,000-5,000 miles per year, turned Lindor and Pérez onto the activity earlier this year. Both players routinely embarked on long rides to stay in shape during baseball’s hiatus.
“Biking takes my mind off of this whole thing, helps clear my head,” Pérez said.
• Carlos Carrasco and Logan Allen each registered three innings in a simulated game. Christian Arroyo, Yu Chang, Mike Freeman, Greg Allen, Jake Bauers, Daniel Johnson, Bradley Zimmer and a few others stood in at the plate. Sandy León and Beau Taylor served as the catchers. The grounds crew watched from seats behind third base, a couple of sections over from where three photographers captured snapshots of the action.
Arroyo tagged Carrasco for a home run into the bleachers in the final inning, and it was capped with a socially distanced air high-five and shoulder bump celebration. Chang followed with another homer to left.
The Indians will hold their first intrasquad game on Thursday evening.
By Zack Meisel Jul 6, 2020 15
CLEVELAND — During batting practice on Monday morning, Francisco Lindor told Terry Francona he needed to sanitize his hands.
Lindor handed his manager a bottle, and Francona started to spray. One problem: Lindor didn’t give him hand sanitizer; he supplied him with pine tar.
“Next thing you know,” Lindor said, “he realized his hands were getting more and more sticky. He gave that good, ‘Awww, shit.’”
Francona spent the rest of the morning attempting to remove the residue with rubbing alcohol and tape remover and any other substance he could locate.
“We almost wanted to release him,” Francona joked.
Aside from Delino DeShields, who’s still in Arizona recovering from COVID-19, the Indians have their full squad in Cleveland. On Monday, a limited number of reporters were granted access to Progressive Field for the first time. Here’s a sampling of scenes from the ballpark.
• The media entrance has evolved into a one-stop shop for security clearance, credentialing and wellness checks. To be permitted to enter, reporters must answer a symptoms questionnaire. Any difficulty breathing? Muscle soreness? Fever? Cough? Have you been around anyone dealing with those conditions?
Then, a temperature check, via a green laser that zaps the forehead. (I measured 97.7 degrees, not that anyone was wondering.)
A small bottle of hand sanitizer was waiting at each seat in the press box. The press box can accommodate upwards of 150 people — it was briefly the largest in the league in the mid-‘90s — but the 2020 guidelines allow for only 24 reporters in the room per day. Each assigned seat is followed by five or six empty spots to maintain social distancing.
Reporters must wear masks at all times and are restricted to the press box, the left-field porch, one section in the lower level and a couple of sections in the upper deck.
There is a white dry-erase board in the press box that features the daily lineups for both sides. Though the marker has faded a bit, it still displays the batting orders from the Indians’ final home game of 2019. Oh, to return to simpler times, when Mike Freeman batted fifth and Ryan Flaherty hit ninth. César Hernández, now the Indians’ second baseman, led off for the Phillies.
• The Indians have been splitting their daily routine into two sessions. A group of position players trained in the morning, going through infield work and batting practice. Third-base coach Mike Sarbaugh threw to Francisco Lindor (whose hair remains blue), José Ramírez, Carlos Santana, Oscar Mercado and a handful of others.
The team keeps five green folding chairs, all spread out, behind a giant net that sits behind home plate. Francona and the hitters who are waiting their turns can watch and talk (while wearing masks). Ramírez belted one baseball onto the Gateway Plaza, which used to be reserved for Mike Napoli’s bursts of power.
Roberto Pérez launched a couple of pitches into the empty left-field bleacher seats, which provided that familiar, jarring clang heard during batting practice sessions in a typical summer.
At about 11:15 a.m., players cleared out and masked grounds crew members tended to the field, watering and raking the infield dirt. The next group took the field at about 1:40 p.m.
• Employees have taken on atypical job responsibilities. A member of the ballpark operations team directed media members to stand on social distancing stickers as we lined up outside the entrance gate. A media relations staffer wiped down the seat, table and microphone between Zoom calls in the club’s interview room.
Adam Plutko kicked off an hour and a half of Zoom interviews with reporters. He’s expected to record a four-inning session (about 65 pitches) on Wednesday. That’s in line with how far Plutko stretched out during quarantine, though his training didn’t come without challenges. Before settling on a facility in Dallas, he tried to throw at a deserted high school field, but a security guard gave him the boot. Then, the net he was using busted, so he had to wait a few days until a new one arrived. Those are minor inconveniences in the grand scheme of things, of course. And it’s much different being back at the ballpark.
“I watched Francisco Lindor field groundballs today,” Plutko said, “and it was just mesmerizing to see it again. I’m just glad to be here.”
(Zack Meisel / The Athletic)
• Terry Francona followed Plutko on the Zoom train. Francona said Sunday he was glad the organization is reconsidering the “Indians” nickname. He said that in the wake of his comments, he received “some really, really, really thoughtful texts and emails” from friends and colleagues.
That wasn’t all.
“Then you get the other ones that I think sometimes people are just looking to get mad some days,” Francona said. “I might’ve gotten caught in that. That’s OK. … I will admit that there are people who got my email that I didn’t realize had the ability to get my email. So, for that segment of the population, thanks for sharing your opinions.”
As has become a regular occurrence, one long-tenured member of the beat — no names, that would be disrespectful to Paul Hoynes — struggled with the mute button on his Zoom screen. After several false starts when attempting to ask a question, Francona jumped in and quipped: “Take yourself off mute before I mute you. If I’m helping you with technical things, you are really in trouble.”
• Francisco Lindor joined the conference call next and shared his thoughts on the potential name change.
“I know society is shifting and we are due for some change,” he said. “So along those guidelines, yeah, I’m open for a change in name if it’s going to bring love and happiness and more peace to the world.”
He also said he hasn’t given much thought to his future in Cleveland over the last few months as there are more pressing matters at hand.
“I haven’t really thought about what’s going to happen after this year, or the middle of this year, or next season,” he said. “To be honest, I haven’t thought of that because there’s plenty of other things that I need to think of.
“With this pandemic, we did such a good job the first two months, and then all of a sudden, we started to not follow some of the guidelines. And I get it, we don’t have to live in fear. Don’t live in fear. But respect your neighbor. Respect your surroundings. You might be one person who’s super healthy and nothing happens to you, but somebody else is not as fortunate as you are. So understanding that taking care of yourself will take care of somebody else’s life is huge. I’ve been thinking more about that and all of the changes that we have to make for the team to move forward than thinking about, ‘Am I going to be in Cleveland or not?’ That’s something that’s way down the list.”
• Activity has spilled out of the clubhouse area into other parts of the ballpark. The video team set up shop at a table in front of the Home Plate Club on the main concourse. There are exercise bikes a few sections over, in line with the start of the visitors’ dugout.
Lindor, Pérez and Sandy Alomar Jr. gathered there after the morning session to discuss bicycles. Alomar, who logs 4,000-5,000 miles per year, turned Lindor and Pérez onto the activity earlier this year. Both players routinely embarked on long rides to stay in shape during baseball’s hiatus.
“Biking takes my mind off of this whole thing, helps clear my head,” Pérez said.
• Carlos Carrasco and Logan Allen each registered three innings in a simulated game. Christian Arroyo, Yu Chang, Mike Freeman, Greg Allen, Jake Bauers, Daniel Johnson, Bradley Zimmer and a few others stood in at the plate. Sandy León and Beau Taylor served as the catchers. The grounds crew watched from seats behind third base, a couple of sections over from where three photographers captured snapshots of the action.
Arroyo tagged Carrasco for a home run into the bleachers in the final inning, and it was capped with a socially distanced air high-five and shoulder bump celebration. Chang followed with another homer to left.
The Indians will hold their first intrasquad game on Thursday evening.
Gson
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The comparison made that provided similarities between Mercado and Brantley was the first full season offensive output. remarkably similar with Brantley having a little less power.. What Mercado becomes as far as an offensive weapon is clearly still "in progress", but, he has the athleticism to become as good as he wants provided he continues to work at it. Everything that you see with him says he will. It should be noted that when Brantley was 24/25 and in his first full season with the Tribe, it was undecided if he could be / should be an outfielder (recall he was penciled in as a LF'er or 1B). Today, nine plus years later, he is the finished product... Mercado is anything but a finished product. Typically, it's the gains between the rookie year and the sophomore year that defines what kind of player he will become. W/R to best comps to Mercado..Brantley isn't it.. Completely different instincts & type of game.. A guy who might be a better comp, or, at least, I would love to see gains in ability/numbers in a direction would be the A's Ramon Laureano... The Razor.. cannon arm.. tremendous instincts in the OF.. and puts the bat on the ball as well as ANY CF'er in the game not named Trout..
Thoughts?
Brantley, from the beginning, was...and still is...the poster boy for the term 'no wasted movement'. At bat and in the field.
At bat he has very few moving parts...and, as in anything mechanical, the fewer moving parts, the less things that can go wrong.
In the field, he makes no mistakes. He catches what he gets to, plays balls off the wall, throws the ball accurately to where it needs to go.
If there is a player in any sport who has maximized his talent, it is Brantley.
Obviously, there are players who are better than Brantley, but only because they have more physical gifts...not necessarily because they have maximized those gifts.
It's difficult to use Brantley as a comparison for any youngster, because Brantley IMO is so unique.
At bat he has very few moving parts...and, as in anything mechanical, the fewer moving parts, the less things that can go wrong.
In the field, he makes no mistakes. He catches what he gets to, plays balls off the wall, throws the ball accurately to where it needs to go.
If there is a player in any sport who has maximized his talent, it is Brantley.
Obviously, there are players who are better than Brantley, but only because they have more physical gifts...not necessarily because they have maximized those gifts.
It's difficult to use Brantley as a comparison for any youngster, because Brantley IMO is so unique.
The 247 refugees have probably read my thoughts on Brantley ad nauseam...lol...but since I'm fortunate to be here now, I will lay some out again.
I was fascinated with Brantley's swing the very first time I saw him in a ST game when he was first with the Tribe. It was the most perfect swing I ever saw, and there was so little motion involved.
He had no stride, a little heel raise, and that was it. A lot of fans thought he would be nothing more than a banjo hitter, because of his lack of stride. I wasnt so sure. His swing was better than that.
Without getting into an autobiography, I was a youth baseball coach for 30 years. Through that I met a youth softball coach in West Virginia, who lived in a small town known for softball powerhouse high school teams. I followed her kids from 10 yrs old thru high school, when they played for the WVA HS championships.
I watched their opponents in the batting cages before the semis. Not one of them took any stride. They hit almost flat footed...more like a golf swing than a baseball swing. I, being curious, asked their coach how they ever got enough power without any stride.
All he said was, 'Watch Albert Pujols.'
So I watched video of Pujols. And immediately, I saw a bigger right handed version of Brantley.
Brantley doesnt strike out much, about have the average in MLB. Amazingly, Pujols an elite power hitter in his prime, didnt K anymore than Brantley.
I was fascinated with Brantley's swing the very first time I saw him in a ST game when he was first with the Tribe. It was the most perfect swing I ever saw, and there was so little motion involved.
He had no stride, a little heel raise, and that was it. A lot of fans thought he would be nothing more than a banjo hitter, because of his lack of stride. I wasnt so sure. His swing was better than that.
Without getting into an autobiography, I was a youth baseball coach for 30 years. Through that I met a youth softball coach in West Virginia, who lived in a small town known for softball powerhouse high school teams. I followed her kids from 10 yrs old thru high school, when they played for the WVA HS championships.
I watched their opponents in the batting cages before the semis. Not one of them took any stride. They hit almost flat footed...more like a golf swing than a baseball swing. I, being curious, asked their coach how they ever got enough power without any stride.
All he said was, 'Watch Albert Pujols.'
So I watched video of Pujols. And immediately, I saw a bigger right handed version of Brantley.
Brantley doesnt strike out much, about have the average in MLB. Amazingly, Pujols an elite power hitter in his prime, didnt K anymore than Brantley.
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According to FanGraphs, Mercado made contact with 89.2% of the pitches he swung at that were in the strike zone, so bat-to-ball skill is not an issue. His main problem is he swung at nearly 30% of pitches outside the zone resulting in a walk rate of only 5.8%. IOW, he was too aggressive in his first major league season. His walk percentage in two years of AAA ball was about 10%. I think he was trying too hard to impress.
His BABIP was .300, which seems pretty low to me. He may have been a bit unlucky last year.
He hit 15 home runs in 482 plate appearances at age 24. He's at the age where his power should only be increasing.
If Oscar can develop better plate discipline and stop chasing so many bad pitches his offensive game could jump to the next level.
The comparison with Brantley is interesting. Their numbers at age 24 are almost identical. Here they are with Brantley first, Oscar second.
Games: 114, 115
Plate appearances: 496, 482
Home runs: 7, 15 (Oscar has more power)
Walk percentage: 6.9, 5.8 (Michael had a little more plate discipline)
K percentage: 15.3, 17.4 (Oscar has a little bigger swing and a little less discipline)
ISO: .118, .174 (but Oscar's ball goes farther)
BABIP: .303, .300
BA: .266, .269
wRC+: 95, 95 (all things considered, they're the same hitter at 24)
WAR: 1.3, 1.7 (Oscar was better defensively)
Hard hit percentage: 26.4, 39.7 (Wow, Oscar's hard hit percentage is 50% higher than Brantley's at the same age. But his BABIP was about the same. The fact that nearly 40% of his batted balls were hard hit but his BABIP was only .300 suggests he hit some shots right at defenders and maybe had an unlucky season. Brantley's hard hit percentage with the Astros last year was 41.9%, a huge increase over his age 24 season. He improved a lot from age 24 to 32. His best season in terms of WAR was at age 27, right where you'd expect it to be. Oscar is 25. I think we have him just at the right time.
By the way, Brantley's swing percentage on balls outside the zone actually increased from the 24.4% at age 24. It was higher than that in every subsequent season of his career, peaking last year at 29.7%, almost identical to Mercado's 29.9. So maybe players don't learn to lay off bad pitches as they get older. That surprised me.
According to FanGraphs, Mercado's strongest skill is base running (by far, 3.5 runs above average), followed by fielding (0.6), and batting (-3.3). They estimate he would be worth $13.4 million per year in free agency. If he could improve his hitting, or just have average luck on batted balls while getting back to a 10% walk rate, he could turn out to be a very good player.
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Baseball Savant has a nice profile on each player showing where they rank overall in various categories. They have Mercado in the 97th percentile in terms of sprint speed. The dude can flat out fly. He's in the 69th percentile in "outfielder jump" which means despite limited experience he's already well above average. The result of his awesome speed and good jump results in him being in the 87th percentile in "outs above average".
IOW, he's already better than nearly 9 in 10 outfielders at turning fly balls into outs, and he hasn't been an outfielder all that long. The Cardinals were very smart in moving him to center and the Indians were brilliant in grabbing him when they had the chance. At only 25 he has the chance to be an elite defender and base runner.
In terms of hitting, Savant has him in the 16th percentile in exit velocity, so he needs to hit the ball harder. They have his hard hit percentage at 33.9%, which only puts him in the 24th percentile.
His max home run distance was only 407 feet, ranking him 267th. Yet he hit 15 home runs in 114 games. He snuck a lot of balls just over the fence, apparently. Hey, they all count the same.
baseballsavant.mlb.com
IOW, he's already better than nearly 9 in 10 outfielders at turning fly balls into outs, and he hasn't been an outfielder all that long. The Cardinals were very smart in moving him to center and the Indians were brilliant in grabbing him when they had the chance. At only 25 he has the chance to be an elite defender and base runner.
In terms of hitting, Savant has him in the 16th percentile in exit velocity, so he needs to hit the ball harder. They have his hard hit percentage at 33.9%, which only puts him in the 24th percentile.
His max home run distance was only 407 feet, ranking him 267th. Yet he hit 15 home runs in 114 games. He snuck a lot of balls just over the fence, apparently. Hey, they all count the same.
Oscar Mercado Statcast, Visuals & Advanced Metrics | MLB.com
(null) Avg Exit Velocity: 88.1, Hard Hit %: 33.7, wOBA: .294, xwOBA: .287, Barrel %: 3.8.
baseballsavant.mlb.com
LL3
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Thanks for that...we all love it when our analysis is affirmed. ;-) My own belief being he will continue to ascend in the field, hopefully get on base more, and be at least league average (CF) with the bat. If he is more than that -- that's really nice. I'm certainly no insider, but watching him and hearing the occasional quote from coaching, he seems invested in being a quality ball player.Baseball Savant has a nice profile on each player showing where they rank overall in various categories. They have Mercado in the 97th percentile in terms of sprint speed. The dude can flat out fly. He's in the 69th percentile in "outfielder jump" which means despite limited experience he's already well above average. The result of his awesome speed and good jump results in him being in the 87th percentile in "outs above average".
IOW, he's already better than nearly 9 in 10 outfielders at turning fly balls into outs, and he hasn't been an outfielder all that long. The Cardinals were very smart in moving him to center and the Indians were brilliant in grabbing him when they had the chance. At only 25 he has the chance to be an elite defender and base runner.
In terms of hitting, Savant has him in the 16th percentile in exit velocity, so he needs to hit the ball harder. They have his hard hit percentage at 33.9%, which only puts him in the 24th percentile.
His max home run distance was only 407 feet, ranking him 267th. Yet he hit 15 home runs in 114 games. He snuck a lot of balls just over the fence, apparently. Hey, they all count the same.
Oscar Mercado Statcast, Visuals & Advanced Metrics | MLB.com
(null) Avg Exit Velocity: 88.1, Hard Hit %: 33.7, wOBA: .294, xwOBA: .287, Barrel %: 3.8.
Derek
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@Wham with the Right Hand
Mercado was not unlucky last year.
A .300 BABIP is right at league average, and when you consider his average exit velocity was just 86.5 MPH (1 MPH below league average) it makes sense for him to have an average BABIP despite plus speed.
Given his low exit velocity, he's probably not going to hit many HR, so his 15 HR in 114 G is not something we should expect to repeat.
I'd encourage you to look at his xBA% on the website you cited.
xBA% determines how likely a batted ball is to become a hit based on similarly hit balls in the past. It accounts for launch angle, exit velocity, and as of Jan 2019, it accounts for a player's sprint speed on weakly hit grounders.
Mercado's xBA% last year was .262 last year which is just a hair lower than his actual BA% of .269. So, everything is pretty much right in line except for his XBH which were well above expectations based on how hard he hit the ball. His xSLG% is significantly lower than his actual SLG%.
I don't expect Mercado to be much of a power threat, nor do I think he needs to be one in order to be a productive everyday CF. Offensively, I'd like to see him improve his contact skills and draw a few more walks. Being a .270/.320/.440 (like last year) guy makes him one of the weaker hitters in any decent lineup. If he could get his OBP% up to around .340, even with a drop in SLG%, that makes a world of difference.
Defensively, his instincts and routes he takes need to improve. He's in just the 11th percentile in route efficiency. Now, a lot of really good CF rate poorly as route runners, but they make up for it with far superior bursts and great reaction times. So, yes, Mercado is in the 69th percentile for jumps among ALL OF, but among CF, he still has some ground to make up to be above average.
Mercado was not unlucky last year.
A .300 BABIP is right at league average, and when you consider his average exit velocity was just 86.5 MPH (1 MPH below league average) it makes sense for him to have an average BABIP despite plus speed.
Given his low exit velocity, he's probably not going to hit many HR, so his 15 HR in 114 G is not something we should expect to repeat.
I'd encourage you to look at his xBA% on the website you cited.
xBA% determines how likely a batted ball is to become a hit based on similarly hit balls in the past. It accounts for launch angle, exit velocity, and as of Jan 2019, it accounts for a player's sprint speed on weakly hit grounders.
Mercado's xBA% last year was .262 last year which is just a hair lower than his actual BA% of .269. So, everything is pretty much right in line except for his XBH which were well above expectations based on how hard he hit the ball. His xSLG% is significantly lower than his actual SLG%.
I don't expect Mercado to be much of a power threat, nor do I think he needs to be one in order to be a productive everyday CF. Offensively, I'd like to see him improve his contact skills and draw a few more walks. Being a .270/.320/.440 (like last year) guy makes him one of the weaker hitters in any decent lineup. If he could get his OBP% up to around .340, even with a drop in SLG%, that makes a world of difference.
Defensively, his instincts and routes he takes need to improve. He's in just the 11th percentile in route efficiency. Now, a lot of really good CF rate poorly as route runners, but they make up for it with far superior bursts and great reaction times. So, yes, Mercado is in the 69th percentile for jumps among ALL OF, but among CF, he still has some ground to make up to be above average.
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LL3
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For some Mercado comparison sake, I looked at the guys with the most CF at bats for the top three 2019 teams in AL/NL Central:
Whire Sox -- Leury Garcia --279/310/378
Twins -- Kepler -- 252/336/519
Cards -- Fowler -- 238/346/409
Cubs -- Almora -- 236/271/381
Brewers -- Cain -- 260/325/372
Whire Sox -- Leury Garcia --279/310/378
Twins -- Kepler -- 252/336/519
Cards -- Fowler -- 238/346/409
Cubs -- Almora -- 236/271/381
Brewers -- Cain -- 260/325/372
LL3
Take comfort in your friends...
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Adding the other 4 teams in the Central(s):
Pirates -- Marte -- 295/342/503
Reds -- Senzel -- 236/315/427
Tigers --Reyes (276 ab) -- 304/336/431
Royals -- Hamilton (275 ab) -- 211/275/269
Starling (186 ab) -- 215/255/317
CLE -- Mercado -- 269/318/443
Pirates -- Marte -- 295/342/503
Reds -- Senzel -- 236/315/427
Tigers --Reyes (276 ab) -- 304/336/431
Royals -- Hamilton (275 ab) -- 211/275/269
Starling (186 ab) -- 215/255/317
CLE -- Mercado -- 269/318/443