Brooklyn State of Mind: A Surprise Top Prospect Emerges (2062.3)

[lordtoffee]

Bumping and lumping is a part of life for every BBA franchise. We have seen players be potential greats one day, and then fall back down to being remembered by only the real diehard BBA fans. It has been no secret that the Robins farm system has been lately dominated with high end pitching prospects. 2 are in Brooklyn, and the third is going to join the Robins rotation full time after a cup of coffee this year. But all of a sudden, there is an outfielder who went from the back end of the BBA draft to a potential 70 overall. Let's talk about António Meléndez.

So if we are being honest here, the Robins ended up picking Melendez in the 18th round with the expectations of him being a likely organizational player. His potential ratings were fine, and somehow never played in college. So it is understandable why he fell. If a player is in the draft pool and you have no data for 3 years to go on, you would have let him pass. Thus, he ended up being in something called "autodraft", which is something that no GM has said what that means on the record. Melendez ended up struggling a bit with the transition to pro ball, but it wasn't a surprise to the Robins. "We knew that it would happen, and that was why he wasn't selected to go to the development lab. We wanted to go in a different direction, to be frank." The quote by an unnamed Robins observer wouldn't have gotten a lot of interest.

Then he all of a sudden ended up having his potential improve to 70 overall for some reason. No, it wasn't steroids or anything. Something must have happened for Melendez to get better. With the rookie ball rosters needing to be set at this time, the plan is for him to get started there, and hopefully he can continue his surprising progress. He likely is going to be a DH should he get to the majors, but that is all in the future as well as down to development lab.

[Dington]

Uphill battle for him ahead. Really underdeveloped, but if he hits a surge, he will be really good.

[lordtoffee]

Uphill battle for him ahead. Really underdeveloped, but if he hits a surge, he will be really good.

Totally going to be an uphill battle, but the good news is that anything I get from an autodrafted players is a bonus.

[Jwalk100]

He's got some Eric Owens in him but needs to get some bumps. I love these late round draft pick hits.

[lordtoffee]

He's got some Eric Owens in him but needs to get some bumps. I love these late round draft pick hits.

Totally. And I think it’s still too early to say anything. But I’ll take any sort of luck I’ll get.

[RonCo]

Definitely interesting, but I don't see him as a 70+.