Ademar Rifaela?

[JohnD]

This young outfielder is having a decent year at age appropriate Frederick.  Playing mostly RF he is showing more pop than in years past.  His OBP isn't bad, not great either, but a blemish that stands out is his K/BB rate.  Needs to get better, but I've also seen worse K rates.

It's too early to say he is the RF of the future, but the numbers bear some watching right now as he gets stronger and shows some pop.

Anyone seen him in person who can say anything?

[clapdiddy]

Nice catch, John.   With the other two guys there getting most of the attention, Rifaela has kind of come in under the radar.   I'd be interested to hear opinions on him as well.

[sportsfan8703]

We've had a great year as far at the position players go in the system.  Rifaela is just another success story.  We seem to get great value when we actually do spend in Latin America.  Imagine if we invested more there.

[Br10n]

Ademar had a nice night when we were there. He hit a walk off home run.  I was more impressed with the way he treated my 5 year old son.  My sons baseball team had the privailidge of taking the field with the Keys players during the anthem.  Ademar was the player my son ran on to the field with.  He was one of the few Keys players that looked comfortable interacting with the kids.  He put his arm around my son during the anthem.  He gave my son high fives before and after the anthem.  I will definitely follow him with special interest.

[Legend_Of_Joey]

3 minutes ago, Br10n said:

Ademar had a nice night when we were there. He hit a walk off home run.  I was more impressed with the way he treated my 5 year old son.  My sons baseball team had the privailidge of taking the field with the Keys players during the anthem.  Ademar was the player my son ran on to the field with.  He was one of the few Keys players that looked comfortable interacting with the kids.  He put his arm around my son during the anthem.  He gave my son high fives before and after the anthem.  I will definitely follow him with special interest.

That's awesome! Was that the double header a couple of weeks ago?

[Br10n]

It was the doubleheader.

[Cumberbundy]

Home run number 15 & double number 17  in a 3 hit effort so far.

[sportsfan8703]

He's having a similar year to what Santander did last year in the Carolina League. He's just 11 months older. We took Santander in the rule 5 draft. I'm not saying he's better than Santander it's just nice to have a guy putting up this kind of season without having to take him in the Rule 5 draft. 

[Cumberbundy]

52 minutes ago, sportsfan8703 said:

He's having a similar year to what Santander did last year in the Carolina League. He's just 11 months older. We took Santander in the rule 5 draft. I'm not saying he's better than Santander it's just nice to have a guy putting up this kind of season without having to take him in the Rule 5 draft. 

This system has come to life, I take back the bad things I said about it. ♥️

[Frobby]

11 hours ago, sportsfan8703 said:

He's having a similar year to what Santander did last year in the Carolina League. He's just 11 months older. We took Santander in the rule 5 draft. I'm not saying he's better than Santander it's just nice to have a guy putting up this kind of season without having to take him in the Rule 5 draft. 

11 months is a lot when you're talking about high A.   Still, Rifaela is about six months younger than the average player in the league.   He's been on fire since May.

[Frobby]

By month:

April .621 OPS

May .887

June .991

July 1.143 (7 games)

[Luke-OH]

I'm looking forward to the next time Frederick's games are televised, the latest I saw Rifaela was mid-June.  He's really picked it up since then, I'm curious if he changed his stance and/or swing.  He's only striking out 20% of the time now instead of the high 20's.  It seems like he's making better contact too, from the amount of hits he's getting (although it's possible he could be getting lucky on weakly hit balls, most of his singles were on balls he made poor contact with in he 6 games I saw.)

[sportsfan8703]

Rifeala will end up in Bowie at some point so he will have more flexible eligibility for the AFL. We might just let him enjoy the success of his breakout year instead of rushing him to AA. 

[sportsfan8703]

“He’s just 22 and has a beautiful swing and the ball jumps off his bat,” Orioles director of player development Brian Graham said. “He’s having a really good year. He’s shown good bat speed and understands the strike zone. He’s shown much better patience this year. He’s a left-handed hitter that has always had a pure swing. His pitch recognition has gotten better.

“Plus he’s maturing as a person and as a player, and if you had to point to one thing, that maturity has really helped him perform so well this year. Young players develop at different times. (Outfielder Randolph) Gassaway and Rifaela are similar. It has taken some time and it’s part of the process. Development takes time and a lot of effort and you never know when players will show up. You just keep working and good players will show up.”  

From http://www.masnsports.com/steve-melewski/2017/07/flying-under-the-radar-on-the-farm-plus-other-notes.html

 

[sportsfan8703]

He's built like DJ Stewart.