2019 #6 Prospect Yusniel Diaz - RF

[Tony-OH]

https://www.orioleshangout.com/2019/11/07/orioles-6-prospect-yusniel-diaz-rf/

[Pickles]

Thanks for the write ups Tony.

I'm 6 for 6 so far.

What I'm waiting to hear about is some pitcher in A ball not getting any hype.  You've been the first on a bunch of trains that reached their destination.

[weams]

I got this SO right. 

[Philip]

I’ll never choose the outlier again.

[WalkWithElias]

Seeing that Diaz is no longer considered at least passable in center is a bit of a surprise. I thought part of his value was in his ability to play all three outfield positions. Injuries and a change in swing explain a lot of his issues last year, even though he did perform very well comparatively to his league. I expect a big year out of Diaz if he's healthy. A full offseason working on his new swing plus a move to AAA will lead to better numbers. 

[ChosenOne21]

I really thought Diaz would be the surprise faller due to a relatively low ceiling and makeup concerns. I also interpreted him staying in AA as the organization being a little down on him. I thought for sure at least Baumann would be higher than Diaz because of his enormous potential and reasonable floor, but I guess that means the surprise faller is probably Kremer.

[Just Regular]

A 2020 I'm fascinated to watch unfold.  I've been on Team Senioritis with him - it would have been nice if he could have done Vlad/Eloy-type organization embarrassing things but he didn't.

I hope to be good in 2022.  I expect virtually all rookies to be bad major leaguers for awhile at first, and do see a considerable delta between getting him ~1000 PA's of experience and ~500 PA's before Opening Day 2022.   There will be information on this by May.

Would twin spring training extensions and a Mountcastle/Hays/Diaz opening day outfield be a 99th percentile outcome, or maybe just 95th?

 

[ChosenOne21]

 

11 minutes ago, OrioleDog said:

A 2020 I'm fascinated to watch unfold.  I've been on Team Senioritis with him - it would have been nice if he could have done Vlad/Eloy-type organization embarrassing things but he didn't.

I hope to be good in 2022.  I expect virtually all rookies to be bad major leaguers for awhile at first, and do see a considerable delta between getting him ~1000 PA's of experience and ~500 PA's before Opening Day 2022.   There will be information on this by May.

Would twin spring training extensions and a Mountcastle/Hays/Diaz opening day outfield be a 99th percentile outcome, or maybe just 95th?

 

I really don't see that happening. Gonna go with 99.99th percentile

[Moose Milligan]

Eh.  Meh.  

[Frobby]

1 hour ago, WalkWithElias said:

Seeing that Diaz is no longer considered at least passable in center is a bit of a surprise. I thought part of his value was in his ability to play all three outfield positions. Injuries and a change in swing explain a lot of his issues last year, even though he did perform very well comparatively to his league. I expect a big year out of Diaz if he's healthy. A full offseason working on his new swing plus a move to AAA will lead to better numbers. 

I guess you are inferring that Diaz is no longer considered a passable CF, because the writeup didn’t actually mention that.    My take on it is:

1.   2019 was no basis to judge whether Diaz can play CF, because of the leg injuries.

2.   Now that Hays has shown he can play a good CF, who cares whether Diaz can play it, so long as he plays a solid RF?

I’m slightly exaggerating my point 2, since obviously it’s always nice to have multiple viable options in CF.    But let’s just say it’s no longer as important that Diaz be able to play CF.

Overall, I still don’t think we’ve seen this guy at his best.   Hopefully he gets his legs 100% healthy and comes back for 2020 on a mission.   

[DrungoHazewood]

43 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I guess you are inferring that Diaz is no longer considered a passable CF, because the writeup didn’t actually mention that.    My take on it is:

1.   2019 was no basis to judge whether Diaz can play CF, because of the leg injuries.

2.   Now that Hays has shown he can play a good CF, who cares whether Diaz can play it, so long as he plays a solid RF?

I’m slightly exaggerating my point 2, since obviously it’s always nice to have multiple viable options in CF.    But let’s just say it’s no longer as important that Diaz be able to play CF.

Overall, I still don’t think we’ve seen this guy at his best.   Hopefully he gets his legs 100% healthy and comes back for 2020 on a mission.   

I'd hope that a team chock full of youngsters wouldn't have to (or certainly want to) stretch a RFer to play center.  Although you might have to when Hayes pulls a Pete Reiser...

But also, Diaz has always played mostly corners.  I don't know of many players who were predominantly corner outfielders at 21/22 who then became good MLB center fielders.  It's wishful thinking, like pondering Mountcastle at second.

[Luke-OH]

2 hours ago, WalkWithElias said:

Seeing that Diaz is no longer considered at least passable in center is a bit of a surprise. I thought part of his value was in his ability to play all three outfield positions. Injuries and a change in swing explain a lot of his issues last year, even though he did perform very well comparatively to his league. I expect a big year out of Diaz if he's healthy. A full offseason working on his new swing plus a move to AAA will lead to better numbers. 

When he’s fully healthy, then maybe, but he’s not a natural CF, don’t think he ever was. He was a guy you could put there and he wouldn’t hurt you too badly.

 

[LookinUp]

Interesting line to me:

Quote

It’s a relatively low variance profile

I was thinking his hit tool had more upside than this implies. I love the approach and, just by build alone, thought power is on the come. Of course I really had no idea that his swing changes resulted in the problems they did. 

Injuries aside, it seems like he's talented and still working on things. 

[Luke-OH]

1 hour ago, LookinUp said:

Interesting line to me:

I was thinking his hit tool had more upside than this implies. I love the approach and, just by build alone, thought power is on the come. Of course I really had no idea that his swing changes resulted in the problems they did. 

Injuries aside, it seems like he's talented and still working on things. 

He traded hit for power, which is a pretty common thing. He wasn’t going to get to the power without a swing change, so he has more pure ceiling now. But the likely range of outcomes is rather small, 45-55. Second division regular to above average regular. That’s  pretty low variance relative to Hays  and most of the other prospects in this part of the list.

[weams]