Monday, March 15, 2010

Polysyllabic Cuban Crystallizes Elements of The Plan


Clearly, the main tenet of The Plan is signing guys with difficult names to spell and pronounce. As someone who wrote a post on Marc Rzepczynski this past Friday, I can attest to this strategy leading to a reduction in analysis as writers and bloggers simply throw their hands up in frustration after the 700th misspelling. (Leading directly to columns like this. Shine on you crazy diamond.)

Seriously, the Hechevarria signing is an exciting one. Not only is it an exciting sign of a front office willing to reach out and pay top dollar for top talent, it comes with the added bonus of generating genuine excitement and positivity around the team.

While most would agree the Jays did as well in the Halladay trade as they could have hoped; very little about the Blue Jays in 2010 is going create buzz around the city or at the dinner tables of casual fans. Bringing in a big-time Cuban prospect will certainly get people in Toronto talking about the Jays, even if it isn't much deeper than "Cuban? We're going to Cuba next week! Don't forget to pack the Immodium."

It would be irresponsible of me to suggest I know a single thing about Adeiny Hechevarria. In fact, I just had to look up his first name! He's 19, Cuban, plays shortstop and stands six feet even. Cuban Ball Players lists him at 160 pounds, which means he looks fantastic in those goofy red pants the Cuban national team wears. CBP has this to say about Hechevarria's tools:
Hechevarria covers a lot of ground, has amazing quickness, great hands and his footwork is excellent.

Iglesias (another top Cuban prospect and recent record-setting Red Sox signee - Ed.) had a higher batting average in Cuba, but Hechevarria hit for more power and had a higher fielding average.

Hechevarria likes to hit behind the runners. During last season, he hit 50 times toward right field. He also hit 38 times to left field and 32 to center field.
Using the whole field and stabbing at base hits is an interesting approach for a 19 year old. This is certainly a good thing in light of Justin Jackson stalling slightly during his ascent to a quad A label at best the major leagues.

Adding what I know about Cuban ballplayers (precious little), we can expect some hysterically stylish play in the field, putting the catch-all term "slick" to shame. I expect him to field hotshots behind his back with his bare hand just because he can. Don't forget the great Cuban love affair with the unicycle! He'll be out there on that thing every other inning, lunging and juggling and making the hard look easy and the easy look cartoonish.

Image courtesy of Dipity.com and my sense of obviousness

5 comments:

  1. I he 19? Is he 21? i don't care. He is the next Tony Fernandez.

    Where does he start? Double-A, I hope. Maybe he can finish the season in AAA. Lofty hopes, I know. But he is the second coming of my man Tony Fernandez, after all.

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  2. "Fielding average"?

    Defensive metric FAIL!

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  3. I think he's 21, but I've seen both ages being reported.

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  4. since i hope he's 19
    He's probably 21...

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