Matt Tuiasosopo

by GregJP on Apr 26, 2007 6:21 PM EDT Comment 4 comments

He went 5-for-5 with a homer and four runs scored yesterday in AA and he isn't 21 yet.

He's now .380/.465/.535 in 71 AB's and already has more doubles than all of last year.

I wonder if this is still a relatively small sample size, or if he has worked himself back to legiti
mate prospect status.

If he continues anything close to this pace over the next couple of months where would he rank in a top prospects list?

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I'd like to see a full season

I won't be sold on a few months, I'd like to see him spend the entire year in the Southern League and develop his hitting skills.

Bavasi spoke very highly of him last March in Peoria. The Mariners still think he's going to be a player.

by sdbaseballfan on Apr 26, 2007 6:26 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

his BB:K is at 10:12 this year compared to 20:64 in AA last year, so I don't think it's out of line to say we can see some development already. Tuiasosopo is a fantastic athlete, and if he keeps up the same plate discipline and power output all year long, he should be a popular figure in prospect discussions.

The important thing to remember is that Tui was rushed to AA after hitting .306/.359/.379 in 232 California League ABs. if he stayed there all year (like he should have) his output so far may not look like so much of a leap.

I'd love to see him spend the whole year in the Southern League, like sdbaseballfan says, but I'm never confident the M's will do what's right with a prospect. We'll have to wait and see.

Warning Track Power

by WTP on Apr 26, 2007 6:33 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Power+patience

Just to reiterate: he's hit for a high average over a relative long period of time. It's just that he did so with almost no power (>.100 ISO) and with poor plate discipline.
It's notable that he's actually shown a bit of gap power this year along with the improved K:BB, so that's a good sign.
I'm still not quite sure what to make of it - I'd still like to see more power, because his bat is going to have to take him up to the show, and because he's not showing quite enough pop to be more than, oh, Mike Morse ver. 2. But we DO have to remember that he's only 20 (soon to be 21) in AA.

by marc w on Apr 26, 2007 7:14 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

was it really wrong though?

So far it doesnt seem like moving him out of the Cal League ASAP hasn't really hurt him. I agree that 70 ABs is too early to draw conclusions about but if he hits anywhere close to this in the SL this year it pretty clearly will not have been a mistake to have him play the best competition as soon as possible. Maybe letting him suck in AA last year helped as it let him make his adjustments rather than not reaching AA til this year and then starting an adjustment phase.

Moving rapidly has not seemed to hurt Adam Jones, Ryan Feirabend or Jose Lopez either. Its too early to say on Jeff Clement

If the goal of prospect development is to place guys highly on lists then maybe it hurt but if you are aiming to develop guys into big leaguers moving up certain guys (who have the right makeup and tools to handle it) as quick as they can move does not seem to be a bad idea. Seems to be working for the Mets too.

That being said if your organizational philosophy is to not move guys up midseason i can see the logic behind that too.

My point is you shouldnt reflexively call something stupid because it might hurt a guys prospect standing when it might be helping, or at least not hurting, him become a better ballplayer

by nms on Apr 26, 2007 7:16 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs