My Take on Cedric Hunter

I have never seen Hunter play, but your description sounds vaguely reminiscent of a guy I thought would be the next Tony Gwynn (i.e., future batting average champ, low power, good plate discipline, corner outfielder):  Trey Beamon.  After for high averages in the PCL as young as 21 (when he hit 334/387/454), Beamon struggled in brief MLB trials has been playing indy ball since age 26.  Hunter sounds exciting, but guys of his description always make me think of Beamon.

Tony actually hit for power in low A and double A the year he was drafted out of college at age 21. He also didn't walk so much.

Hunter sounds like a taller and less electrifying version of Tim Raines.

Tons of singles, very speedy, but only 13 doubles??  The lack of 2B's is concerning.
What does he do bunt 1 out of every 2 AB?
2nd year in the league might catch up with that game plan.

Derek Jeter in LF...

Jeter wouldn't be a MVP candidate if he was a left-fielder. He'd "merely" be a multi-time All Star.

He does look good and he is lucky he's with the Padres organization who most likely will not change his swing to get more HR because of their park.

If he was drafted by another team (say Texas), they would try and get him to pull the ball and hit HR.  That would mess with there head too much.

I had one minor league manager tell me about one hot prospect (as to why he is suddenly struggling with his swing) - "We just changed were he puts his feet and widened his stance a little - his swing should not have changed!".

To say the least, I was floored by the studipity of the comment comming from a minor league manager.

I'm just not feeling it with Hunter.  I was just goofing around looking for guys with similar stats and I came across this player:
http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/D/Lance-Downing.shtml

Check out that 18 year old season in 1997, almost an exact match for Hunter.  If Hunter doesn't develop more power, the walks will simply disappear at the higher levels.

I was thinking the exact same thing.  Sure a .365 batting average is always nice and he did walk almost twice as much as he struck out, but an Isop of nearly .100 from a left fielder is just horrible and there's no way he keeps up a 15% bb rate once pitchers start going after him.  Also, a .404 BABIP is pretty ridiculous, especially since he wasn't hitting a ton of line drives (18%).  I don't have a ton of information on his tools or projectability, but I just don't see what the big deal is based on his stats.

I think John may be referring to the Roberts?

Bip If I recall had zero power, but good speed; but I don't think his strike zone judgment was any good.

Dave didn't have good power coming up either, and still doesn't.

Perhaps my guess is incorrect?

I just took a look at baseball reference.com for Bip's and Dave's stats. I'm stupified how similar they are.

I was shocked how decent Bip's plate discipline was early in his career.  I guess I didn't remember seeing him when he was young, my memories of him were of him flailing away at pitches in the dirt or over his head (ie: Rey Ordonez style).

IF Cedrick Hunter can field better than the two Roberts' than the Pads have something there. Every team seems to be desparate for a defensive CF these days