SB Nation Houston Editor's Pick

Radar Report: Jonathan Meyer

by BustaPozee on Jul 2, 2011 2:54 PM CDT

I like this dude. I really do. As he hit his 8th homer just a few days ago, he came onto my radar. And as I was trying to make comparisons when I was looking at his minor league stats, I immediately thought of Danny Espinosa. A lot of people here want to snatch Espinosa away from the Nationals, but that's not gonna happen. But we might have an Espinosa in our system as Jonathan Meyer. How do the two compare? Let's use statistics from A+ Ball, and simulate the season so that the statistics for Meyer will correspond with the same number of plate appearances as Espinosa during his A+ season in 2009.

	Plate App.	Average	Hits	2B / 3B	HR	BB	SO	OBP	SLG	OPS	SB / CS	GDP
Meyer	576 (Simulated)	.258	133	22 / 0	14.6	49.3	135.3	.322	.385	.707	1.8 / 5.5	9.1
Espinosa	576	.264	125	31 / 4	18	74	129	.375	.460	.834	29 / 11	8

As we can see, they're pretty much similar, except Espinosa had more extra-base hits during his A+ season and stole more bases. Since Meyer is hitting in Lancaster, one wonders if his stats are as legit as they say they are. But his bat was projected to hit for power when he was drafted and maybe he is finally coming around this year. I don't know, I'm not a scout. Meyer is also playing A+ 2 years younger than Espinosa did, so he has time to prove himself.

One thing that stands out is that Espinosa switch hits, while Meyer doesn't. Meyer did, however, try to switch hit during his senior year in high school, but scouts believed he should only hit right handed. Another difference is that Espinosa is a 2B / SS while Meyer plays 3B. Meyer has a really good arm, but has 11 errors this year at 3rd base. He's not exactly a polished defender, but is a lot better than he was last year with a .942 fielding percentage. Since he is a 3rd Baseman, he really needs his bat to come around to be able to man that position at the major league level. But if he hits for lots of clutch power like Espinosa has this year, he could be a really valuable 3rd Baseman even if his average suffers.

If you want to read more, this is a piece OremLK wrote last year: http://www.crawfishboxes.com/2010/5/4/1455251/astros-prospect-profile-jonathan

Anybody else feel the same way? Thoughts, opinions, criticism? Fire away. I wanna hear it.

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Minor league equivalency: Carolina Potomac to California Lancaster

Espinosa would be at .315/.419/.558 with 22 homers in Lancaster.
Meyer would beat .213/.273/.317 with 12 homers in Potomac.

by MadMartygan on Jul 2, 2011 3:11 PM CDT reply actions

That’s just going by that calculator. Still not sure how accurate it is.

by MadMartygan on Jul 2, 2011 3:12 PM CDT up reply actions

I actually think that it might be a decent idea to switch Kvasnicka with Meyer at Lancaster and Lexington. Meyer seems to be all kinds of terrible in Lancaster and Kvasnicka is 2 years older than him.

by MadMartygan on Jul 2, 2011 3:48 PM CDT reply actions

Im not seeing the resemblance here...

Espinoza wins in just about every category and I assume he’s kinda fast as he destroys Meyer in SBs. I’m skeptical on Kvasnika and Meyer will probably be a fringe MLBer. We really lack a true 3B in the system. I never root against any of our guys but I’m less than optimistic about these guys.

by Its Gonna Happen on Jul 2, 2011 4:09 PM CDT via mobile reply actions

I’m not sure that Espinosa is the best comparison for Meyer. Espinosa did better than Meyer almost across the board: avg, doubles, triples, homers, walks, strikeouts, stolen bases. Even though the difference is small in some of those cases, it adds up when you look at it cumulatively. In the end, the .134 points of difference between their OPS numbers makes a world of difference.

Generally for a third baseman, you want to see more power than Meyer has shown in his career, whereas a SS/2B like Espinosa can get away with a slightly weaker bat. I do like the defensive reputation Meyer had when he was signed (I haven’t seen recent reports), and I like the idea of a defensively minded 3B (especially when LF defense is not good).

I’m not quite sold on Meyer, but I do think it’s interesting that Meyer was the compensation pick for not signing Chase Davidson, and now we’ve got them both! Having your cake and eating it too!

by AstroAndy on Jul 2, 2011 4:13 PM CDT reply actions

Also

If you use the same comparison, you’ll notice that Adam Everett and Albert Pujols have very similar offensive careers. The only difference, as is the case here, is that one of them is a way better hitter than the other.

by seanbergmanrules on Jul 2, 2011 5:04 PM CDT reply actions

Ha. Yeah pretty much. This just kind of bummed me out on Meyer.

by MadMartygan on Jul 2, 2011 5:40 PM CDT up reply actions

Meyer

I think the thing to note is that he’s been pretty terrible in his pro career overall, but the last month or two has shown signs of life. He’s still pretty young, so maybe he’s starting to figure it out.

And I agree that the difference in OPS between Meyer and Espinosa definitely gives Espinosa the advantage.

by jmike on Jul 2, 2011 6:44 PM CDT reply actions

You also have to take into account the age difference when you make these comparisons.

The only thing I don’t like his walk ratio.

by Neil Leininger on Jul 2, 2011 9:22 PM CDT up reply actions

He is definitely a Jay Austin All Star.

by MadMartygan on Jul 3, 2011 12:24 AM CDT up reply actions

yes. a good walk rate gives you more comfort that a prospect can survive as he moves up the chain.

by clack on Jul 3, 2011 7:43 AM CDT up reply actions

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