30.5 F
Pittsburgh

Prospect Highlights: Willy Garcia’s Third Homer

Published:

While Mother Nature decides to keep Gregory Polanco off the field on Monday and Tuesday with consecutive rainouts, we turn to someone else today for a prospect highlight. Altoona’s Willy Garcia hit his third homer of the season last night.

We knew coming into this year that Garcia had power and his defense/arm are both strong, but the questions about his plate patience and ability to make contact haven’t been answered. He has five hits this year, three homers, a triple and a single. That type of extra-base power looks good, but he’s also hitting .158 and has one walk and 18 strikeouts in ten games. Last year he had 23 walks and 154 strikeouts in 118 games with Bradenton and with West Virginia in 2012, he had 32 walks and 131 strikeouts in 122 games. So early on the downward trend is continuing as he moves up, but there is one upside to point out. Despite being in his fifth season in the organization now, he will play this entire season as a 21-year-old, so there is still time for him.

 

John Dreker
John Dreker
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball. When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.

Related Articles

Latest Articles