Yem Prades is a 24 year old Cuban defector who rated as the 13th best AA or AAA player analytic rankings. With that said, it is hard to get excited about a non shortstop who had a sub .700 OPS in a hitter friendly (park and league) Texas League. He also isn't a guy that was not highly touted out of Cuba nor a celebrated prospect of any kind. From what I can see, he had just 66 at-bats in Cuba's professional league.
The odds have him at 37.2 percent because of the lack of plate appearances (because he has only been in the minors for 2 seasons). If we assumed he had 2000 plate appearances like most 24 year olds might (at least out of high school), his odds drop to 32.8 %, which is a very generic minor league outfielder/hitter. The K/BB is especially concerning, as not only is he striking out, he isn't walking. His approach is obviously one that involves swinging at just about everything, and he obviously doesn't have the contact tool (and doesn't seem to have a lot of power) to go with that approach. He doesn't really have platoon splits, and as his numbers would suggest, he hits a reasonably high amount of grounders (44.8%). He keeps his hands very high with a pretty open stance. When he swings, he doesn't have a fluid motion (there just seem to be a lot of moving parts) and it seems that his bat isn't very quick or, at the very least, he just has a long swing. It looks like he has a lot of problems on inside pitches because of the combination of long swing and moving parts. This could be why he both swings at almost anything and swings and misses so much. He has to get started early, so he has to make his decision quicker than most hitters, and the moving parts don't allow him to make as much contact as he should. He gets somewhat uppercut happy, which causes a lot of infield pop ups for him. I really think his swing needs to be totally destroyed and rebuild, which is a difficult thing considering he is already 24. You just don't see that happening, but I can't see him having any success in the Majors offensively like this.
He definitely seems like the really athletic centerfielders that may or may not hit (Jarrod Dyson and Derrick Robinson are great examples) that the Royals always seem to have. He lead off for the Royals' AA club all year in 2012, but he doesn’t have the plate discipline to continue in that role. If he makes the Majors and starts, it will most likely be in an athletic centerfield number 9 hitter role that will provide basically no offensive value.
Obviously FRAA and Speed Score are big fans of Prades, but he has stolen just 25 bases over the last two years with 14 caught stealings. Range factor also suggests that he was slightly below average defensively in center. In watching him, I have some questions about both his arm and his jumps/reads. However, you do see the athleticism, and it is clear he can cover some serious ground.
At this point, it is hard to see Prades being much of an impact in the big leagues, if he makes it at all. He has good run and defense, but I don't know if he is elite, and the lack of offensive skills really make it hard for me to see him being more than a 5th outfielder at best. Considering how hard it has been for a guy like Darren Ford to make it to and stay in the Majors, it is hard to see Prades have a real MLB career (I like Ford better for what is worth, but obviously Prades is younger).
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