Carlos Leal

[splitterpfj]

Keep an eye on Carlos Leal, catcher, in Appleton this season.

 

The Brewers took him in the 34th round last year, as a pitcher - he bombed. BUT....they brought him back as a catcher, and, straight from the coaching staff up there, "This is a better Martin Maldonado."

 

He's a long ways from anywhere right now, but the organization honestly thinks he may prove to be a big league catcher.

[igor67]

I'm glad they were willing to pivot that quickly on the position switch too often it seems in these situations teams will let a college guy struggle for a few years before giving them a chance switching over. at which point they are already in the mid 20's and playing in low-A.

[splitterpfj]

A pile of hits in the first few games, and he's thrown out four of the first five who have attempted to steal.

[pacopete4]

Very cool if we found a stud catcher like this

[wildcat2237]

Saw him in spring training. Looked very good. Smooth swing, good plate approach.

[agent39]

My new client.

[splitterpfj]

Josh, that's great news!

 

Do you happen to know, did he ask for the position switch, or did the Brewers suggest catching to him?

[agent39]

he most certainly asked. Team quickly obliged

[pacopete4]

Agent39, are you an actual agent? A little confused here. Sorry if this is a dumb question.

[TooLiveBrew]

Agent39, are you an actual agent? A little confused here. Sorry if this is a dumb question.

Not a dumb question, but yes he is an agent & has represented numerous Brewers players.

[torts]

this is exciting! this reminds me a little of the pirates prospect Stetson Allie, fireball HS arm, but just STUNK in the minors so they transferred him to 1B and he at times just tore the cover off the ball.

[pacopete4]

Agent39, are you an actual agent? A little confused here. Sorry if this is a dumb question.

Not a dumb question, but yes he is an agent & has represented numerous Brewers players.

 

 

Very cool. Is he/she incognito or who is he/she?

 

 

And this may be silly but I'm adding him as a prospect on my MLB the show 15 game. Been awhile since we've had a catcher to get excited about in the minors.

[TooLiveBrew]

Agent39, are you an actual agent? A little confused here. Sorry if this is a dumb question.

Not a dumb question, but yes he is an agent & has represented numerous Brewers players.

 

 

Very cool. Is he/she incognito or who is he/she?

Check out this thread -- viewtopic.php?f=64&t=891

 

And his blog is here: http://39ontheline.blogspot.com/

[agent39]

dont forget my bp page

[agent39]

carlos hit his first hr today

[TheCrew07]

Yep, to the opposite field, it a no doubter as well.

[nodakfan17]

Yep, to the opposite field, it a no doubter as well.

Indeed. I saw it in person last night. He's become my favorite player in Appleton outside of last year's top picks.

[Mass Haas]

Kudos to Carlos Leal, but isn't a more serious question for amateur signing scout Scott Nichols -- you saw Leal's offensive games, his defensive games behind the plate, yet suggested he be drafted as a pitcher?

 

Now look, I'm all for uncovering 34th round gems -- kudos to the Brewers in that regard because every other team did not have Leal on their radar through 33 rounds.

 

Leal is doing this in 2015 (and let's take a breath, it is only April 25th, after all), while getting virtually no practice reps outside of pitching reps last year.

 

And from audio interviews we've heard from him, he went to the Brewers, not the other way around, about returning to catching.

 

So a ton of credit goes to Carlos, and it looks like the Brewers may end up a lucky beneficiary.

[Outlander]

I'm not going to be too hard on the Brewers on this one. They could have just saw how he pitched and released him, instead they agreed right away to let him catch and let him hit on a regular basis since day one. It is not too uncommon to give up on 30th round draft picks rather soon.

[harrydalton]

It's been implied but not simply stated here. Leal was a catcher in college. The Brewers tried him as a pitcher because he threw 94mph. This is a move back to his natural position, not a conversion. Pitching was the conversion.

[TheCrew07]

Let's not lose the larger point here which was MH's original premise. I have no problem with the Brewers drafting two way players with a big arm and taking a shot at converting him to pitcher if he shows some acumen on the mound, it seems prudent given the lack of impact pitching in the organization. By acumen I mean does he have decent mechanics, are the makings of good secondary pitches there, does he attack hitters?

 

However this is a relatively polished catcher who jumped all the way to full season ball without the benefit of any indoctrination into pro ball as a batter and has hit from the start so the original question stands. Given the awfully wide gulf between Carlos' pitching and hitting results, what did they see as a pitcher? Or are they just throwing darts at the wall to see what sticks? I'm all for happy accidents, but how many times was Carlos personally scouted? Given his draft position I would guess maybe once if at all, in which case where did the pitching recommendation come from?

 

The other important question is how long would this pitching experiment have carried on if Carlos had not requested a move himself? I don't want to go through all the names of all the players who've been played out of position, but the most recent was Coulter who pretty much anyone with a critical eye could see wasn't a C from the start. I disagree with the Brewers whole, "we don't coach players until they fail because then they are easier to coach" philosophy for a plethora of reasons which I won't go into here other than to say I feel that's poor leadership. I guess that's the way baseball works... this is what we've always done so this is what we're going to do mentality, but I that's me as a person and I've never been down with that approach.

 

I also realize that we aren't through the first month of the season and Carlos could absolutely tank or fall off a cliff and then this was a pretty meaningless discussion. However I've watched him play and I think he's a 50 or 60 hitter at this level but more importantly I like what he does behind the plate. I've been hard on the catchers to come through WI because all of them have been poor fundamentally... way too many Passed Balls and pitches getting through them which should have been easily blocked. Carlos frames and blocks well in addition to having a very strong arm, thus far he's the best catcher I've seen in the Midwest League (the TRats haven't played all of the Western Division teams yet, nor any of the East), and statistically he's the 2nd best at this moment. He's definitely the best defensive C to come through WI since they've been affiliated with the Brewers.

 

So again I'm thrilled to have him, but in a perfect world there are questions I would like the answers to, and MH hit both of them. This is coming from a guy who said to himself "who the hell is Carlos Leal?" and had to do research him during the first game of the season, I don't pay attention to draft picks past the top 20 rounds until they get to WI so I had no idea who he was and why I didn't know the name.

[splitterpfj]

The closer you get to the scouting/drafting process, the more you realize how much room there is for improvement.

 

In Leal's case, whatever happens from here, he obviously should have been drafted as a catcher, and he obviously should have gone much higher than round 34. Even if he never sees the big leagues, this is a prospect, not a novelty, and the entire industry missed it.

 

Specific to the Brewers, the pitching thing was a failed experiment, but at least they have him.

 

Even in this very small sample - you're telling me not one team viewed Leal as a viable prospect at catcher?

 

The draft system badly needs to be simplified. Cut it to 25 rounds - the teams only sign that many of their picks in the first place. Have the players declare for the draft, like every other sport, so you know which kids to focus on, and get all the, "this guy was drafted three years ago" nonsense out of the room.

 

Right now, you're telling scouts, "We're going to draft 1200 players, but we're only going to sign 750 of them - don't waste our time, but don't miss anyone. Ready. Set. Go. Get all over the U.S., up to Canada, and down to Puerto Rico, but don't worry about anywhere else, oh, and there won't be any medicals on these players until after the draft."

 

Seriously? A multi-billion dollar industry can do better than that.

[agent39]

I got in early on him

[clancyphile]

The closer you get to the scouting/drafting process, the more you realize how much room there is for improvement.

 

In Leal's case, whatever happens from here, he obviously should have been drafted as a catcher, and he obviously should have gone much higher than round 34. Even if he never sees the big leagues, this is a prospect, not a novelty, and the entire industry missed it.

 

Specific to the Brewers, the pitching thing was a failed experiment, but at least they have him.

 

Even in this very small sample - you're telling me not one team viewed Leal as a viable prospect at catcher?

 

The draft system badly needs to be simplified. Cut it to 25 rounds - the teams only sign that many of their picks in the first place. Have the players declare for the draft, like every other sport, so you know which kids to focus on, and get all the, "this guy was drafted three years ago" nonsense out of the room.

 

Right now, you're telling scouts, "We're going to draft 1200 players, but we're only going to sign 750 of them - don't waste our time, but don't miss anyone. Ready. Set. Go. Get all over the U.S., up to Canada, and down to Puerto Rico, but don't worry about anywhere else, oh, and there won't be any medicals on these players until after the draft."

 

Seriously? A multi-billion dollar industry can do better than that.

 

I'd like to see the DFE process return, myself.

 

That said... in the case of Leal, I think this is good news, and I hope the Brewers look for other players like him - and also look into other conversion projects.

 

Not that they are always a good idea (we all know which conversion I'd take back if I could...), but sometimes a conversion can result in a gem or two.

[torts]

I got in early on him

 

high-five to you!