Brewers' Fifth Round Pick - Angel Salome, HS Catcher

[950opsLHcatcher]

The MLB scouting report begins with "Strong like bull." That's all you need to know.

[biedergb]

I'm betting its a pitcherhttp://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/happy.gif

[clancyphile]

Outfielder or third baseman, I hope...

 

The Crew could use help there REAL bad.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Ned Yost Jr.!!!

 

probably not. I heard he was a jerk when he plaed for the Wausau Woodchucks last summer

[spbrew]

Yost was an okay player in the NWL, and that's not saying a lot.

[Vgmastr]

MLB.com scouting report on Salome:

 

STRONG LIKE BULL. CHISELED BODY. VERY BROAD SHOULDERS & CHEST, ESPECIALLY FOR SHORT HEIGHT. BUILT LIKE FORMER MAJOR LEAGUER JIMMY WYNN. WEIGHT BACK, KNOCK-KNEED HIT STANCE. MORE STRONG THAN GOOD HIT NOW. PWR IF HE RUNS INTO ONE. LEVEL CUT WHEN KEEPS BACK SHOULDER LEVEL. BLESSED CANNON ARM, AVG ACCURATE. BETTER RAW SPEED THAN MOST CATCHERS, AGGRESSIVE BASE RUNNER. DON'T SEE ARMS LIKE THIS VERY OFTEN. BEST POSITION PLAYER ARM SEEN 15 YRS SCOUTING.

[bjkrautk]

Not Yost, Jr....but the pick is a catcher!

 

Quote:

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C Angel Salome is a 5-foot-10, 190-pounder with a cannon for an arm. A native of the Dominican, he is fluid behind the plate with quick feet and solid blocking skills. He has a 70 arm on the 20-80 scouting scale with a short, quick release, but needs work on his receiving skills. Even though he hit .720 with 14 homers--comparable numbers to those posted by Manny Ramirez at the same high school in the early 90s--his bat is a question mark and he has limited power.

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[maisel4me]

from perfect game:

 

&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp Salome, Angel &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp C &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp George Washington &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp New York, NY &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp R-R &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp 5'10 &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp 188 &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp NY &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp

6/2 &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp Watch out for him in the draft, he's been tearing it up for weeks and still gets an occasional FB for a strike.

5/20 &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp Has not let up all season batting over .800 (not a typo) with millions of x-tra base hits incl 9 HR's and 32 RBI's. His SLG% is an unearthly 2.111 and his Plus arm has never looked stronger. Top draft prospect in the state. Wow !

5/11 &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp Still punishing the ball, had a game last week with 3 HR's and at one point had 15 consecutive hits in a row ! Just hit for the cycle in front of a bunch of scouts and has been hosing runners that get more than 3 feet off 1B. Stock's still rising.

4/28 &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp Showing scouts big catch and throw skill and a powerful bat this spring, he has hit the ball hard and thrown out nearly everyone that dared run on him. Just hit 3 HR's yesterday, each one traveled farther than the next. He now has 10 HR's on the year and not a runner advanced a single base yet all season.

[bjkrautk]

Quote:

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BEST POSITION PLAYER ARM SEEN 15 YRS SCOUTING

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Why do I get the feeling that the same scout that wrote this also did Rogers' draft profile? Either that, or the MLB hired a lot of scouts 15 years ago. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/roll.gif

[jwaltz]

Seeing him utilize his arm to gun down runners will be fun.

[nikip43]

This guy might be my favorite pick so far if he is indeed 5'7" tall like mlb.com says he is. If thats the case (and hes not 5'10" like other sources says) I think the only reason he fell was because his height. Theres no way a guy who reads this good defensively and can hit above average falls to the fifth round. Im ver interested in Salome and hope he's as good as he reads on the scouting sheets.

[nikip43]

http://www.nypost.com/photos/sports051304066a.jpg

 

what a stud

[batman]

"GW's Salome A Real Hitting Machine," The New York Post, Byline Dan Martin, May 13, 2004, Pg. 66

 

Quote:

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Classmates approach Angel Salome throughout the day before games and make requests.

 

"They say, 'I'm coming to watch you play, hit three home runs,' or 'We want you to get five hits,' " Salome said. "I have to tell them, 'It's not that easy.' "

 

Actually, for Salome, it appears to be. The George Washington senior is tearing apart the PSAL.

 

In nine league games, he has put up numbers that would make even Barry Bonds envious: .815 batting average, 2.111 slugging percentage, nine home runs, 32 RBIs and no strikeouts.

 

While Salome has the benefit of feasting on the pitching of one of the league's weakest divisions, he still has become one of the top prospects in the city, and scouts are taking notice.

 

"We know who he is and we're watching him," one major-league scout said of the 17-year-old.

 

Salome could be picked as high as the 10th round of next month's draft, but will most likely go somewhere in the 20s. If he's not selected high enough, he will attend Gulf Coast Community College in Florida.

 

"Any time a kid puts up numbers like that, you have to pay attention," the scout said.

 

What makes pro scouts even more interested is what he does behind the plate. A stocky 5-foot-8, 190-pounds, Salome has one of the best arms of any high-school catcher in the nation, and GW head coach Steve Mandl believes that it could be better than anyone's in the majors right now.

 

"He's an animal," Mandl said of the Dominican Republic native who has spent the past three years in Washington Heights after splitting time between there and Santo Domingo. "I've never seen anyone do what he's done the past month, both offensively and defensively. It's gotten to the point where I'm stunned if he doesn't get a hit."

 

Mandl knows a bit about developing talent. He's sent several players to the big leagues, most notably Boston's Manny Ramirez.

 

"I've never compared anyone to Manny," Mandl said. "But he's doing things now that I've never seen, so I have no choice."

 

Salome has heard plenty of Ramirez stories, and would like to meet the famous former Trojan. But when he's watching baseball, he prefers to pay attention to Ivan Rodriguez.

 

"Pudge is the best," Salome said of the Tigers' catcher. "I have his videos and I try to model myself after him. He's stayed humble and I want to do that, too."

 

He's succeeding on both fronts. Salome is the team's hardest worker, and even has his mother help him with drills in their apartment. And while he rarely gets a chance to show off his arm, he was able to pick a runner off first during a game on Sunday with his summer league team, the Metro Cadets.

 

A year ago, things weren't going as well. Salome's average slipped from .667 as a sophomore to .587 and his power numbers dropped as well.

 

"He had a bad year," Mandl said, insisting he wasn't joking. "He didn't make adjustments or listen to what we were telling him to do."

 

Now, he is.

 

"I was mad at myself," said Salome, who would like to become a lawyer if his baseball career doesn't go as planned. "I saw how close my dream was, and that I wasn't doing everything I could. I want to make sure that doesn't happen again."

---

~Bill

[batman]

"Boys Who Made Good, and One Who Made Great," The New York Times, Byline Sara Rimer, October 12, 2003, Pg. 33

 

Quote:

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Manny Ramirez had just gotten his first hit of the American League Championship Series, an infield single, at Yankee Stadium. In the sweltering basement of a bodega in Washington Heights, eight men, some with the thickening midsections of former athletes moving toward middle age, burst into cheers. They watched on television as Ramirez, the Red Sox slugger, ran to first. They had seen it before.

 

"It's the same swing," said Carlos Puello.

 

"He's the same guy," said Nestor Payano.

 

They should know. Mr. Payano, 30, Mr. Puello, 31, and Joaquin Checo, 31, who was also in the basement, grew up playing ball with Manny Ramirez in Washington Heights, starting with the Alex Ferreira Little League.

 

Mr. Payano and Mr. Puello applauded Manny's home runs as his teammates on the winning George Washington High School Trojans. They were hungry for baseball, the game of the Dominican Republic, their homeland, and on weekends they rode the subway together to Brooklyn to play with a city Youth Services sandlot team. Mr. Checo, who played for the rival Kennedy High School, was also on the sandlot team.

 

By the spring of 1991, when dozens of major league scouts were showing up at their high school games to study Manny's quicksilver swing, his teammates knew he was headed for the big time. (That season the Trojans were the subject of a series in The New York Times.)

 

At the end of the season the Cleveland Indians drafted Manny, the son of a livery cab driver and a seamstress, right out of high school. His teammates celebrated what they considered his hard-earned, huge windfall: a $250,000 signing bonus.

 

These days, at 31, Manny is unimaginably rich and famous -- his $160 million contract with the Red Sox makes him the second highest paid player in baseball. But the bond between him and the collection of cabdrivers, bread delivery men, hospital boiler room mechanics, driveway paving contractors, teachers and Army privates who were his teammates is still alive.

 

He visits them in the old neighborhood when the Red Sox are in town. Just a few weeks ago he rented a limousine so they could all ride around the city together.

 

Mr. Puello still talks about the time he was having trouble paying $1,200 in back rent on his apartment in the Bronx, and Manny told him: "No problem. Go to Western Union." And Mr. Puello said that when he goes to Boston, he stays at Manny's penthouse at the Ritz-Carlton.

 

His former teammates think of him as a member of their extended family, and his success reflects upon them all. "To see him up there, at least one of us from George Washington made it," said Alex Resto, 29, a former pitcher, who lives a few blocks from Manny's old sixth-floor walk-up on West 168th Street at Amsterdam Avenue. "Every time he goes up to bat, there's a part of Washington that's up there with him. Every time he hits a home run, it's like it's us, too."

 

Carlos Mencia, a second baseman for the Trojans, says his father tells everyone, "My son played with Manny Ramirez."

 

But Manny is no fantasy substitute for failed lives. His former teammates have their own successes, too: Jobs that pay $40,000 a year and more. Children they vow will go to college. (And sons they are teaching how to swing a bat.) Apartments in Washington Heights and the Bronx and, a few of them, homes in New Jersey.

 

"We're doing well -- real well," said Mr. Payano, a George Washington High pitcher, who leaves his apartment in the Bronx at 5 a.m. to drive a bread truck.

 

In the basement of the bodega, a 19-inch color television was wedged on a shelf between stacks of cans of evaporated coconut milk and beans, and bags of rice. Mr. Payano, Mr. Puello, Mr. Checo and the other fans sat on plastic milk crates.

 

The sports media, and the Boston fans, may see Manny as standoffish and arrogant. But his former teammates, who know him, say Manny is simply shy, and worried he'll say something stupid in public.

 

"Manny used to hit three for three in the games," said Mr. Payano, who at 31 has grown into the role of neighborhood leader. "He'd come back to the block, and people would say, 'What you did?' He'd say, 'I didn't do nothing.'

 

"That's why I love that kid so much," he went on, leaning forward on his milk crate. "He never brags. Plus, he works hard." All of Manny's former teammates, and his high school coach, Steve Mandl, constantly talk about his work ethic.

 

These days Mr. Payano cannot throw a ball without searing pain in his left shoulder. He dislocated it playing years ago, and surgery has not helped. He stays in the game by coaching a neighborhood men's softball team.

 

Mr. Puello, Mr. Checo, Jose Corsino and other players from high school all play for the team. Calling themselves the Trojans, after their old high school team, they have won the city championship twice. Manny bought them uniforms, Mr. Payano said, and went with them when they traveled to Puerto Rico two years ago. They will play today for this year's city championship.

 

"You know what my dream is now?" Mr. Payano said. "I want to be a scout. I want to look for talent in this area."

 

These days he has his eye on two up-and-coming young ballplayers from the neighborhood, 17-year-old Felipe Mendez, a shortstop for this year's George Washington team, and 15-year-old Frank Pol, who pitches for the team.

 

Mr. Payano gestured to one of the other fans in the basement. "Where's Felipe?"

 

Moments later, a skinny six-footer with curly brown hair bounded down the flight of broken stairs from the street.

 

"He hits the ball with a lot of power," Mr. Payano said, looking at Felipe. "I sent him to Mandl." Steve Mandl, 49, still coaches the high school team -- he has high hopes for them this year -- and stays in touch with his former players.

 

When they were in high school, Mr. Payano and Manny's other teammates had their own major league dreams. "The scouts told me they were going to put me in the draft," said Mr. Puello, who holds down the 4 p.m. to midnight shift in the boiler room at Columbia-Presbyterian Center of New York Presbyterian Hospital, and was on his lunch break. "I thought I was gonna do all right. They never draft me. You've got to move on. Not everybody can make it."

 

Now, Mr. Puello's dreams of upward mobility are more realistic -- a refrigeration mechanic's license. "Once I get that," he said, "I'll be set."

 

It was the fifth inning, and Manny was at bat. The basement of the bodega was quiet as everyone focused on the television. Manny clobbered the ball over the right field wall. His former teammates jumped to their feet, clapping their hands and hollering in Spanish.

 

It was the same for Manny's home runs back in high school. Back then, Mr. Mandl would drum into them that even if they didn't make it to the big leagues, baseball was still something to hold on to. The game was a way around the drug dealers who controlled the street corners at the time. Go to school and play ball, the coach would tell his team. He urged them to accept baseball scholarships to junior colleges.

 

College recruiters came to George Washington to see Manny, and ended up talking to the other players. "We owe it all to him," said Adrian Oviedo, catcher, who won a scholarship to Brown Mackie, a junior college in Kansas.

 

Even though he left Brown Mackie after eight months, feeling isolated and homesick, Mr. Oviedo, 30, looks back on it as a growing experience. Eventually, he earned an undergraduate degree in education at the C. W. Post campus of Long Island University and a master's from Mercy College. He teaches special education at a junior high school in Washington Heights.

 

Hours before the first game of the playoff series, Mr. Mandl, the coach, was in his basement office at George Washington High School, counseling his brash star catcher, Angel Salome, to go to math class. On the wall, towering over the pictures of Sandy Koufax, Bob Dylan, and the George Washington teams for the past 20 years, was a six-foot-tall poster of Manny in his Cleveland Indians uniform. Manny, who never graduated from high school, had signed it: "George Washington -- stay in school."

 

"I'm proud of all of them," Coach Mandl said, talking about the scores of players he has coached over the years. And now, Manny's teammates realize that the coach was right. "It's not all about making it to the major leagues," Mr. Payano said, watching as the Red Sox went on to victory in their first game. "It's about staying out of trouble and having a future."

---

~Bill

[bullox]

Quote:

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Why do I get the feeling that the same scout that wrote this also did Rogers' draft profile?

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Both players are from the Northeast (Maine, NY) so it's not out of the question that the same regional scout did both players.

[clancyphile]

Cap'n Lou, you have competition.

 

http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/happy.gif

[JoeHova]

Very good pick, it sounds like. I realize its higher than projected but it does seem like that is only because of height. Plus, if he can't hit, they can always make him a pitcher, like what happened with Feliz Rodriguez.

[nikip43]

What lies ahead in June for this young man? Angel Salome - one of the best arms in baseball today and I don't just mean high school - in the sport. He's batting .815 for George Washington HS.

 

-http://www.collegeselect.org/news.htm

[Dollarbill13]

How do we pronounce Salome? If it isn't the same pronunciation as Salami, well I think it should be. How about a nick name of the Grand Salome?

[Nefaste]

The draft guys pronounced it salo-may

[tyguy20204]

I'm very excited by this pick.

[batman]

I'm very excited by this pick.

 

Me, too.

 

~Bill

[emunney]

Excited about this pick. Can't wait to see him do the dance of the seven veils.

[homer]

This could be a big time sleeper for the Crew.

[The Big Cheese]

This might be my favorite pick from Round 1. Those numbers are from another galaxy, even if it's only high school.

 

Plus it sounds like he has an arm similar to Pudge's or Benito Santiago's in Benito's prime.

 

Being short, the strike zone will also be smaller for him, meaning he'll have better pitches to hit.

 

I just simply love this pick!

 

I'm dead serious in thinking that this kid could turn into a future all-star....or even more....