Player Spotlight: Luis Montanez
Well to avoid being yet another one post blog, I'll post today about one of my favorite Cubs prospects, Luis Montanez. If you recall, Montanez was drafted 3rd overall by the Cubs in 2000 draft as a shortstop out of high school. Montanez struggled mightily in the field early on his career.
After hitting .344 in Rookie ball in 2000 as an 18 year old with an OPS of 969, Montanez didn't have an OPS over 700 for the next 3 seasons. With the struggles of his glove and his bat, Montanez was dropped from top prospect status. In 2004 after being demoted from High A Daytona back to Low A Boise he posted 297/381/496 pushing the Cubs to promote him once again to high A. It was no coincidence that his career high numbers for Boise correlated with a position change from shortstop to the outfield.
With the position change, Montanez hit a career high 14 homers in 2005 split between high A Daytona and AA West Tennessee, while being old relative to the league average in each location.
The most promising numbers from the past couple of seasons for Montanez is his increase control of the strike zone. In 2004 (42/69), 2005 (44/67), and now 2006 Montanez' BB/K ratio has improved each season. Now in 2006 Montanez is posting 368/439/471 numbers leading the Southern League in batting.
Montanez is now 24 years old, and still isn't considered a top prospect in the Chicago Cubs system, but is definitely a sleeper.
Forecast:
Montanez is currently blocked in Chicago by the current outfield and top prospect Felix Pie who is playing for AAA Iowa.
While the forecast for Montanez is looking better currently, ultimately he could end up being trade bait for the Cubs in 2006. With the Cubs struggling mightily and Montanez having a career year and being blocked Montanez will either get traded before the year is over or get rushed to see if he has any chance of fulfilling the potential the Cubs once saw in him.
After hitting .344 in Rookie ball in 2000 as an 18 year old with an OPS of 969, Montanez didn't have an OPS over 700 for the next 3 seasons. With the struggles of his glove and his bat, Montanez was dropped from top prospect status. In 2004 after being demoted from High A Daytona back to Low A Boise he posted 297/381/496 pushing the Cubs to promote him once again to high A. It was no coincidence that his career high numbers for Boise correlated with a position change from shortstop to the outfield.
With the position change, Montanez hit a career high 14 homers in 2005 split between high A Daytona and AA West Tennessee, while being old relative to the league average in each location.
The most promising numbers from the past couple of seasons for Montanez is his increase control of the strike zone. In 2004 (42/69), 2005 (44/67), and now 2006 Montanez' BB/K ratio has improved each season. Now in 2006 Montanez is posting 368/439/471 numbers leading the Southern League in batting.
Montanez is now 24 years old, and still isn't considered a top prospect in the Chicago Cubs system, but is definitely a sleeper.
Forecast:
Montanez is currently blocked in Chicago by the current outfield and top prospect Felix Pie who is playing for AAA Iowa.
While the forecast for Montanez is looking better currently, ultimately he could end up being trade bait for the Cubs in 2006. With the Cubs struggling mightily and Montanez having a career year and being blocked Montanez will either get traded before the year is over or get rushed to see if he has any chance of fulfilling the potential the Cubs once saw in him.
posted by JP at
10:45 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home