An Interview with Brooklyn Cyclones OF Cory Vaughn

I’m not saying that Cory Vaughn is the next Pujols, but stranger things have happened. If Vaughn is for real, then he was the steal of the draft. We’ll have a better idea about him when he faces A+ pitching next year.

That’s a good answer.

I think he may be good enough for AA, but wouldn’t mind seeing him in Savannah to start the season

If he doesn’t adjust to hitting at higher levels, it won’t happen, but from what i’ve seen, he has the tools.

He’s got speed and pop. His only real problem in college was strikeouts. He showed this year that he has the ability to adjust and make contact at a solid rate against pro pitchers. Now he just has to keep doing it.

The Mets are a great organization, and I’m happy to be a part of it.

He probably also addicted to heroin and crack.

But its still too soon to tell either way where his future lies. He’s definitely interesting. Honestly, in a different organization with a different development philosophy, he’d be super interesting, but I just don’t necessarily trust the Mets to impress on him the lessons he’ll need to learn to succeed in the upper levels.

This is something I’ve been thinking a bit about lately. Part of the player development problem with this organization is its so tools-based. They love guys with excellent raw tools and pitchers with big fastballs, and they’re actually pretty good at identifying those guys, but when it comes to teaching them the secondary skills that really make-or-break a lot of players (pitch recognition, zone control, getting on base, managing peripheral rates for pitchers), we don’t often see those skills develop for players as they move up through the organization. The ones who already have some aspects of them in place before joining the organization often do, and those are the prospects who are ultimately successful, but the ones who rely on their athleticism, pure batspeed, big arms, etc. aren’t really taught to expand their games very well. In the end, it winds up being guys like Thole, Niese, Davis, guys who already have some of those secondary skills in place who come closer to reaching their ultimate potential than guys like Fernando, Pelfrey, Gomez (not a Met, but developed in system), Frankie Pena, and even someone like Eddie Kunz. Its a shame, because if they could just find a way to do a better job of teaching secondary skills, and combine that with their ability to identify raw talents, they could do some really special things with player development. I think this is part of why I still have so much faith in a guy like Havens as opposed to a guy like Nieuwenhuis, because Havens has secondary skills galore in spite of the organization, while NIeuwenhuis has better raw tools but somewhat questionable secondary skills.

Ceciliani, dude.