The Planetary Extreme Baseball Alliance

The Dinosaurs are calling up their 2nd round pick from the 2020 draft, RF Luis Mercado who has exploded on the scene in AAA this season. Prior to the news of the call-up, Mercado was hitting .288/.351/.630 for a 181 OPS+. The slugging percentage stands out and is supported by immense power. Mercado has had 23 homeruns in 285 plate appearances. Obviously the power is there and should translate into the bigs, but the quesion will be how Mercado handles his propensity to strike out (23.9% of his plate appearances in AAA) now that he moves up.

The Dinosaurs have also recently called up 1B Jorge Esparza, who was hitting .353/.442/.481 at AAA for a 171 OPS+. Unlike Mercado, Esparza is very difficult to strike out, only being rung up at a 4.5% rate before his call up last week. Esparza is going to feel some pressure to perform well immediately as although a 1B/DH spot is available in Fargo, current 1B Carlos Ortega isn't going anywhere with his team leading 147 OPS+, and 2023 1st round pick and number 5 overall selection, Gustavo 'Bullets' Lopez making the jump from AA to AAA this season, right on his coat tails.

Always good to see what the other teams in the Great Lake Division are up to.

Both those guys should be able to contribute this season it would appear. Mercado was simply killing it in AAA!

Leones wrote:Both those guys should be able to contribute this season it would appear. Mercado was simply killing it in AAA!

Yeah he was a pleasant surprise after struggling a couple seasons with mediocre numbers and some soured scouting reports.

CF Pat Watson will hopefully be next to make the jump to the majors, he is hitting as well as Mercado was, but missed some time due to injury earlier and I want to get him some more work in down there before promoting him.