June 27, 200521 yr Baseball America's Daily Dish Complete Daily Dish Archive Compiled by Kevin Goldstein, Chris Kline and Matt Meyers June 16, 2005 Scout's View: Jeremy Hermida, of, Marlins The Marlins affiliate at Double-A Carolina is attracting a lot of attention, and not just for its recent six-game losing streak or its prospect-laden pitching staff. While two Mudcats already have been to Florida this season on the mound--Yorman Bazardo and Logan Kensing--and one maybe soon in lefthander Scott Olsen, the team's top prospect is clear. Scouts will poke holes in any one of the Mudcats pitchers. Finding holes in outfielder Jeremy Hermida's game, on the other hand, is becoming harder to do. The 2002 first-round pick was called the best high school hitter since 1996 first-rounder Eric Chavez when he came out of Atlanta's Wheller High, and he has lived up to that billing, batting .311/.450/.545 in 222 at-bats this year for the Mudcats. A veteran pro scout in to cover the Mudcats had plenty to see but said the consensus among his peers is Hermida is one of the minors' true elite prospects. "He's real, real good. It's very difficult to compare him to Chavez because Chavez was stronger physically coming out of high school, but people said that because Hermida has such a good swing and such a polished approach. "He still runs pretty well and he's got a true right field arm. He's a good defender. He's going to be a good right fielder. And he should hit for the position, definitely. "The way I give present grades is how I think he'd do if he were in the big leagues right now. Right now, he might struggle to hit .240 with 12 home runs. That's below-average. But give him another month, more experience, and those grades might be better. He's going to hit--he's a .285-.300 hitter in the major leagues. "And his power will continue to develop; he should hit for well-above-average power because he hits the ball hard so consistently. It's just a very pretty swing. There's still a tendency for him to overswing at times and go out of the strike zone too much; that's why I think he'd struggle if he were in the big leagues right now. "There were questions about his power before, but power is the hardest tool to project. If you could have found me one scout back in 1999 who would have thought Brian Roberts would hit 11 home runs by the All-Star Game, I'd like to meet him. This guy can hit, and now you're seeing the power." JEREMY HERMIDA SCOUTING REPORT (All grades on the 20-80 scale, with 20 the worst, 80 the best, and 50 major league average) Present Future Hitting 40 65 Power 40 65 Speed 50 50 Defense 60 60 Arm 65 65 --JOHN MANUEL Not too bad at all if I do say so myself. I look forward to him starting in RF next year
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