I still don't like his overall package.  Once again, what it comes down to for me is that with his tools, he needs to play center.  A light-power hitting RF is not a popular thing.

That, with the mental hiccups, have me low on him.

To me, he's Randy Winn with a bit more speed and a bit less power.

I say trade him now, while misconceptions over his long-term value is high.  I still would love to see him and Sanchez (or maybe even less) go to the White Sox for Fields.

But it was around 25 when Niekro started hitting with power and 25 when Linden made his great leap in power.  Lewis made a big leap last year, going from 73.1 AB/HR in 2005 to 36.6 AB/HR in 2006 (25), and this year in minors, 28.5 AB/HR, he's 26 this year.

Looking at Randy Winn's career minor league stats, he had even less power than Lewis coming up and starting in the majors, so I have no doubt in my mind that Lewis can out homer Winn but steals look like it could be a push, if given the chance for similar ABs.  And Randy didn't become a full time starter until he was 28, though he did put in signficant time in the majors starting at 24, so that's similar to Lewis getting his first extended taste of the majors at 26.

Winn seems like a good comparison for Lewis.   Lewis looks good for mid-teens to 20 homer power, 20-30 steals ability, but he appears to be able to get on base better than Winn and appears to have more power than Winn coming up.  Given that Winn has been a hit 700 OPS hitter in the majors, that suggests, assuming Lewis can keep on developing, that Lewis can be a low 800 OPS hitter, which would be above average for a RF, just not as many homers as one might desire in a corner OF.  A good 4th OF is pretty apt I would say, but at 800+ OPS, that should be starter level hitting

They advanced about the same, though Winn advanced in status in AAA whereas Lewis regressed a little, and somehow Winn got promoted in 1997 while Lewis was kept down in 2004, perhaps because of his late start in baseball.  So Winn got to the show faster but I wonder if that had to do with Tampa Bay because his minor league stats were worse than Lewis' but he got advanced while Lewis had to stay on a steady course.  Again, probably due partly to his late start playing baseball fulltime.

Given that Winn grew in power during the peak years of 28-32 to low-to-mid teen HR power from high single digit power, I think that Lewis can reach that level already if he started next year and boost to the low 20 HR level during those peak years.

Unfortunately, like Winn, there are too many CS to go with his steals, so that's not good.  Lewis is similar to Ellison in that way, neither used their speed to good advantage, I've been hoping that Roberts could teach him a thing or two since he learned at the feet of Maury Wills and he had a very high percentage success rate last year, around 90% if I remember right.  

Some people don't like getting Roberts, but I thought he was perfect, he doesn't play everyday, so we could give our younger players playing time, he steals a lot of bases, so that gives our offense another dimension it hasn't had in a while, we have a boat load of speedsters coming up the system, how cool would that be if Roberts teaches all of them during spring training the next couple of years, how to successfully steal bases?

Everything written here about Lewis is at minimum what other team's scouts have been saying about him, so this brief period of success won't trick any team into accepting him in a trade and giving us more value.  And unless we get more value in trade, I think we are better off keeping him in our farm system and giving him a chance in the OF, once the Giants are done with Bonds.  

He has a lot of good tools, and from what I read of him and heard from him, he sounds like a very sincere young man who is determined to make the majors.  Not that others don't, but it's that gut feeling you get sometimes when you hear someone.

In addition, including him as a throw-in in a trade (and that's what he would be if packaged with Sanchez) is just a waste, Sanchez is good enough a prospect to get another team's good position prospect without a throw in.  I think we would be better served to keep our OF prospects and let them battle it out over the next few years, we aren't going to get more value for them in trade if they are just going to be throw ins.

Also, people often forget that while the very good RF hit much higher, average RF's hit around 770-780 OPS, and that is not that bad as long as you have other players on the team who are above average, like Durham and Bonds.  

If Lewis can hit in the low 800 OPS, that's not bad.  Out of the 17 players who started in RF and played enough to qualify for the batting title, 7th to 9th hit around 830 OPS (10th 799).  In terms of RF for each team, a low 800 OPS put you around 8th to 14th out of 30 teams.  Sure, that's not great by any means, but that's certainly above average and I would take an above average position player at this point, wouldn't you?

So why waste him as a throw in?  See if he can continue to develop, see if he can put it all together, particularly if Roberts can teach him to use his speed properly.  Why spit on him now while he is doing well, let him play out and see what he can become.  At minimum, he's a Randy Winn type for cheap for another 4-5 years; if he continues to develop, and his double power turns into homers, we could have a top RF.