Yep. The Giants needed a Gustavo. If the Giants were still filled with veteran hitters, I'd make a joke about him needing to be careful around old-age homes. But the Giants are really young now. Not sure when that happened. The coup was bloodless and quick.
The Giants signed 16-year-old Gustavo Cabrera for $1.3 million, according to Baseball Ameríca. He was supposedly the #5 international prospect this year. From BA's scouting report:
In terms of raw tools and athleticism, there's nobody in Latin America who is ahead of Cabrera, a 16-year-old from La Romana who trains with Christian "Niche" Batista and plays in the Dominican Prospect League. He's an explosive athlete with plus-plus speed, which gives him excellent range in center field along with a solid arm.
At the plate, Cabrera has terrific bat speed and above-average raw power, but nearly every scout comes back with the same report: Love the tools, not sure if he'll hit in games.
And a video:
I like to pretend he's a top prospect, the Giants just traded Mike Fontenot for him (picking up Fontenot's salary), and Phillies fans are retching in horror. As is, it's nice to see the Giants make a relatively big Dominican strike. Sometimes -- and I'm just spitballing here -- these guys turn out. Maybe in 2017, we'll look back at this post as something very important and meaningful.
For now, though, I'm just going to watch the video and pretend I know how to analyze swings. I like the part where he makes contact. Very contacty. Seems like a 70.43 on the bat-holding scouting scale.