Francisco Lindor Scouting Report

Francisco Lindor has been drafted by the Cleveland Indians and is expected to agree to terms prior to the August 15 deadline.

This is Part 7 in a series previewing 12 potential players for the Orioles’ #4 overall selection in the 2011 draft. The full series:

1. Anthony Rendon, 3B, Rice
2. Gerrit Cole, RHP, UCLA
3. Danny Hultzen, LHP, Virginia
4. Sonny Gray, RHP, Vanderbilt
5. Jed Bradley, LHP, Georgie Tech
6. Bubba Starling, OF, Gardner-Edgerton HS, Kan.
7. Francisco Lindor, SS, Montverde Academy HS, Fla.
8. Trevor Bauer, RHP, UCLA
9. Dylan Bundy, RHP, Owasso HS, Okl.
10. George Springer, OF, Connecticut
11. Taylor Guerrieri, RHP, Spring Valley HS, S. Car.
12. Archie Bradley, RHP, Broken Arrow HS, Okl.

Francisco Lindor is a high school shortstop from Montverde Academy HS (Fla), and is considered a top 15 overall talent in this year’s draft class.

School: Montverde Academy HS, Fla.
Position: SS
Throws: Right
Bats: Switch
Height: 5’ 11”
Weight: 170
Body: Slender, lean athletic body, more along the terms of “wiry”. Shows some slight muscular development at this stage. Height and frame leave for small overall development; additional mass could hinder his plus defensive tools. Safe 180-185 lbs. in the future, unless he grows in height.

Swing

There is a lot of work to be done, but Lindor shows the raw ability to at least be an average hitter in the future. At this stage of his development, he has a few flaws that will need to be corrected. He is overall noisy in the box with a few subtle motions that cause timing mechanisms with this swing, such as a back and drop with the hands.

Fully matured, Lindor should be a .270- .280 hitter with the chance to hit 10-15 home runs a season.

Lindor is very arm driven at the plate and does not utilize his entire body. It leaves him caught out in front on any type of off-speed pitch and I’ve witnessed a complete arm swing on curveballs, change ups, sinkers and sliders. While this might be bad, he does have a tremendous amount of potential that gives him at least average hitting ability at the major league level.

Lindor has tremendous hand speed and can whip the bat head at an extreme pace. His bat speed makes his plate coverage rather impressive, given some of his un-orthodox approaches. He gets solid extension and does a good job squaring up on the ball. Even with some of the things he can correct, he still has enough hand speed and power in the wrists to hit the ball rather well at this stage of development.

He has some raw offensive aspects at his disposal and these are things you cannot teach. He can work using his lower half in conjunction with his upper torso, hands, and wrists overtime to become a solid hitter at the plate. As I have conferred with other scouts and observers, we agree that a lot of his problems are minor, and proper coaching/instruction should allow him to flourish as a more complete hitter. I see a guy who, fully matured, should be a .270- .280 hitter with the chance to hit 10-15 home runs a season, but it will not be an easy road to reach these figures and a focused coaching staff is required to enhance his skill set.

Defense

Lindor has future gold glove skills, but must continue to stress the fundamentals and cannot not rely on his speed as he faces stiffer competition. His range is outstanding and he consistently makes plays from deep in the hole, as well as up the middle, with plus arm strength. He is fluid when charging on the run and makes tremendous throws to first.

There are not many prospects that have his natural ability and with some specific coaching the sky is the limit for Lindor, defensively. I rate him as a better fielder than Manny Machado and think he should easily stay at shortstop. He’s easily the best defensive shortstop I have seen from this class.

Speed

I remember the first time I watched Lindor up close at the AFLAC game last year. He smacked a solid hit in the gap and I thought, “okay nice double”.  He was moving so fast that by the time the outfielder fielded the ball  Lindor was a foot over second base and easily beat the throw for a triple. This kid is fast, not track speed star fast, but he should be a solid table setter that can score a lot of runs. I do not see 40+ steals, but I can see him as a future 20+ steal guy and that is still above average.

He will need to be coached up a lot because he has allowed his speed to infiltrate his game. When you are the best player in the league or area, sometimes you need to be pushed to fully develop instead of living off pure athletic ability.

A team that is looking for a solid defensive shortstop with the ability to hit for average to slightly above average contact and power combination will be tempted to call his name early considering that he will play one of the more demanding defensive positions in baseball.

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This is Part 7 in a series previewing 12 potential players for the Orioles’ #4 overall selection in the 2011 draft. The full series:

1. Anthony Rendon, 3B, Rice
2. Gerrit Cole, RHP, UCLA
3. Danny Hultzen, LHP, Virginia
4. Sonny Gray, RHP, Vanderbilt
5. Jed Bradley, LHP, Georgie Tech
6. Bubba Starling, OF, Gardner-Edgerton HS, Kan.
7. Francisco Lindor, SS, Montverde Academy HS, Fla.
8. Trevor Bauer, RHP, UCLA
9. Dylan Bundy, RHP, Owasso HS, Okl.
10. George Springer, OF, Connecticut
11. Taylor Guerrieri, RHP, Spring Valley HS, S. Car.
12. Archie Bradley, RHP, Broken Arrow HS, Okl.