The Philadelphia Phillies traded outfielder/first baseman John Mayberry, Jr. to the Toronto Blue Jays this weekend for infield prospect Gustavo Pierre. Here's a quick look at the newest member of the Phillies organization.
Gustavo Pierre, 3B-SS: :Pierre was signed by the Blue Jays out of the Dominican Republic in 2008. Earning a $700,000 bonus, he drew praise for outstanding arm strength, speed, and overall athleticism. Unfortunately those tools have not turned into baseball skills. He hit .255/.263/.383 in 115 games split between Low-A and High-A in 2013 with a combined 4/128 (that's not a typo) BB/K ratio. He improved that to 13/112 this year with a .260/.281/.388 line between High-A and Double-A.
Pierre was born December 28, 1991. Listed at 6-2, 200, the right-handed hitter still looks good in uniform, with a cannon arm and plenty of physical strength. He's lost speed and range with maturity and is mainly a third baseman now. He remains very error-prone. The big problem here is abysmal strike zone judgment and an eldritch, chthonic hyper-aggressive non-Euclidian hitting approach that bends time and space beyond all human sanity, reducing hitting coaches and sabermatricians alike to immortal, gibbering, endless shrieks of stuttering, howling, lunacy. Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Ted Williams R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.
