[Blue Jays Prospect] Gabriel Moreno with a clutch walk-off single, capping a 4 hit game in 2022! [GVKox9mn6zJ]
AAA Buffalo Bisons - Gabriel Moreno Offensive Season Stat: .313/.353/.391 OPS.744 Defensive Season Stat: PB(2) | E(0) | SB(11) | CS(9) - 45% Game Summary: There are lofty expectation for Gabriel Moreno coming into this season after what he did in AA and AZL. Carrying those expectation, Fans (including myself) have hoped that Moreno can replicate those same results in AAA and quickly dominate the league. Unfortunately it looks like the fanbase will have to wait because Moreno, while not struggling in the league, is experiencing his first hiccup in his professional career. After starting fairly strong with the AAA Bisons in the first 5 game slashing .381/.409/.524 in 22PAs, Moreno fell into a rut in the next 7 games, hitting only .154/.214/.192 in 28PA. To deal with slumps, many players have their own style and method. In the case of Moreno, his method is to maintain a certain level of aggressiveness at the plate until he get his timing back. Watching Moreno dealing his slump actually reminds me a little bit of Bichette; it's the aggression at the plate and willingness to swing at any pitches that bears the similarity, though Moreno is way more selective on pitches. I think it's still fair to say that Moreno is still battling his timing at the moment but you can tell that pieces are slowly coming together for him. Right now Moreno is riding on an active 4 game hitting streak hitting .294/.333//294 since end of April and hopefully tonight's game marks the final day of his AAA struggle (if you can call it that). Moreno looked relatively comfortable at the plate today and he was as selective as always, only swinging at pitches that comes within the zone. There were no ill-advised swings or swinging strikes for Moreno tonight. There were a couple of well placed SLs on the side part of the zone that Moreno did not go for and for the most part, he was very composed. As a result, he was rewarded with 4 well struck base hits. If there's one glaring flaw so far, it's Moreno's inability to hit for power so far in this season but I believe this is by design. It looks to me that Moreno is focused on slashing and poking hits all field and hasn't put his full power into his swing yet. You can tell once Moreno is ready to smoke a ball out of the park, his swing can be quite violent. Furthermore, Buffalo weather is still cold so baseballs aren't flying all too well plays a factor. Outside of his offensive performance, let's focus on his defense. I can't speak too much about his receiving, blocking or framing because i'm still inadequate on these subjects but when it comes to his throwing, I think i can offer a few of my own opinion. Moreno has carried over his throwing from previous season into AAA and as of now, threw out 45% of the would-be base stealers. His pop time that i measured in the last 6 caught stealing situation comes at a result of 1.78s(?) to 2.01s. Today is no different with the pop time of 2s. This would be placed within the 50-55th percentile of MLB catcher i believe. What's impresses me however is not his arm strength but how smooth his transfer and also the accuracy, which according to MLB, are the most important factors of throwing out baserunners. I don't think i have ever seem Moreno throw wide of the 2nd or 3rd base ever; his throws are often right at or around 2ft of the bases. In any case, Blue Jays currently are in no rush to bring Moreno up since we have Kirk and Jansen as our primary backstops. However, they should be very aware of Moreno because once Moreno gets familiar with AAA, he's going smash that league wide open and perhaps force the FO to reconsider his arrival time to the major league.