Nineteen year old Breyvic Valera’s name has been popping up in a bunch of different locations this year. Let’s take a closer look at Breyvic Valera (plus video) after the jump.
Valera was signed out of Venezuela on May 16th of 2010. He had a .873 OPS that year for the (now defunct) Venezuelan League Cardinals playing mostly 2B and SS. He arrived state-side the next year and started with the Gulf Coast League Cardinals (.692 OPS) before moving up to Johnson City (.910 OPS). He’s not a power threat, with only 3 HRs in those two shortened seasons, but with 9 triples and 24 SBs to 9 CS, he is obviously a speed threat as a switch hitter.
This year, Valera is the youngest player on Batavia after filling in at Springfield briefly for Zack Cox. (He was 1 for 5 in 3 games.) This I think speaks volumes about the confidence the Cardinals have in the youngster as they felt comfortable sending him to Springfield for a week to fill in even though he has never played about Johnson City. He wasn’t going to stick there, as his true level is more like Batavia.
Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch had this to say about Valera:
Breyvic Valera, 2B: A true sleeper this season and likely top-30 prospect for next season, the switch-hitter recently had a turn at Class AA Springfield when the S-Cards needed depth to help them through a period of injuries. He had a hit and two runs during his brief Texas League experience. He’ll get back there. The switch-hitting infielder batted .397 for JC last season in 19 games and boosted the JC-Cards to the Appy League title. At Batavia this week, he started at second base and batted No. 2. Signed as a free agent in his native Venezuela back in 2010, Valera went 3-for-5 in the second game with two RBIs.
I’m looking forwarding to learning more about Mr. Valera as he moves up the system and it looks like he should continue to move.
Our own t7rick took video of Mr. Valera this year in Batavia.
For any hybrid Cardinals and Game of Thrones fans, I see a nickname coming in Breyvic Valyrian Steel. The pronunciation might not be exactly right, but it works in my head.
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I raved about this guy during Spring Training. He’s small but VERY fast and barrels everything left handed and right handed. I even saw him have multiple AB’s against Carlos Martinez and wasn’t overwhelmed like many others who are now playing SS who were at regular Spring Training. The Cardinals seem to think he can’t play SS so he’s a 2nd baseman but he’s really an outstanding player.
I saw him on a trip to Johnson City last year and came back raving on posts on the MLB site. In the games I saw him, everything he did just looked like a baseball player way older than 18. I wondered if he had a shortstop arm, but at that age, he might still develop. I’m glad to see that he’s starting to get some attention.
Ramsey’s season is over, FSU loves 10-3 in a Thursday afternoon game.
Speaking of which, Kurt Heyer pitched another 7+ innings yesterday. I wasn’t following the game closely, but I’m pretty sure the announcer said he led all of D1 in innings pitched. Assuming he signs, the Cards are going to have to shut him down pretty quickly. His arm has a ton of mileage on it.
I’m curious to see what Alex Mejia can do. He’s looked pretty good on the field in the CWS, but I’m sure there’s a reason why he wasn’t ranked in BA’s top 500 draft prospects, despite being the player of the year in the Pac 12.
Mejia wasn’t ranked higher because of a lack of tools.
Heyer is another college junior who has good results but a lack of tools.
Signability was a major factor in their going as highly as they did, but they good results are better than bad results, so we’ll see what happens.
Alex Mejia has one really nice tool– a cannon for a arm! Watch him throw it across the field– pretty impressive.
I love following all the high end prospects that the cardinals have acquired over the last few years. I was looking at fake teams.com and they had Wong ranked as the top 2B prospect, Oscar was the #2 OF prospect, Carlos at #9 for SP, with Miller, Jenkins, and Rosenthal at 11, 17, and 44, respectively. They also put Cox at 12 for 3B, which was probably a little generous. The only question I had was where Jackson was on the SS list. I know that he will never be known as an offensive SS, but he is a plus plus defender that has put up solid numbers in the upper majors. He has to crack someone’s list of SS’s. If Furcal goes to the DL next season I could see Jackson stepping into an everyday role and doing just fine at the bottom end of the lineup.