Who is Gorkys Hernandez?

This week Nate Silver over at Baseball Prospectus wrote about the Best (Young) Outfields in the majors. The Tigers placed third with one already budding star in Curtis Granderson, top prospect Cameron Maybin and Gorkys Hernandez. Note that they are all centerfielders.

We all know who Curtis Granderson is, at least you should, as he was part of the stellar season with the Tigers last year. He represents a prospect that really came to fruition for the Tigers, one of many from last year. Cameron Maybin is also someone many around Detroit and all of Major League Baseball already have on their radar. This is not only because of his first round pick status from 2005 but also because of a breakout year with the West Michigan Whitecaps last year. But who is Gorkys Hernandez?

Most out there are probably not very familiar with Gorkys and, like me, first really started to see him getting more and more mentions this off season. Because it has been so easy to focus on some of the other highlights within the Tigers farm system such as Maybin and Andrew Miller, Gorkys has been often overlooked. So here we will take a closer look at this top Tiger prospect.

Gorkys was initially signed by the Tigers in 2005 as a free agent from Venezuela when he was only 17. A great find by the Tigers Venezuelan/Central American scouting group, he spent the 2006 season with the GCL Tigers. The GCL Tigers are the Tigers rookie league team and they play out of Lakeland along with the Tigers A-ball team.

The 18 year old (19 now) won the batting title in the Gulf Coast League in ’06 batting .327/.356/.463. Known as a being rather patient, his statistics don’t really reflect this with only 10 walks in 205 AB’s. Gorkys is also known for his speed and his ability to steal bases. I’m sure the Tigers are eyeing him as a future lead off hitter as he has the tools to be great there and stats that look like his power will only increase.

This off season Hernandez has graced most of the top prospect lists:

• 3rd prospect in the Baseball America Top GCL Prospects
• Number 3 on the Baseball Prospectus Top Prospects (for the Tigers)
• Number 6 on the Fox Sports Top Tiger Prospects
• 5th in the Minor League Ball prospects

Gorkys has some time left before reaching the big leagues (Fox Sports puts his ETA at 2011) but he is rapidly getting noticed and could arrive much sooner. He has spent this off season playing for the Caribes de Oriente in the Venezualan winter league (same team as Omar Infante) but hasn’t seen much playing time. Next season he will start in West Michigan with a good opportunity to show what he can do and how he can stack up to Maybin.

Baseball Prospectus PECOTA projections shows a promising outlook for Hernandez. While it shows a dip in average he will continue to hit for average but the OBP remains low.

On a side-note, TigerBlog is pointing out an ESPN article that shows how the current Tiger outfield stacks up and it is extremely favorable. Nice link!