by Ben Davey

2 years ago last week these guys were signed to, what were at the time, the biggest deals the Padres had ever offered a Dominican prospect.  We heard nothing but rave reviews about how great these 2 players were going to be.  Galvez was a 16 year old SS (turned 18 in Jan) who the team thought had great plate discipline and 5 tool potential.  Liriano was a 16 year old CF (turned 18 2 weeks ago) who had arguably the best raw power.  Some even likened to Vlad Guerrero (both the good of well being Vlad and the bad at swinging at virtually everything).  As optimistic as I was, it is hard to get excited about Dominican prospects when you watch Felix Carrasco get scared of the ball at 1B or Yefri Carvajal take the worlds worst path to a routine fly ball.  Combine that with some disappointing DSL numbers last year and I was begining to lose hope.  Yes Liriano did break the Padres DSL home run record by blasting 9 HR in the campaign, but he also hit .198 with a strike out in every other AB.  Yes Galvez did hit .272 with a good .819 OPS and more walks than strikeouts, but seeing is believing.

Bring on 2009 and bring both kids stateside…
Both Galvez and Liriano have played in 14 games, so before I proceed I am well aware of small sample size.   But WOW these kids have managed to regain my optimism.
Galvez is hitting .400/.516/.620/1.136 with more BB (10) than K (9), 8 2B, 1 HR, 7 SB, 14 RS, and 12 RBI
Liriano is hitting .371/.394/.581/.975 5 2B, 1 3B, 2 HR, 18 RBI, 3 SB, 3 BB, 22 K

Related to league here are some of their rankings:
Galvez leads the league in 2B (8) and Liriano is tied for 5th
Liriano leads the league in RBI (18), Galvez is in 4th with 12 (oddly enough another AZL prospect Decker has 13 and is T-2)
Galvez is 5th in BA while Liriano is 7th
Galvez is 4th in SLG, Liriano is 5th
Galvez is 2nd in OPS, Liriano is 8th
Galvez is 3rd in RS, Liriano is 7th
Galvez also leads the league in OBP, and is 4th in SB

Here are just a few more things to look at:

Galvez has had a multi-hit game in 6 of his last 10, had a base hit in 8 of 10, reached base in all 10, and an extra base hit in 5.

Liriano has been equally as impressive in his last 10, having a base hit in all 10 games, 6 multi-hit games, 8 games with at least 1 RBI, and 5 games with an extra base hit.  Liriano is hitting .483/.467/.793/1.260 with RISP this year, which (I believe) is tops in the league.  And with 23 hits and 22 K in 62 AB, his BABIP is a mind boggling .575.  He has even cut back on K with 13 in June compared to 9 in July (in 1 fewer PA)

If we want to talk defense, both are great players with great speed, great range and above average arms.  Of course Galvez needs to clean up his mechanics (which is also a reason why he has committed so many errors in the young season) but that is nothing that can’t be fixed, especially when you are 18 and hitting the way he is.

So after facing players that were 3-4 years older than them in the DSL with little to no support around them, they come to the AZL, play against mainly 18-19 year olds (some a bit older), and all of  a sudden go off.  I am not going to start calling these guys the next Vlad or Tejada (I couldn’t think of another MLB proven Dominican SS and NO AROD) but these are two guys everyone should definitely keep an eye on as they progress to Fort Wayne next year, and hopefully up the ladder.

Though it would be nice if the Padres would give them some more offensive help…say Donovan Tate and Everett Williams.