Nelson Molina - 2016

[goulik]

Third Base- Cedar Rapids

Born April 30, 1995

Drafted 11th round 2013 Antonio Luchetti HS, Puerto Rico

207/271/250 at Elizabethton last year. Molina spent two seasons with the GCL Twins.

[goulik]

Molina is batting 256/347/256 in 13 games with 43 at bats. He has spent parts of 4 games at SS, the rest at 3B.

Nothing to get excited about here, just move along...

[goulik]

Molina is coming around raising his season slash line to 292/389/321 for a 710 OPS. His only power has come in the form of 3 doubles in 106 at bats. He has added 2 innings at first to his time away from 3b but he is almost exclusively spending his time at third. He committed his only error of the season at third.

 

As a light bat he will need to not only keep his average up, but also his OBP. If he can keep that around 400, you can make a run scoring prospect out of him. With only 13 runs scored on the season, that is not how things are panning out So far though. It would help if he could add base stealing to his repertoire but he has only attempted to steal once this year.

 

He has 18 walks to 21 strike outs so those are not the out of whack numbers were used to from our recent strike out prone Twins prospects.

[Seth Stohs]

I'll have a story on him later this week from a conversation I had with him when I was in Cedar Rapids. Terrific kid. Speaks nearly fluent English. Very impressive just-turned-21 year old.

[goulik]

Here is a link to Seths story

 

http://twinsdaily.com/topic/22901-article-get-to-know-kernels-infielder-nelson-molina/

[goulik]

Year to date slash in Cedar Rapids is 277/365/313 which are career highs across the board. For a guy that has played almost exclusively at 3rd, you would like to see higher slugging numbers. He has only 6 extra base hits, all doubles. He has only two errors on the year so his defense looks promising.

[goulik]

Molina seems to have come into his own. His 301/377/373 slash is higher than I would have ever expected from him after his first three years against easier competition. He had a nice July hitting 338/400/468 for the month.

 

August has also started well. He hit his first homer of the year, 2nd career, last Thursday then went on a 7 of 12 bender Friday through Monday despite starting only 2 of the 4 games. His home road splits are comparable but his lefty/righty splits are 316/188 RHP/LHP respectively.

 

In the field he has played 3/4 of his time at 3rd but has 117 innings at SS as well. 5 of his 9 errors are at SS for a 912 fact there vs 967 at 3rd.

 

All in all, I think we have a prospect developing. For a third baseman we would want more HR power but maybe he can play himself into a MI prospect or a utility man. He also is only 21 so he has plenty of time.

[HitInAPinch]

If it's a Molina and NOT a catcher, NOT interested  

 

[goulik]

If it's a Molina and NOT a catcher, NOT interested  

Hes a Molina. With third base taken by Sano, Gordon at SS, and Arraez at 2nd, Molina is just saving his knees until AA and his transition to his rightful place behind the dish. With his name, everyone knows he will be an all star reciever if he can just hit... Why shorten his carreer wasting his knees in the low minors?

[goulik]

Nelson finished the season hitting 300/374/381 in 333 at bats all with Cedar Rapids. He only hit two home runs to go with 3 triples and 15 doubles so there has been very limited power for a corner infielder so far which going forward will continue to limit his prospect status unless that side of his game comes around. He is listed at 6'3" so there is room on the frame. At 21 years old, there is also time.

 

Molina appeared on Seth's preliminary top 50 prospects coming in at #30.

 

Nelson also is gaining publicity for his volunteerism winning the Harmon Killebrew award

 

http://twinsdaily.com/articles.html/_/minnesota-twins-news/minnesota-twins-minor-leagues/killebrew-award-winner-nelson-molina-cedar-rapids-r5153

 

Projecting 2017

Having spent a successful season in Low A, it is time for him to move up to Fort Meyers. If he is going to develop into much of a prospect he needs to either develop some power at third or improve his defense at SS. Molina spent 126 out of 702.1 innings at short this year with a 917 FPCT and 5 errors in 60 chances. I don't see the SS thing panning out so I hope he bulks up this off season and learns to drive the ball more while keeping that BA up.