A Collection of Dominic Smith, Champ Stuart and Victor Cruzado gifs

Champ Stuart (left) and Dominic Smith (right)

            The Sand Gnats don’t get a lot of MiLB.tv coverage, so I combined the gif collections of three of their more interesting position prospects from 2014 into one here: 8 gifs of Champ Stuart, 7 gifs of Victor Cruzado, and 7 gifs of Dominic Smith. I started making the gifs too late in the season to get some of the interesting prospects that spent their first half with Savannah.

Champ Stuart

Stuart started making some prospect lists this past offseason thanks to his 80-grade speed from the right side. He’s still raw offensively, but his speed and great arm in center field give him a good chance to at least make it as 4^th outfielder at the highest level, though he’ll have to improve his strikeout rates, which were acceptable early in 2014 (25.2 K% over his first 139 PA), but out of control over the last 6 weeks (32.5 K% over his last 166 PA).

8/19 – Triple, Double (Source)

8/21 – Single (Source)

8/22 – Single, Single (Source)

8/24 – Homerun (Source)

8/30 – Very fast (Source)

9/1 – Triple (Source)

Victor Cruzado

Cruzado is a switch-hitting outfielder who spent 97 of 100 games in RF for Savannah last season – he missed a few weeks in June with an injury. He’s a solid outfielder and has an advanced approach at the plate, which has helped him produce better than average walk and strikeout rates, and average power numbers the past 3 seasons. 2014 was his first in full season ball, and he got better throughout the season, finishing with a .315/.432/.446 line over his last 206 PA, with 14 XBH (3 HR), and a 15.5 K%: 17.5 BB%. That finish should put him into St. Lucie’s outfield, where he has breakout prospect potential.

6/21 - Single (Source)

7/26 – Single, Single (Source)

8/19 – Single, Homerun

8/22 – Single

8/29 – Single

Dominic Smith

In Smith, I’ve saved the best prospect of the group for last. Smith’s rough start and low homerun output have knocked some of the shine off his prospect status, but he can still be a potential impact bat for the Mets down the road. He may have only hit one homerun for the season, but he hit 26 doubles, and a couple of them posted as gifs below reached the wall. Also, there was a 307 PA stretch from late April until the middle of July when he did most of his damage, hitting .333/.392/.409 with 21 doubles and a 15 K%: 8.8 BB%. He’ll only be 19 when the season starts, and he’ll be entering his second year of full season ball, so he’s still ahead of the pack.

6/19 - Double (Source)

6/21 - Double

6/24 – Double – angle 1, angle 2 (Source)

8/19 – Single, Single

8/21 – Single

9/1 - Single

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