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2008 Clement absolutely slaughtered left-handed pitching in Tacoma last year (10 HR, .358 ISO), but scouts believe that he was beating up on soft-tossing Triple-A lefties, making that performance something he's unlikely to be able to repeat in the Show. This is reflected in his PECOTA projection-one improvement that has been made to PECOTA this year is a new sensitivity to platoon data, in this case making it aware of Clement's more pedestrian results against righties (.261/.348/.433) and thus producing a projection that might otherwise seem underwhelming given his composite 2007 statistics. That projection is still above average for a catcher, but while Clement's bat may be ready for the majors, his defense behind the plate remains a work in progress. It will be interesting to see if the Mariners go the on-the-job training route by making him Johjima's caddy in the varsity, shift him defensively to get his bat into the lineup, or send him back down to the PCL for further defensive seasoning. 2007 Clement wasn`t the same after undergoing knee and elbow surgery in May. It didn`t help that the Mariners inexplicably promoted him to Triple-A after the injury. With Johjima backstopping at the major league level, there should have been no pressure to rush the third-overall pick from the 2005 draft. The trouble Clement had at Tacoma he carried over to the Hawaiian Winter League, where the young catcher finished under the Mendoza line. He`ll have to work hard to reclaim the mantle of top Mariners prospect from Adam Jones.
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