Jose Abreu

It's so nice having one of the best position players in the sport on our roster. Other than a few one year flashes ('16 Eaton, '14 Abreu, '12 Rios, etc.), I can't remember the last time you could say that about one of our guys. Ordonez/Thomas?

Anthony Rendon hates baseball but is elite at playing it. Even if Moncada is similar (and FWIW, I think he likes it and just shows emotion differently than other players), I don't think it's too big of a deal

It's fair from a value standpoint, but in the same way that 12/650+ is fair for Trout instead of 12/428, or 10/350+ is fair for Machado instead of 10/300. I feel like the $/WAR calculations always end up being a little too optimistic in terms of what the player actually gets. I see Cole getting more like 7/225 but could be wrong.

I'm fine with something being "seriously wrong" if that's what he's getting...

It just really baffles me, because I'm definitely a pro-Sabermetrics guy, but the advanced metrics love Abreu's batted ball profile. So when people don't like Abreu, it's not really an advanced stats versus traditional stats thing. It's just a matter of whether the advanced stats people are actually researching him, or are just looking at one number (generally his WAR or his wRC+) for confirmation bias without actually diving into his contact profile

Just for the record, I don't think Abreu is a good defensive 1B, but he's the 8th most valuable defensive first baseman per Fangraphs

Wasn't about you, I was just responding to DA's last sentence about how this is such a "problem". My bad, I get why you would think I was talking about you based on how I quoted him.

If he didn't get injured, he would be on a 33 home run pace for this season though

What's really crazy to think about is that as high as his ceiling is, you could make a pretty good argument that Robert's is even higher. Imagine having 2 5+ WAR position players on the same team, plus a 5+ WAR pitcher in Giolito...

Basically exactly what you said. He should be a consistent ~5 WAR player with a few ~7 WAR/40 HR seasons at his peak. His baserunning value is already pretty good despite the lack of steals, but if it goes up and the power increases, he could even turn in an 8-10 WAR season as his true ceiling

That more people complain about Abreu than the actual garbage on this roster (Sanchez/Engel/Castillo/Detwiler/Osich/Santiago etc.) has always been amusing to me

Moncada

I really don't see the point in Steele Walker and Will Kincannon not being at AA

He’s at 4.8 fWAR now

Hey guys! Still think he’s a fluke, a #4, or whatever other hot takes you had?

His justification, based on the ending quotes, seems to be that he hasn’t had enough time or the right personnel to succeed in his career. That would make more sense if he wasn’t representing an organization that just demoted a top prospect after 26 at-bats

I can't wait until we get rid of this guy

Abreu is 4th in the sport in hard hit balls and is 15th in average exit velocity (minimum 200 BBE). I'm not sure where the people saying his batted ball stats suck are getting that from. If it's purely about pull% or something then maybe, but if he were on any other team, someone with the two stats I mentioned would be sought after by the board as a short-term 1B/DH.

I highly doubt Abreu gets anything more than $10 million AAV from us anyway. The people who are against him because they think he's about to get 3/50 or something are gonna be in for a surprise.

I feel like you're stuck on the idea that a ~5.00 ERA or FIP is bad. In this age, getting that + innings eaten from a starter is actually really valuable when the average team scores 4.91 runs per game in the AL.

Not only would it be addition by subtraction (Engel/Jay, Sanchez, Castillo, Reed, etc.) but those guys are actually gonna be good. It's so frustrating that there's so much talent in AAA not getting a shot (I understand the service time angle on Robert and Madrigal but not others). I hardly even watch the games anymore, usually I don't enter that phase until mid-September.

I mean he's right, ERA doesn't matter for any reliever unless they're the type that pitches multiple innings every outing, and even then it doesn't hold much weight

Anderson