reiks12

this is last years Cease, ugh

pitch number 20 coming up, 1 out

looks like its going to be another 4 inning start for Cease..

terrible

that fell off a table, too bad it wasnt over the plate

Cease looks really good, those were good takes by the leadoff guy

The Covid bit is a hard sell for me. Yoan is doing exceptionally well against fastballs this year, I would think it would be the opposite if he was weaker no?

Thought we could use a Robert thread after the season he has been having. As of now he is absolutely locked in. I have been looking at his advanced stats and here are some interesting ones: - I always assumed Robert was going opposite field more this year but thats not the case. He has actually been pulling the ball more (42.6%) compared to last year (32.8%). -His average exit velocity is up this year (90.2 vs 87.9) which is probably due to him hitting the sweet spot more (46% vs 36%). His launch angle is down which would explain only 1 home run, but hes been an extra base hit machine! -Robert has vastly improved on hitting breaking pitches. Last year he whiffed on 46.3% of breaking balls. 2021 has him at 34.5%. SIX of his extra base hits have come against breaking balls. -A similar improvement is happening with fastballs. He cut down on his whiffs by 13%. -His contact in the zone has increased by 20%, thats remarkable and supports the above. This is nice to couple with chasing less balls out of the zone (5%) -Teams are starting to throw him more changeups and other offspeed variants and that will be his next adjustment. As of now he is whiffing around 47% of the time on offspeed pitches. -He is murdering anything thats not on a corner, and hes torching balls up and away. You don't need the advanced stats to see that he has done a great job this year, hes passing the eye test with ease. I just love it when numbers tell us what our eyes have been seeing. I hate to see his offense being wasted in the 7 spot. He needs to be moved up. I used this site to look at his stats, fun to look through: https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/luis-robert-673357?stats=statcast-r-hitting-mlb

I like having Moncada hit in front of Abreu, especially if Abreu can heat up. I feel pitchers would then throw Moncada more fastballs.

I agree with you, although if he can play GG defense and steal 20 bags a year i would be fine with the rest of his offensive game, although more power would be nice too. All these things are possible!

I mean Fangraphs steamer's projections for the next 3 years are just around 2 WAR per season (only 119 games per season). I am not sure if that includes defense, but if he shores it up there why would 3 be out of reach especially if he plays 155 games+? Its definitely possible, and if he does achieve that it would be one of the best 4th draft picks in recent memory.

If you take out Yoan's 2019 you get an average fWAR of 1.56 ( I did not include 2016 or 2021 since his WAR shows 0 and 0.1 respectively for those years). The scouting reports for Moncada billed him as a .300 hitter with 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases as his floor! Outside of 2019 he hasnt shown that at all. I am Moncada's biggest fan and that is more disappointing than anything Madrigal has done (besides his play in Oakland). This team NEEDS Moncada to be his 2019 self for them to reach the next step. Here is a snippet of a scouting report for Moncada from 2016 (fangraphs): My disappointment in Moncada is not the point. He has not lived up to his scouting reports, we shouldnt crucify Madrigal for not living up to his in 40 games. He was billed as a regular second baseman and thats what he can be right now with the caveat that theres still room to grow, just like how there was room for Moncada to grow during 2017 and 2018. We were all frustrated with Moncada and worried that he would be a bust, but he eventually came through and gave us hope. Madrigal is not even doing THAT awful and hes billed as an organizational failure that will never improve. I believe he CAN improve and become something great. You can't say 'dont cherry pick those 68 games' and then use 40 games to come to a conclusion on another player. I know that isn't what you are doing, but its what quite a few people are latching onto. In Moncada's first full season he was just 6 strikeouts away from chasing the single season strikeout record, and he would have gotten it if Renteria didnt sit him a bunch to end the season (if i remember correctly).I don't remember seeing this type of hate in 2017 and 2018 for Moncada and thats even with the rebuild feeling like it hinged on his success. I can understand the line of thinking that we are a WIN NOW team whereas 2017 and 2018 were rebuild years, however that line of thinking should also apply to Moncada's production right now. I guess what I am saying is Moncada is more concerning than Madrigal to me. Skeptical is where most people should be, even as a Madrigal sympathizer/apologist I am worried about what I am seeing with his defense, and I am hoping for an increase in his slugging. I can understand posts where people are angry with him, but I am speaking more to the people who are frothing at the mouth implying hes a midget/small child and clamoring that he will never amount to anything. Those same people are babying Moncada in the other thread or Vaughn in his dedicated thread. There is genuine hate in these responses and it has a different feel than criticisms for other players. I dont even think Swisher got this type of a response. We just called Fulmer and Collins bad and busts. People need to chill out. I wonder what the responses would be if Madrigal came to the Sox say in 2017 so he could develop during the stress free years, but something tells me it still would not have been pretty either.

The difference between this thread and the one for Moncada is interesting. There are some posters who have been bashing Madrigal's potential in this thread who are over there telling people to be patient and that 2020 and 2021 are too small of samples for Moncada to tell a story. Come on. Check your biases

I blame Madrigal. Since he was drafted it was all downhill for Moncada.

The posting of pictures of children and gifs of dwarves is a bit strange my man

Since we are talking about the Twins, Nelson Cruz is on steroids and its obvious.

How will we complain about Madrigal now?

Did TA live up to the hype in his first couple of years? Did Moncada? Did Eloy? How about Robert last season and his magnificent slump? Hows Vaughn doing this season?

chances of 2022 being played?

We will never know. We all knew he wasnt ready for a ton of pitches following his TJS, so the 3rd playoff game start wasnt a surprise. If you go back nobody is blaming Dunning for that. I know we needed a 3rd starter like Lynn, I just wish the Rangers would have asked for someone else.

if Cleveland comes back and wins it this will be a legendary thread

Moncada cant hit a breaking ball to save his life

holy fuck this is insane

and people want Bummer up when the games close, hes in a funk. This is the time to put him in

Bummers not good this year, id rather him figure it out when we are up by 6