turnin' two

There were only two .900+ OPS SS in baseball this year, and one plays in Denver. The other is Machado. There are a lot of guys who can play SS defensively that can be taken off the scrap heap. Hechavarria, Rondon, were both guys you could have gotten this year for nothing. Teams aren't drowning in .900 OPS guys. There is value to all of them, regardless of position. Eleven. That's it. There were 11 .900 OPS guys in all of MLB this season. If you can get one, or a guy you think can be one, take him. His position doesn't matter. You take that bat and fit it in. How much less valuable was JD Martinez to Boston this season due to his defense? None. Was Mookie more valuable, yeah probably, but you take either one without hesitation.

Yeah, I get it, I believe I said that exact thing earlier, I am saying I don't get why. A premium bat is way more valuable than premium defense. Those types of bats are being overlooked because they don't play premium defensive positions. There is a lot of value in having a guy that plays "3rd hitter" or "cleanup" with great skill regardless of where they play on the field, or even if they play the field at all. David Ortiz complied over 50 WAR in both BBref and Fangraphs with being a complete negative on the field. Would anyone pass on him because of defensive liability? Guys who can add serious value on both sides are the goal. I get that. They are really rare. Obviously in a perfect world that is what you want. But why pass on a guy with premium hitting skills to get a guy with decent hitting who plays a sexier position decently. It doesn't make sense.

That is what makes the player evaluation so important. I am not advocating taking a guy like that "just because" but if the scouts feel he can hit moving forward, he shouldn't be ignored just because of his position.

Yes, obviously this is an exercise in futility in terms of specific players because so much will change between now and the draft. But as a philosophy, I don't understand why a guy that is not as dangerous a hitter offers more value because he plays SS. From a value standpoint, if there is a guy that is a safer bet, a better hitter, more power, but defensively limited to 1B, why does that offer less value than a guy that is better on defense, plays SS, but will likely never be the hitter the quality of the other guy? I just think discounting a guy that can mash because of his position is just a ridiculous as staying away from Madrigal because he is short, or Judge because he was too tall. The 2 best hitters the Sox have had (for an extended time) have been big, lumbering, slow footed, defensively limited, first basemen. They have also been 2 great hitters that have provided tremendous value to the franchise in every possible way. Why pass on a guy that could be that because he plays 1st. I don't get it. ** Just for the record, I have not seen Vaughn take a single live swing. I am in no way saying it is him or bust. I just don't understand the trend of not taking someone that could be a great hitter because they are a 1B/LF type.

There is 1 middle IF in the 500 HR club. And even he, (Ernie Banks) played more games as a 1B than as a SS. Discounting a premium bat just because of his position, I think is foolish. It is certainly the trend to not consider guys as premium if they are a corner OF or 1B, but those are the positions where most of the best hitters in the history of the game have played. I completely get that you can always move a guy down the defensive spectrum, but passing on a guy because he plays 1st is weird, because, well you need someone to play there and if you can get a premium hitter, all the better.

I am a fan of drafting the guy that makes the biggest difference. If that is a 1B that mashes, then I am happy about it. If it is a HS SS that has all the potential in the world, I'm happy about it. Aside from Eloy (and does anyone really care about his defense at this point???), the Sox are really lacking in power bats in the minors. I wouldn't be opposed to Vaughn at all.

You aware that there was literally one guy, one guy in all of MLB that fit that production criteria this season? They aren't exactly all over the place.

Yeah. Guys never get better after 25 right?

He now has a better ERA than Quintana. And his ERA coming in to today was 2.85 since the beginning of August. Dude is on quite a roll. His K numbers have to be pleasing to our FIP and xFIP friends as well.

I have no doubt there. I just don't personally get it I guess.

I've asked before without an answer, why is there the love fest for Corbin. Top 10????????? Maybe this season, but overall? Going forward? Coming into this season he had a 4.12 ERA, a WHIP of 1.35, 7.9 K/9, and was 45-47. Even factoring in this year, his ERA this season is almost a full run lower than his career number. Yeah, he has been great this year, and Arizona is a tough place to pitch. He will be turning 30 during next season and this year will be the 2nd of his career working 200 innings. He will probably get it, but going beyond 13-15 million / 4-5 years (even that is probably more than I'd give him if I were the GM) seems crazy for him.

Not totally surprising especially considering how many of the Sox top guys missed considerable time with injuries.

Gosh, I can only dream of the day when the Sox have an owner willing to pony up for contracts like Carl Crawford, Daisuke, Edwin Jackson, Jason Heyward and Yu Darvish. Those will be the days.

I may be misunderstanding the stat, but I don't believe they were all with a 3-2 count. Just 2 strikes. So turning them into walks may not be correct.

Yeah, I would love to see that data, and would be willing to bet Yoan has significantly more K's on egregiously bad calls than average. If there is somewhere to do that, I am not sure where it is. Either way, I can't see how him swinging at pitches that aren't strikes is a viable solution. The guys that are routinely the best in the league are there because they know the K zone. They know which pitches are strikes, they swing at them. They know which pitches are balls, they let them go. Yoan has shown a pretty good understanding of that zone. I would prefer he keeps it that way.

If the strategy is to get the ump to call balls strikes, well then, more guys should use that strategy more often. It is a baller move. Doesn't seem like it should be a move that works that often though. So it is a bad approach to not swing at balls out of the strike zone? I kind of thought that was the point. It shouldn't make him vulnerable. A great discerning eye is an advantage. A tremendous asset. It shouldn't be a liability. I just can't get behind coaching a guy into swinging at pitches that are out of the zone. The way you hit the ball hard, and do damage, is to swing at hittable pitches that are in the hitting zone. This was his AB in the 8th last night That pitch 5 or so inches off the plate was strike 3. There is no way he should be swinging at that. That is just a terrible call, plain and simple. Saying he should be fighting that off is ridiculous. That pitch is ball 4 plain and simple.

Have to disagree. The strike zone should be the strike zone regardless of count. That is a shame. 50 times the umps have taken the bat out of his hands with bad calls. And that is just for strike 3. That is almost 10% of his ABs. Completely ridiculous.

In some ways, this isn't such a terrible thing. What I mean is, that it is best that this happened now rather than later. There is no bigger red flag for TJ than high velocity. Kopech has always had that risk. It is best that this happens now rather than this time next year or something. There should be a pretty good chance he comes back as about the same pitcher. The flip of this for me is that I hope the Sox focus a little more on pitching in next year's draft. The have basically neglected SPs high in the draft the last 2 years. And while they have a lot of high end talent on the mound, this is a stark reminder that you can never have enough.

This guy might want to say hello. Certainly not at Trout level, but he is a pretty freaking good player. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/cainlo01.shtml

Anthony Rendon is a FA after next season as well. Not at the same level, but a pretty darn good player. I don't get all the love for Corbin. This year has been an outlier by a pretty substantial margin. I am just not sure this is representative of his projectable level of production. I know pitching in Arizona is terrible, 2nd or 3rd worst in the bigs probably, but before this season, he had a career ERA of 4.12, had a WHIP of 1.35, 7.9K/9. He will also turn 30 next season. He will probably command somewhere around what, 4-5 years 15-17 million? Something like that? That seems like a huge bet on this year as compared to his track record. Other than this year you have to go all the way back to 2013 to find a really good year on his resume. If I were a GM, he would scare the crap out of me.

Great article. Seems like it should be basically a no brainer.

It is legitimately hard to give up hits when you can't throw strikes.

Yeah. Nothing but home runs from them. Like, Heyward. Or Chatwood. Or Darvish. Or trading Eloy and Cease for a declining Quintana.

Love it. Can't wait to see this guy throw at the big league level.

There is nothing more frustrating to see an otherwise well played game go to hell on the back of a bad bullpen. The hope I have, is that the Sox haven't neglected this part of the team in the rebuild. With guys like Burdi (not rebuild focus but still), Hamilton, Burr, Johnson, Frare all being drafted and traded for just for the bullpen makes me hopeful that the bullpen will go from a weakness to a strength pretty quickly.