Dominikk85

Female baseball journalists beat the hell out of russell this winter. Outside of sports journalism most baseball players are not well known on a national stage so national media didn't care that much. At this point baseball is mostly a local sport except for yankees and red Sox so football players get a lot more attention nationally

No pitcher is really consistent due to the juiced ball. As long the ball is like this you have to accept that even the best aces have 3-4 starts per year were they give up 7 runs on 3 bombs, you can't avoid that. Just make sure it doesn't happen too often.

I like homers but I think this is a bit out of control. Homers are increasingly important but I feel they have too much influence right now. Almost every night one of my fantasy pitcher has a line like 10 Ks, 5 hits, 2 walks, 5 runs due to 2-3 bombs. The whole league is Adam Dunn right now.

Wouldn't be against a two year deal but it is not a priority. Definitely not more than 3 years as most first base type players don't age well. Overall I think there are bigger needs than him, especially a TOR starter and maybe a good OF

I would be fine with giolito being a number 2 or even strong 3 long term. If he can be a mid 3s era guy consistently that would be nice.

I don't agree. Diaz was just 25 years old and was coming off a 38% k-Bb rate so even with some babip and homer regression he would have been fantastic. In fact even this year his k-bb did regress a lot but still is a strong high 20s, what hurt him most was a 400 babip (bad luck) and a huge homer spike (probably partially luck but also some command regression by him, i.e throwing more down the pipe). If not for the cano money kelenic for diaz is a fantastic trade for the mets considering what other ace closers who were older and had less control like Chapman, miller and kimbrel have cost in trades. Those guys all commanded a higher top100 headliner and a pretty solid second piece too. The mariners wouldn't have done it hadn't the mets have eaten the cano money. Now of course there is risk in that trade but that is what an ace closer costs on the market.

I think partly it is also because with Bad fielders the CF assumes the corner guy will bail and let him catch it. When I still played and played in the OF (I was more of a DH/1b) it was pretty clear i only take balls toward the line or max 3-4 steps toward CF and anything more into the gap the CF tries to get and I get out of the way. So if a CF plays with a weaker fielder he often assumes the weaker fielder won't even try to get there when it is more than a couple steps away from it. Still this isn't good of course, you should still call as early as possible but I can understand a CF thinking "shit, ball into the gap, need to turn on the wheels because the big guy won't get there" so he will just put his head down and sprint to the ball as hard as possible while with a good corner guy like lets say adam Eaton you expect that he can get there and thus you pay more attention to the communication.

Kelenic isnt a better prospect than madrigal. Kelenic is rated a 55 and 37th overall on fg, madrigal is ranked a 55 and 29th so almost a wash. Kelenic got Edwin Diaz this off season (basically, as Cano was involved but his salary made him basically negative value), he won't land a real cheap young TOR either at least not without very strong second and third pieces. The recent history for controlled aces was a 70 or at least a 65 (I,e a top10 overall) prospect as a headliner for a real controlled young ace (moncada, eloy) and then another low ranked top100 as second piece. An exception to this was cole but he also can from two consecutive down seasons (3.9 and 4.2 era). Now you could of course do madrigal and Vaughn as a comparable package to a 70 (two 55 hitters have about the same value as one 70 hitter) but the sox would be absolutely stupid to do that, they don't want to ruin their future, they need those guys.

Why not do it like the dodgers did with buehler. They started his spring training a month later to save some milage on the arm and then basically let him the second half of his spring training in season. His first two starts or so he got shelled but dodgers felt they could afford some more losses due to the weak division and preferred having a strong buehler in october over 2 more wins. They will also probably add the typical dodgers fake DL stint to save some more innings. I think that could be a blue print for the sox too. Start his spring training in mid to late march, then put him to extended spring for 2-3 weeks, then start him and add a fake 10 dl stint and two skipped starts and he should be down to around 155 or so at the end of the year. So March 20: start ST April 20: start season May: one skipped start June: one skipped start Late juli: fake DL stint This should save like 40 innings or so.

When tools and performance coincide at a young age it is definitely a good sign. That is no guarantee either but if you have a good k to bb ratio, some pop and good tools at a young age it means a high ceiling and a decent floor which is quite rare. Of Course it is a low level but if there are tools and young age it is much likelier to transfer to higher levels than if an older polished player does it. That's why franco became a top10 prospect almost immediately after showing some early low level performance because he was a high signing with top of the scale tools. Btw cj abrams looks really good so far albeit in rookie ball batting over 400 with 8% Ks and 2 bombs. Vaughn of course has been doing great too although he was also expected to do this more because he is older and more polished. Still it doesn't mean drafting vaughn is a mistake even if abrams turns out better because this early performance by abrams is already some plus outcome while vaughn was expected to do it so that is some risk that went right for the padres.

Shouldn't he be able to continue to do what he learned with the astros? At least as long the sox coaches don't actively prevent it by forcing him to use their style. Is cooper a dogmatic coach who has one style he prefers or is he a guy who embraces individuality and going with individual strengths?

Also not enough power for the high strikeouts he had. He had some power potential and hit 12 in 2016 and 15 in 2018. With his kind of plate discipline that would have needed to go up but instead this year power is totally gone. Probably injury related and could come back but it also needs to come back and more to play with a mid to high 20s k rate.

A very early review of early 2019 top10 draft pick performance 1. Rutschmann Still hasn't played due to mononucleosis! They say it is a mild case but I have heard of cases were athletes couldn't really train for half a year and lose a ton of muscle mass. Definitely pretty bad for the Os 2. Witt Has hit 250 with no homers so far. K rate is solid though so not a lot of worry yet but not a great start 3. Vaughn Has raked like expected, over .400 with 2 bombs about 17% Ks and as many walks 4. Bleday Hasn't played yet but due to late signing 5. Greene Has hit 360 with 2 homers and lots of walks but K rate has been a little high at about mid 20s 6. Abrams Has hit 450 with 2 homers and single digit K rate but only rookie ball. Still a promising start for a HS prospect 7. Lodolo 8 ip, 15 Ks no walks, has looked very good so far but only rookie ball 8. Josh jung Has hit over 500 with a bomb but only 4 games so really not telling 9. Langliers Has hit 200 with 1 bomb and 22% Ks at A ball. Not a great start but he was considered a glove first catcher 10. Bishop Just 6 games but 11 Ks in 24 PAs. Also a bomb and 250 BA with lots of walks. Tiny sample but some red flag concerning his hit tool. Of course the only thing with some predictive value after 60-70 PAs is K rate. Most of the top10 had a decent start. So far it seems the sox did a good pick as Vaughn statistically had the best results but this was expected of course. Bishop indeed might be a red flag and the mono thing isn't a great sign too. Still good pick by the sox, I think Vaughn will be at least one of the best 5-6 players of this draft in the long and he is about the surest bet to get there. Abrams looks spectacular though if you combine it with his tools, hit tool seems to be legit with single digit K rate, 400+ average and even two bombs. My bet in a year he is the best ranked prospect of this class.

Law certainly is a smart guy but I think he has been passed on, I doubt he still travels as much as the fangraphs guys for example and he tries to be unique in his rankings and can be quite biased if he likes or hates someone.

If he is really good it doesn't matter but if the bat is a bit worse it could end on the short side of the platoon while a lefty platoon hitter still has value since 70% of mlb pitchers are righties. But if he hits like konerko or abreu it doesn't matter of course.

I think 35 is a bit rich for now. fangraphs has him around 50 now. But if he rakes in high A for 300+ PAs (say 1000 ops) he could move into the top30 rather quickly.

It depends. Do the sox want to do a swing change (jd martinez or donaldson style) with him to get more loft? Or do they hope that a couple more pounds of muscle and the juiced ball will give him enough pop? If they want to attempt the former which might increase his ceiling but takes more times and creates a risk it completely flops they might keep him in the minors but if they just want to let him hit they can call him up anyway.

I would think so. Of course he had to pay taxes, health care and other stuff as well as paying his agent but still like 8 mil or so of the 15 should be left. Of course you can waste any amount of money with bad investments, expensive divorces, IRS penalties and such stuff. But if you are smart you should be set with that money.

Definitely, the top college bats are usually ready within a year. However the question is whether you want to start his clock. If the sox have another bad start next spring they might want to wait a little longer until 2021. But if he rakes in june next year and the sox compete he might be up in august to help down the stretch.

I think only if he gets hurt and misses a month or more. He had a long college season and can use the rest in fall.

Usually this will sort out itself. Abreu is a FA and probably won't be resigned and others get hurt, bust or get traded.

The level is probably a bit easy for a college bat that advanced and they could have started him in high A but nothing wrong with gaining a bit of confidence by destroying that level. But good they didn't start him in rookie ball that would have been too much. There Really is no rush for him, he will probably reach AA by the end of the year anyway or they so it like the cubs with schwarber who played out the first year in A+ and then started the second year in AA. I could see him destroying A and AA similar to schwarber

Also probably prospect fatigue. Was hyped as the best prospect in baseball for like 2-3 years so people were a little annoyed and then when he was mediocre for 2 years in the majors he was declared a bust. Will take sime time to rebuild his stock.

Every team has such a move. The "smartest team in baseball" astros released JD Martinez. The cubs traded josh Donaldson.

Most owners hate paying non baseball personnel. Except for the GMs the pay for analysts and coaches is pretty bad. Thus they will probably prefer one of boddy's assistant coaches to get 80% of the performance for 20% of the cost. I think that is pretty stupid, player dev can generate so much money so that it is worth spending on it. Most owners don't see it that way because player dev doesn't show results until 3-4 years later and even then it is not certain.