Palka

[BlackSox13]

Palka has hit well enough to stay in the lineup. Problem is where does he fit in now that Davidson is back. Only place for Palka is RF when he should clearly be the DH. Lol, what happens when Avi comes back from his extended spring break?

[Wanne]

35 minutes ago, elrockinMT said:

I want to wait and see on a Palka love fest. Granted he has looked pretty good with the lumber in limited time in the bigs. But, remember everyone was ga-ga over Delmonico in his debut late last year. Haven’t seen a lot this season but it would be great if they both broke out 

yeah...but Palka has the minor league numbers in terms of mashing.  Like I've said...I'll stop what I'm doing to watch this guy hit.  He just hurts the ball....

[greg775]

Palka's last homer vs the Brewers was one of the hardest hit balls I've seen in a while. Watch the guy in the stands. The ball was uncatchable and it was deep in rf stands. He's intriguing.

[AJUribe]

Sgt. Palka our big toe

[Bob Sacamano]

17 hours ago, BlackSox13 said:

Palka has hit well enough to stay in the lineup. Problem is where does he fit in now that Davidson is back. Only place for Palka is RF when he should clearly be the DH. Lol, what happens when Avi comes back from his extended spring break?

Stick him in LF, the "hide the glove" position.

[greg775]

Sox have been so bad defensively throughout modern history with a few exceptions. I guess the 05 team was pretty good defensively. Don't know about 59. The 77 team might have been one of the best in baseball history if it could catch the ball.

[oldsox]

59 minutes ago, greg775 said:

Sox have been so bad defensively throughout modern history with a few exceptions. I guess the 05 team was pretty good defensively. Don't know about 59. The 77 team might have been one of the best in baseball history if it could catch the ball.

They were good in '59.

[beautox]

If Palka can stick in the show I think we're looking at a good/better/best situation like this: Michael Morse, Matt Adams, Adam LaRoche.

[Lillian]

A few things, which you may not know, that are worthwhile to note:

1) He was a pretty good pitcher and he does have a decent arm

2) He is not as slow, as some of us are suggesting and he is a good base runner

3) He hits lefties, almost as well as RHP. He should not be platooned

4) He mashed in the Minors and his hit tool has never been in question

5) His work ethic is exemplary and he is a good athlete.

I hope that the hard work, which he has been applying toward learning to play the outfield, will earn him more playing time. You all know that a dangerous left handed, middle of the order bat, has been my perennial quest. Maybe he can be that guy. He is a more likely candidate than Delmonico, whom I love, but who does not possess any where near Palka's power. The exit velocities, which we have been seeing, are no fluke. He absolutely "mashes" and has terrific opposite field power. The other day, I suggested that he work with Thome, to exploit the shift. There are a lot of hits, through the left side of the infield, and he can easily hit the ball over the left field fence.

Edited June 6, 2018 by Lillian

[GreenSox]

He should try first base, although he may have to wait for the offseason. Until then, keep playing him and let that hit tool develop.  He definitely has skills. Davidson needs to be in the lineup, too.
Thompson just can't hit, although the outfield defense with him, Tilson and Engel is probably the best in a decade.  But it really doesn't help development.

Of course I say this as someone who believes they should move Abreu over the next 6 weeks.  The time has come.

Edited June 6, 2018 by GreenSox

[Jake]

I think the strategy for now is to let him be a butcher in the OF so we can get a longer look at his bat. If you give up on his glove so much that you don't play him in the field, you are taking ABs from Davidson who has out-hit him this year and has a similar pedigree. The optimal lineup for winning right now would probably be Yolmer in LF, Davidson at 3B, and Palka at DH, but Yolmer playing outfield is more hypothetical than anything else right now and Davidson's 3B defense is somewhat of an unknown quantity by now.

I worry about a guy who is on a hot run with no walks, though it's encouraging that he has hit the ball so hard. The comparison to Delmonico isn't perfect because there were signs last year that Delmonico was on a lucky run. Look at the hit probabilities on Nicky's homers: most of them were worse than 50/50 and his average exit velo was not good.

The main negative with Palka for now is that his defensive problems affect more than just his fWAR, it hurts our pitchers too. A couple of our young starters have had outings undone partly by bad plays from Palka. I think we're going to just tolerate that for now, hope he improves, and hope that the continued exposure helps us figure out what he's got.

A final note about his minor league track record: It's not great, at least lately. Summarizing:

2015 in A+ (129 G): .890 OPS, 29 HR. 29% K%. Also, 24 SB????

2016 in AA (79 G): .890 OPS, 21 HR. 29% K%.

2016 in AAA (54 G): .780 OPS, 13 HR. 39% K%

2017 in AAA (84 G): .760 OPS, 11 HR. 22% K%

2018 in AAA (17 G): .860 OPS, 3 HR. 29% K%.

What stands out to me is that he hit a wall in AAA and hasn't really produced at that level. This was predictable from his high K rates at the lower levels where his overall numbers were still good. There was a positive development last season despite his worse production in that he did cut his strikeouts. They were back up this year in AAA but the sample is small and the difference from last year wasn't large. Strikeouts haven't been a major problem in MLB.

Still, I'm always suspicious of guys who hit better in MLB than in AAA until I've seen them do it for a while or if they were called up young/inexperienced.

[bmags]

Palka would need to hit like a 135 wRC+ for me to bother holding a spot for him across years. 

Glad he has this opportunity and I hope he is enjoying it. 

[Kyyle23]

1 hour ago, Jake said:

I think the strategy for now is to let him be a butcher in the OF so we can get a longer look at his bat. If you give up on his glove so much that you don't play him in the field, you are taking ABs from Davidson who has out-hit him this year and has a similar pedigree. The optimal lineup for winning right now would probably be Yolmer in LF, Davidson at 3B, and Palka at DH, but Yolmer playing outfield is more hypothetical than anything else right now and Davidson's 3B defense is somewhat of an unknown quantity by now.

I worry about a guy who is on a hot run with no walks, though it's encouraging that he has hit the ball so hard. The comparison to Delmonico isn't perfect because there were signs last year that Delmonico was on a lucky run. Look at the hit probabilities on Nicky's homers: most of them were worse than 50/50 and his average exit velo was not good.

The main negative with Palka for now is that his defensive problems affect more than just his fWAR, it hurts our pitchers too. A couple of our young starters have had outings undone partly by bad plays from Palka. I think we're going to just tolerate that for now, hope he improves, and hope that the continued exposure helps us figure out what he's got.

A final note about his minor league track record: It's not great, at least lately. Summarizing:

2015 in A+ (129 G): .890 OPS, 29 HR. 29% K%. Also, 24 SB????

2016 in AA (79 G): .890 OPS, 21 HR. 29% K%.

2016 in AAA (54 G): .780 OPS, 13 HR. 39% K%

2017 in AAA (84 G): .760 OPS, 11 HR. 22% K%

2018 in AAA (17 G): .860 OPS, 3 HR. 29% K%.

What stands out to me is that he hit a wall in AAA and hasn't really produced at that level. This was predictable from his high K rates at the lower levels where his overall numbers were still good. There was a positive development last season despite his worse production in that he did cut his strikeouts. They were back up this year in AAA but the sample is small and the difference from last year wasn't large. Strikeouts haven't been a major problem in MLB.

Still, I'm always suspicious of guys who hit better in MLB than in AAA until I've seen them do it for a while or if they were called up young/inexperienced.

Didn’t he have a significant injury in 2017?  Could have sworn something happened and it made the Twins change course with him

[Dam8610]

On 6/5/2018 at 10:56 AM, soxfan2014 said:

Stick him in LF, the "hide the glove" position.

This. Thompson and Engel don't both need everyday playing time. Palka-Tilson-Engel or Palka-Engel-Tilson from left to right would be fine with me.

[soxfan49]

12 minutes ago, Kyyle23 said:

Didn’t he have a significant injury in 2017?  Could have sworn something happened and it made the Twins change course with him

Yeah, thought I heard the same. He was hitting like .333 at the time of the injury or something, IIRC.

[Lillian]

On May 29, 2017. he fractured the index finger on his left hand.  He missed quite a bit of time.