Minor League Discussion & Boxes 8-21-13

[Guest]

I stand mostly on the Raisin/goony/Kyle side of this, and pretty firmly...but I could see some bias being involved somewhat at least. Like if Baez were in the Rays or Cardinals system or some other highly regarded player development machine, I could see a little positive bias there.

 

I don't think there's any anti-Cubs "They're going to screw him up" thing with the experts, though.

 

I really think it's just a combination of the experts sticking with their horses and hoping they end up looking prescient as well as the simple fact that there's no way they can do all the homework it takes to keep current on every player. At least during the season, as Kyle mentioned.

 

With some (cough Keith Law cough), I think there is a lot of ego involved. Switching up now would entail conceding their initial assessments were off, which would be unacceptable. They'll ride their horses all the way into oblivion like Slim Pickens on his nuke, if need be. And if it comes to that, they will only have been wrong because something "unforeseeable" happened.

 

At the end of the day, there's 30 systems and 7 or 8 teams per system. I don't care if Parks or Law does this for 15 hours a day, that's not enough time to thoroughly follow each system. The hardcore fans of each team know their system better than these guys do.

 

Plus, there's an element of backlash. I imagine their twitter blows up every time Baez homers, and it's never enough until all the Cubs prospects are ranked at the peak of their reasonable ranges.

 

if they want to end it, they should just admit that they were wrong.

[XZero771679666304]

I stand mostly on the Raisin/goony/Kyle side of this, and pretty firmly...but I could see some bias being involved somewhat at least. Like if Baez were in the Rays or Cardinals system or some other highly regarded player development machine, I could see a little positive bias there.

 

I don't think there's any anti-Cubs "They're going to screw him up" thing with the experts, though.

 

I really think it's just a combination of the experts sticking with their horses and hoping they end up looking prescient as well as the simple fact that there's no way they can do all the homework it takes to keep current on every player. At least during the season, as Kyle mentioned.

 

With some (cough Keith Law cough), I think there is a lot of ego involved. Switching up now would entail conceding their initial assessments were off, which would be unacceptable. They'll ride their horses all the way into oblivion like Slim Pickens on his nuke, if need be. And if it comes to that, they will only have been wrong because something "unforeseeable" happened.

 

At the end of the day, there's 30 systems and 7 or 8 teams per system. I don't care if Parks or Law does this for 15 hours a day, that's not enough time to thoroughly follow each system. The hardcore fans of each team know their system better than these guys do.

 

Plus, there's an element of backlash. I imagine their twitter blows up every time Baez homers, and it's never enough until all the Cubs prospects are ranked at the peak of their reasonable ranges.

 

While this is very true, they do have and almost certainly do take the time to be familiar with the top prospects in the game. For example, does Keith Law track every box score and walk Baez takes like we do? Of course not. Does he know his K:BB ratio is trending in a positive direction and he is blowing his league away in OPS? Almost certainly.

 

There is definitely a "I'm not going to admit I was wrong" component in play with many of these guys.

 

And ftr, I could easily understand why a guy like Lindor could have been ranked ahead of Baez four or five months ago. Not so much now, so much of the uncertainty around Baez is fading, and so much is breaking really right.

[Guest]

I want a Wall of Shame for anyone who puts Lindor ahead of Baez on offseason lists. I can understand skepticism about Baez's future, or even his position relative to other heavy hitters like Sano, Taveras, Buxton, etc. But I will brook no argument that Lindor is a better prospect, and any who do deserve heaps of scorn.

[Sammy Sofa]

I don't even own a Lindor.

[pitchcs]

Sulley and Parks are going at it and I'm stuck in the middle :-"

[SpongeWorthy]

Parks is about to throw his controller against the wall and unplug the SNES

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

It looks to me like Parks is holding his own just fine.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Sulley and Parks are going at it and I'm stuck in the middle :-"

 

I've got his legion of fans. It's cute that they think they can wear me down.

[Guest]

Sulley and Parks are going at it and I'm stuck in the middle :-"

 

I've got his legion of fans. It's cute that they think they can wear me down.

 

They have no idea who they're [expletive] with, that much is for damn sure.

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

Just noticed Javy hasn't got hit by a pitch in his Smokies career. He was plunked 11 times in Daytona.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Just noticed Javy hasn't got hit by a pitch in his Smokies career. He was plunked 11 times in Daytona.

 

I'm thankful for that. The OBP boost wasn't worth the risk of a broken hand.

[mul21]

Sulley and Parks are going at it and I'm stuck in the middle :-"

 

I've got his legion of fans. It's cute that they think they can wear me down.

 

They have no idea who they're [expletive] with, that much is for damn sure.

 

Yeah, Kyle may not ever make a point, but he'll sure argue for hours and confuse the crap out of nearly anybody to the point they have no idea what the original argument was about. Wait a second, is Kyle a woman? :twisted:

[ctcf]

I'm amazed Parks is still engaging these two. Been hilarious to watch.

[Rob]

Sulley and Parks are going at it and I'm stuck in the middle :-"

 

I've got his legion of fans. It's cute that they think they can wear me down.

 

Fantastic.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

I want a Wall of Shame for anyone who puts Lindor ahead of Baez on offseason lists. I can understand skepticism about Baez's future, or even his position relative to other heavy hitters like Sano, Taveras, Buxton, etc. But I will brook no argument that Lindor is a better prospect, and any who do deserve heaps of scorn.

 

Parks was mocking Sulley all morning for insisting Baez > Lindor

[Elrhino]

I don't get the Lindor love either. I guess don't know why it's just assumed that Lindor's power is going to develop when his ISO has held constant and steady at ~ .100 for 3 years (but Javy's K and BB rates are always huge red flags despite objective evidence that they're improving over time. ) Is it just a case where it's cyclically en vogue to overinflate slap hitting gloves the way we overinflated big fat opb guys in the early-mid 2000s?

[Guest]

If only slap hitting OF glove & speed guys were in vogue, we'd have a great asset to trade in Szczur.

[Guest]

Man... being so concerned that he might not be able to handle A+ (compounded by a not terrible but not very good AFL stint) seems like an eternity ago.

 

Guy is destroying AA now.

[abuck1220]

everyone must be reading a different twitter than me if you think parks is getting destroyed or whatever by stupid kyle.

 

he likes baez. it's not like he's saying baez is #82 and lindor is #4. if you want to troll someone on twitter over baez, it should be law, not parks. at least law is a prick.

[Guest]

everyone must be reading a different twitter than me if you think parks is getting destroyed or whatever by stupid kyle.

 

he likes baez. it's not like he's saying baez is #82 and lindor is #4. if you want to troll someone on twitter over baez, it should be law, not parks. at least law is a prick.

 

yeah, pretty much all of this.

 

and I'm a fan of law....but he is definitely a prick.

[Guest]

actually, goldstein was a much bigger prick, but he's gone now. parks replacing him ftw.

[RammyFanny]

The only thing better would be if @javy23baez jumped into this conversation. I chimed in last night but ended up getting into it with some other Cubs fan who seemed to believe it's impossible to be a productive player with a K-rate over 20%.

[RammyFanny]

I don't have a massive problem with Parks, but his whole "There's more than stats, I actually watch them play" argument was pretty douchy. I'm going to wager I and many others have seen many more Javy Baez at-bats in there entirety than him.

[abuck1220]

it's also pretty douchey to be like "ranking baez 7th and lindor 5th instead of the other way around is the worst travesty in history."

[RammyFanny]

it's also pretty douchey to be like "ranking baez 7th and lindor 5th instead of the other way around is the worst travesty in history."

You're probably just exaggerating , but he has Lindor at 4 and Baez at 17. And he was arguing just as hard about his opinion as Kyle was.