javi baez deep concern and probably giving hope up thread

[JennieGarthAlgar]

He dresses like Boyd Crowder, you guys. HES GOING TO DOMINATE

[Guest]

I thought he looked weird when his pics were popping up lately on instagram then i realized it was that he just decided to start smiling in pictures

 

it could be the weight loss too

There's something fishy with his teeth. He looked like a completely different dude on Instagram lately. I think it's more than just smiling.

 

http://instagram.com/p/h9CNYGQRBo/?modal=true

 

Looks like he might've had braces when he wasn't showing his teeth when he smiled I guess

[RammyFanny]

Good call.

[Sammy Sofa]

I thought he looked weird when his pics were popping up lately on instagram then i realized it was that he just decided to start smiling in pictures

 

it could be the weight loss too

There's something fishy with his teeth. He looked like a completely different dude on Instagram lately. I think it's more than just smiling.

 

http://instagram.com/p/h9CNYGQRBo/?modal=true

 

Looks like he might've had braces when he wasn't showing his teeth when he smiled I guess

 

I love how nobody can find a non-douchey picture.

[Guest]

i should show you ones of him doting over his sister who has spina bifida to make you feel like a jerk like with rizzo

[Sammy Sofa]

Man, [expletive] that noise; he's the one with a sister with jello biafra and he's still acting the douche, so my [expletive] is clean and guilt-free.

[OleMissCub]

Sahadev Sharma @sahadevsharma

Didn't recognize Baez at first, says he's been working out a lot and lost 15 pounds.

 

 

 

Jesse Rogers @ESPNChiCubs

Baez looks like a diff guy. Lost 15 lbs. says he's working on mechanical issues w his swing.

 

He kinda looks like Carlos Gonzalez now, especially with the faux-hawk. Let's hope Baez is at least half as productive and at least twice as healthy as CarGo.

[Tracer Bullet]

YOU GO MAKE YOUR OWN THREAD

 

fixed

[RammyFanny]

http://www.csnchicago.com/cubs/cubs-say-javier-baez-will-have-earn-his-playing-time

 

Wow, his English is about 5,000 X better than when he was mumbling to complete a half sentence during the season.

[apete6]

http://www.csnchicago.com/cubs/cubs-say-javier-baez-will-have-earn-his-playing-time

 

Wow, his English is about 5,000 X better than when he was mumbling to complete a half sentence during the season.

 

Impressive. If he gets remotely close to his potential, he will own this town (besides the media who will probably hate him because he's brown) and put on a Farnsworth like show with the ladies at the bars.

[Guest]

http://www.csnchicago.com/cubs/cubs-say-javier-baez-will-have-earn-his-playing-time

 

Wow, his English is about 5,000 X better than when he was mumbling to complete a half sentence during the season.

 

Never really thought his English was bad. He just seems really shy when interviewed.

 

He's been here like 10 years now.

[Derwood]

I asked for Baez's autograph at the Cubs Convention, but he missed the ball the first three times

[Banedon]

http://media.giphy.com/media/pZjopwPkisHbG/giphy.gif

[UMFan83]

I asked for Baez's autograph at the Cubs Convention, but he missed the ball the first three times

 

http://media1.giphy.com/media/TnN8ei3cMolpu/giphy.gif

[Sammy Sofa]

I asked for Baez's autograph at the Cubs Convention, but he missed the ball the first three times

 

http://media2.giphy.com/media/Y7qWrwJgYTYfC/giphy.gif

[treebird]

I asked for Baez's autograph at the Cubs Convention, but he missed the ball the first three times

 

http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view5/2810742/it-stinks-o.gif

[Sammy Sofa]

I asked for Baez's autograph at the Cubs Convention, but he missed the ball the first three times

 

http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view5/2810742/it-stinks-o.gif

 

KICK THE NIPPLE BEER NOW

[ScrubMD]

I asked for Baez's autograph at the Cubs Convention, but he missed the ball the first three times

 

http://s8.postimg.org/5nqfcxnad/the_improv_wall.jpg

[Brian]

This may have already come up since I definitely haven't really paid a ton of attention to the Javy doom and gloom, but going by just eyeballing the stats isn't Javy's major league career so far very similar to Rizzo's awful initial call up in San Diego? I'm sure there's numbers to disprove that optimism, but just looking at their baseball reference lines they look pretty close.

[Guest]

This may have already come up since I definitely haven't really paid a ton of attention to the Javy doom and gloom, but going by just eyeballing the stats isn't Javy's major league career so far very similar to Rizzo's awful initial call up in San Diego? I'm sure there's numbers to disprove that optimism, but just looking at their baseball reference lines they look pretty close.

 

Javy still struck out a lot more. And it's worse because Rizzo didn't strike out near as much as Javy in the minors.

 

Rizzo has actually managed to decrease his K rate from what it was in the minors but that should be taken as a hugee exception to the rule.

[sneakypower]

Rizzo still always maintained much higher contact rates

 

AAA (21): 74.4%

MLB (21): 68.7%

AAA (22): 79.6%

 

Rizzo overhauled his swing and is now consistently about 80% contact

 

Baez is much further behind in development

AAA (21): 62.9%

MLB (21): 62.0%

 

it'll be interesting to see how his contact rates are in Iowa and if Malee's work has paid any dividends and maybe we get lucky and he elevates that ability to Josh Hamilton / BJ Upton levels

[Hairyducked Idiot]

This may have already come up since I definitely haven't really paid a ton of attention to the Javy doom and gloom, but going by just eyeballing the stats isn't Javy's major league career so far very similar to Rizzo's awful initial call up in San Diego? I'm sure there's numbers to disprove that optimism, but just looking at their baseball reference lines they look pretty close.

 

The issue isn't the slash line, it's the contact. When Rizzo had his bad callup in San Diego, he whiffed on 31% of his swings, which is toward the bottom of what is acceptable for a MLB power hitter.

 

Baez last year in the majors whiffed on 40.8% of his swings. That would make most pitchers blush.

 

And it's a continuation of a problem we already knew he had. It's really hard to find guys who went on to successful MLB careers with K-rates as high as Baez's in the minors. Even guys like Reynolds and Dunn made more contact in the minors.

 

But all that said, the *good* news is that he's insanely young. I really don't think more AAA would set back his development at all.

[Thrilho]

This may have already come up since I definitely haven't really paid a ton of attention to the Javy doom and gloom, but going by just eyeballing the stats isn't Javy's major league career so far very similar to Rizzo's awful initial call up in San Diego? I'm sure there's numbers to disprove that optimism, but just looking at their baseball reference lines they look pretty close.

 

I've been meaning to make a post about this for a while, but Javy's contact rate in the zone was almost identical to Rizzo's first year. Z contact for Javy was 77.5% vs 77.9% for Rizzo. The big difference is O-Contact (42.1% vs 57.7%) and O-Swing (41.0% vs 34.7%).

 

I also went Brooks Baseball to compare where in the zone they were swinging & missing. I'm at work right now, so can't give the full rundown, but Javy's biggest problem by far is pitches up in the zone and up out of the zone. He rarely whiffs on pitches on the inner half and in off the plate. He also doesn't swing that much at low outside pitches.

 

Again, I'll post later when I've got all the data together, but those were most of the main points. I expected him to be a lot worse on pitches low and outside. For a guy with his bat speed, I'll take "not being able to lay off or catch up to high fastballs" as his main flaw in his 21 year old season.

[Guest]

FWIW Jed specifically mentioned Rizzo as a comparison when talking about Javy's struggles at the convention.

[Brian]

The issue isn't the slash line, it's the contact. When Rizzo had his bad callup in San Diego, he whiffed on 31% of his swings, which is toward the bottom of what is acceptable for a MLB power hitter.

 

Baez last year in the majors whiffed on 40.8% of his swings. That would make most pitchers blush.

 

And 2013 Rizzo was at ~%20 and 2014 ~%19, so I guess my optimism is if they can make similar strides (a tall task, I know) wouldn't that put Baez at the %30 range which isn't great but should be ok as a 2B in the bottom of the order.