Ross to retire after 2016 season

[Schwarber Fan]

Just got the Team Stream notification.

 

One more year of Lester's personal catcher I guess. I'm still in the camp of grooming Schwarber to be the catcher of the future.

[benzona79]

Check out this tweet from jizzo

 

[tweet]

[/tweet]

[Guest]

Just got the Team Stream notification.

 

One more year of Lester's personal catcher I guess. I'm still in the camp of grooming Schwarber to be the catcher of the future.

 

have you ever heard of willson contreras?

 

schwarber as a catcher (as anything more than very part time) is dead in the water IMO, and i was one of the biggest believers in it 3-4 months ago. combination of contreras emerging and schwarber's bat being too good and too ready to keep trying to develop him behind the plate.

[Guest]

There's room in between "Schwarber is the catcher of the future" and "Schwarber will never catch again". I think the idea of Schwarber being an everyday, 100+ game catcher isn't likely at this point, but I can easily see him being used like a deluxe version of Ryan Doumit. Have him catch once a week or so to keep Montero fresh and keep Ross(or future glove-first backup) out of the lineup. He's still adding a fair bit of value with his flexibility, and you don't have to plan the roster around his catching abilities at all or bank on him becoming a good defensive catcher.

[Guest]

There's room in between "Schwarber is the catcher of the future" and "Schwarber will never catch again". I think the idea of Schwarber being an everyday, 100+ game catcher isn't likely at this point, but I can easily see him being used like a deluxe version of Ryan Doumit. Have him catch once a week or so to keep Montero fresh and keep Ross(or future glove-first backup) out of the lineup. He's still adding a fair bit of value with his flexibility, and you don't have to plan the roster around his catching abilities at all or bank on him becoming a good defensive catcher.

 

well that's why i said very part time. if you figure that in, there isn't that wide a chasm between what you and i are saying.

[Sammy Sofa]

Schwarber will do plenty of catching for his new team next season.

 

IT'S GONNA HAPPEN.

[Guest]

Think Ross will get the Jeter goodbye-tour treatment?

[Guest]

Schwarber will do plenty of catching for his new team next season.

 

IT'S GONNA HAPPEN.

 

pls stop

 

i seriously have no idea why this would even be a thing for you. wtf?

[Banedon]

Schwarber will do plenty of catching for his new team next season.

 

IT'S GONNA HAPPEN.

 

http://gfycat.com/ArcticWhiteAzurevasesponge

[biittner77]

If Ross catches Lester for all of his starts, that means Montero would catch about 130 games. That seems like a reasonable work load. If he needs more rest than that then Ross could start 5 more times. I suppose it's nice to keep the option of Schwarber being able to fill in if they pinch hit for Ross later in games.

[Guest]

Schwarber will do plenty of catching for his new team next season.

 

IT'S GONNA HAPPEN.

 

http://gfycat.com/ArcticWhiteAzurevasesponge

 

 

a hulk beast who gets on base and smashes majestic soul-crushing home runs seems like exactly what mojo would love

 

i have no idea why he's on this crusade

 

too white?

[Ding Dong Johnson]

home runs

I am not familiar with this term.

[Sammy Sofa]

Schwarber will do plenty of catching for his new team next season.

 

IT'S GONNA HAPPEN.

 

http://gfycat.com/ArcticWhiteAzurevasesponge

 

 

a hulk beast who gets on base and smashes majestic soul-crushing home runs seems like exactly what mojo would love

 

i have no idea why he's on this crusade

 

too white?

 

He has no home since they have Rizzo and play in the stupid NL. He's a stinky catcher and I think he's going to kill himself in the OF. MAKE THAT [expletive] RAIN, THEO.

[Banedon]

He has no home since they have Rizzo and play in the stupid NL. He's a stinky catcher and I think he's going to kill himself in the OF. MAKE THAT [expletive] RAIN, THEO.

 

You want to give up a prodigious masher of dongs because he might look silly on a fly ball here or there.

[Guest]

he'll be fine in LF

[Sammy Sofa]

He has no home since they have Rizzo and play in the stupid NL. He's a stinky catcher and I think he's going to kill himself in the OF. MAKE THAT [expletive] RAIN, THEO.

 

You want to give up a prodigious masher of dongs because he might look silly on a fly ball here or there.

 

This was probably said many times about Dunn. I just think his value is going to take much of a kick to the dick if he stays in the OF; since he can't play 1B for the Cubs and they don't have a DH, I wouldn't mind them trading him for an amazing haul. If they don't, oh well, I'll have to watch him crush dongs and look like an idiot in the OF. Could be worse.

[Guest]

obvious defensive stats are weird disclaimer

 

schwarber posted a -4.1 uzr/150 in 296 innings in LF

 

(overall -2 in the OF if you want to count his positive contribution in 14 innings in RF)

 

dunn only managed that twice in his whole career in LF, and most seasons was several times worse than that.

 

career-wise he was -13.5 in the OF (~9200 innings)

 

so he graded out several times worse and still managed a few seasons in the 3-5 win range.

[sneakypower]

eh, Adam Dunn played in a time when teams played straight up and he was hung out to dry in his own cluelessness; now bench coaches largely have the ability to predict the future and tell OFs where the ball is going to be hit more often than not (convenient narrative)

[Sammy Sofa]

I just think a big, relatively slow guy isn't the kind of player you look to trend in the right direction playing OF no matter how young he is; he's likely only going to get worse starting pretty early on in his career. If he proves me wrong, great, but he just doesn't seem like the type you look for more out of than "don't screw up too much" when playing a position like that.

[Guest]

I just think a big, relatively slow guy isn't the kind of player you look to trend in the right direction playing OF no matter how young he is; he's likely only going to get worse starting pretty early on in his career. If he proves me wrong, great, but he just doesn't seem like the type you look for more out of than "don't screw up too much" when playing a position like that.

 

my point was more dunn was more monumentally bad LF while schwarber might just be your normal kinda bad LF

 

plus good point by sneaky

[weis21]

Plus I'm just going to assume the NL gets a DH sometime in the near future.

[Sammy Sofa]

I just think a big, relatively slow guy isn't the kind of player you look to trend in the right direction playing OF no matter how young he is; he's likely only going to get worse starting pretty early on in his career. If he proves me wrong, great, but he just doesn't seem like the type you look for more out of than "don't screw up too much" when playing a position like that.

 

my point was more dunn was more monumentally bad LF while schwarber might just be your normal kinda bad LF

 

I know; Schwarber's still got plenty of time to be surprisingly amazing or monumentally bad. My fear is he'll dwell more on the latter end of the spectrum than the former, and technically being being better than Adam Dunn isn't necessarily all it's cracked up to be. Schwarber had an amazing rookie season, but there's going to be adjustment periods and I'm not convinced that ultimately he'll always be the kind of hitter that can always offset enough the value hit taken by being shitty in the OF. I don't think that's an unrealistic concern at all; I'd be much more confident if he was able to play 1B with them or even stick at catcher than expecting him to be mostly be in the OF.

[Guest]

Plus I'm just going to assume the NL gets a DH sometime in the near future.

 

manfred's comments on that really put a damper on my hopes for that

[Guest]

I just think a big, relatively slow guy isn't the kind of player you look to trend in the right direction playing OF no matter how young he is; he's likely only going to get worse starting pretty early on in his career. If he proves me wrong, great, but he just doesn't seem like the type you look for more out of than "don't screw up too much" when playing a position like that.

 

my point was more dunn was more monumentally bad LF while schwarber might just be your normal kinda bad LF

 

I know; Schwarber's still got plenty of time to be surprisingly amazing or monumentally bad. My fear is he'll dwell more on the latter end of the spectrum than the former, and technically being being better than Adam Dunn isn't necessarily all it's cracked up to be. Schwarber had an amazing rookie season, but there's going to be adjustment periods and I'm not convinced that ultimately he'll always be the kind of hitter that can always offset enough the value hit taken by being [expletive] in the OF. I don't think that's an unrealistic concern at all; I'd be much more confident if he was able to play 1B with them or even stick at catcher than expecting him to be mostly be in the OF.

 

just seems like worrying that he's a really special kind of bad at something that you don't even need to be that good at to not be terrible (if that even makes sense) is a little irrational.

 

i'm not even a little worried about his bat. i might be wrong. he was a week away from having hit his way to the big leagues within a year of being drafted. he has great plate discipline and destroys baseballs basically every time he hits them. like he is inflicting pain on the baseball. he's had adjustment periods already and come out of it nicely. and his slash line looks good despite a horrific stretch of babip luck later in the season (which was, certainly, offset by good luck at other times). his BB and K numbers trended upward as the season went on even when he was in his "slump," IIRC. i have really little doubt about his bat. it's special.

Edited November 17, 2015 by David

[Guest]

Schwarber really isn't all that slow. He'll be fine out there for the next few years. The marginal loss of speed he'll get in his mid-20's will be offset by more experience in the OF. By the time he's likely to slow down enough to be truly bad, he'll be ready to be a FA.