Spring Training Chit Chats

[CubinNY]

1 hour ago, Bertz said:

I'm very much doing the kombucha girl reaction to that extension.  Like $140M to a catcher two years out from FA is pretty dumb in a general sense, but a $14M AAV is very forgiving.  I think I mostly come down on disliking it.

To your point though there's definitely something going on with them.  The Padres' LT nonsense, now in hindsight, was clearly about maximizing their window before Seidler died.  For the Dodgers is all of their stuff this offseason just reverberations from Ohtani's deferrals or is something else going on?

I read that the extension is very creative and financially flexible. 

[Post Count Padder]

So Cooper still needs to be added to the roster right? Is Brennan Davis or Keegan a goner or is there a trade coming?

[JunkyardWalrus]

11 minutes ago, Post Count Padder said:

So Cooper still needs to be added to the roster right? Is Brennan Davis or Keegan a goner or is there a trade coming?

I think he's the only add to the 40-man, so should be Kilian to the 60 day IL.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

12 minutes ago, Post Count Padder said:

So Cooper still needs to be added to the roster right? Is Brennan Davis or Keegan a goner or is there a trade coming?

With no unrostered pitchers making the big league team, Kilian to the 60 day IL should do the trick.

[Stratos]

Cubs almost got Sam Moll in a trade from the A's last deadline.  Moll was unhittable after the trade with Reds.  That miss may have cost us a playoff birth.

https://heavy.com/sports/mlb/chicago-cubs/trade-rumors-sam-moll-reds/

[Stratos]

Watched Imanaga's last ST start.  His FB wasn't fooling many guys.  He was living in the top half of the zone with it and the Cardinals were getting really good swings on it.

Before the start Marquee showed he had a 20% GB% in ST.  He may give up a lot of HR if he keeps throwing letter-high FB's all the time.

[Jason Ross]

5 hours ago, Stratos said:

Watched Imanaga's last ST start.  His FB wasn't fooling many guys.  He was living in the top half of the zone with it and the Cardinals were getting really good swings on it.

Before the start Marquee showed he had a 20% GB% in ST.  He may give up a lot of HR if he keeps throwing letter-high FB's all the time.

He's going to be living in the top half of his zone with his fastball for a reason, though...that's where it belongs based on it's shape. That's the goal and what he's working on. His fastball may only sit 92-93mph, but based on it's shape, putting it on the upper third is where he's going to find success with it. His fastball has some of the best movement on the planet from a fastball. The issue is that when he throws it at the knees (where he was locating it typically in Japan) it had a tendency to ride it's way directly into the bat path resulting in hard hit, loud, home runs. Working that shape up will mean that when he misses, he's going to miss with a fastball riding over the bat plane...which would result in weak contact in the air (pop ups / weak flys). It should result in less home runs. 

Something else to remember; this is Spring Training and Imanaga is working through a mentality, pitch mix, and location changes, specifically, with regards to his fastball. His split finger should induce ground balls, but it is highly likely he's focusing more on the fastball (which would result in very few ground balls) than anything. His ST ground ball percentage should be taken with a strong grain of salt (as should almost every number in ST regardless). 

The one start you watched aside, he's had phenomenal starts when it comes to swings and misses already this spring training, especially with the fastball. I'm highly encouraged that he's been receptive to the changes needed to take his 92 mph fastball and turn it into what could legitimately be an elite fastball despite the velocity,

[Rcal10]

27 minutes ago, 1908_Cubs said:

He's going to be living in the top half of his zone with his fastball for a reason, though...that's where it belongs based on it's shape. That's the goal and what he's working on. His fastball may only sit 92-93mph, but based on it's shape, putting it on the upper third is where he's going to find success with it. His fastball has some of the best movement on the planet from a fastball. The issue is that when he throws it at the knees (where he was locating it typically in Japan) it had a tendency to ride it's way directly into the bat path resulting in hard hit, loud, home runs. Working that shape up will mean that when he misses, he's going to miss with a fastball riding over the bat plane...which would result in weak contact in the air (pop ups / weak flys). It should result in less home runs. 

Something else to remember; this is Spring Training and Imanaga is working through a mentality, pitch mix, and location changes, specifically, with regards to his fastball. His split finger should induce ground balls, but it is highly likely he's focusing more on the fastball (which would result in very few ground balls) than anything. His ST ground ball percentage should be taken with a strong grain of salt (as should almost every number in ST regardless). 

The one start you watched aside, he's had phenomenal starts when it comes to swings and misses already this spring training, especially with the fastball. I'm highly encouraged that he's been receptive to the changes needed to take his 92 mph fastball and turn it into what could legitimately be an elite fastball despite the velocity,

Agreed. I am not worried about him based on that Cardinals start.

[Bertz]

6 hours ago, Stratos said:

Watched Imanaga's last ST start.  His FB wasn't fooling many guys.  He was living in the top half of the zone with it and the Cardinals were getting really good swings on it.

Before the start Marquee showed he had a 20% GB% in ST.  He may give up a lot of HR if he keeps throwing letter-high FB's all the time.

A) Spring Training stats don't mean anything

B) If you're striking out 40%+ of batters you face pretty much nothing else within reason matters.   So if you were to take anything from his spring it should be positive.

[Jason Ross]

19 minutes ago, Bertz said:

A) Spring Training stats don't mean anything

B) If you're striking out 40%+ of batters you face pretty much nothing else within reason matters.   So if you were to take anything from his spring it should be positive.

Not sure if you caught it, and it should be noted it was a back fields game against MiLB hitters, but he comically struck out 13 in just 5 innings in his last start.

[Bertz]

5 minutes ago, 1908_Cubs said:

Not sure if you caught it, and it should be noted it was a back fields game against MiLB hitters, but he comically struck out 13 in just 5 innings in his last start.

Yeah I'm trying not to get too over my skis since it's spring and on top of that a lot of these guys first time seeing him, but he might *really* rack up the swing and miss.  The homeruns will certainly be a problem but even so he could be something in the Freddy Peralta or Joe Ryan neighborhood.

[Jason Ross]

39 minutes ago, Bertz said:

Yeah I'm trying not to get too over my skis since it's spring and on top of that a lot of these guys first time seeing him, but he might *really* rack up the swing and miss.  The homeruns will certainly be a problem but even so he could be something in the Freddy Peralta or Joe Ryan neighborhood.

Yeah, I really try to limit my excitement on ST numbers, but he does seem to be taking coaching well and moving the fastball up. Home runs will be an achilles, but I think the strikeout numbers could be shockingly fun for "only" 92mph.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

2 minutes ago, TomtheBombadil said:

RE: Will Smith's 10/$140 extension....I mostly suspect The Future 2.0 is cheap for teams and so filling out cap space, let alone going over, will be "harder" to do moving forward. Since going over the luxury cap is part of the Dodgers' revamped image and how they fit into the league, they're just taking some steps. Throw in that Will Smith is awesome plus the deal is just $140 spread over 10 years, and most public hand wringing will be fans and media looking for something to pretend to worry or even care about (gotta feel something). Bobby Miller's really the only guy the Dodgers have to pay moving forward, and who outside the fanbase (maybe the NL West and prospect weirdos who don't reset once a player is called up) even knows he exists as we continue moving into a noisier and noisier, more NFL-esque MLB?

 

 

I think this is probably backwards.  If the Dodgers needed to find a way to 'fill out cap space' they would've extended Smith for higher AAV and fewer years, there's no way they're *eager* to have him locked up until he's 39.  I suspect that this some combination of 1) the Dodgers modeling having a more optimistic view of aging curves than most teams, either in general or for the players they signed to looong deals, and/or 2) more clarity on where they intend to spend for the foreseeable future, which might also inform their aggressiveness re #1.

[Derwood]