sneakypower

at age 18, Torreyes already has more HR than LeMahieu managed his entire milb career and LeMahieu struck out more than twice as often, and was two years older in doing so he's not very good

yeah, we have two guys capable of driving to the hoop, and one of them decided to stop doing that this year and jesus, you need to stop bitching about the threes already, since that's basically our most effective offense

in an exercise in masochism, i was looking at Law's top 100 and noticed a trend with a lot of the names: Taijuan Walker (24), Castellanos (37), Zach Lee (41), Yelich (48), Zack Cox (66), Gary Brown (68), Jenkins (74), Olt (75), Aaron Sanchez (96) might have missed more, but obviously the theme is first-rounders picked after Simpson in the '10 draft (along with Brentz, Syndergaard, Ranaudo, Wojciechowski, etc., who show up high on other prospect lists) were all first rounders picked after Hayden Simpson which isn't to say in hindsight it was obvious any of these guys were good, rather that there were obviously a lot of much more intelligent choices at that spot than a guy who was universally considered a non-entity; it was terrible arrogance that has backfired in a predictable way iirc, he also (rightfully) called Vitters, whom he placed 8th, a "non-prospect" last summer

i'll give him credit for the Cates inclusion; he's another guy people should like more than they seem to man, i can only imagine how low he'd have ranked our system without all the offseason additions we've made (Rizzo, Cates, Torreyes, Concepcion, Sappelt, Cardenas)

Jackson at 89 is lunacy, but that's par for the course with Law, i guess

Tyler Zeller hilariously blew that one even better than the cushion on the game-winning three was tipping the ball into his own basket right before that

i agree with what you're saying, but i also think with guys like him it's harder to rely on scouts too much because they obviously are going to tend to pigeonhole him based on size alone i mean, check out this draft profile on Dustin Pedroia:

that just involves things like taking the extra base, or getting thrown out trying to; stolen base prowess is rolled into wOBA* (Gomez netted something like 3.4 runs with steals, so even when discounting his mistakes while not stealing, roughly 1/8 of his value came from his performance on the basepaths) here's the full primer for it http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/ultimate-base-running-primer/ *Tony Campana gained a full 30 points on his wOBA from steals, lol

saying Torreyes needs to "show some power development" is really bizarre to me; i'm not sure whether he'll keep it up as he goes up the ladder, but he's shown more than enough power so far to suggest he's not purely a slap hitter like Pierre and Campana consider, Torreyes has averaged an XBH every 9.95 AB; Josh Vitters has averaged an XBH every 10.38 AB

you don't sound like you understand what you're talking about If Gomez were to play a full season at last year's rate, he'd be a 5 win player, while being terrible at the plate and a below average baserunner. You have no problem with that evaluation? i don't know, because that probably wouldn't ever happen just treat Gomez's '11 defense like a three week stretch where a player hits .400; you're not going to expect him to keep it up, but he obviously helped the team immensely with his glove and quit saying he was a below average base runner, as that definitely wasn't the case: success on steals lifted his wOBA 16 pts

what argument? i didn't invent the stat, i just cited average CF output to shed light on how low the threshold is

yes, i'm aware of how subtraction works ...were you going somewhere with that thought?

sticking Boston with either of those stiffs would be a great long con

you don't sound like you understand what you're talking about

the average CF only hit .261/.325/.409 last season, and Gomez is probably the best defensive CF in baseball

T-Plush and Gomez combined for 6 fWAR last season

this guy isn't getting enough love what stands out the most to me is how unprecedented his performance has been, specifically in his advanced ability to make good contact, all the time; it's near impossible to think of a suitable precedent for a player with a similarly low K rate and strong hitting skills (evidenced by babip, iso). he's been three years younger than the rest of his league and his hit tool still so far dwarfs that of everybody else's by leaps and bounds it's unbelievable here's how he compares so far to similar type extreme low-K hitters and players who've been cited by scouts as comps: Torreyes (milb 5.4% K, .153 ISO, .375 babip) Callaspo (milb 4.9% K, .119 ISO, .322 babip, 2 years older at each stop) Pierre (milb 5.2% K, .062 ISO, .348 babip, 3 years older) Keppinger (milb 5.7% K, .100 ISO, .332 babip, 4 years older) Pedroia (milb 6.3% K, .145 ISO, .313 babip, 2 years older) Polanco (milb 7.6% K, .066 ISO, .299 babip, 1 year older) Eckstein (milb 8.2% K, .097 ISO, .316 babip, 4 years older) Revere (milb 8.3% K, .077 ISO, .355 babip, 2 years older) Altuve (milb 10.6% K, .154 ISO, .353 babip, 2 years older) Kendrick (milb 12% K, .209 ISO, .387 babip, 2 years older) sticking with Polanco, with a career MLB .301/.346/.406 line, he's averaged 3.75 WAR per 650 PA for his career (though aided by consistent +10 fielding), with five 4 WAR seasons. Howie Kendrick's also averaged 3.75 WAR with a .292/.329/.434 line (+10 defense & baserunning). is that kind of career too far-fetched?

first of all it's a bit misleading to call 983 PA "three seasons", but all you're saying is he played poorly when he was too young and unready for AAA pitching how did he do in AA?

I'm having a hard time imagining a .388 SLG out of Cardenas. A very hard time. The BA/OBP sounds about right, though. he had a .780 ops in the minors while being young for his level most of the way; i think you're underselling his potential if he approaches his milb numbers, he'll be much more than a 'slightly above average hitter' for 2B

2Bs hit .260/.319/.388 last year; it's not hard at all to envision Cardenas being above average at the position, offensively

lol, look at gooney freaking the [expletive] out over a guy who'll probably end up at AAA

i'm not getting what the complaint is here

we were out-rebounded 37-15, lol

i'd be fine if Hardaway Jr. never again attempted a three

twitter: -With 8 points tonight, Sam Gagner also ties a Oilers franchise record, done once by Paul Coffey and twice by Wayne Gretzky. -Only two Raptors scored more points last night than Sam Gagner has tonight. -Sam Gagner officially has MORE points tonight than Scott Gomez has all season. -It's the 1st 8-pt game in the NHL since Mario Lemieux on Dec. 31, 1988. -TSN just named Sam Gagner the game's first, second, and third star. He's a f'ckin constellation.