sneakypower

i do think we'd love to get a worthwhile return for Jorge or Javy, neither of whom really are (what i believe to be) Theo-preferred players

but Blair and Jorge Lopez (or was it Carlos Mencia?) for 3-exemptions SS who had either the highest or 2nd-highest projection was always an incredible heist, and i even did bite my tongue on it to avoid the dumb accusations i'm some kind of a flailing obstructionist i pointed out the most immediately egregiously tilted trades you and tim made that ultimately served as the main foundation of an undefeated roster...that adds up pretty well one would think

ok, so maybe now, 4 years into his tenure while we have the top staff ERA in baseball by a decent margin, will be the time that they fully sell out in trades for pitching, and perhaps even create a positional hole or two in the process

so you agree though that my statements are all basically true, which is the thing that matters here

i mean there's a Theo quote somewhere where he made a remark directly to the effect of "those who think we'll be trading our impact hitters for pitching haven't been paying attention"

which is precisely why it's not liable to happen

but there actually isn't bitching about every trade, a ton of trades go through that aren't even commented on and then trades like this happen and it's hard to stay quiet about it because that's very, very nearly the entire basis of a guy having an unassailable roster Tim: draft pick for Pederson - crickets like six draft-day trades - crickets Hoffman, Fulmer for Kimbrel, Almora - crickets Reed for McCullers - crickets but this one there's going to be a deserved uproar about because there's just no justification for it, so try to be a big boy for a second and realize there's a clear nuance

since moving up to AA (includes AFL) 107 G, .282/.373/.474, .307 BABIP, .388 wOBA, 140 wRC+ and best of all, 12.4% BB / 14.2% K last year, Max Kepler was the only 22 & under player in all of AA to beat 140 wRC+ threshold another point on the bullish KATOH placement- compare JC's AA line (.265/.365/.430) with top-50 prospect Jesse Winker's (.271/.380/.421) and try to discern much of a difference; understandably, Winker is a full year younger but he's also got a corner OF profile instead of third base here

as for him being top-50, i don't have much of a problem with the idea, but that's more looking through and thinking of guys placed there whose profiles i mostly dislike (Nick Williams, Sean Newcomb, Aaron Judge) 75-100 is probably a bit more reasonable given lack of extreme upside

Fangraphs doesn't have the last two games in the game logs but for 5/1-5/23 he was hitting .263/.352/.425, which is good for .364 wOBA and 126 wRC+. As I was looking that up, I also came across KATOH's opinion of him from the offseason. He came in at number 43, one spot ahead of Torres, 23 spots behind Contreras, 35 spots behind Almora. I don't know enough to endorse the whole thing (Buxton behind everyone listed above so guessing it's not great with working in defense/speed?), but most opinions had Almora a good bit lower and I think most had Contreras behind Torres by a bit. So far KATOH is winning on those guys. So hopefully it's right and Jeimer is an elite prospect too. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/katohs-top-100-prospect-list-for-2016/ Also, since we're talking about interesting pitchers, Clifton. Just figured he had to be thrown in with the Hudson and Cease as the other guy I'm most excited about right now. last 30: .273/.391/.491 on just a .310 babip (21 BB: 21 K)...15! doubles there if his glove plays at 3B, i love this guy

and holy horsefeathers, Matt Kemp's OBP

Wright's a current top-10 pitcher over 1/4 the way through the season, and Votto might be a little bit broken; there's actually a good argument for either side not like a good 1B prospect (a position so deep a top-40 overall batter was just dropped there, and 'Joey freaking Votto' hasn't even been startable/top-16) and a fringe-FA OF http://i.imgur.com/HqmjU2H.png for a 575-point starter...and 3.5 free years of an elite SP prospect, just for the hell of it you think it's defensible because you're very well accustomed to having the scales being even more comically lopsided, which is the problem

this guy's gotta be a real pain in the ass for database administrators

agreed

ok Gleyber you have my full attention...

...and there it is

i think Bryant just beat the game (bc Final Boss)

i'm fairly certain that was in fact CBB http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN200404170.shtml Close, he was at 3B. Eric Cooper behind the plate. well horsefeathers, what am i thinking of that happened forever ago that made us all hate CB

Matheny's giving Seung-hwan Oh the Joe Torre usage, it seems

What's the story here? Kerry Wood got ejected in a game and I believe suspended a start for cursing out the ump in a 2004 game. i'm fairly certain that was in fact CBB

it's a shame Jake didn't go full Kerry Wood on CB Bucknor there

i'm almost totally on board with this, but with the slight apprehension that dealing with Dave Stewart so much may have badly altered Coppolella's idea of a 'fair return'

oh for the love of God you do this every time and each time it's patronizingly disingenuous, but here we are today and you've got a stud roster full of other teams' best players and mysteriously you're undefeated and they're all mostly in the doldrums like tell me again how that Bryant, Correa, Stroman, 1st-round (Bautista) for Trout, Waino swap was mutually beneficial

looks like Carpenter doesn't get the chance today to improve upon his .053 split vs. Jake

he's been decidedly below average with his FB/LD exit velocity, but i think more than anything his persistent problems with pitch recognition bury him in this regard to better elaborate, it seems more & more now today's game is about working yourself into favorable counts (or perhaps this was always true) and sitting on a pitch you can reasonably predict and doing damage with it this is pulled from a 9/2014 article, but i doubt the league-wide numbers here have changed substantially: After 0-1 count: .221 average, .592 OPS After 0-2 count: .166 average, .438 OPS After 1-2 count: .178 average, .489 OPS (a .226 on-base percentage!) After 2-2 count: .193 average, .584 OPS After 1-1 count: .234 average, .656 OPS On a 3-2 count: .216 average, .792 OPS After 2-1 count: .252 average, .781 OPS After 1-0 count: .268 average, .796 OPS After 2-0 count: .281 average, .955 OPS After 3-1 count: .274 average, 1.029 OPS After 3-0 count: .282 average, 1.209 OPS (a .736 on-base percentage!) my anecdotal observation is he's always putting himself more in holes during ABs and that obviously has shown to be deleterious; can he improve upon that? to his credit, he's adjusted his 2-strike approach for more contact, but sacrificing power there- but, i think this highlights why Carpenter/Zobrist types can still always hit for power despite having decidedly wimpy swings Tommy La Stella and his 40? power has a better ISO as a Cub than Jorge Soler & Baez, both of whom have been scouted having 70 raw power