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Elrhino

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Everything posted by Elrhino

  1. This is where the extra year of team service comes in. With Hamels or Greinke, you're trading for 2-3 months. Obviously, you want lock them up, but it will be easier said than done. This is especially true for Texas, because pitchers don't want to pitch in that ballpark with that heat. Pitchers have regularly turned down higher offers by the Rangers to sign elsewhere. That was part of the allure of Darvish for them.
  2. Among the PCL OPS leaders, Vitters is younger than everyone ahead of him. In fact, there are only about 6 or 7 guys ahead of him that I wouldn't put in the AAAA category. Some of those guys are highly rated (Travis d'Arnaud) and some of those guys don't get hardly any recognition despite putting up awesome production for their age (Adam Eaton). What you mostly need is a good deal of hype around you, which Vitters doesn't have because he hasn't dominated at a level. No reason why Rizzo shouldn't have been rated higher coming into this season other than he lost some of his hype after his cup of coffee with the Padres. As far as talent and tools, he was still the same guy that everyone loved 6 months earlier.
  3. Vitters goes into the All Star break tied for third among PCL 3Bers for homeruns (1st place is 34 year old Mike Hessman with 27), tied for 2nd among PCL 3Bers in doubles (first place is Scott Moore who is now in the Astros system, Vitters is tied with Josh Fields).
  4. I agree with this more than ever with the way they jumped off the Rizzo bandwagon after his cup of coffee with the Padres. These guys are just a barometer needle for hype, I don't really consider it to be legitimate analysis or even knowledge. Vitters wont get on the list because the hype has been deflated from his hype balloon before this season. It has nothing to do with his tools or ability to play baseball.
  5. Vitters doubles in Iowa's only run in the 9th He's leaving tonight's game crossing over .300 for the season.
  6. I'm really not sure what All Star nominations would have to do with BABIP or luck anyway. It's a reward for the top performers at their positions for the first half of the season, it's not betting of futures. How the sausage got made is pretty irrelevant.
  7. If they trade Vitters, they better get something of equal value rather than trading him just for the sake of trading him because he's not their preferred flavor of ice cream. Because that's pretty Hendry-esque. This organization needs to acquire more young talented players who are close to being ready to contribute on the major league level, not giving the few they have away... unless we're actually on a 15 year rebuilding plan.
  8. in what way did it end up being a very good choice? a roster spot didn't need to be wasted on 35 year old gritty mcgritt. nor did we need to pay him $1.2 million. it was just a pointless signing and still is. Gilby didn't say a "very" good choice. He said pretty good choice, which it will be if we could get anything in return in a trade. The money spent wouldn't have been allocated anywhere of significance, nor would the roster spot. Getting anything in return will be a better outcome than giving those at bats to Dave Sappelt or an overly aggressive promotion for an unprepared Brett Jackson. Whatever. And results based evaluation is stupid. Yeah, whatevs broseph. It didn't take hindsight for most of us to say whatever marginal value Reed Johnson has or had, it was more than Dave Sappelt.
  9. in what way did it end up being a very good choice? a roster spot didn't need to be wasted on 35 year old gritty mcgritt. nor did we need to pay him $1.2 million. it was just a pointless signing and still is. Gilby didn't say a "very" good choice. He said pretty good choice, which it will be if we could get anything in return in a trade. The money spent wouldn't have been allocated anywhere of significance, nor would the roster spot. Getting anything in return will be a better outcome than giving those at bats to Dave Sappelt or an overly aggressive promotion for an unprepared Brett Jackson.
  10. I'd imagine they certainly can when they're only 22 It probably also doesn't hurt to have a "Consensus Top 5 draft pick" bulletpoint on your resume.
  11. I don't think Brett's numbers are some big mystery. They throw him a lot of breaking balls in the dirt. He either lays off them and draws the walk, or he swings and misses on unhittable pitches. If they hang one he blasts it.
  12. It's hard for me to say anyone robbed much of anyone else, since this appears to be a garbage swap. Youk's back must be in really bad shape if that's the best they could get for him after dangling him on the open market for months, but the White Sox 3rd base situation is so bad it's worth the flier for them.
  13. Vitters issues have been bad defense, bad patience and unremarkable power. I have pretty good faith his power will improve with age (it already is). There are signs his defense is improving and could reach serviceable. Vitters will likely never be an OBP machine, but he's shown some improvement under the new regime (although in fairness, he had nowhere to go but up). Brett Jackson's weaknesses ... I'm not sure I see much light at the end of the tunnel.
  14. What's the average age of PCL 3B?
  15. A good sign if Vitters can keep progressing his doubles power into homerun power as he physically matures from the rail thin 17 year old that was drafted out of high school. That will help balance out some of his other weaknesses (that he seems to be moderately improving on).
  16. I remember reading an old Q&A with Ben Cherington when he was being tied to the Cubs GM spot, and they asked him what his daily schedule entails. He said it depends because the upper Red Sox front office brass rotate duties to divide up division of labor so they can spend time with their families during the season. Everyone takes turns being hands on with the team (traveling on road trips, getting a pulse of the lockerroom, getting one on one feedback from the manager/players) vs. working in the office (meeting with the scouts and stats guys). I wouldn't be surprised if Jed and Theo have a similar system set up. For all we know it was simply Hoyer's day to work in the office and Theo's day to hang out in the lockerroom.
  17. We're not getting 2002-2003 Theo, we're getting the post 2011 Red Sox Theo. He doesn't want to be painted into a corner with a maxed out budget, high expectations and an 85 win roster. He's going to keep his powder dry until he's as confident as possible that such a scenario won't play out. Unfortunately, we'll probably have to suffer with some miserable baseball until he gets to that point, but I'm sure that was always part of the appeal of this job for him ... a big market, high visibility job but a customer base with low expectations and a lot of patience.
  18. Feels like he could be a good sell for the Rangers. Michael Young looks washed up, so at the very least they could use a cheap lefty platoon to pair him with at 1B. LaHair would murder that right field porch. Their system is stacked, Anaheim is breathing down their necks, I think it would make sense for both sides to take a package of low level prospects off their hands.
  19. I wonder if the timing isn't related to some sort of overall seachange/shakeup the next two weeks. Draft -> Soler signing -> old guard coaching staff changes -> Rizzo call up -> Dempster trade all before the All Star break?
  20. Billy Beane might be one of the few with enough job stability where compensation picks might factor into the decision making, but by and large I just don't buy GMs are letting some sandwich pick compensation that may (but mostly likely may not) pay off 5 years down the road enter much into their thinking. I believe they're concerned about adding a key piece to an immediate potential pennant run (a pennant run that could pay off in a big way for them professionally). The compensation pick is handy to assuage guilt or anxiousness for fans (or even themselves) that they've mortgaged future organizational potential to do so.
  21. I question how much compensation picks have ever truly factored into vast majority of deadline trades for rentals. At best it seems like a throwaway justification a GM might tell himself when he's wrapped up in the here and now. Not unlike "Hey this Soda Stream Veggie Juice-a-Tron 2000 will pay for itself after X number of uses" justification logic people use when they're impulse buying consumer goods.
  22. Sure this draft process is a pathetic joke, but at least Selig is announcing the picks in front of an LED screen flashing logos and graphics.
  23. If we're dealing with the Jays, we got to get Dwight Smith Jr to pair with Shawon Dunston Jr.
  24. Underwood will be a good test for our new player development system. Sounds like a big lump of wet clay to mold.
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