Outshined_One

Nice comeback inning, Rich.

I think Len was surprised that was a homerun. :lol:

The Giants actually have a really strong crop of prospects in their low levels, especially considering their 2007 draft was pretty darn good. Bumgarner has really good upside, Alderson has been a terrific pickup, Fairley actually was a great budget pick, and Noonan has good potential. They also have a bunch of Latin American pickups who have paid good dividends down there. We'll see where they are a few years from now, but still, damn, I'm jealous.

So did Paul Maholm.

Felix Pie. He has to develop and grow as a player somehow, you know?

If I had wheels I'd have been a bus. I'd have been a Porsche 911 Turbo.

:shock:

I think this would cause me to go down to Wrigley Field and firebomb it.

Gee, I wonder.

I hate him.

Bingo bango.

Crazy prediction: Josh Vitters ends up being like Ramirez, only with a better career BA and slightly less power at his peak.

Champaign here.

There's something to be said for the pitcher's side of things, too. Some guys have trouble pitching out of the stretch as opposed to pitching out of the windup. It's not a universal for all pitchers, but it's something which can have an impact.

No such thing as walking in a run, dudes.

Best. Offense. Ever.

Yeah, that was coming.

Apparently the Wrigley crowd sang Ryno "Happy Birthday" during the commercial break. Cool.

GEOVANY SOTO

beis bol

Complete game threads last year were sometimes only 2 pages long. Those were some sad, sad games. At least this year, if we have a sad game, it'll likely cause the game thread to go roughly 150 pages.

Let me guess badnews, you don't like Adam Dunn. If that's the case, we're not going to get anywhere in terms of this argument. All other things equal, I'll take the .260/.360 hitter over the .300/.330 hitter any day of the week. I think batting average is overrated. It does not paint a complete picture of how much a player contributes to his team at the plate. It can fluctuate fairly significantly and be dependent on luck, both good and bad. At the minor league level, you're dealing with defensive inexperience, which only mucks up any potential predictive power it has. Moreover, I'm a bit confused about the idea of how strikeouts can sap a guy's batting average considering a good number of guys in the MLB Top 40 for batting average either already have 100 Ks or are on their way to 100 Ks. Do strikeouts really have that gross of an impact on batting average? Hell, Colvin still managed a .299 BA between Daytona and Tenn despite having 101 Ks. With things such as IsoD, there seems to be a lot firmer ground to stand on. I don't think the ability to draw a walk fluctuates and is as luck-dependent as the ability to get a hit. It doesn't seem like an ability that goes away over time. Sadly, in Colvin's case, it doesn't seem like an ability a player can markedly improve over his career. There are some exceptions to the rule (Jose Reyes), but, more often than not, guys who don't walk much in the minors tend not to walk much in the majors, either. That can sap productivity in a hurry. As for Colvin, I think he'll end up being in the 50-60 range on most Top 100 lists. His K/BB will cause people to back off of him, but the rest of his tools seem to be good enough that people will buy into the idea that he'll cut down on his strikeouts/increase his walks or whatever. I'm hopeful of Colvin's future, but the present product does not inspire much hope in me. Believe it or not, I've compared him to Jacque Jones starting roughly at some point last season and I think there's a good chance it'll continue to hold true. He might display better power numbers and better IsoD numbers, but I'm not going to hold my breath. It's been a down year for this system. I hope some of the potential high ceiling guys down in Peoria/Boise/Mesa can break through next season...but that remains to be seen. It ain't pretty from Daytona on upward.

Um...re-read my post. Strikeouts are outs. Plain and simple. Focusing on them as a potential reason for why a prospect is going to flame out is, in my opinion, a mistake. Look at the other plays I mentioned and look at how much they strike out compared to Colvin. Swisher and Howard are two examples I randomly produced as examples of productive guys who strike out a ton and yet are very good players. Heck, you can look around baseball at the number of good players who rack up 100+ strikeouts a season. Strikeouts have been built up as something which hitters must eliminate at all costs in baseball. It's as if people treat them like they're some sort of barrier to being a good ball player. In reality, you'll have a really hard time finding productive hitters in baseball who don't strike out more than 100 times in a season. In all likelihood, you're going to be more likely to find a Juan Pierre than an Albert Pujols. Your bolded point is exactly the reason I was getting at. If Colvin ends up busting, it'll be because he has yet to show the ability to draw walks with any consistency. It won't be because he strikes out over 100 times in a season. That's why I'm saying people shouldn't be raising such an incredible fuss over his strikeout numbers. The same holds true for guys like Harvey and Dopirak.