UK1679666180
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Everything posted by UK1679666180
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I wouldn't change my style depending on the which team you play. If you're an aggressive running team vs. Cincy, you should be aggressive vs. STL. Just an example, if I'm coaching against a team that is very good at bunting and I spend all week with my team defending the bunt, they're already on their way to beating us. They've got us doing things we would not normally be doing and taken us out of our rhythm.
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Players like Delgado, Rios, Hudson, etc.. are examples of the last decade. I assume Serra is still in charge down there and plenty will depend on allocation towards signing the top tier players. Teams like the Dodgers, Braves, and the Yankees (moreso in the 90s) have very good scouts with a great budget down there, you need both to have success. If the Cubs don't have a sufficent amount of resources, they'll never get achieve maximum production.
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There's never been a study on that, but it does block the catcher's view a millisecond longer than a RH'ed batter.
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He hurt his arm before the holdout during his Junior year at Rutgers, early season game, cold weather in the NE, overworked his arm when it wasn't ready for that. Strained his bicep or something of that nature, FB went from a great pitch to an avg. pitch. That drop in fastball velocity is like watching the stuff of Ben Sheets drop to a RH'ed version of Shawn Estes (Brownlie has better control than Estes, fwiw).
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The Cubs have a first round pick and not another until the 5th I believe. I'm more curious on how Wilkens drafts in the latter rounds and what kind of gems he finds there especially if Hendry keeps losing draft picks by signing free agents. I just wonder if he'll be able to improve the International scouting & development. Stockstill has done a solid as far as drafting, even when the Cubs had what could be considered as a top farm system, it wasn't strong as far as draft picks. Prior was the strong pick, the strength was from the players from Venezuela (Zambrano), Korea (Choi), & Dominican Rep. (Cruz).
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Stat guys don't scout, they look thru the numbers and likely send an area scout or for the extreme examples, send a cross-checker. The team itself would be more likely to draft a player who in college was very productive but only avg. across the board with his tools, rather than a team who been less of an emphasis on his overall numbers compared to his tools. But, even the "saber" teams rely on their scouts just with a different value system than the traditional teams. I do agree that they should go with the best player avail. and I value the BPA as the one with the highest ceiling.
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I think .270-.280/.325-.340 is the likely range.
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Any speed advantage Cedeno and Murton have over Walker hitting 2nd is likely made up by Walker and his ability to hit it past the 1B/2B who is holding the runner on at 1B.
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But, it's much easier at that stage rather than doing it with someone early on in their pro career rather than later. If a team drafted a HS and a college player with similar recognition problems (assuming similar makeups), the team will have a better chance of improving upon the HS athlete rather than the collegiate one, simply b/c he will have had the 3-4 years to improve upon that.
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Cedeno as a SS will likely have more value than Murton as a LF'er. I'd still like to see if Murton can cont. to hit for similar power as he did in '05.
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Agreed, although I think it becomes more important with the major league scouts moreso than amatuer scouts. You can improve a player that is gifted athletically, bat speed, raw power, etc. more effectively early on in his career (18-19) compared to someone who is 25-27 and been drafted out of HS for almost 10 ten years and still struggling with his approach which has impacted his overall numbers.
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Get your head out of Moneyball for a sec! :) OFP is Overall Future Potential... It is the evaluation tool for scouts and has been around forever.
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He would fall into the catagory of a traditionalist/OFP.
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His hire was my favorite acquisition of the off-season. Nothing against Stockstill, but it was pretty obvious at some point in his career, he was going to be united with his brother. I'm not sure what his hire will do to change any philosophy concerning the draft (BPA) or how in-house players are evaluated, but he has a very solid track record as shown.
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The Short-list for the Reds' GM Position
UK1679666180 replied to vance_the_cubs_fan's topic in General Baseball Talk
Of those choices Wren and Krivsky are probably my two fav. picks among the bunch, Wren has turned down potential GM positions in the past (w/Pitt. IIRC). -
The Braves have a model of building from within and filling pieces around that core from FA. The Cubs are almost the opposite as far as position players, Cedeno and Murton are complimentary players to players that have been acq'd from other organizations (Lee, Ramirez, Barrett, Jones, Pierre, & Walker).
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He's made them better since arriving in Houston, he'll make some odd moves at times, but he's had a productive tenure there. As far as Dusty... I don't think it impacts Baker's mindset as far as how he manages the team or whether or not he accepts a multi-year deal (if it's even offered). He likely has the inner-confidence that regardless of the possibility of a lack of coaching opportunities that his resume/track record is strong enough that if he isn't in Chicago, he'll find a situation to his liking.
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Johnston as far as position players, he'll get plenty of instruction and will be better with the wood bat, it'll be interesting to see if he starts at Boise at SS or 3B. I'm predicting Downs to do better than what he did at Boise, he's finally healthy and hopefully his velocity will increase as he increases his off-season workload.
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Should McGwire be elected to the HOF next year?
UK1679666180 replied to The Voice of Reason's topic in General Baseball Talk
Agreed, they'll both get into the HoF and they've earned it. -
Sure, the Cubs have had issues regarding scouting, drafting, and development of position player. That doesn't excuse Baker's flaws and how they have impacted the Cubs during his 1st 3 years. Of course, every manager has flaws and how they would impact the Cubs are still to be determined. Also, I don't feel that Baker's #1 flaw has been a veteran bias, but Murton should've been the regular right after the Lawton trade to the Yanks as well as Cedeno starting the majority of the time at SS. His main problems have been line-up composition and managing the usage pattern of pitchers. Managers take some responsibility when the health of the pitchers fail them as does the PC as well as runs being cost by who is hitting in front of and behind of who.
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Hopefully, it's not a case of former players>avail. coaching/scouting positions. Although, it is surprising how many former players look down upon the possibility of becoming a scout.
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Should McGwire be elected to the HOF next year?
UK1679666180 replied to The Voice of Reason's topic in General Baseball Talk
Unfort. for McGwire and probably Cards fans is that the HOF qualifications are based on public opinion rather than the legal system. Ideally, some would like to have it where it would have to be proven beyond reasonable doubt that McGwire took steroids for it to impact his HOF status or tarnish his career. The court of public opinion doesn't operate like that, if there were indicators that a player might've used steroids, it's free game in the court of public opinion. If a voter feels a player did use steroids, it'll impact that vote. There are certainly indicators that steroids might've been a possibility. -
Lance Berkman to Have Knee Surgery
UK1679666180 replied to vance_the_cubs_fan's topic in General Baseball Talk
Berkman's neither the most athletic individual nor the most disciplined. He's pretty much done in the OF. I can just see Bagwell making a miraculous turnaround pushing Berkman to left and Wilson to center. Yikes. Talk about giving the pitchers confidence. Had he been able to keep himself in better shape, the odds of him sticking in LF would be much higher than his current state. -
Thomas has been big since HS, his body type is that of a large frame and he is the cliche "big boned". I find it hard to believe that it wasn't genetics that blessed Thomas rather than a science lab. To put it in perspective, his numbers indicate it being a wise gamble. He still has the bat speed and raw power that'll likely translate as well.
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It appears that too many have seen Jaws with the old fishing captain and his years of expertise vs. the young collegiate with the new technology. Personally, those who feel there are those here who are "in love with Moneyball" need to read several statistical books with an open mind (not including Moneyball) spoken as gospel. Those who feel there are those who are just anti-Beane for the sake going against the flow need to read some scouting books with an open mind as well. Both methods are working towards the same goal and work best together rather than against each other. Once some of you realize this and not get involved with trying to bait each other or taking the bait, this board will get some of it's value back and not involved w/this childish BS. The concept of trying to create them as WWF opponents is dumb.