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Post by Oregon Norm on May 13, 2013 9:52:32 GMT -5
I think that's been the impression of many people on the board, I know it's been one for me. The early stories from when he was first scouted, and the follow-up reporting on his activities all point to a very mature 20-year old. The other clue has been the way he takes to being taught. He incorporates new ideas into his makeup quickly. I'm not surprised he's so well thought of. Thanks for the first-hand report.
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Post by brianthetaoist on May 13, 2013 9:59:50 GMT -5
And he's only 20 ... btw, where can i easily sort players in the Eastern League by age? www.baseball-reference.com/minors/leader.cgi?type=bat&id=f9c8da19&sort_by=AgeThe answer is always Baseball Reference. Doesn't really matter what the question is. Anyhow, with minor league stats, it's better to use the pulldown menu where it says "sort by" rather than just clicking on the statistic. They show the top 100, but if you have the batting average leaders, and simply click on age rather than chance the statistic your sorting category, it will sort the batting average leaders by age. Awesome, thanks! Should've known ... edit to add: The answer I was looking for: Xander's the youngest player in the Eastern League. And the next youngest player with an OPS over .800 is ... Michael Almanzar.
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Post by honkbal on May 13, 2013 11:55:40 GMT -5
... The answer I was looking for: Xander's the youngest player in the Eastern League. And the next youngest player with an OPS over .800 is ... Michael Almanzar. After year of age, it's sorted alphabetically. There are actually a handful of prospects between Xander and Almanzar that fit your criteria--Yankees prospect J.R. Murphy is the next one. Still cool, though.
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Post by brianthetaoist on May 13, 2013 13:38:50 GMT -5
Ah, sure enough ... not sure how I missed that, since I knew that Bogaerts/Ramirez were sorted not by age but by alpha. Oh well. Point about Bogaerts still stands.
JR Murphy's having a great start to the season.
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Post by mainesox on May 13, 2013 14:24:51 GMT -5
And he's only 20 ... btw, where can i easily sort players in the Eastern League by age? www.baseball-reference.com/minors/leader.cgi?type=bat&id=f9c8da19&sort_by=AgeThe answer is always Baseball Reference. Doesn't really matter what the question is. Anyhow, with minor league stats, it's better to use the pulldown menu where it says "sort by" rather than just clicking on the statistic. They show the top 100, but if you have the batting average leaders, and simply click on age rather than chance the statistic your sorting category, it will sort the batting average leaders by age. I've always hated B-Rs formatting personally, and I don't like their WAR formula as well as FanGraphs', also when you sort minor league players by age at FG it doesn't use alphabetical order as the secondary sorting reference as it has been noted that B-R does (I'm not 100% sure that it uses month and day - it doesn't show them - but it definitely isn't using alphabetical order). www.fangraphs.com/minorleaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=5&qual=y&type=1&season=2013&team=0&players=0&sort=2,a
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Jon Meoli
Veteran
Senior Columnist
Posts: 253
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Post by Jon Meoli on May 14, 2013 9:58:50 GMT -5
Interesting note from my colleagues at the Baltimore Sun today. In their quest to needlessly validate Manny Machado (which is silly because he's freaking good), there was this little passage.
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Post by fenwaythehardway on May 14, 2013 15:16:30 GMT -5
I love me some Xander, but that seems a little whacky. As does anyone ahead of Harper, for that matter.
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Post by Oregon Norm on May 14, 2013 15:23:13 GMT -5
I love me some Xander, but that seems a little whacky. As does anyone ahead of Harper, for that matter. Dude is going to have to get up off the ground before he can get ahead of anyone. He has got to stop running into walls.
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Post by sdiaz1 on May 14, 2013 15:45:36 GMT -5
Yeah I love Xander and he may end up being better than Machado, but there is no way that I think any sane person would rather have Xander than Machado to build around. They have too similiar of cielings offensively and defensively for anyone to ignore that while at practically the same age Machado is doing what Xander is doing in AA (which is very impressive in it own right) in the Bigs. And either one of them over Harper/Trout - yeah that is just bananas. I don't care where Harper plays defensively he is a week younger than Xander and is posting a fricking 176 WRC+ with an entirely neutral BABIP. While Mike Trout has been worth slightly less than 12 WAR over his last 162 games.
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Post by jmei on May 14, 2013 15:48:08 GMT -5
I love me some Xander, but that seems a little whacky. As does anyone ahead of Harper, for that matter. I think the scout meant he would take Harper, Trout, and then Xander third and Machado fourth.
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Post by fenwaythehardway on May 14, 2013 16:44:01 GMT -5
I know, I was referring to the scouts who had Harper somewhere other than first.
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Post by fenwaythehardway on May 14, 2013 17:07:52 GMT -5
Yeah I love Xander and he may end up being better than Machado, but there is no way that I think any sane person would rather have Xander than Machado to build around. They have too similiar of cielings offensively and defensively for anyone to ignore that while at practically the same age Machado is doing what Xander is doing in AA (which is very impressive in it own right) in the Bigs. And either one of them over Harper/Trout - yeah that is just bananas. I don't care where Harper plays defensively he is a week younger than Xander and is posting a fricking 176 WRC+ with an entirely neutral BABIP. While Mike Trout has been worth slightly less than 12 WAR over his last 162 games. Machado's BABIP is .371 by the way, which is basically what's putting him in this discussion. That, and a possible future at shortstop. Which is not to take anything away from Machado, because... ...Bryce Harper has a .319 ISO this year, and he's got nearly as many walks (20) as strikeouts (23) in 140 PAs. If Harper's career line needed to camouflage itself to avoid predators, it could effectively hide among Ryan Braun's peak seasons. You don't talk about him in the context of other exciting young players right now. You talk about him in the context of the greatest young players ever.
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Post by burythehammer on May 14, 2013 21:42:01 GMT -5
You know what Xander has over all those guys? He's ours .
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Post by jdb on May 16, 2013 19:24:58 GMT -5
Any updates on how his D has looked so far this year?
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Post by jrffam05 on May 20, 2013 8:52:51 GMT -5
Any chance Xander gets some AAA time by the end of the season? Not saying he should or it would be a good thing, just trying to gauge where he is at.
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Post by burythehammer on May 20, 2013 10:41:12 GMT -5
I would say it's a given with the only mitigating factor being Iglesias' presence since they obviously want Xander playing SS as much as possible.
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Post by ikonos on May 20, 2013 12:59:53 GMT -5
I would say it's a given with the only mitigating factor being Iglesias' presence since they obviously want Xander playing SS as much as possible. I dont know when the PawSox season ends but if it stretches in to September Iggy could be called up and Xander can be moved up. On the other hand, with Drew only signed for this year, they probably want to see what Iggy can do at the major league level for an extended period to decide what they want to do for the SS position next year. Either way the chances of Xander in AAA by the end of the year are high if he does well at AA.
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Post by thelavarnwayguy on May 20, 2013 18:35:15 GMT -5
Iggy might be Ciriaco's replacement before long the way things are going.
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Post by threeifbaerga on May 28, 2013 10:03:02 GMT -5
This from Speier's "Down on the Farm" daily - linkInteresting parallels, would be nice to see that switch get flipped.
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Post by njsox on May 28, 2013 11:56:47 GMT -5
This from Speier's "Down on the Farm" daily - linkInteresting parallels, would be nice to see that switch get flipped. wow, thanks for that post. I didn't remember it taking that long last year for the power to emerge. I have to see that overall I was happy with his performance anyway, I felt the increased walk rates show his ability to adjust and eventually that ability to adjust will let the power shine through eventually. Let's also not forget that the WBC really could have knocked him out of whack a bit as well. We should also remember that Hanley Ramirez put up somewhat disappointing numbers over the course of the entire season in Portland then was in the majors to start the next season and prodeced from the get go.
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Post by jdb on May 29, 2013 10:08:17 GMT -5
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Post by fenwaythehardway on Jun 1, 2013 12:02:10 GMT -5
Xander's entire career at AA so far: 309 plate appearances, .302/.369/.518, 66/27 K/BB. Sixteen of his 27 walks came in the last month.
Also, he now has a higher OPS in his Portland career than his Salem career, .887 to .883.
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Post by Oregon Norm on Jun 1, 2013 12:55:57 GMT -5
I know there were concerns at the end of last year about the lack of walks. Those were misplaced. He was so hot he was hitting much of what he was thrown on the screws, and the pitchers in AA were probably trying him out for size also. Fast-forward to this year, and given his slow start, he reverted to discipline and patience and man is that paying off. This really bodes well for his future, I believe. The better hitters seem to have that knack for waiting out pitchers and not offering if they don't get something they like. He seems to be moving into that class. There are a lot of reasons to be excited about this kid.
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Post by burythehammer on Jun 1, 2013 12:58:06 GMT -5
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Post by Legion of Bloom on Jun 1, 2013 21:30:59 GMT -5
Xander's line up to .298/.391/.489 after tonight's performance. This is scary, considering that we still haven't seen him go on that tear where he absolutely murders the ball.
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