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Post by Oregon Norm on Feb 19, 2014 12:31:58 GMT -5
I agree. I watched both Sandoval and Posey play and thought they'd do just fine in the ML (Caveat: San Jose is about the toughest park in the Cal). What I would say is that anointing people stars after they've bashed in that league is a mistake. You'll want to get a much better feel for them. Wood got exposed as soon as pitchers figured out the holes in his swing. That's much less likely to happen in the A+ Cal. Ditto McPherson. The hyper-arid environments in places such as Las Vegas and Salt Lake, and the high-altitude launching pad in Colorado Springs and Albuquerque also distort a players statistics. They are never quite what they appear to be. The Mojave Desert and the other venues in the high, dry Southwest can throw a lot of mirages your way. A recent case in point is Jerry Sands. There was a lot of excitement when he was included in the Punto trade, and some disappointment when he was immediately flipped to the Pirates. He'd put up some very good years in Albuquerque (Elevation 5,312'), and that's the problem. That's not an environment where you can easily evaluate someone's talent. The pitchers find it more difficult to pitch, and the hitters much easier to hit. It really changes the nature of the game.
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Post by jmei on Feb 19, 2014 13:29:53 GMT -5
JMEI: I know that OUR ability to evaluate prospects was hampered by Lancaster, but was the team's ability to evaluate prospects hampered? Did they really expect Aaron Bates and Zach Daeges to be regulars? I do think it made things more complicated even for the front office. Scouts and front office personnel can try their hardest to not be influenced by the result of a play and instead focus on the process, but I do think a hitter putting up gaudy stats influences their evaluations to some degree. It won't have them confusing Aaron Bates with Miguel Cabrera, but at the very least, it forces them to put a lot of time and effort into trying to figure out what part of a player's performance is park effects and what part is true talent. It also certainly has an effect on the players-- I remember reports of discouraged Lancaster pitchers who found it hard to focus on their development needs when every shallow fly ball they give up gets carried out of the park by the jetstream.
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Post by raftsox on Feb 19, 2014 13:47:38 GMT -5
I do think it made things more complicated even for the front office. Scouts and front office personnel can try their hardest to not be influenced by the result of a play and instead focus on the process, but I do think a hitter putting up gaudy stats influences their evaluations to some degree. It won't have them confusing Aaron Bates with Miguel Cabrera, but at the very least, it forces them to put a lot of time and effort into trying to figure out what part of a player's performance is park effects and what part is true talent. It also certainly has an effect on the players-- I remember reports of discouraged Lancaster pitchers who found it hard to focus on their development needs when every shallow fly ball they give up gets carried out of the park by the jetstream. Daniel Bard, for one. I am beginning to find that MiL stats are just about useless; I think even in the odd parks the Red Sox affiliates have played in the team very heavily relies on their own scouts as well as the coaching staff. However, it may just make it more difficult to effectively scout players; I really don't know. I think of places like Wilmington and Lancaster and try to imagine how a team could find useful stats from there which leads me down the rabbit hole of thinking that they probably couldn't care less about stats.
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Post by jmei on Feb 21, 2014 16:19:06 GMT -5
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Post by James Dunne on Feb 21, 2014 16:42:21 GMT -5
What a bust. I saw him with Scranton a few times and was really, really impressed with his bat - quick wrists and natural, easy power. Even last year he was someone I thought could be a good buy-low candidate.
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Post by Oregon Norm on Feb 21, 2014 17:19:14 GMT -5
What a bust. I saw him with Scranton a few times and was really, really impressed with his bat - quick wrists and natural, easy power. Even last year he was someone I thought could be a good buy-low candidate. Before or after you pay for the groceries? Coming to you from the great northwest
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Post by philsbosoxfan on Feb 21, 2014 18:16:02 GMT -5
Lucky Larry got torched: On the contrast between the Red Sox and Yankees: "We're very different animals. I'm proud of that difference. I always cringe when people lump us together. Other baseball teams sometime do that. They are still, this year at least, relying heavily on their inimitable old-fashioned Yankee style of high-priced, long-term free agents. I can't say I wish them well. But I think we've taken a different approached.
"If you compare what we did last year in the offseason to what they've done this year, there's quite a contrast there. I'll quickly say we do keep open the prospect of signing a long-term deal with a free agent, paying a sizable amount of money to attract a star in his prime. We haven't ruled that out. There's just a rebuttable presumption against doing that. But you can rebut it. The circumstances can allow for you to go ahead and do it. The Yankees do it more often it seems to me as a matter of course."
Yankees president Randy Levine, of course, immediately fired back at Lucchino.
“I feel bad for Larry; he constantly sees ghosts and is spooked by the Yankees,” Levine told the New York Daily News. “But I can understand why, because under his and Bobby Valentine’s plan two years ago, the Red Sox were in last place. Ben Cherington and the Red Sox did a great job last year winning the World Series, but I’m confident Cash and Joe and our players will compete with a great Red Sox team to win a world championship this year.” www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/2014/02/lucchino_sox_a_different_animal_than_yankees.html
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Post by grandsalami on Feb 21, 2014 18:40:34 GMT -5
Lucky Larry got torched: On the contrast between the Red Sox and Yankees: "We're very different animals. I'm proud of that difference. I always cringe when people lump us together. Other baseball teams sometime do that. They are still, this year at least, relying heavily on their inimitable old-fashioned Yankee style of high-priced, long-term free agents. I can't say I wish them well. But I think we've taken a different approached.
"If you compare what we did last year in the offseason to what they've done this year, there's quite a contrast there. I'll quickly say we do keep open the prospect of signing a long-term deal with a free agent, paying a sizable amount of money to attract a star in his prime. We haven't ruled that out. There's just a rebuttable presumption against doing that. But you can rebut it. The circumstances can allow for you to go ahead and do it. The Yankees do it more often it seems to me as a matter of course."
Yankees president Randy Levine, of course, immediately fired back at Lucchino.
“I feel bad for Larry; he constantly sees ghosts and is spooked by the Yankees,” Levine told the New York Daily News. “But I can understand why, because under his and Bobby Valentine’s plan two years ago, the Red Sox were in last place. Ben Cherington and the Red Sox did a great job last year winning the World Series, but I’m confident Cash and Joe and our players will compete with a great Red Sox team to win a world championship this year.” www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/2014/02/lucchino_sox_a_different_animal_than_yankees.htmlThe yankees WAYY overreacted…LL comment was not a shot at the yankees
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Post by rjp313jr on Feb 21, 2014 18:56:10 GMT -5
Randy isn't wrong though. Larry can't help himself talking about the Yankees; he's like Ortiz and his contract.
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Post by grandsalami on Feb 21, 2014 19:03:29 GMT -5
Randy isn't wrong though. Larry can't help himself talking about the Yankees; he's like Ortiz and his contract. Well is he wrong though? do people NOT compare us to the yankees non stop?
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Post by philsbosoxfan on Feb 21, 2014 19:11:50 GMT -5
Just my opinion but LL shouldn't have been discussing how other organizations do business. When I saw the initial tweet and link, the reply wasn't there yet, my first thought was that he should have kept his mouth shut.
There were other tweets from various people expecting a reply. Larry got what he deserved.
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Post by jimed14 on Feb 21, 2014 23:32:04 GMT -5
What were the options in 2012? They didn't have the option to spend a half billion dollars like the Yankees did this year. Good plan.
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Post by jmei on Feb 22, 2014 11:00:47 GMT -5
Cruz signs with the Orioles for just $8m (with $750K in incentives) and one year.
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Post by jdb on Feb 22, 2014 11:12:38 GMT -5
So where does this leave K Morales? Crawling back to the Mariners since Montero ate ice cream all off season?
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Post by FenwayFanatic on Feb 22, 2014 11:38:17 GMT -5
Randy isn't wrong though. Larry can't help himself talking about the Yankees; he's like Ortiz and his contract. Neither of them are wrong.
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Post by marrcus on Feb 22, 2014 21:07:52 GMT -5
Cruz signs with the Orioles" ---------------------------------
Could be a very nice rental for Duke but a blunder for Cruz's agent. Should have taken the QO coming off a PED suspension and with the compensation problem.
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Post by philsbosoxfan on Feb 23, 2014 5:26:36 GMT -5
Interesting tweet from a discussion standpoint. It's opposite what I would have empirically thought for regression.
Buster Olney ?@buster_ESPN 8m
From @jayhaykid: Nelson Cruz's slugging pct. vs. off-speed pitches last four seasons: 2010 .512, 2011 .491, 2012 .401, 2013 .344.
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Post by ibsmith85 on Feb 24, 2014 9:09:54 GMT -5
Yankees Sign Brett Gardner to a 4 year extension. Not sure what I think of this deal, seems like an overpay at first glance, but Im not sure if that's just blind hatred of the Yankees or not. ESPN.com
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Post by rjp313jr on Feb 24, 2014 9:13:22 GMT -5
12.5m for ages 31-35 from the Yankees, I mean how can it hurt them?
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Post by James Dunne on Feb 24, 2014 9:22:57 GMT -5
Yeah, that seems to be about at value. Plus, he provides value to the Yankees as someone with the range of a center fielder covering that huge left-center gap. I wouldn't say it's a steal or anything, but a solid extension by a team who can afford it.
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Post by grandsalami on Feb 24, 2014 13:49:05 GMT -5
“@mlbbowman: Mike Minor is a few weeks behind because he had to rest for a month after undergoing a 12/31 procedure to repair scarring around his urethra”
...
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wcp3
Veteran
Posts: 3,809
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Post by wcp3 on Feb 24, 2014 13:54:06 GMT -5
Randy isn't wrong though. Larry can't help himself talking about the Yankees; he's like Ortiz and his contract. Neither of them are wrong. It would be nice if Larry would stop talking to the media altogether. It won't happen obviously, but the guy can't help but put his foot in his mouth.
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Post by jimed14 on Feb 24, 2014 14:36:05 GMT -5
I'm quite annoyed that home plate collisions are reviewable. Sounds about as good of an idea as the pine tar rule.
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Post by iakovos11 on Feb 24, 2014 14:59:49 GMT -5
“@mlbbowman: Mike Minor is a few weeks behind because he had to rest for a month after undergoing a 12/31 procedure to repair scarring around his urethra” ... That hurts just to read it
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Post by ibsmith85 on Feb 24, 2014 15:33:44 GMT -5
“@mlbbowman: Mike Minor is a few weeks behind because he had to rest for a month after undergoing a 12/31 procedure to repair scarring around his urethra” ... Prince Albert scar? Or angry girlfriend? Either way....OUCH!!!!!!
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