ericmvan
Veteran
Supposed to be working on something more important
Posts: 8,881
|
Post by ericmvan on Mar 28, 2015 1:23:58 GMT -5
Holy crap. Some scout said that Mookie looked like the best baseball player in all of Florida. Is Andrew McCutchen out of state for some reason? Or is that scout just exaggerating and/or a moron? I love Mookie too but let's chill the expectations. If he plays 140 games and hits like .290/.350/.420 I'll be thrilled. That probably won't get him MVP votes but it will make him one of the best players on what is possibly a playoff team. Mookie, BTW, besides looking insanely good, is now hitting .487 / .512 / .923 on the spring. High SA is the one number that has shown to be predictive for the regular season. I'll take the under on a .923 slugging average. But I'll take the over vs. either of McCutchen's first 2 years' (age 22 & 23) hitting stats. In this comparison, "Lvl" is average level played at where 1= rookie, 3 = low-A, 5 = AA, 7 = MLB. FanGraphs doesn't calculate wRC+ for rookie ball. McCutchen Betts Age Lvl PA wRC+ Lvl PA wRC+ 18 1.2 254 -- 1.0 4 -- 19 3.3 587 126 2.0 292 103 20 5.1 566 97 3.4 551 162 21 6.0 590 115 5.9 677 156 22 6.7 711 126 Mookie's age 21 season was played at essentially the same average level as McCutchen's, but he put up a 156 wRC+ versus 115, despite having had 847 PA of experience versus 1407 (which is to say, McCutchen had 66% more reps). His AAA (level 6) wRC+ was 158. Mookie's 130 in MLB last year almost matches the 136 that McCutchen did a year later in AAA, in 219 PA. I repeat the amusing list of players, age 21 or younger, who had better 200+ PA rookie seasons (based on aWAR/G), with fewer minor league PA than Mookie: 1. Ted Williams 2. Albert Pujols (If you want to add a third name, Mike Trout had just 136 more ml PA.) Oh, and the guys tied with Mookie are Frank Robinson, Jason Heyward, and Stan Musial.
|
|
gerry
Veteran
Enter your message here...
Posts: 1,651
|
Post by gerry on Mar 28, 2015 2:32:14 GMT -5
So comforting to project all of Mookie, XB, Vasquez/Swihart, Rusney even approaching their potential MLB ceilings. With PD, Hanley, Panda, thats a heck of a long term offensive and defensive core. And JBJ has returned to his early swing. Not even considering Moncada, Devers, Margot or AAA. Can the cardiovascular system even handle this possi le cascade of talent? Kudos to Ben and crew.
|
|
|
Post by charliezink16 on Mar 28, 2015 4:55:04 GMT -5
My iPhone keeps autocorrecting from Mookie to MOOKIE
|
|
|
Post by stevedillard on Mar 28, 2015 7:34:20 GMT -5
Welp, let the Blake Swihart era begin
Alex Speier ?@alexspeier 5m5 minutes ago Vazquez: 'I'm waiting. I'm waiting.' Reiterates that he trusts medical team, thinks he'll 'be fine.'
Alex Speier ?@alexspeier 6m6 minutes ago Vazquez says MRI 'found something,' but no firm diagnosis yet. Will get 2nd opinion.
|
|
|
Post by youngbillrussell on Mar 28, 2015 10:41:24 GMT -5
Could be a blessing in disguise at the end of the day. Have Swihart split time with Hanigan and hope he can hit above .250, balances the line up alittle better too.
|
|
|
Post by jmei on Mar 28, 2015 10:48:19 GMT -5
Swihart might be better than Vazquez one day, but I'm skeptical that he's better than Vazquez right now. Swihart still has a good bit of development ahead of him on things like calling pitches (Buchholz and Farrell both criticized his pitch calling yesterday), framing, and plate discipline (2:15 BB/K in his time in Pawtucket last year).
|
|
|
Post by jimed14 on Mar 28, 2015 11:08:52 GMT -5
Buchholz didn't look like he was getting extra strikes yesterday either.
|
|
steveofbradenton
Veteran
Watching Spring Training, the FCL, and the Florida State League
Posts: 1,818
|
Post by steveofbradenton on Mar 28, 2015 11:50:17 GMT -5
You know......I thought in many ways Buchholz looked quite good yesterday. Several of those "hits" were actually just fortunate placement. Few were hit hard (Ciracco's was).
Quite possibly he would have gotten at least a couple extra strikes on his 4-seam. His change and curve looked quite good. I'm liking what I see. But there are articles today that have a different opinion and think we should be "worried". If he can stay relatively healthy, I think is going to have a solid year. Are any of you worried at this stage about Clay (other than the health thing)?
|
|
danr
Veteran
Posts: 1,871
|
Post by danr on Mar 28, 2015 12:58:39 GMT -5
Swihart might be better than Vazquez one day, but I'm skeptical that he's better than Vazquez right now. Swihart still has a good bit of development ahead of him on things like calling pitches (Buchholz and Farrell both criticized his pitch calling yesterday), framing, and plate discipline (2:15 BB/K in his time in Pawtucket last year). If Buchholz is blaming a rookie catcher for not pitching well, there's something wrong with him. And Farrell should not be discussing his opinion of Swihart's pitch calling with anyone but Swihart if he wants to build Swihart's confidence.
|
|
|
Post by kman22 on Mar 28, 2015 13:27:42 GMT -5
My iPhone keeps autocorrecting from Mookie to MOOKIE Well then stop misspelling it!
|
|