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Post by wcsoxfan on Aug 17, 2016 19:12:39 GMT -5
Somehow there isn't a Sandy Leon thread already?
Quick question - assuming Sandy remains on the roster til the end of the year, will he become arbitration eligible next year or would there still be one year left at the minimum?
Second question - is it too soon to pencil him in as the starting catcher next year?
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Sandy Leon
Aug 17, 2016 19:36:06 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by jchang on Aug 17, 2016 19:36:06 GMT -5
Sandy has earned a lot more than min, and we are passing sss. And we can afford him whatever the arb is
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Post by DesignatedKyle on Aug 17, 2016 19:36:22 GMT -5
Good timing!
And yes, he's my starting C opening day next April.
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Post by jimed14 on Aug 17, 2016 19:42:09 GMT -5
Second question - is it too soon to pencil him in as the starting catcher next year? I'll answer this one. If you haven't done it yet, you're the last one left.
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Sandy Leon
Aug 17, 2016 19:43:48 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by jchang on Aug 17, 2016 19:43:48 GMT -5
Sandy should have been all star, too bad he wasn't on the 25 man soon enough
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Post by jimed14 on Aug 17, 2016 19:53:44 GMT -5
Second question - is it too soon to pencil him in as the starting catcher next year? I'll answer this one. If you haven't done it yet, you're the last one left. Actually, we might want to consider moving him to 1B to preserve his bat.
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Post by DesignatedKyle on Aug 17, 2016 19:58:32 GMT -5
I'll answer this one. If you haven't done it yet, you're the last one left. Actually, we might want to consider moving him to 1B to preserve his bat. He will be Papi's replacement!
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Post by amfox1 on Aug 17, 2016 21:25:35 GMT -5
Quick question - assuming Sandy remains on the roster til the end of the year, will he become arbitration eligible next year or would there still be one year left at the minimum? He'll almost assuredly be arb eligible as a Super Two (projected to be 2.146 at end of year).
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Post by sox fan in nc on Aug 17, 2016 22:22:49 GMT -5
At least now we don't have to sign Encarnation.
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Sandy Leon
Aug 17, 2016 22:56:26 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by telson13 on Aug 17, 2016 22:56:26 GMT -5
God, I hope it's real. It looks real, right?
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Post by soxfanatic on Aug 18, 2016 2:26:39 GMT -5
God, I hope it's real. It looks real, right? The power looks real. All of his home runs are absolutely clobbered. You don't just accidentally run into those.
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fenwayfaithful
Rookie
A prospect is fun to watch, but trading him for a sure thing in the Majors is never a losing deal.
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Post by fenwayfaithful on Aug 18, 2016 2:37:56 GMT -5
Sandy Leon and Blake Swihart behind the plate sounds AMAZING to me!!!! we need to cut hannigan he's like a bad apple seems to always be the catcher when we blow leads and our bullpen falls apart. Blake can play C and LF and DH.
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Post by GyIantosca on Aug 18, 2016 4:58:14 GMT -5
I tell you last year when ERod pitched his splits were great with Swihart. maybe because they were familiar in the minor league but for some reason Farrell was starting to catch Haningan with ERod and it wasn't working . They never seamed on the same page.
I never knew why he kept forcing that combination.
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Post by philsbosoxfan on Aug 18, 2016 4:58:37 GMT -5
fWAR leaders catcher, note the games:
Lucroy 3.7 -- 110 games Posey 3.6 -- 107 games Ramos 3.4 -- 101 games Realmuto 2.6 -- 100 games Leon 2.4 -- 43 games
fWAR/game leader by a wide margin, nobody close behind him.
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Post by tjb21 on Aug 18, 2016 8:58:45 GMT -5
What a turn his career has made. No idea what to project him moving forward.
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Post by humanbeingbean on Aug 18, 2016 9:06:58 GMT -5
Somebody with a lot more thorough of swing knowledge/mechanics needs to examine Sandy this season compared to previous years. He has to be doing something mechanically different. Or maybe he's just pulling the Daniel Murphy-esque "swing to crush the ball" change.
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Post by mandelbro on Aug 18, 2016 9:07:33 GMT -5
What a turn his career has made. No idea what to project him moving forward. I think .240/.300/.390 or so is a target he can hit. As a catcher who is by most accounts solid to good defensively, that is sufficient offense. 20% K, 5% BB, but with a healthy ISO mark. I think his offense will always be more volatile than most because he is a free swinger. But I can see a wRC+ of 80 or so being his talent baseline.
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Post by jimed14 on Aug 18, 2016 9:10:35 GMT -5
Somebody with a lot more thorough of swing knowledge/mechanics needs to examine Sandy this season compared to previous years. He has to be doing something mechanically different. Or maybe he's just pulling the Daniel Murphy-esque "swing to crush the ball" change. I believe he worked on creating more loft and also quieted it way down. This team sure has a lot of players in the last few years who have been both maddeningly horrible and unbelievably better than anyone could ever predict. Sometimes the same player!
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Post by humanbeingbean on Aug 18, 2016 9:11:50 GMT -5
I never quite know what to make of the impact of hitting or pitching coaches, but man, if Chili Davis has been at the core of our offensive strength (and quite probably Sandy's betterment as well), then what an asset he's been. Not saying he's the sole reason for our juggernaut offense, but maybe he just resonates really well with everybody.
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nomar
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Post by nomar on Aug 18, 2016 9:45:07 GMT -5
A .459 BABIP through 43 games is pretty crazy too. He is making a lot more hard contact though. Hopefully he can wRC+ 100 going forward. Catching in the majors is absolutely horrendous right now.
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ericmvan
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Supposed to be working on something more important
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Post by ericmvan on Aug 18, 2016 10:41:44 GMT -5
A .459 BABIP through 43 games is pretty crazy too. He is making a lot more hard contact though. Hopefully he can wRC+ 100 going forward. Catching in the majors is absolutely horrendous right now. He has 149 PA. Out of 356 MLB players with 140 or more, he ranks 59th in Hard%, 26th in LD%, and 88th in HR/FB. He's also 8th in IFH%, which is, of course, silly. The 59th best BABIP is .341. But I think the bigger unknown is how bad he'll hit when he slumps and how long that lasts. In his first 150 PA after he got hot last year, JBJ had a 173 wRC+, and he's at 132 this year. Leon's currently at 184. Does that actually tell you anything? No. But having a 120 wRC+ would make you the 5th best-hitting catcher in MLB. I have to create a spreadsheet where you can paste in a player's game log, enter a number of PA, and get back the best hitting stretch of that duration. I want to know, for instance, how often Buster Posey has had 149 PA this good.
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Post by eitansabo on Aug 18, 2016 11:12:43 GMT -5
What a turn his career has made. No idea what to project him moving forward. I think .240/.300/.390 or so is a target he can hit. As a catcher who is by most accounts solid to good defensively, that is sufficient offense. 20% K, 5% BB, but with a healthy ISO mark. I think his offense will always be more volatile than most because he is a free swinger. But I can see a wRC+ of 80 or so being his talent baseline. Sandy's not really a free swinger actually. This year his swing rate (42.4%) is well below average. And his walk rate in the minors has always been high. 11.2% in AAA; 11.0% in AA, 10.2% in A. His MLB career walk% is 7.6%, which is a hair below average, but I think it's fair to expect that to rise.
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Post by jimed14 on Aug 18, 2016 11:14:05 GMT -5
I think .240/.300/.390 or so is a target he can hit. As a catcher who is by most accounts solid to good defensively, that is sufficient offense. 20% K, 5% BB, but with a healthy ISO mark. I think his offense will always be more volatile than most because he is a free swinger. But I can see a wRC+ of 80 or so being his talent baseline. Sandy's not really a free swinger actually. This year his swing rate (42.4%) is well below average. And his walk rate in the minors has always been high. 11.2% in AAA; 11.0% in AA, 10.2% in A. His MLB career walk% is 7.6%, which is a hair below average, but I think it's fair to expect that to rise. It will rise without question if he's anywhere close to as good as he's been. Pitchers will start treating him like Papi.
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Post by azblue on Aug 18, 2016 12:16:52 GMT -5
Shoutout to Chili Davis. Look at the performance of the hitters up and down the lineup, particularly Sandy. The Sox have a fabulous hitting coach.
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redsox04071318champs
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Aug 18, 2016 12:49:21 GMT -5
What has happened to Sandy Leon is amazing. It's like the Red Sox went from having a black hole at the catcher's spot to now having Johnny Bench (or should I say Mike Piazza?) in his prime in the catcher's spot.
While we know damn well that Leon will fall to earth at some point, the landing might not be too awful. It's just amazing and it goes to show you that not everything can be accurately projected in baseball. A lot of times it can be, but who in the world had this type of performance by Leon?
I still think Swihart should be the future of the catching position, but now Leon has bought Swihart that time to develop so now the Sox can wait and see.
If Leon goes on imitating Johnny Bench, Swihart is a valuable trade chip, and if Leon rounds into an ok/ordinary hitting catcher, he buys Swihart time to work on his catching next season in the minors.
So in short, Leon has been a godsend. And I don't think anybody on the planet could have predicted that. And that's what can make baseball so much fun.
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