SoxProspects News
|
|
|
|
Legal
Forum Ground Rules
The views expressed by the members of this Forum do not necessarily reflect the views of SoxProspects, LLC.
© 2003-2024 SoxProspects, LLC
|
|
|
|
|
Forum Home | Search | My Profile | Messages | Members | Help |
Welcome Guest. Please Login or Register.
Red Sox Sign OF Masataka Yoshida
|
Post by soxaddict on Dec 7, 2022 23:57:09 GMT -5
Wait… why would we want Laureano? Kiké would and should be used in the super utility role. He's a platoon player and shouldn't be starting vs RHP. In my scenario, Laureano would start in CF vs RHP, with Verdugo in RF. Kiké would start in CF vs LHP and Laureano would move over to RF.
|
|
|
Post by incandenza on Dec 8, 2022 0:09:42 GMT -5
Do we count Paxton in the 7 to 9? I've been assuming not (he exercised an option that was in his contract rather than being "added," but this is admittedly semantic). In any case, it is possible the additions are Rich Hill + a trade for Sean Murphy or something, which could keep them under the CBT. But it would take a bit of maneuvering to pull it off, and given the day they've had it doesn't really seem like squeezing under the cap is where we're headed. We shall see...
|
|
ericmvan
Veteran
Supposed to be working on something more important
Posts: 8,941
|
Post by ericmvan on Dec 8, 2022 0:27:33 GMT -5
He's been a 3.2 fWAR / 600 PA player since his rookie season?
He's been a 4.8 fWAR player when you adjust for situational hitting?
He can play RF in Fenway and CF when Kiké's in the infield or out of the lineup?
A guy who thrives under pressure and phones it in when nothing's at stake, moving from a lousy team with the lowest attendance in recent MLB histpry to a contender with a famously passionate fan base, gee, I wonder of that's a good fit?
How would we know if a guy who doesn’t play in front of anyone thrives under pressure? Adjusting WAR for leverage assumes that sample could be maintained. But it would be nice, too, to be professional in low leverage situations. Pass on the “mail it in.” I’ll take free Refsnyder over this guy. The A's made the playoffs in 2019 and drew 1.67M fans.
Laureano had a 4.1 fWAR and added another 0.6 of Situational.
Next question?
He looked like he was going to be a major star.
In 2020, with no fans anywhere, he had a wRC+ of just 104 (down from 127) but had insane situational stats: 2.4 extra WAR in 60 games, which is 6.5 per 600 PA. His OPS+ splits by leverage: 238 / 105 / 21. Seriously. Really. The A's finished first.
In 2021 the A's drew just 700,000 fans and missed the playoffs, going 87-76. Laureano had a 131 wRC+ on May 27 when he missed 17 games with a hip strain. After that he had a 91 wRC+ until he was suspended for PED use. I've already given the argument that he wasn't cheating.
This last year, serving most of his suspension and then plagued by injuries, was not good. He even had a -.2 wins of Situational. The A's in the interim had dismantled themselves, and went 60-102 and drew 788K fans despite having full ticket sales all year. The park is no gem, either. I can't imagine a more dispiriting set of circumstances, even for a player in ordinary personal circumstances.
it would be nice, too, to be professional in low leverage situations.
Actually, I have less regard for guys who fatten their stats in garbage time. They're playing for their numbers more than for the win.
The only thing the Verdugo / Laureano types are actually harming is their own reputation (q.v. Verdugo). (You're not going to learn anything by working on your game against these pitchers .... well, maybe you could practice bunting, but that would look bush in a blowout.) It's not unprofessional to have trouble motivating yourself in situations that have little or no meaning -- it's just human nature for certain types of human.
For someone with my background*, the psychological / motivational story here is written in capital letters on a neon sign the size of cruise ship. This is one of the all-time "needs a change of scenery" guys and Fenway Park might be the best new scene possible.
*19 psych and neuroscience classes at Harvard as a non-degree grad student, 780 on the Psych GRT ... and with an emphasis on personality psych.
|
|
|
Post by notstarboard on Dec 8, 2022 0:28:42 GMT -5
There's also the "he's the LF and Verdugo is the RF" option. If the season started today that would be the alignment. I do think this makes Verdugo more expendable though if we wanted to include him in a trade for a better defensive RF. I'd also be very surprised if we paid 5/90 for Yoshida with the intention of him DHing. There is zero chance that Hosmer is the regular DH , Yoshida the regular LF, and Verdugo the regular R, and and they do not add a RF who can play CF. In that lineup, you have six lefty hitters, and in order to free Kiké to play the infield, you either have to keep Duran rusting on the bench or ... or acquire another outfielder to fill that spot. Voila! You've traded away Verdugo to acquire ... someone less good!
So then the question becomes, do you trade Verdugo so Yoshida can take his spot? You now still need the starting RF who can play CF. And you don't have a DH.
In Verdugo you have a guy who is way better than his simple numbers. The average hitter is 20% better than their own average once the game gets out of hand (5 run lead or more by either team) and the fringe guys in the pen get a chance to pitch. In 2021 Verdugo was 47% as good as usual. His high / medium / low leverage numbers (OPS+) were 154 / 132 / 88.
Last year he was 11% as good as usual in garbage time, and had 121 / 120 / 91 leverage splits.
The last two years he had fWARs of 2.0 and 1.2. But that's assuming average situational hitting. He actually had 3.9 and 3.5. And no argument can be made that this isn't sustainable, because the gap between what the standard stats tell you and the real numbers is the result of him sucking when it doesn't much matter.
I swear to whatever deity you root for that I will repost the previous three paragraphs any time someone claims that Verdugo is mediocre, a disappointment, trade bait, or the like. He's a disappointment only in that he hasn't done the work to maximize his talents.
So yeah, Yoshida will spend a lot of time at DH. Plenty of days when he's in left and Hosmer is the DH because any one of six different guys are not in the lineup.
I don't understand your focus on playing Kiké in the infield. That's alright in an emergency situation with injuries, or potentially during late-game substitution shenanigans, but he is a borderline elite CF and a middling infielder. He should be playing in CF almost exclusively. As for the LHP vs RHP balance, C and DH both can shift R/L based on matchups, Refsnyder would probably play quite a bit against lefties too, and all of the likely FA SS options are RHH. So, assuming no additions besides a RHH SS, that'd leave us with up to 6 RHH against LHP (all except Casas, Devers, Yoshida) and up to 6 LHH against RHP (all except SS FA, Story, Hernandez). I get wanting to go more RHH heavy at Fenway, but that's also not the end of the world, especially if those lefties can use the wall. With that said, even better would be trading Verdugo and acquiring a proper RHH RF, like Reynolds.
I appreciate that Verdugo has had good clutch stats, but you're going to have to sell me on massively inflating WAR for clutch stats. I like your concept of considering leverage, but not as anything predictive or worth reading too far into. You say yourself in your post that any number in the table might be subject to interpretation because there are many factors that could skew the results. Even relying that heavily on WPA feels problematic, because a couple of extra clutch hits or untimely squanders would leave a massive signal in WPA even if they're not a particularly large sample of real world ABs. For example, Verdugo's WPA each of the last two seasons is just over 2 for the year. He could have been neutral all year and accumulated most of that surplus on like 5 swings of the bat, for example; it's hard to really know without digging into the ABs themselves. So, the effective sample size feels quite small even for players with massive amounts of PAs, because ABs when the game is on the knife's edge are going to be inflated tens or hundreds of times in importance relative to the rest of the ABs. And by the time the sample sizes start to get significant, the conclusions themselves might be somewhat out of date. So, claiming that Verdugo is suddenly 2-3 times as valuable because he had some good outcomes in a couple extremely fortuitous situations is going way too far imo. It might just be that the guy is like 15/35 in the most "game on the line" situations in his entire career, where any outcome of the AB will shift the WPA .6 up or .4 down, or something. That's fine - small W for team Verdugo - but SSS. The choice of start point can also vastly change your conclusions, and it's not clear what the best one is (Start of career? Last X PAs? Should there be a PA floor or an abs(WPA+) + abs(WPA-) floor before even considering evaluating a player? Etc.).
Repost those paragraphs all you'd like, but I'd prefer if you could articulate why this way of evaluating players is better than any conventional one. It's possible I'm just not understanding your method.
My take is that Verdugo's bat is fine - great contact skills, but limited power and little speed to help his contact play up; 107 wRC+ mostly from age 23-26 - but he has been an extremely poor defender the past two years (10th and 13th percentile OAA, and while I know his 2021 numbers were hurt by having to play CF, his 2022 numbers reflect him actually being bad at LF). He's a fine player, but also someone I would be perfectly fine trading to improve roster construction.
If Hosmer is not going to get meaningful ABs at DH, he has no real role on this team beyond insurance for a catastrophic failure from Casas and I think he should be traded. If he's going to be on the team, he should be DHing frequently. Also, per your same methodology that likes Verdugo so much, Hosmer has by far the largest HV%. Fangraphs projects him for a 109 wRC+ next year, which looks decent even without any additional stat boosts due to clutch hitting. So, why boost Verdugo but then dismiss Hosmer as a DH and assume it's Yoshida's job? I could see him platooning with Arroyo and Refsnyder and putting up in that 110-115 wRC+ range from the DH position. Given his league-minimum contract, that's really solid value as far as I'm concerned, and would let us spend more on SP and SS. So, unless trading him helps to address those holes, or I suppose adds assets to supplement assets traded away to address those holes, keeping him and playing him seems like a great option to me.
Finally, Re: Yoshida, if he is intended to spend a lot of time at DH, why is he making 5/90? That is an incredible amount of money to give to a likely DH who has never played a MLB game, especially when a guy like Jose Abreu projected for 128 wRC+ is signing for 3/58.5. Do we really expect him to have a wRC+ substantially above 115 over the next 3+ years, to the point where it's likely a worthwhile value add over a Hosmer platoon? Like, especially given our offer to Abreu and the holes at RF, SS, and SP, we'd have to had this guy's bat pegged in the 130-140 wRC+ range to value him this highly as a DH. So, to me, signing him for this purpose would feel like a huge risk without much potential payoff. Therefore, my conclusion is this isn't what the team is thinking, and they actually intend to play him in LF. That also jives with Bloom's comments that they see him as a RF/LF, but more of a LF guy. I don't think he mentioned DH at all.
|
|
|
Post by manfred on Dec 8, 2022 0:31:36 GMT -5
How would we know if a guy who doesn’t play in front of anyone thrives under pressure? Adjusting WAR for leverage assumes that sample could be maintained. But it would be nice, too, to be professional in low leverage situations. Pass on the “mail it in.” I’ll take free Refsnyder over this guy. The A's made the playoffs in 2019 and drew 1.67M fans.
Laureano had a 4.1 fWAR and added another 0.6 of Situational.
Next question?
He looked like he was going to be a major star.
In 2020, with no fans anywhere, he had a wRC+ of just 104 (down from 127) but had insane situational stats: 2.4 extra WAR in 60 games, which is 6.5 per 600 PA. His OPS+ splits by leverage: 238 / 105 / 21. Seriously. Really. The A's finished first.
In 2021 the A's drew just 700,000 fans and missed the playoffs, going 87-76. Laureano had a 131 wRC+ on May 27 when he missed 17 games with a hip strain. After that he had a 91 wRC+ until he was suspended for PED use. I've already given the argument that he wasn't cheating.
This last year, serving most of his suspension and then plagued by injuries, was not good. He even had a -.2 wins of Situational. The A's in the interim had dismantled themselves, and went 60-102 and drew 788K fans despite having full ticket sales all year. The park is no gem, either. I can't imagine a more dispiriting set of circumstances, even for a player in ordinary personal circumstances.
it would be nice, too, to be professional in low leverage situations.
Actually, I have less regard for guys who fatten their stats in garbage time. They're playing for their numbers more than for the win.
The only thing the Verdugo / Laureano types are actually harming is their own reputation (q.v. Verdugo). (You're not going to learn anything by working on your game against these pitchers .... well, maybe you could practice bunting, but that would look bush in a blowout.) It's not unprofessional to have trouble motivating yourself in situations that have little or no meaning -- it's just human nature for certain types of human.
For someone with my background*, the psychological / motivational story here is written in capital letters on a neon sign the size of cruise ship. This is one of the all-time "needs a change of scenery" guys and Fenway Park might be the best new scene possible.
*19 psych and neuroscience classes at Harvard as a non-degree grad student, 780 on the Psych GRT ... and with an emphasis on personality psych.
Wait… are you waving audited classes at me? Ah. Whatever. Now they may as well get him, since they may need Kiké to play 2b. I barely care.
|
|
|
Post by redsox04071318champs on Dec 8, 2022 1:39:46 GMT -5
The A's made the playoffs in 2019 and drew 1.67M fans. Laureano had a 4.1 fWAR and added another 0.6 of Situational. Next question? He looked like he was going to be a major star.
In 2020, with no fans anywhere, he had a wRC+ of just 104 (down from 127) but had insane situational stats: 2.4 extra WAR in 60 games, which is 6.5 per 600 PA. His OPS+ splits by leverage: 238 / 105 / 21. Seriously. Really. The A's finished first. In 2021 the A's drew just 700,000 fans and missed the playoffs, going 87-76. Laureano had a 131 wRC+ on May 27 when he missed 17 games with a hip strain. After that he had a 91 wRC+ until he was suspended for PED use. I've already given the argument that he wasn't cheating. This last year, serving most of his suspension and then plagued by injuries, was not good. He even had a -.2 wins of Situational. The A's in the interim had dismantled themselves, and went 60-102 and drew 788K fans despite having full ticket sales all year. The park is no gem, either. I can't imagine a more dispiriting set of circumstances, even for a player in ordinary personal circumstances. it would be nice, too, to be professional in low leverage situations.
Actually, I have less regard for guys who fatten their stats in garbage time. They're playing for their numbers more than for the win.
The only thing the Verdugo / Laureano types are actually harming is their own reputation (q.v. Verdugo). (You're not going to learn anything by working on your game against these pitchers .... well, maybe you could practice bunting, but that would look bush in a blowout.) It's not unprofessional to have trouble motivating yourself in situations that have little or no meaning -- it's just human nature for certain types of human.
 For someone with my background*, the psychological / motivational story here is written in capital letters on a neon sign the size of cruise ship. This is one of the all-time "needs a change of scenery" guys and Fenway Park might be the best new scene possible.
*19 psych and neuroscience classes at Harvard as a non-degree grad student, 780 on the Psych GRT ... and with an emphasis on personality psych.
Wait⦠are you waving audited classes at me? Ah. Whatever. Now they may as well get him, since they may need Kiké to play 2b. I barely care. I forgot about Kiké being a middle infielder. They could use Story and Kiké up the middle, whichever one cam still handles SS. And Duran can get CF again. Lol. Or they can trade the farm for Reynolds. Woohoo.
|
|
|
Post by ematz1423 on Dec 8, 2022 1:55:00 GMT -5
Wait⦠are you waving audited classes at me? Ah. Whatever. Now they may as well get him, since they may need Kiké to play 2b. I barely care. I forgot about Kiké being a middle infielder. They could use Story and Kiké up the middle, whichever one cam still handles SS. And Duran can get CF again. Lol. Or they can trade the farm for Reynolds. Woohoo. Nimmo still available. Not that I necessarily want him for the inevitable contract he's going to get but I'd probably prefer him over giving up a bonkers package for Reynolds. Might sound like doom and gloom but losing X and then gutting the farm for Reynolds is pretty much a sideways move from what they had last year if you ask me so what's the point? I think I'd prefer to just take our lumps for another year and build up a super farm before I'm gutting it.
|
|
|
Post by redsox04071318champs on Dec 8, 2022 2:03:50 GMT -5
I forgot about Kiké being a middle infielder. They could use Story and Kiké up the middle, whichever one cam still handles SS. And Duran can get CF again. Lol. Or they can trade the farm for Reynolds. Woohoo. Nimmo still available. Not that I necessarily want him for the inevitable contract he's going to get but I'd probably prefer him over giving up a bonkers package for Reynolds. Might sound like doom and gloom but losing X and then gutting the farm for Reynolds is pretty much a sideways move from what they had last year if you ask me so what's the point? I think I'd prefer to just take our lumps for another year and build up a super farm before I'm gutting it. I have no desire to see the Sox gut the farm for Reynolds. With X gone this team' best bats slant heavily left handed. Other than Story there's not a lot of RH pop.
|
|
|
Post by ematz1423 on Dec 8, 2022 2:09:49 GMT -5
Nimmo still available. Not that I necessarily want him for the inevitable contract he's going to get but I'd probably prefer him over giving up a bonkers package for Reynolds. Might sound like doom and gloom but losing X and then gutting the farm for Reynolds is pretty much a sideways move from what they had last year if you ask me so what's the point? I think I'd prefer to just take our lumps for another year and build up a super farm before I'm gutting it. I have no desire to see the Sox gut the farm for Reynolds. With X gone this team' best bats slant heavily left handed. Other than Story there's not a lot of RH pop. There's just not a whole lot available for even just a good RH batter. Doesn't even need to be a masher. Obviously Swanson and Correa are available and maybe with presumably with the Padres bowed out and not offering bonkers length on the deal Swanson or Correa can be had for something more reasonable than 11 years? Not banking on it though. Short of that I dunno see if JD can be had for 1 more year to DH and play Yoshida in LF? I said it in a different thread but Hard to really see the lineup being a threat to be one of the top run scoring teams. Maybe try and make as good of a defensive team they can and spend their money on pitching now? Ugh.
|
|
|
Post by redsox04071318champs on Dec 8, 2022 2:17:51 GMT -5
I have no desire to see the Sox gut the farm for Reynolds. With X gone this team' best bats slant heavily left handed. Other than Story there's not a lot of RH pop. There's just not a whole lot available for even just a good RH batter. Doesn't even need to be a masher. Obviously Swanson and Correa are available and maybe with presumably with the Padres bowed out and not offering bonkers length on the deal Swanson or Correa can be had for something more reasonable than 11 years? Not banking on it though. Short of that I dunno see if JD can be had for 1 more year to DH and play Yoshida in LF? I said it in a different thread but Hard to really see the lineup being a threat to be one of the top run scoring teams. Maybe try and make as good of a defensive team they can and spend their money on pitching now? Ugh. Yeah, JDM may be the best that's left, but yeah that OF defense might be brutal. I really think the Giants will show Correa the money leaving the Sox to battle it out with the Cubs for a SS and I think the Cubs will wind up with Swanson, which I'm fine with. Trevor Story was always Xander insurance. Here we are.
|
|
|
Post by soxfanatic on Dec 8, 2022 2:21:24 GMT -5
After eight Japanese pitchers, Yoshida is going to be the first Japanese position player to play for the Red Sox.
|
|
|
Post by jmei on Dec 8, 2022 7:58:40 GMT -5
Folks, this is the Yoshida thread. If there are other positions/free agents/topics you’d like to talk about, please take it to another thread or start a new one.
|
|
|
Post by vermontsox1 on Dec 8, 2022 14:53:21 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by manfred on Dec 8, 2022 14:54:56 GMT -5
Can we get bullet points? I can’t read it.
|
|
|
Post by briam on Dec 8, 2022 14:59:11 GMT -5
Can we get bullet points? I can’t read it. "Yoshida didn't appear in my free agency rankings going into the winter as most execs I spoke with didn't think any foreign players other than Kodai Senga were likely to hit the market and be good enough to make the top 50. It became clear in the following weeks that Yoshida would be posted, and expectations were that he would get a multiyear deal with the winning bid at a low-eight-figure AAV, call it $35-50 million total as a contract, plus a posting fee. I sent texts around to a number of scouts and execs explaining what I thought his tools were (high contact, very good approach, average-ish power, limited defensive ability) and asking what I was missing between that scouting report and what the Red Sox paid. "Nothing," replied one international scouting director. "Overpay for me ... too rich imo," from another scouting director. A third exec: "I have no idea." A fourth: "Nothing ... I wish they and him luck." A fifth: "We thought he was worth less than half of what they paid." A sixth added, "I have no words.""
|
|
|
Post by levi on Dec 8, 2022 15:04:45 GMT -5
Can we get bullet points? I can’t read it. "Yoshida didn't appear in my free agency rankings going into the winter as most execs I spoke with didn't think any foreign players other than Kodai Senga were likely to hit the market and be good enough to make the top 50. It became clear in the following weeks that Yoshida would be posted, and expectations were that he would get a multiyear deal with the winning bid at a low-eight-figure AAV, call it $35-50 million total as a contract, plus a posting fee. I sent texts around to a number of scouts and execs explaining what I thought his tools were (high contact, very good approach, average-ish power, limited defensive ability) and asking what I was missing between that scouting report and what the Red Sox paid. "Nothing," replied one international scouting director. "Overpay for me ... too rich imo," from another scouting director. A third exec: "I have no idea." A fourth: "Nothing ... I wish they and him luck." A fifth: "We thought he was worth less than half of what they paid." A sixth added, "I have no words."" Yikes…
|
|
|
Post by chr31ter on Dec 8, 2022 15:06:41 GMT -5
Can we get bullet points? I can’t read it. In a nutshell... the teams that don't like Yoshida as much as the Red Sox like Yoshida think the Red Sox spent too much money to sign Yoshida. A lot of it is stuff we know... poor defender, average power, etc. Just my opinion, but a lot of the things he gets knocked for just won't be as big of a concern for the Red Sox. If Manny can sort of figure out LF at Fenway, I'm sure Yoshida will be fine. And yeah... maybe he won't put a ton of balls into the bullpen, but left-handed hitters who show a willingness to go the other way generally rake at Fenway.
|
|
|
Post by thegoodthebadthesox on Dec 8, 2022 15:07:10 GMT -5
Can we get bullet points? I can’t read it. "Yoshida didn't appear in my free agency rankings going into the winter as most execs I spoke with didn't think any foreign players other than Kodai Senga were likely to hit the market and be good enough to make the top 50. It became clear in the following weeks that Yoshida would be posted, and expectations were that he would get a multiyear deal with the winning bid at a low-eight-figure AAV, call it $35-50 million total as a contract, plus a posting fee. I sent texts around to a number of scouts and execs explaining what I thought his tools were (high contact, very good approach, average-ish power, limited defensive ability) and asking what I was missing between that scouting report and what the Red Sox paid. "Nothing," replied one international scouting director. "Overpay for me ... too rich imo," from another scouting director. A third exec: "I have no idea." A fourth: "Nothing ... I wish they and him luck." A fifth: "We thought he was worth less than half of what they paid." A sixth added, "I have no words."" I guess this'll be one of the biggest test cases of Bloom's tenure to date, then. It is abundantly clear that they have a strict set of values they're willing to pay for a player and clearly they valued him way more than the people quoted in that story did. If the "consensus" turns out to be right, it might look like one of his worst moves to date. But on the flip side if he delivers on that value then he looks pretty fantastic for having identified what many others didn't. What I would like to know is what the other offers look like, because if there are execs saying they had him worth less than half of that and he was bidding against no one, then it's going to be pretty hard to fully justify the contract no matter how good he is.
|
|
|
Post by manfred on Dec 8, 2022 15:08:44 GMT -5
Can we get bullet points? I can’t read it. In a nutshell... the teams that don't like Yoshida as much as the Red Sox like Yoshida think the Red Sox spent too much money to sign Yoshida. A lot of it is stuff we know... poor defender, average power, etc. Just my opinion, but a lot of the things he gets knocked for just won't be as big of a concern for the Red Sox. If Manny can sort of figure out LF at Fenway, I'm sure Yoshida will be fine. And yeah... maybe he won't put a ton of balls into the bullpen, but left-handed hitters who show a willingness to go the other way generally rake at Fenway. I’d love to have an inside-out lefty poke shots at the wall. Don’t need much more.
|
|
|
Post by ematz1423 on Dec 8, 2022 15:10:30 GMT -5
Well reading those quotes from international scouts isn't exactly reassuring. I know the bar isn't exactly high on an above average LF and that's about what he's getting paid as but his ceiling doesn't sound particularly high. It's pretty easy to see this deal has a lot of risk and honestly Bloom better be right or this could go down an awful move signing when he doesn't really have one to date.
I'd have preferred to go with a more risk averse signing of perhaps conforto for short term or beni again if that's the type of player they wanted.
|
|
|
Post by julyanmorley on Dec 8, 2022 15:12:23 GMT -5
When a guy is defending his 35+ prospect rating for a guy that got a $90 million contract, I think we have a one man's modus ponens is another man's modus tollens situation.
|
|
|
Post by chr31ter on Dec 8, 2022 15:13:17 GMT -5
By the way... not all of the quotes from scouts are bad...
Everyone I spoke with likes his swing and thinks he has average raw power, which if tapped into would translate to the 18-20 homer area that he has already demonstrated. A rival exec with a rosier projection put it this way: "Our evals think he can really hit ... a little rich but not totally out of bounds if you're REALLY buying into the bat."
There's chatter from informed sources that Boston is convinced that Yoshida's bat is potentially special, and a couple sources thought there was interest in the general area of what Boston paid from at least one other club, though I couldn't find that team(s).
|
|
|
Post by scottysmalls on Dec 8, 2022 15:17:52 GMT -5
Teams disagree on (international) free agent valuation. More at 6.
|
|
|
Post by briam on Dec 8, 2022 15:19:17 GMT -5
By the way... not all of the quotes from scouts are bad... Everyone I spoke with likes his swing and thinks he has average raw power, which if tapped into would translate to the 18-20 homer area that he has already demonstrated. A rival exec with a rosier projection put it this way: "Our evals think he can really hit ... a little rich but not totally out of bounds if you're REALLY buying into the bat." There's chatter from informed sources that Boston is convinced that Yoshida's bat is potentially special, and a couple sources thought there was interest in the general area of what Boston paid from at least one other club, though I couldn't find that team(s). Yup it pretty much comes down to just how good his bat is, which we all pretty much figured. Don’t think it’s unreasonable he gets to 10 WAR over the life of the deal but if he struggles to really hit he gives you absolutely nothing due to his lack of tools.
|
|
|
Post by manfred on Dec 8, 2022 15:24:37 GMT -5
That summary is less scary than the lede. I am still cautiously optimistic about this guy, and beyond that, I view him as a potential fun guy to watch and follow. Losing most of the players I love make this team hard to watch, but I can imagine tuning in to see what our wee new LF (?) does.
|
|
|