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Post by natesp4 on Aug 10, 2018 19:25:55 GMT -5
I'm definitely 100% happy for Butler getting back up to the majors for another stint, but this is the exact scenario where I really wish Matt Spring was still kicking around to finally get a shot. It sucks he never even got a September call up.
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Post by natesp4 on Aug 8, 2018 19:48:36 GMT -5
Blame Canada!!! Blame Canada!! (South Park reference) Actually, as you guys probably know, I listen to the other team unless Eck is in the booth. I think overall Toronto, Seattle and Baltimore seem to have the best feeds for me. Somewhat related, fangraphs just ran an interesting article ranking quality of the center field camera shots www.fangraphs.com/blogs/ranking-baseballs-center-field-camera-shots-2018-update/Sox ranked near the top
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Post by natesp4 on Jul 1, 2018 7:26:54 GMT -5
Having three guys added to the system with ceilings of a 7 definitely has me excited. That combined with Danny Diaz and Antoni Flores playing well and the upcoming July 2nd guys and the system could start looking good again.
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Post by natesp4 on Jun 2, 2018 14:04:10 GMT -5
Frankie Montas is back in the majors with the As, and as a starter surprisingly enough. Pitched pretty well in his first start, not necessarily a ton to love in the overall profile at this point other than that he still sits upper 90s, but... he still sits upper 90s, so he'll get plenty of chances. 8IP 0R 7H 0BB 2Ks last night. Obviously not anything special with the Ks but nice to see him not walk anyone after walking 5.6 per 9 innings last year with Oakland.
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Post by natesp4 on May 27, 2018 14:16:40 GMT -5
Karma for not televising the alumni game. That was a bummer. I really wanted to see that game. It is going to be televised. They posted on Twitter that it'll be on NESN multiple times starting the 30th.
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Post by natesp4 on May 11, 2018 16:57:57 GMT -5
There is no way Shaw is the best defensive 3B in NL. Yeah, obviously not. But he's put up good metrics three years in a row now after being a first base only prospect. That's more the point I was trying to emphasize as being encouraging.
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Post by natesp4 on May 11, 2018 15:54:45 GMT -5
Checking in on a few guys who I'm still rooting hard for:
Bryce Brentz now with the Mets is doing the exact same thing as last year: .271/.336/.542 with 7 HR compared to .271/.334/.529 last year
Noe Ramirez with a 2.68 FIP in 18.2 IP with the Angels. K/9 are up to 12.5 right now but he's also sporting a 1.607 WHIP.
Travis Shaw is putting up much more reasonable (but still good) numbers this year. .237/.318/.467 with 7 HR. According to baseball-reference, he's also graded out as the best defensive 3B in the NL. Obviously tiny sample for defensive metrics and I haven't watched his games to see if it matches the eye test, but still encouraging nonetheless.
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Post by natesp4 on May 11, 2018 15:32:00 GMT -5
Both Jalen Beeks and Santiago Espinal were featured in Carson Cistulli's Fringe Five this week. Espinal was also listed as a Next Five choice last week. www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-fringe-five-baseballs-most-compelling-fringe-prospects-107/#more-283795The choice to include Beeks surprised me a bit, just because I think his prospect pedigree is too high to be included as a "fringe" prospect. I know Cistulli's criteria is only that they can't be on the national prospect lists which Beeks is not, but it's still odd to have the #8 prospect be considered fringe. That's perhaps a better indicator of how weak the system currently is. Espinal is much more of a classic pick. A tiny bit old for his level (0.5 yrs) with a refined approach, some new found power, and solid defense.
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Post by natesp4 on May 9, 2018 21:59:58 GMT -5
Every series win is so much fun and so exciting with this group, but also hurts even more imagining what could've been with Kyrie and Hayward.
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Post by natesp4 on May 9, 2018 21:23:17 GMT -5
It's always bizarre to me when a guy like Jaylen Brown who shoots 40% from 3 stinks at free throws.
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Post by natesp4 on May 5, 2018 18:05:46 GMT -5
Pujols has a 10 year $10M "personal services contract" that takes place once his regular contract expires. (According to Cot's Baseball Contracts) I don't think he should have to worry about money. I get the sentiment here and it's an easy one to have from the point of view as a normal person, but this last ~4 years 124 million on his deal is money that he 100% earned. Baseball has always had an exaggerated version of the "paying for past production" model, and it's not his fault the Angels were dumb enough to pay him 30 million dollars at age 41. However, I think your point does nullify my suggestion that he does what A-Rod did when he retired.
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Post by natesp4 on May 5, 2018 16:49:16 GMT -5
I wasn't sure where to put this, so i'll just dump it here in the gameday thread in case anyone else is interested. www.fangraphs.com/tht/an-exploration-of-mlb-umpires-strike-zones/Really interesting article on assessing the strike zones of different umpires. I'm curious what percentage of hitters incorporate data like this into their normal game preparation and really study an umpire's tendencies. Also, anytime I come across such comprehensive data like this I try to imagine what a field day Ted Williams would've had with it.
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Post by natesp4 on May 5, 2018 16:40:59 GMT -5
Pujols hit number 3000 last night. Now he should retire, but he won't. Not when you're making that much money. At this point, it hurts to watch him keep declining as a player and keep it going. He could always do something similar to what A-Rod did though. I think as long as he keeps putting up the old-fashioned counting stats, he'll keep playing. He also hasn't yet been as atrocious as he was last year. 0.2 bWAR through a month certainly puts him on a better pace than the -1.8 bWAR he mustered last year.
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Post by natesp4 on Apr 13, 2018 20:58:42 GMT -5
I was looking at Porcello's great start to the season and couldn't help but think about how he's starting a trend of being great every other year. Then I noticed this:
Beckett Up Years: 2007, 2009, 2011 Buchholz Up Years: 2013, 2015 Porcello Up Years: 2016, 2018
I'm not saying it's a curse, but...it's a curse.
(P.S. I know I'm ignoring the 2010 Buchholz season which ruins the trend, but what conspiracy doesn't leave out an important fact)
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Post by natesp4 on Apr 10, 2018 20:39:24 GMT -5
Jeremy Hazelbaker traded to the Rays. He's done some mashing both in the majors and AAA the past few years (although last years 1.020 OPS with Arizona was probably assisted just a bit by his .533 BAbip). Would've liked to see him traded to the A's so his career can finally take off, but the Rays are probably the next best thing.
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Post by natesp4 on Apr 9, 2018 8:30:27 GMT -5
Today's Cup of Coffee had me actually lol'ing at work with the back to back to back jabs at the new minor league extra innings rules. Well done.
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Post by natesp4 on Apr 1, 2018 8:58:19 GMT -5
I'll second this. Not only are the stars playing amazing, but bottom 6 guys like Riley Nash and Schaller are having career years. The backup goalie is playing well enough to be a starter. For the second year in a row, they sign a college kid who immediately comes in and dominates. I'll also point out that everyone should watch what Bergeron is doing this year (and past years). He wins the Selke every year and I still think he's horrifically underrated. He can take any player in the league and completely shut them down, while still tossing up ~30 goals.
I think we have a quite a few fans here on the site who would love to post about the B's more often, but there's not a ton to say. We're best at over-analyzing things and complaining about things here. It's hard to over-analyze such a fast paced game and there's nothing to complain about with this team right now.
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Post by natesp4 on Feb 25, 2018 14:06:51 GMT -5
Quite a haul to give up for a rental, but they do get to dump Beleskey and get some value out of Spooner before he's gone in free agency. They definitely needed to push in the chips this season while Chara and Bergeron are still playing elite hockey.
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Post by natesp4 on Feb 25, 2018 14:00:23 GMT -5
Nick Lovullo's scouting report on his page misspells "Diamondbacks" and his birthday misspells "December"
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Post by natesp4 on Feb 18, 2018 17:20:20 GMT -5
Agree. This is the obvious DFA for Martinez. Jerez's stuff was apparently much improved in the second half last year. The fact that they bothered adding him to the 40 to keep him from hitting free agency when they already had such middle relief depth (compared to Brentz, where the depth would be added over the offseason and might not happen) says a lot. Would they be better off seeing if Brentz crushes it in Spring Training and perhaps get something for him or DFA him right away (presuming JDM signs with them within the next week or two) and receive less or nothing. Timing won't matter much with a player of Brentz's pedigree. He'll net cash considerations or a very minor prospect until he proves himself in a sustained major league sample.
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Post by natesp4 on Jan 22, 2018 18:21:17 GMT -5
In order to comply with the new 2018 BBWAA rule to make votes public:
Bonds Clemens Thome Edgar Mussina Schilling Rolen Chipper Manny Larry Walker
I left Vlad off the ballot in order to vote Manny because I'm concerned Manny will fall off the ballot. Vlad is the only guy who I'm certain won't get 100% of the votes, but is also a lock to get in some day. If I really had a vote I'd probably have more of a moral dilemma leaving off a deserving candidate for a multiple time offender, but since I just watched highlights of Manny in 2004 he gets the bonus nostalgia points.
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Post by natesp4 on Jan 21, 2018 10:11:25 GMT -5
I'll stray away from the steroid debate, as I think at this point everyone has their opinion on it set in stone. But Omar Vizquel being ~20% higher than Scott Rolen is weird to me. It seems like they're giving credit to Vizquel for defense and not doing the same for Rolen. I get that elite defense up the middle is more important, but Rolen played an elite third base AND could mash. In terms of career WAR (70.0), 7 yr-peak (43.5), and JAWS (56.8) he would be an above average HoF 3B.
Perhaps they're giving extra credit to Vizquel for longevity, but I'm not sure how much extra credit being a replacement level player for 6 years should garner. He put up 9 years with less than 1 WAR compared to Rolen's 2. I'm not trying to diminish Vizquel's career here, he might still be on my ballot. He just stuck out as a comparable to Rolen due to his defense.
(Also, perhaps it would be fun to set up a poll to figure out who the Sox Prospects Forum would elect?)
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Post by natesp4 on Jan 13, 2018 9:48:57 GMT -5
Well you can always handle it with some advice from Mr. Pedroia and Mr. Cora. "Pedroia: I hate flying. That's my biggest thing. ... Alex Cora, who is one of my best friends and was with a couple of years ago, he used a line from "Rocky" on it and I still kind of live by it. I looked at him one time and I was scared to death. And he goes, "Hey man: If we die, we die." And I'm like, "That's a good point." blog.masslive.com/redsoxmonster/2010/03/dustin_pedroia_is_afraid_of_fl.html
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Post by natesp4 on Oct 21, 2017 20:28:05 GMT -5
Not at all on topic but all I can think about is how amazing it'd be to see Mookie take a meaningful postseason at bat. Some day
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Post by natesp4 on Sept 23, 2017 0:28:22 GMT -5
Question for whoever has followed the prospects long enough:
Subban was essentially the Blake Swihart of hockey as a prospect right? Guy with great athleticism who got put a position due to what seemed like a great fit. However not much experience there and didn't quite catch on as well and as quickly as one would hope. (Obviously a difference since Swihart may have ended up fine without the injuries).
It's a bummer to see it a consideration at all that he may not be an NHL goalie. It's weird with goalies because you don't know when to give up on their potential. He could underwhelm until 30 and suddenly become an elite goaltender.
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