10 Days of Walker

[kab21]

Right now Walker is a very interesting flyer in the system. You can focus on his production all you want but the poor plate discipline is going to lead to some big issues as he moves up in the minors and possibly as far as the majors.

[lightfoot789]

You can focus on his production all you want but the poor plate discipline is going to lead to some big issues as he moves up in the minors and possibly as far as the majors.

 

I'm just trying to get a grip on this plate discipline thing. Are we talking lack of Walks? Are we talking strike outs? He doesn't walk much and I agree with that being concerning.

 

Yet his OPS is best in the league (.881)! His OBP is a quality (.330)! His SLG% is best in the league (.551)!

He does strike out at a 22.3% rate, but that is not that bad for a slugger at any level. He improved that from 30% to 22% in one season. Why are people still overly concerned with his plate discipline when he has shown Major improvements in that area? What are you basing this poor plate discipline on? Are you comparing him with other sluggers in the minor leagues or non sluggers?

[kab21]

I'm just trying to get a grip on this plate discipline thing. Are we talking lack of Walks? Are we talking strike outs? He doesn't walk much and I agree with that being concerning.

 

Yet his OPS is best in the league (.881)! His OBP is a quality (.330)! His SLG% is best in the league (.551)!

He does strike out at a 22.3% rate, but that is not that bad for a slugger at any level. He improved that from 30% to 22% in one season. Why are people still overly concerned with his plate discipline when he has shown Major improvements in that area? What are you basing this poor plate discipline on? Are you comparing him with other sluggers in the minor leagues or non sluggers?

 

His K:BB ratio is awful. We don't have cool data like pitchFX but K:BB tells us that he is probably chasing a lot of pitches and/or having trouble making contact even with strikes. He has shown improvement which is encouraging but he is already striking out a lot against pitchers that don't have a quality breaking ball/fastball combo. That won't be true as he moves up to A+/AA ball and definitely not in the majors.

 

I'm definitely not comparing MLB K rates to low minors K rates. Most MLB'ers with high K rates didn't start having problems until high minors or MLB pitchers found the holes in their swing.

 

You are focused too much on K rates for comparable MiLB players. Goodrum (whom I don't like much), Kepler and harrison are all younger and all of them walk twice as much. And the K's are still a red flag for all 3 of them although not as big of an issue.

[diehardtwinsfan]

I'm just trying to get a grip on this plate discipline thing. Are we talking lack of Walks? Are we talking strike outs? He doesn't walk much and I agree with that being concerning.

 

Yet his OPS is best in the league (.881)! His OBP is a quality (.330)! His SLG% is best in the league (.551)!

He does strike out at a 22.3% rate, but that is not that bad for a slugger at any level. He improved that from 30% to 22% in one season. Why are people still overly concerned with his plate discipline when he has shown Major improvements in that area? What are you basing this poor plate discipline on? Are you comparing him with other sluggers in the minor leagues or non sluggers?

 

Here's the problem. He's going to hit AA in the next couple of years at which point, he's going to see curve balls that he has not seen before. Pitchers are going to be able to locate those said pitches, and if he cannot lay off of them, he's in trouble. He's an intriguing prospect, without a doubt, but he's going to have start walking more and swinging less or he won't make it past AA.

[cmathewson]

As long as the Twins continue to keep college guys in Low A, Twins college prospects will continue to be undervalued by outside observers like K-LAW. The alternative is to make them skip Low A, like Levi Michael. And that was a mistake. All things considered, I'd much rather err on the side of caution with prospects, and never mind the rankings. If he's good enough, he'll eventually get his propers, like Danny Valencia.

 

All that said, I think he's at least a month past the time I would have promoted him.

[amjgt]

Here's the problem with the Walker situation.... who's he replacing in Ft Meyers?

 

Buxton.... Obviously not

Mike Kvasnicka.... Probably not.

JD Williams... Maybe, but he just received a deserved promotion from CR

Vargas... Not unless he gets promoted

 

They only way Walker makes sense to promote is if it follows a FM promotion. Vargas probably deserves it and the options at First Base in NB aren't making anyone blush. But then you're running a 1B/DH/OF rotation for Walker. That might be what he ends up as eventually, but I doubt they want to shift him away from OF quite yet.

 

The other option is to promote Kvasnicka, who's been really good at FM this year. That frees up RF for Walker. There's playing time to be had at NB in the outfield since the incumbent RF there (Parraz) is in his late 20s and is only holding his own.

 

This armchair GM thinks that probably the best option.