ashbury

Insurance for the ninth, please.

Flattered that you would remember, and I guess conversely it means I should bang that drum even less frequently. I'll just respond to these bits of data, though, to say that the benchmark which Law chose (.400 OBP, 25 HR in the majors) is his and not yours, nor perhaps did he mean to suggest ERod's the next Juan Soto, but when I looked up last season's MLB qualifiers who reached both those levels, I didn't need to sift their minor league stats looking for hopeful signs for the most part - they simply were hitting .300 at age 20 or whenever their minor league career was (the outlier among the five was Aaron Judge, who is a bit of a unicorn himself). There are not many guys like them. But with them, there was none of this .214 and .228 stuff that needed to be explained away. Just based on the comps I could find, ERod is looking like something else than Law suggested. I literally don't know what. Okay, one more (more) thing. Since I'm interested in comps at the moment, I went back in time 10 years and took a look at who hit .300 in the low-A Midwest League that year. Among the names: Byron Buxton, Carlos Correa, Jorge Polanco, Pretty cool.

They'll have to keep an eye on this. I can relate from personal experience that it can be a chronic condition that follows you the rest of your life.

But then you can use the same logic to ask why he'd turn down $7.2M just to get $7.3M, and then 7.1 to get 7.2. At some point the agent has to dig in their heels to stop a race to the bottom. Conversely the team has to watch out for winning the battle but losing the war by having a player sign but be disgruntled to start with, and then once again when free agency is gained. And with a top draft pick, the long view has to take more of a prominent role than some 4th rounder. Bottom line, I really don't know what the negotiations are like right now. We'll maybe be able to infer some things at 5:01 pm Eastern Time on Tuesday.

We'll find out I guess Folks here like to accuse the front office of believing they're the smartest people in the room. But trading away Gray? That's a smartest guy in the room kind of stunt to try, and it could completely blow up in their faces. I don't see it.

5 p.m. ET on Tuesday, July 25.

A page at mlb.com confirms this. 5 pm ET, July 25. I hope Jenkins is aware, otherwise he could miss out on our millions. Tick Tock, My Friends.

I had the pleasure of watching the Cards against these selfsame White Sox a week or three ago. The "pleasure" came from watching two weak teams play an evenly matched game with the home team coming out on top in late innings. As a purist I wasn't too impressed with the bullpen arms each team brought out, purely judging by results. But there was a lot of action.

Above average, no. That's pretty elite company. Last year the guys who did that were named Judge (overachieving this by just a bit ), Goldschmidt, Y Alvarez, Soto, and Freeman. I took a look at those guys' minor league records and, without getting lost in the weeds too much, none of them had the low-BA high-OBP profile that our ERod does. I don't know who/what the comp for ERod should be, because he's pretty unique. But he's not hitting .300 in the minors like these top hitters were at similar times. The huge walk rate suggests an ability to wait for his pitch and then really wallop it, or else accept the walk if the pitcher won't pitch to him. And certainly the HR power is legit, but the low batting average is what's puzzling to me. The other explanation I can come up with is that there is a profile of pitches he just doesn't feel like he can handle, and at the minor league levels he's been at he's been able to spit on borderline pitches in those areas and deal with the ones he prefers. As he moves up, the pitchers get better and better at hitting their spots, and if he really has a hole in his swing somewhere, those pitchers will be able to exploit it more and more. Or he could, you know, learn to hit those pitches he currently doesn't feel comfortable with. I just don't know. It's a drum I try not to bang too often. I wouldn't trade him, he's too intriguing for that. But I'm very much an ERod skeptic. He doesn't have a lot of strong comps, which makes him a very interesting unicorn to watch. But it's an open question to me whether those huge numbers of walks remain walks, turn into hits, or turn into outs, as he moves up. What's the chance he turns into Joey Gallo? A lifetime OBP of only .325 or so, built with lots of walks on top of a low BA? An "above-average regular" (in his prime) who everyone loves to hate and everyone keeps waiting for a peak that never arrives?

Even the best teams find themselves in that situation now and then, but if that's your role on the roster, probably not the best time to be contacting a real estate agent about setting down roots locally.

"Worst loss yet": the imagined refrain tonight on While Sox Daily. Hey, a Twins fan can dream, right?

Man, I always hate when that happens too.

David Popkins plus Jake Rucker to the Rangers for their hitting coach?

Glad you enjoyed this outcome.

Welp. That'll do it.

How bad do you have to be going, to have Christian Vazquez be your pinch hitter?

All right, all right. My bad. Just one more.

Joining late. Just one good base hit. Come on. Just one.

Guess he doesn't know that Ortiz was not drafted by the Twins (or anybody, but he was a Mariners signing), but he gets an E for Effort.

Not that we don't, or didn't.

No doubt they have a lead but Julien is rising fast and still has 2+ months of the season remaining. If they slow down somewhat and Julien continues at his pace, he'll have the numbers that the award voters like. It could happen, sure. Longshot still. At a glance, Wil Myers in 2013 might be the model. Royce Lewis and Matt Wallner, probably no shot, even if Lewis comes back from injury and resumes his pace.

Switch hitting is great, if it provides proficiency against lefty and righty pitchers alike. If not, then it's no better than being a platoon bat. But the Cardinals will be expecting full value for him in trade, making him not much of a value. In 2019, his most recent season with any significant playing time in the minors, he was a force from both sides of the plate. As a major leaguer, he's been less than average against right-handed pitchers. That trend has continued in 2023. If he can't step up his production batting as a lefty, then he's just another platoon bat covering the smaller '"half" of the workload. Another "lefty killer" bat like Garlick and a parade of others, albeit with apparently better defense. If we're confident David Popkins can unlock the missing potential, where the mighty Cardinals braintrust has failed, then sure, trade away valuable assets for him. I'm skeptical.

Pretty good for a 44-year old! Welcome back to the organization, old man. (Hint: yet another mistaken link for a player. What is the process that leads to so much of this?)

Subsiding at that point, if I'm reading the NWS hourly forecast right. I think they'll get this game in.

Just to be contrary, I am not downvoting this post of yours.