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ashbury

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Everything posted by ashbury

  1. ashbury
    Under Molitor: not make baserunning mistakes like we saw today. I'm hopeful that Rocco isn't quite so doctrinaire. Figure out what the players can do, not hang them for what they don't.
  2. ashbury
    Wait, so you're not expecting a team batting average of .107 to be sustained over the entire season?
  3. ashbury
    Your dad's 96? My dad's 96! Amazing.
  4. ashbury
    I looked him up on Out Of The Park 20 just now. His initial contract request was $4.4M. I did not pursue it further.
  5. ashbury
    Gee whiz, I didn't think at first to look up the league as a whole for this situation. Man on 3rd with 2 out, the MLB OPS is .864, versus .728 for all situations. Lots of sac flies result in higher batting/slugging averages. Nothing to see here, IMO.
  6. ashbury
    Slicing and dicing the data can lead to insight, but sometimes you just have to shrug and figure that SSS is getting in the way. He has 2750 career PA, and the situation you pointed out is just 140. Taking 140 PA for any player, in a variety of seemingly random ways, will usually lead to some kind of anomaly, such as a terrible inability to hit on Thursday afternoons but not nights. His OPS for overall RISP in 893 PA is slightly higher than with bases empty, which is about what to expect of the league as a whole. He's good in the clutch, just like most players who make it to this level. Aside from SSS, my first reaction to the stat with a runner at 3rd base and less than 2 outs was "well, maybe that's what can happen when the coach tells the pitcher, 'whatever you do, don't walk this guy.'."
  7. ashbury
    Not even a minor-league contract. I suppose one was offered and he said no thanks. The end, if this is what it is, is a bit unusual for someone that age, but I'm sure not unique.
  8. ashbury
    That's a good observation for any position, but especially at catcher. On b-r.com play index, the 26 MLB players who played at least 81 games in 2018 at catcher had a median OPS of around .730. Maybe a more careful analysis would give a slightly different result (e.g. the Twins' nominal backup was in this list while our starter was not, due to injury), but this quick-and-dirty approach is probably close.
  9. ashbury
    Did I miss seeing a chart of Kluber's called strikes? It would be interesting to know if he and his battery mate stole any.
  10. ashbury
    2018 MLB splits for ERA: March/April: 4.12 May: 4.05 June 4.05 July: 4.42 August 4.14 September/October: 4.15 I'm not seeing this short-lived cold-weather trend. Maybe that one month when it's pretty sure to be hot, OTOH....
  11. ashbury
  12. ashbury
    The word "scholarship" was bandied about during the end of the Terry Ryan era. That's kind of what you're describing with the guys you mention - extenuating circumstances where patience might be rewarded with good performance later on in the season. Patience, scholarship, long leash - I think we're talking about the same thing, give or take.
  13. ashbury
    Pseudo's response last night had the gist. "Long leash" wasn't a very helpful phrase to use because it carries multiple meanings. In-game, yes, a pitcher likely won't be able to shrug off a poor beginning to his stint on the mound. "I just don't have a feel for my curveball today," if that's the kind of excuse that's given - "well, you'd better find it, because I don't have someone else I can bring in right now" would be the response to that inanity. A pitcher who is brought in had better produce, but if he doesn't, he may just have to gut it out. But, from the medium-term perspective, a guy can't just be shoved to the more remote part of the bullpen and used only in blowout situations while he works out his problems. He has to be replaced by another pitcher, and either goes to the IL, or to AAA if he has options remaining, or else will have to be disposed of in some manner. Or else, a 12th pitcher is brought in, probably at the cost of losing a position player to waivers, or else at the cost of putting a useful position player like Cave or Astudillo at AAA. We won't go with 11 pitchers for very long in any case, but when we go to 12 the same logic will apply, because the trend has been toward 13.
  14. ashbury
    Then we're sending you to Rochester. See you in September, maybe.
  15. ashbury
    I'm impressed if they are going with 11 pitchers. Even with all the off-days early in the season, the default seems to have become 12, going to 13 when the games begin to bunch up. This is lean and mean, allowing a chance for a more productive bench. It means no pitcher gets a long leash, if not ready to produce right out of the gate. I like this.
  16. ashbury
    I enjoyed watching Kent Hrbek fool around at shortstop during fielding practice, back in the day. Cruz in CF is about on a par with that.
  17. ashbury
    Irrelevant? In 2018, Boston led the Grapefruit League with a 22-9 record. Look how the season turned out for them. Houston was second at 21-9, and they had a good season too. In third place was Baltimore, who... um, errr, never mind..............
  18. ashbury
  19. ashbury
    Twins' season over.
  20. ashbury
    Sh! Sh!
  21. ashbury
    Thad Levine is 47. He's getting a little old for knee pants by now. You became too accustomed to Fernando Rodney. If the closer does his job, there won't be another inning.
  22. ashbury
    Unless there's a recent change, up through the first month of the season it's the previous season's records that determine the waiver claim order. So, yes.
  23. ashbury
    If the Orioles are the only team who would have an interest, then that is that. But if some other team, with a lower waiver claim, also would like a first baseman, then our FO can talk turkey with them.
  24. ashbury
    Are there stats on the number of mid-inning pitching changes? Bringing in a new pitcher to start an inning seems more prevalent than in years past, but that move costs little to nothing in terms of play pace.
  25. ashbury
    Couldn't agree more. For me, the payoff from a relentless emphasis on positional flexibility is the freedom to assign one roster spot to someone with a bat this good. (We hope that Cruz is still that guy.) A corollary that I mention now and then is that I never again want to invest scarce resources in a stud-hitting catcher. If one develops, great, but don't trade for one, don't pay big FA bucks for one, probably don't sign one you developed to an extension. Catchers need days off defensively, and to have one good enough to DH is a big roster challenge. If, say, Ryan Jeffers's bat develops, don't refrain from having a good DH - you want a DH so good that Jeffers sits on his days off anyway. But I've digressed...
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