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ashbury

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Everything posted by ashbury

  1. ashbury
    I think you have adopted a clearer view of reality than the people whose view of reality is less clear than yours.
  2. ashbury
    Moderator's note: I infer a sense of satire here, but let's be careful please.
  3. ashbury
    Moderator's note: I infer a sense of satire with that last part, but let's be careful please.
  4. ashbury
    They started him in high-A and moved him up to AA his first season (signed late in 2009, apparently). Even had a taste at AAA. The next year he started at AAA. Age 23 season. Got injured, they shut him down in July; his first 10 starts had decent results (3.60 ERA), it started to go downhill after that so his total numbers weren't good. TJ surgery. Returned pretty fast, about 12 months later, pitched some rehab-style innings, plus the AFL later. Back in AAA for age 25 season. Even guys like me who pay overly much attention to age-and-level don't believe that someone gets much better (and closer to major-league ready) simply by aging a year. They weren't aggressive about pushing him to the majors post-TJ, but pre-TJ he was on a fast track (as befits a #22 overall college draft pick), and I can't see how they can be accused of dawdling given the injury.
  5. ashbury
    I may be wrong but I expect the question to sort itself out, all by itself, by Opening Day. One pitcher isn't physically ready to go, one pitcher has a putrid spring, and boom, you have your 5-man rotation pretty much set with maybe only one semi-obvious decision remaining to make. The mid-February discussion is interesting but I have trouble getting heavily invested in it.
  6. ashbury
    I've never met you but I love you, Madre Dos.
  7. ashbury
    Not a deal breaker, but when you move a player down the defensive spectrum, it means he's now competing for a job with players who are there more for their bat. Guys who can track a ball in the outfield, say, but lack the elite speed/vision/arm to play CF. Better defense in LF may play a small role in roster decisions, but not like it would have in CF. I don't think anyone is saying Rosario should change his batting approach if he's in LF; he should do whatever works best. But his batting skills may not be elite enough, compared to other options of players for that same position. And power will be one of the big difference makers. That's the sense I take such statements as "That means he’ll have to show he can hit for power." Not so much he should change, but can he do it? As for table setters for the power hitters who follow, I'll be happy to see the team solve that problem once it proves to be one.
  8. ashbury
    If, as you say, it's becoming a gray area in the entire industry, then maybe it's a topic for another book, but not an intentional misrepresentation in a book about GMs through history, as the word disingenuous suggests. And in that light... Moderator's note: Let's tone down the personal accusations, please.
  9. ashbury
    IMO it's clearly a mechanism for batters to make sure they are composed and ready for each pitch. By now it's become simply a crutch, and/or evidence to a coach who has been on his case that his head is in the game. If the rules forbade it, they would all find a different mechanism instead (popping oneself on top of the helmet, for instance), and the game would move faster with no loss of focus by the batters. Ditto for pitchers who have developed similar routines between pitches, pawing at the mound and so forth. It's gotten out of hand on both sides, baseball has the ability to add a rule when things get out of hand, no big deal.
  10. ashbury
    Wouldn't be the first off-by-one bug I ever introduced.
  11. ashbury
    Meh. Mauer's soft. Martinez is a gamer. / and if anyone takes this bait...
  12. ashbury
    Was Bill Tuttle really that slow?
  13. ashbury
    I'm not blown away either. Someone asked what the pedigree is. This seems pertinent. Pedigree doesn't assure success.
  14. ashbury
    I hesitate to interrupt the genital hijinks to get back to the topic, but I must. The pedigree also needs to include seasons at age 24 and 26 where he pitched 200+ innings with better than league-average ERA. That represents a valuable property; being league average at an important position is always a trade chip if nothing else. His record says to me, when healthy he can pitch. Health has been the issue ever since, not the pedigree. Four years of bad health (I'm going to chalk up 2011 to some kind of degeneration) leads me to be skeptical, but along the lines Brock says above I am content to let the new on-field brain trust make the judgement this time.
  15. ashbury
    I also missed that the tangent had taken on a life of its own and I contributed to it. Sorry. The tangent had a defensible connection to start, drawing a contrast to Mauer's propensity for walking versus Walker's perceived need to walk more. To the extent that connection needs to be pursued, so be it, but I agree (speaking now as a site moderator), let's stick to the thread subject of the players in this segment of the top 20.
  16. ashbury
    And I'm saying that if the pitcher has decided he's not going to let you beat him in this situation, you're playing into his hands to get aggressive at the nibbling.
  17. ashbury
    Moderator's note: Both of you please tone down the personal attacks a notch, and then another notch again.
  18. ashbury
    Agreed. Anyone would. Unfortunately the opposing pitcher has some say in the matter.
  19. ashbury
    I hope not. (With reference to today's news about the torn meniscus.)
  20. ashbury
    He's 19. Is there really concern that he's going to stop developing? Add a pitch when he's 20, add another when he's 21, fiddle around with a fourth pitch while he's 22-23, and you've got something. No, that's not how development works, on a clock like that, but the point is he's got time like any 19 year old prospect does. A year's a long time at this age. He has to make use of the time of course.
  21. ashbury
    If that's the upside, a prospect with a ceiling of maybe a utility player if he makes it at all, then I'm less enthused about investing any time in Big Pelf that comes at any expense in development of our younger players. Has to be completely garbage time when he's providing us "some value".
  22. ashbury
    Checking quickly, of the five guys at the top of the AL for offensive WAR (just to pick a handy ranking) in 2014, all but Trout had more GDP than Mauer. Doesn't correlate to much of anything, IMO.
  23. ashbury
    That's a mischaracterization of the only quote I have seen from Ryan on the subject. http://aarongleeman.com/tag/terry-ryan/
  24. ashbury
    I thought it was pretty clear that Chief was responding to the post just above his, which had said in part, "I'm starting Schafer in CF. He's got the defense and has shown that with AB's, he can hit." The question of sustainability was already implied. Not that it matters, nor that Chief needs or wants me to clarify, nor... oh, meh.
  25. ashbury
    What will they do? I think they don't know for certain either, aside from expecting one of the options you named to pan out. Maybe they are banking on scooping up 2015's version of Sam Fuld on the waiver wire again. As for should, Hicks succeeding is the most desirable outcome, therefore it's what I'd be focused on. My impression was that last season they tried hard to reduce the pressure and hoped he would blossom. That can work. But there's something to be said for not worrying about a guy who thrives only under low pressure, so I'm half glad the effort didn't work. With a new manager and some new coaches on staff, I'm going to hope for tough love and increased pressure on Hicks from Molitor, that this is his year, make-or-break. http://media.giphy.com/media/ZiQp2QhsFKPyo/giphy.gif Because of the risk that getting Hicks going doesn't work this time either, I want a better backup plan than we currently have, probably via a minor trade. Schafer is the least lousy of the ones we currently have.
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