ashbury

It's not an argument I would try to make. It's worth bearing in mind that Kepler is two months younger than Cave. So why does he have more major league experience? Being in the Yankees organization might have robbed Cave of some early opportunity, but if you look at them side by side (since they were in the same age-season each year) when there were near-MLB ready, it's interesting. At age 22, both were playing primarily in AA, and Kepler hit much better there. At age 23, Cave split time between AA and AAA, and put up numbers that were similar to Kepler's in the majors. If Kepler has had more experience in the majors, it's arguable that it's because he earned it. Meanwhile Cave was learning too, just not on the big stage At age 24, Cave again started at AA and got promoted to AAA mid-season, while Kepler was in the majors. Cave's numbers were quite good, but his AAA numbers were even better than at AA, which always raises an eyebrow for me - his batting average when he put the ball in play (BABIP) at AAA was over .400, which is abnormally high, while it had been closer to .300 at AA. I don't believe in luck, in baseball, but some kinds of production don't seem to be sustainable or reproducible consistently, and BABIP far above (or below) .300 is one such thing. Kepler's low BABIP is a long-discussed topic, which I won't belabor now, but his other major league stats, adjusted for the difference in competition level at AA/AAA, were at least as good as Cave's in my opinion. Today, at age 25, Cave has had a nice year splitting between AAA and the majors. Again, his raw numbers look better at the higher league, and again it's built on a somewhat abnormally high BABIP above .350 - he's highest on the team in this odd category, unless you count the departed Ryan LaMarre and a couple of plate appearances by Kyle Gibson. Perhaps he proves to be one of the rare players capable of sustaining that, but I look for his batting line to disappoint somewhat, next season. Kepler by contrast has, no question, stagnated and disappointed this year. Even so, his power production has kept the comparison to Cave close. In this year-by-year comparison, I see less reason to give credit to Cave for having had fewer opportunities at the MLB level. Kepler earned his promotion, Cave lagged by just a little. Forecasting baseball is hard. Anyone really good at it is making a bundle in a major league front office. But I see as much reason to anticipate further professional growth from Max as from Jake.

They choked.

Don't forget the swan songs.

Congratulations, Carole, and good luck in the drawing..

Not all conservatives consider the 2nd Amendment paramount, and I should have stated that more clearly. Not all believe in Stand Your Ground, and I was clear enough to state that. There's probably an overlap between 2nd Amendment absolutists and Stand Your Ground, but one does not imply the other. If someone takes Ford's allegations at face value, then my "I wonder" is answered in a way that the rest doesn't apply to that person. So there's three ways in which I don't suggest anywhere nearly "all" of any group are involved. I also don't know Kavanaugh's stance on Stand Your Ground. Maybe he would disappoint that faction if he ever had to rule on a case that involved it. But, someone who is predisposed to take a Stand Your Ground claim at face value, on the "perceived" nature of the threat, but is un-disposed to take Ford's allegation seriously because it's just her say-so, is seeing daylight between two points of view that I don't. As much as anything, I just thought it was interesting to consider if shooting an attempted rapist is covered by Stand Your Ground, and if the woman's "perceived" danger to her life was sufficient, using Ford and Kavanaugh merely as concrete examples. But, since I struck a nerve, I think I'll also pursue this line of discussion with other groups I discuss current events with. It looks as interesting as I had hoped.

He's been good in few-week stretches before. The most recent set of 3 games certainly doesn't hurt his chances for next year, but I'd still consider him just a candidate. He gave up a run in consecutive outings before this.

Walk-off losses also suggest an inability to put the other team away earlier in the game. A weak offense asks too much of the bullpen to throw zeroes night after night.

FTFY.

Do you have a lawyer in mind whom you would use for something more complex than writing a will or looking over the papers when buying a house? I don't. If I were a woman unexpectedly in need of assistance in bringing forward a case with sexual aspects and with national implications, Stormy Daniels might come to mind and I'd reach out to her lawyer, rather than someone in my hometown. Avenetti has at least started to learn the ropes. I guess there's Gloria Allred too - or would you be skeptical in that case too?

I just had an epiphany. Kavanaugh's supporters are looking forward to years of, among other things, full-throated support of the Second Amendment. Many of the same are in favor of Stand Your Ground laws - "a right by which a person may defend themselves or others (right of self-defense) against threats or perceived threats, even to the point of applying lethal force, regardless of whether safely retreating from the situation might have been possible", to borrow wording from that fount of legal precision, Wikipedia - it at least matches my general understanding. I wonder how this faction would have felt if young Christine Blasey Ford* had extricated herself from being pinned down on a bed with a hand smothering her, and gone to find her purse, and taken out her handgun, and shot young Brett Michael Kavanaugh right between the eyes. I mean, if someone fears for their life, you take them at their word when they invoke this defense, right? Just like we take her at her word, now. * OK, she might have been too young to legally carry a firearm. That's the technicality you're going to use?

Been meaning to post this:

The Twins cut bait with him on March 11. Not sure where the Twins stood in the Grapefruit League standings on that day. There's always the DL if 25-man roster issues are forecast to be a problem. Sanchez made his first appearance for the Braves on April 2. Looks like the DL didn't turn out to be needed.

I keep thinking that talent evaluation is a big problem in this organization. Sanchez might be an instructive example: apparently one group of evaluators, looking at outside talent, decided he was worth a try. Once inside the system, presumably a different group of evaluators quickly decided, "nope, he can't help". Seems like a developing pattern of mis-guessing on pitchers inside the system. Dereck Rogriguez, JT Chargois. The guys doing the evaluating up-close say to pass. But then I remember Tyler Kinley and Justin Haley, guys where the outside evaluators had a chance to shine. So I just don't know where the problem resides. But the overall pattern of success and failure looks not much better than if I gave it a shot just from looking at stats and public rankings.

Unless Mitch "Wild Thing" Williams or Ricky Vaughn happened to be the topic.

I see no reason this can't be addressed within the organization. There are many fans at Rochester who deserve a promotion, and probably quite a few at Chattanooga who could make the jump easily. They have thriving economies and surely some number there can afford $2000 in support of the big league team. Come on, FO, let's make this happen.

Moderator's note: The purpose isn't to pick on this post specifically, as there is a lot of it in the political threads here, but please avoid language that de-humanizes an individual or group of people. If you wouldn't stand for certain language being used against someone you support, don't use it against someone you don't. The site's Comment Policy is pretty clear about respectful posting, and if folks can't dial it back a bit then the moderators will need to be a bit stricter and start handing out warning points. 'Nuff said.

On west coast time this week, tuning in late, let's see how the Vikes are doing.

The panel would also have accepted, "Yes. Definately." edited by USAFChief

Can anyone do Chief's work better than Chief himself, or should we just sit back and let him do it?

No one's got a monopoly on clear-eyed recognition of reality.

I hadn't looked at his splits lately. It's interesting: against lefty pitchers he's kind of holding his own, with a .248 BA and enough goodies to amount to a .758 OPS, with a normal enough looking BABIP to suggest luck isn't playing much role either direction. If he was killing righties, on top of that, then he'd be immensely valuable. He's not, and thus he's not. His BABIP is gruesomely low, a topic that has been discussed greatly, elsewhere. Is it a flukey SSS against lefties, or a flukey less-SSS against righties? That's for hitting coach Rowson to figure out, I suppose. I tend to think there's a tweak to his game, against the right-handers, that remains to be found and will unlock his potential.

Is this some kind of joke, or are you serious?

We have different definitions of rebuilding, so I think I'll confine myself to describing that difference and then move on. To me, the rebuild was committed to, the moment when Denard Span was traded for a low-minors pitcher in November 2012. Other moves in that vein came soon afterward. Terry Ryan would never utter the word "rebuild", but the plan was clear - acquire established major league talent for a 3 year interim period to tide the team over until a new wave of young players could begin to make their presence felt. As long as the focus is on the future, making no moves that mortgage anything in favor of current results, that's a rebuild. The old front office and the new one have both operated generally along those lines. In that light, it's not necessary to have a major league roster be devoid of established veterans for a certain period of time, to qualify as a rebuild. To me, that's a "Charlie Hustle" type of move by a front office, to showily demonstrate that they really are rebuilding - but using Josh Willingham and Ryan Doumit types suffices, as an alternate means of covering that span of time. The hard work is always the acquisition of the young talent - how they get integrated at the major league level is a secondary consideration. As I said above, I don't see a lengthy period of bad results by top-end prospects when they reach the majors as particularly necessary, nor desirable, if AAA is firing on all cylinders. Different teams do it differently.

It's up to the Front Office to stop the yawning. One key acquisition won't be enough. But two or three will start to move the needle, given that a somewhat solid base of contributors is on board. I'm looking for FalVine to do something impressive, rather than merely setting up infrastructure.

I don't take issue with much of the rest you said, but I don't like accepting major league losses at this stage of the rebuild that started way back in 2012. If AA or AAA isn't preparing the near-ready players for life in the majors, then address THAT. The minors are where players belong until they prove ready. If the competition there isn't quite stiff enough, it's the duty of the coaching staff to gently (or not so gently) point out to the stud prospect the ways he's sliding by and not doing what's necessary to succeed at the next level. Other teams seem to have players come up and perform. I've been bothered a long time by the need for our youngsters to suffer through rookie jitters like May, Berrios and now Gonsalves demonstrated. Maybe Gonsalves has been stubborn and didn't listen when his AAA coach tried to tell him - if so, that's partly on the player but partly on the coach. I'm guilty of making assumptions and extrapolations here, but I don't think I'm way off base in this. Kohl Stewart expressed surprise at coming out from way out in the bullpen to make his second-inning start the other day - they've been doing the Opener in Rochester too - so where is the preparation, for all the quotidian little things that make up a major-leaguer's experience? It's more of a stretch to guess that Gonsalves is shocked to discover that major league hitters are less likely to go fishing at mediocre breaking pitches way down in the dirt, but all the evidence seems to point that way.