ashbury

Great compilation of videos. This shows him at his best, as you say, but until they reach the majors that's what you go by with prospects. Off-speed seems to be his out pitches, less so than simply the high heat, and I'm never sure how well that translates to the majors, but a lot of it is disguising what's coming so perhaps he's got what it takes when facing major league batting eyes too. He received what looked like a couple of check-swing "gifts" from the umps, and I bet a rookie pitcher doesn't get that same latitude or deference from the guys in blue, but we'll see. I'm not sure he should be classified as converted from reliever to starter. My glance through his pitching logs is that the Phils simply treated his arm carefully, with never a pitch count higher than 68 that I could see, but in a manner like a starter would be asked. Sometimes, those 50-ish pitches wouldn't last longer than a couple of innings if he wasn't going well that day. In the low minors, I am not sure there is much distinction made about who is on the mound in inning 1 through 3, versus 4 through 6, say - you get your 50-60 pitches of work in, and call it a day. But in his age-23 season they ramped up his workload, exceeding 50 pitches more consistently. IOW to my eye the Phillies were bringing him along as a potential starter, not too differently than our own Marco Raya. (And yes, plenty of people question whether Raya is destined to stick as a starter.) Long relief should be a comfortable role for Castellano if he sticks.

For the first decade after the move from Washington, the team was reliably in the top 10 of attendance in the majors and often in the top 5 - never quite #1 but topping out at #3 in 1963. (The late-1950s Senators had been routinely last in the majors or close to it.) By 1971 the Twins' attendance had begun to decline badly, finishing in the bottom half of the majors from that year forward and nudging the very bottom repeatedly, hitting dead last 1980-82. Since Flood v. Kuhn Supreme Court didn't happen until 1972 and the new CBA took effect in 1976, something other than free agency triggered the franchise's problems (though arguably it contributed to further losses, and Calvin loved to point the finger at it, only making matters worse). Things turned around some when the Dome was opened, but got truly better only when a strong and charismatic roster of players showed up. I don't know exactly what you have in mind for "modern media". But my interpretation is that the Twins had a strong fan base as long as the team was winning - which is kind of the opposite of my idea of a "good baseball town" that will come out and support the team through thick and thin.

First Law of Holes: when you find yourself in one, stop digging. 😀

I count 24 pitchers on the Phils' 40-man, and only 16 position players. I guess that means they have 24 arms they like better for 2025 - IOW the draft is working the way intended, so that teams with lots of good players can't hoard them all and keep deserving players stuck in the minors.

That number looks like just 2024. b-r.com has his L/R career splits: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.fcgi?id=keplema01&year=Career&t=b#all_plato His overall lifetime OPS of .747 is divided up as .655 against lefties and .778 versus righthanders. Yearly splits can fluctuate wildly, but overall he can not be expected to hit better against same-side pitching.

Why wouldn't Boston just sign Sasaki for that kind of money, if they need pitching?

As long as we're revisiting this topic, I want to point out that the (excellent) reference provided regarding the New York game might not be relevant to the passage quoted from Thoreau since the strong likelihood is that the Massachusetts Game was being played in Concord in 1856. The latter version had a number of noticeable differences from the game we know today, for example batted balls that were hit outside the baselines were fair hits and could be fielded for outs, and outs could be registered by hitting the runner with a thrown ball. (Baseballs back then were much softer than the hardballs that were developed a few decades hence, and were nearly bundles of rags held together with stitched leather.) On the other hand, Massachusetts ball involved overhand pitching whereas the New York game mandated underhand tosses from the pitcher, and in the New York game an out could be registered by catching a fly ball on its first bounce. Anyone who enjoys playing slow-pitch softball would be well served by latching on to a Vintage Baseball team that plays either variant of the 1850s rules, and getting a feel for how much closer softball is to them than modern baseball is.

100 games (20x5) in the first half? How many games in the second half? If the same, that's 40 weeks for the regular season, plus however long the post-season is - they will be playing in snowy conditions every year.

That would be telling. Be seeing you.

That's key for me to get excited about a player. "He can beat the other team, even on a day when he doesn't get a hit." Buxton and Correa are benchmarks for this.

I never understood why any pitcher would ever throw a strike high and inside to Dozier. So I guess for a while there he hit literally every mistake pitch that came his way. That's not easy - good for him!

I feel this bio was inadequately researched, but do not have the time right now to look into this player myself.

Was that a game in Kansas City? If so, then son Cashbury and I were there, to watch the play develop and have the image seared into our retinas too. It's not just that it was a bad dive, it's that for all intents and purposes he lost the game for them on the spot with that inside-the-park HR; whereas a conservative take on the Texas Leaguer coming his way would have let the pitcher survive for one more batter and maybe still wriggle out with the lead. If not, then how many such plays did he have, anyway???

What inducement do you give Correa to waive his no-trade and accept a "demotion" to third base?

I don't know enough about modern marketing to guess why someone with any sort of professional reputation posts clickbait on Twitter - especially when there seems to be nothing to click on - but this is where we are, apparently.

BTW that 1988 Celica somewhat resembles, but is not quite as beautiful as, a 2024 Tesla Cybertruck.

If the Twins grab him, would they be on the hook for around $7M of arbitration?

I am surprised the Oakland Coliseum parking lot didn't provide savvy GMs with good choices this year. One time, an entire abandoned church was selected via Rule 6 by the Atlanta Braves, despite the expense of transporting it, and their team chaplain holds weekly services there to this very day. For all I know, the A's may have left behind their full roster of AA prospects on that enormous, barren expanse of asphalt in their haste to leave town.

baseball-reference.com has 'em. For Salt River: https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/team.cgi?id=53cb1207 There are only 6 teams, so it's not too inconvenient to look them up one at a time. Here's their league page: https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/league.cgi?id=0e7661c4 Maybe you'll find the mlb.com page more convenient for whatever purpose you have: https://www.mlb.com/arizona-fall-league/stats/

I dunno. Tell me.

Doesn't need to be like that. Bases empty and/or not a close score, it makes no difference what resources the opposing manager has. But if the other team has a lefty or two they can bring in each time the game hangs in the balance with one of our corner guys due up, it's a disadvantage. The solution of course is for the new batting coach to figure out what the previous one(s) apparently could not, namely how to bring these lefty hitters to the level of accomplishment they need to be once they reach the majors. I don't think Keirsey, Wallner, or Larnach showed the extreme L/R splits in the minors like we've seen in the majors (Keirsey being the smallest of major league SSS of course, but he still managed to fit the unfortunate pattern). It's uncanny how our lefty hitters, possessing normal/small L/R splits in the minors, seemingly all get spooked by LHP when they come up, deer-in-headlights style. Referring to handedness is of course shorthand. There's the old cliche that "I don't care which hand he throws with, I want a pitcher who can get lefties out," and the corollary for batters is obvious. Correa hits righthanders exceedingly well (even if he succeeds even more against lefties). Lewis is a little hard to figure, given his second-half swoon, but the overall stats for his 2024 show a guy who was playable when facing a right-hander and did better than that against left-handers. L/R splits are something almost every batter has, and you can live with that, as long as he's playable either way. The key is, when are they playable. Correa is totally playable against RHP, and Lewis shows no sign that he isn't playable against them, either. Wallner and Larnach, just going by results so far, are simply not playable against LHP, Adding Keirsey to this mix, based on empty results in a mere 4 PA in 2024, threatens to be toxic unless solutions are found pronto. Or, maybe Buxton can hang in there for 150 starts in CF, and make my concern moot. 😀 There are various solutions to this L/L/L alignment in the outfield, a few of which I've alluded to and there are obviously others. My point is that I can't simply ignore it, when deciding whether to roster both Larnach and Waller. They aren't good enough, yet, to let me.

The problem with these two corner outfielders is the starting center fielder. Specifically, that the CF starter is frequently unavailable, and at the moment the best defensive candidate as his backup (Keirsey) also bats left-handed. If Buxton is out for extended periods, you'd have an outfield of LH bats who are each highly unproven when the opposing team throws lefty after lefty at you. It's not their fault, but housing both Larnach and Wallner present roster problems when things go even slightly amiss.

Just to be clear, I wasn't intending to throw shade on anyone taking part in the TD GM idea. Just a whimsical* take and an explanation** of why I'm not taking part. I'm genuinely frustrated; playing armchair GM is no longer fun for me. * okay, curmudgeonly ** as though anyone asked for one