MeleMouth

"Walker Jenkins sure has a lot more swing-and-miss in his game than anticipated. It probably is too soon to bench him, but it sure would be nice if he could make some good contact ahead in the count." This was also his issue when he first got to AAA last year. The thought that he could come up to the majors and immediately be a star without an adjustment period was always based on hope and not reality. This doesn't mean that he's bad, but it does suggest that keeping him in AAA would have been a good idea.

In AA this year, he has 11 SB's against 2 CS's. His earlier stats were not as good, but those could be due more to inexperience than lack of speed. I mean, maybe he truly isn't that fast, but we might not be able to read much about his speed from his caught stealing numbers.

In the Texas League this year, 10 of the top 60 hitters in terms of highest percentage of swinging strikes have played for Wichita (of 128 players with a minimum of 180 PAs). Kendle, who has *struck* my interest, is among them, although he is much closer to #60 than he is to #1. While noting that Houston and Diaw are among the 10 lowest in the league, such a large group at the top makes wonder if grip it and rip it is the team's strategy? (Seven Kernels are in the top 60 in the Midwest League, out of 211 with at least 100 PAs. There is overlap among the Surge and Kernels players with high swinging strike rates. Only three Mighty Mussels are in the top 60 in the Florida State League, out of 154 with at least 100 PAs. Believe it or not, Quentin Young is just sixth highest in the league.) Further on Kendle: he has the best BABIP in the league and only decent contact numbers (for each ten times each of them swings, Kendle makes contact one fewer time than either Houston or Diaw, but one more time than Billy Amick), suggesting that some of his success is due to luck, but he is also #4 in line drive rate, at a very high 31.7% (caution: Texas League this year has higher rates than other leagues), so his success might also be due to frequently making very good contact when he does connect.

Diaz's option for 2027 has vested at not too high an amount, so it's hard to see TB letting him go. Arraez is great and I hope he cashes in this winter, but between Culpepper, Clemens, Lee, and Houston, the Twins hope to be in decent shape at 2B and SS for the next few years. Where would Arraez play?

This year in MLB, Liam Hicks is the catcher with the best plate discipline who is low on power and doesn't throw out many attempted steals. Diaw is age 22 in AA; Hicks had a similar AA season at age 24. Diaw's age 22 stats are actually mostly better than Hicks' age 24 stats, except that Hicks had better success against the run game. Being equivalent to Hicks would be a great outcome for Diaw, and there is potential for more.

Luke is a nice ballplayer, but the long-term plan for him should probably be that he's a key piece in a trade that brings back a solid player, e.g., Arraez for Lopez-plus.

He's a ballplayer. We project good qualities to players, particularly ones who are telegenic and play with grace like Hunter, but we would be better off not assuming any good or bad qualities about them as people.

If only Lewis could learn to hit the outside pitch to right field like Culpepper just did.

Pickings will be slim in free agency for back-up catchers. After Carson Kelly, who may get more money than we expect, the top choices may be the not-too-exciting group of Heim, d'Arnaud, Hedges, Sanchez, and Rogers. I would hope they sign another Jackson or Pereda for St. Paul, so that neither Cardenas nor Cossetti are the emergency catcher. Consideration should be given to having Lackey leap ahead of Tait.

If I had to put together a bullpen as part of a team in 2027, I'd much prefer Acton at $800 thousand over Hoffman at $12.67 million.

Based on history, I expect Buxton to be a good to very good player when he is healthy and plays, but to miss a lot of games. The median outcome for his surgery is probably that it will not affect him materially, but he will be a year older and need to adjust to a long layoff, which sometimes takes him longer than the average player. Based on those guesses, I expect him to be an asset to the team and once again worth his contract, but agree with you that the high likelihood that he will miss a lot of games and possibly have recovery issues would make it a mistake to rely on him to be the leader of a successful team.

This prediction is probably an overstatement. Many players have hip surgery and return to top performance.

If you think something is "the way it is done on every team and every sport," you're definitionally wrong. It is doubtful that anyone on team fan sites has full knowledge about what one team does, much less every team. What is much more likely is that each team lies on a continuum within its sport, regarding whether they shut down an injured player or give star players more leeway to decide if he should have surgery or is ready to play.

Buxton should get to make his own decisions about whether to have surgery. Frankly, all athletes should. Whether he plays, however, should remain up to the manager, who has to decide who he thinks will give the team the best chance of winning right now. Whatever great things someone did in the past should not matter if he is not capable of them now. In that sense, Buxton should be treated like Kreidler, particularly if evidence suggests Buxton is not capable right now of better performance than Kreidler.

You mean like how the Dolphins' team doctor didn't shut down Tua Tagavailoa, or like how Kawhi Leonard got his own doctor because he didn't believe what the team doctor told him? The job of the team doctor, even today, is to do everything possible to keep the player playing, unless an injury is obvious or some kind of rule or mandated process requires the player to be shut down. They usually will communicate the risks, but the ultimate decision will be up to the team and player.