Trov

You list the rank in the AL, but for example we have no CF that is ranked, so how many players are even ranked on the list and where do we compare to them?

I do not know about 3b specifically, but SS he did not grade out too great in few games he did play in the minors from the little research I did. I was planning on writing something similar about Steer being a possible stop gap until Lewis is ready to play again, assuming Correa opts out. However, after I did some research he seems a bit limited at SS and in the minors he is not playing there over lessor possible prospects, which to me signals team does not see him as a fit at SS but only an emergency situations.

Maybe "hate" him was a little strong, but hate on him, would be a better way of putting it. Arraez has always had the, "yeah but" kind of approach, where someone like Kepler has got the "but if" kind of treatment. It may not be just to Arraez that many would say yeah he hits well, but x,y,z, I am sure others get that treatment, but I have felt since he first came up he polarized fans in their thoughts on him. Does he have his flaws, he sure does, but most players have flaws.

I fully agree, the game is supposed to be entertaining, which normally requires action. Sure when a pitcher is on the verge of history striking out a ton of guys and just dominate, it can be exciting, but I would much rather see guys hitting the ball in play, running bases and plays at the plate, than a few solo shots.

Jeff Passons had an article about Luis Arraez today. It talks about how Rod Carew and Ichiro, two of all time greatest hitters, think Arraez is best left handed hitter today. It goes on to talk about how Arraez has been doubted his whole career because everyone talked about what he was not, but never looked at what he was, being an elite hitter. We here at TD have been very divided on Arraez since he first came up in 2019. Most either loved or hated him. I have been on the love side of things. Those that hated him would talk about his lack of defense, lack of power, lack of speed, and would try to claim his BABIP was not sustainable. Those that loved him would point out that the man can hit, and although it is mostly for singles, they still count. For the lack of defense, that is true his is subpar on defense without a true home, but he could always DH if you needed. Lack of power, is accurate he has not been a HR hitter, but power is generally down, and he is working on the power, read the article, and he has had a few HR lately with a few deep drives. Will he ever be a 30 HR guy, no but he still keeps the OF honest. Lack of speed, yes he is not a speed guy, but his not a full station to station guy either. The BABIP has basically remained the same the whole time of his career. Slight dip last year, but over his career still .350 plus. He rarely strikes out, and is walking slightly more. He is hitting over .300 on pitches outside the zone, that is just crazy. Some thought he was lucky with weak contact when he came up, but I argue he was just hitting the ball where the defense was not. He is so fun watch hit. Not only does he talk to himself, do dances when he fouls balls off, he hits solid line drives so often. He is just getting into his prime and the sky is the limit for him. There is a place in baseball for him and I am glad he is on our team. Lets stop wishing he is more than what he is, and be happy he is what he is. We could send out guys that get out at much higher rates, but may hit a HR once in awhile. He swings the bat like it is a magic wand. He is a master at what he does, and instead of attacking for what he lacks, just enjoy the show he makes. Similar to Joe Mauer, people want more from him, and not willing to take what they have, an elite hitter and on base guy. https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/34156388/ichiro-rod-carew-favorite-player-how-luis-arraez-making-batting-average-cool-again

I have not watched the man pitch. I have never been a fan of FIP as any kind of measure for relief pitchers overall. This is because it will jump so much based on so little innings pitched. He may keep the ball the in the park and have decent K to BB numbers, but he clearly is giving up a ton of hits. His WHIP is nearly 2, which is crazy for a relief guy. He is giving up career high line drives percentage. Sure they are staying in the field and he has a good bb to K ratio, but giving up line drives at 39% clip is not good. The k's are at a much higher rate than his career has shown too, is that sustainable? He has a career high hard hit percentage at 40%, career low of fly ball percentage at 8.1 percent, but below career average of ground ball percentage, at 41%. So he is giving up hard hit line drives for hits. Is that bad luck and bad defense? Maybe some bad luck, but the key to getting a hit is line drives and hitting it hard generally. I would argue he is not getting to unlucky, but guys are teeing off early in counts. Sure if they go deep he gets the K, but he is giving up hits in bunches, and they are not soft ground balls that find holes. This is a hard pass for me.

I would agree the contract would most likely look like what the article writes, but I also would not extend him now. Pick up his option, if he maintains into next year then look to extend 2 to 3 years if he wants. Sonny Gray has struck me as a guy that is not seeking the top contract but where he plays is important. I think he brings more to the team than just a pitch though, as he has been around and seems to have helped some of the younger guys. I still would not want to dole out a rotation spot and big money for a guy that at any point could fall off the cliff. Now, I doubt he will because he has never been a high velo guy but has been a true pitcher so I expect he will age well, but you still never know.

If you want to compare a guy to someone who pitched in the 40's why not bring up the fact that Cy Young used to pitch almost every other day and would throw 9 innings a game. Pitchers are not like they were before. They throw harder, put more stress on body than they did before. Just look at the average fastball numbers over the years. Archer fastball is average now, but in the 40's I bet he would have had one of the fastest pitches in baseball. I remember when I first really started watching baseball in the mid-90's and a 94 to 95 fastball was considered elite, now it is average. Now unless you throw 99 plus your fastball is not considered top velo. I do not understand when people try to compare pitchers now to decades ago.

I think it depends on how you measure overall health. For example, if a player has a 2 week stint on IL, is that a huge deal? If that 2 weeks help prevent a 2 month stint? We do not know how many longer term injuries are being prevented with the rest and shorter IL stints. No matter the path some will have longer injuries, but unless they scrap the resting method, we will not know which is the better path, and never will know if we went with the reverse if that was the better option.

I enjoyed reading the debate, overall well put together so far. I think part of the issue is the two different eras and the different parks. One points out Puckett had huge home road splits, but Joe played in era where HR's were up overall. If you want to look at just on field numbers, Joe may have the edge, but if you want say look at the impact on the team, Puckett in a landslide. He was the Twins, and he had the personality to lead. Joe is not a leader, and never wanted to be the leader. The team looked at him to be the guy because of his skill and pay, but he never wanted to be that guy. Joe was a great player and should go to HOF like Puckett. But Puckett understood as the number 3 guy his job was to drive in runs, not just get on base. Joe was the type of guy that he would take a strike right down the middle with a runner on 3rd and 1 out and eventually take a walk, only to have the next guy hit into double play not scoring a run. Puckett would do what he could to get ball in play to drive in the run. They had nearly as many at-bats with RISP, but Puckett drove in over 150 runs more. That is because he wanted the run to score, Joe just did not want to make an out. The old saying, Puckett played to win the game, Joe played to no lose it. I remember one time Joe had tying run on second base, 2 outs. Joe tried to bunt for a hit because the 3rd baseman was way back. It did not work. I was not upset about trying to bunt for hits, I had a problem that he was trying to bunt for a hit when a single to OF would most likely tie the game. Had Joe got his hit, he would raise his OBP with RISP, but not drive in the run, but he passed the buck to the next guy to drive in the run. Puck would have tried to get the hit to drive in the run no matter where the 3rd baseman was playing. I loved Joe, and defended him many times, but if we are in Game 7 and I had pick between Joe or Puckett be in my lineup, understanding they played different positions, I pick Puckett every time, but he would tell the team jump on my back I got you, Joe would say, "who is going to step up for me?" Joe is the type of guy you want on your team when you have guys like Puckett around him. I am not bashing on Joe, but just pointing out I think Puck was the better player to have on your team, but if you want to look at pure numbers, and the fact Joe did it as a catcher, which is crazy numbers, then yeah he did better.

Not sure if there is a link, it was during the game on Sunday he put on headset for half an inning. It may be somewhere. A quick search did not help me. I personally was expecting him to say that he would love the ball more and pitch more, but he said no he was happy with how Rocco was pulling him because he is getting back to full health after missing 2 full years basically with injuries. He kind of hinted that he was worried he would pitch too much and lead to more issues.

I said game one. I agree what he is giving us he would be a decent game 2 or 3 type where you know you are only getting 5 good innings and rest pen game. Game 1 we are hoping they can go a good 6 or more.

I would challenge your last claim that NO team would trade MLB pitching that would take on Correa. If you recall a few years ago Cleveland traded away their top starting pitcher for offense. They were so deep in pitching they knew they could give up one of them at the top of their value for a win now player. I would agree it is rare and unlikely, but pretty sure Yankees could afford to give up one of their guys, you only need 4 in the playoffs and they run 5 deep right now. Not saying we should trade with them, but pointing some teams would be willing to part with MLB ready starters.

Not going through all the comments, but read he will be making over double for LSU over Twins. Read Twins asked what they could do, and matching or breaking the LSU number did not come up. My guess Wes always liked college ball, which is very different than MLB overall, and did not want to pass on the money.

Is he really an improvement? Maybe for Seattle, but based on his current season he would not play a game over just about anyone we put out there at DH or 1B. He is slashing .216/.349/.690 with 4 HR in 212 PA. He is walking at a high rate and not striking out.

I know he does not become FA until after next year, but Angles will be looking at extension or possible trade this deadline or off-season. I am wondering what his contract looks like. He is in such a rare situation because no one is like him. He both pitches and hits, and does both at or near elite level. If he was just the top hitter he could demand some big bucks, although limited by his defense, which may just be because not wanting to risk injury in the field, so he might be better on defense, he still could demand 9 figures alone. If he was just a starting pitcher, he could demand 9 figures most likely hitting FA as a 28 year old, being 29 the first year of his contract he still could get a 5 to 6 year contract as a pitcher. However, the fact that if he regresses as one roll, he could be transitioned out of that roll to just do the other. If he still maintains his level of play though he is by far the most valuable player in my opinion. I think in terms of yearly value he should break the record by far. He may not break the record for total because I doubt a team will give the length needed to make that happen, but I could see something 6 years at 265 or 7 at 300 to 310. That would be the highest per year, more than Scherzer is, but would not be highest total. I am not a fan of long term deals for pitchers, but he is more than a pitcher and even if he loses something pitching wise if he maintains hitting levels he will still be worth nearly that by end of contract.

I know too little about all of these guys to make an informed comment. I have read that Jace Jung is the bat first field later college bat we have been known to target some times. I am opposed to that, as we have too many in our system right now. I am always fans of college SS later in first round as they generally are good athletes and can play most positions even if they cannot stick SS long term. No matter the pick I will do what I always do, wait and see. You should always take best available and never worry about need, because other than a few select college pitchers just about no one makes debut for about 2 to 5 years depending on age at draft.

I would agree that we seem to have a high number of injuries, but it is entirely possible guys years ago where playing through some of these issues, but this team would rather us the IL and bring up someone else than use a guy battling an injury. I would also assume they are using many different aspects to help. People need to remember that these guys are doing things only a few percent of humans do. Unlike the weekend warrior, these guys do it day in and day out at the highest level possible being asked to do things that few can. Injuries will happen. Maybe, we are quick to move them to the IL or maybe there are more injuries than before, or maybe the players are more willing to disclose the little issues. Take Larnach for instance. He clearly was not hitting as well as he was. We say he is in a slump. Now we find out what may have led to that slump is his core muscle was off. Back in the day guys would normally play through it and maybe have poor numbers only to find out they were playing with an injury all year.

I do not have knee tendonitis, like what I understand Buxton main issue is, but I do get recurring foot tendonitis that will pop up out of no where and make walking painful, let alone running. I have little options to prevent it and only time will heal it. Some times it takes 1 to 2 days, sometimes it take longer. Sometimes I will go 1 month between issues or just a few days. I can understand what Buck is going through. From my understanding the doctors have said there is nothing more the Twins and Buck can do. I just hope he can play in the playoffs, provided we make them. He has only played in 1.5 playoff games, technically a 3rd game, but that was just as a runner. When he plays our chances of winning is so much higher, we need him as much as we can in the playoffs.

We can all speculate as to why, he may tell us, he may not. I do find the timing interesting. However, time to move on and hope next guy up will be even better than Wes.

I really liked to listen to Archer's interview yesterday that really put things into context. He stated that he is happy with the low pitch count he is being asked because he is still getting back to who he was. That he sat out for pretty much 2 full years and to just be expected to go back throwing 100 pitches quickly is asking too much. Many fans attack Rocco for pulling guys early, but maybe, just maybe, the guys know they should be pulled on other teams but afraid to tell the manager so they go out a little longer only to hurt them long term. He has taken the ball each time, given 4 or 5 innings most of the time. Sure would we like 5 to 6 yes, but the fact he is doing it every 5 days is something. Would I want him starting game 1 of playoffs, of course not, but he is the type of pitcher you need in a 162 season.

Good article pointing out that our defense may not be as good as what some may think. In particular Urshela who has made some good looking plays, but he has had many plays that have not been made as well. Correa numbers are a little surprising. I do know some metrics do not take shifting into account, and some do. Really the only upgrade we could make overall would be at 3b. Either on defense, or on offense, but Urshella right now is replacement level in my opinion.

He was technically a double draft bust as he was drafted by Pirates in 2012, as the number 8 pick, but did not sign. Good for him to finally make his debut, but it goes to show that no matter how touted a guy is coming into a draft, he just may not work out. When he went to Astros everyone thought he would help carry the team for years. Turns out they did not need him.

His at bat late in the game last night where he clearly just tried to slap the ball through the big hole on the left side shows me a lot. He knew all he had to do was get it hard enough that direction for a hit, and he did it. Soon teams will stop shifting him so much.

I find it interesting people attack the hitter for taking a pitch that by the rules is a ball, but say he should try to foul it off, something this not as easy as some may think, because the ump may be wrong. In the call the other night it was off the plate, if he swings at it trying to foul it off, but misses, people would be upset he chased it off the plate and start talking about chase rates.