- This topic has 41 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 3 years, 2 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
I think Walker has more offensive upside than Gorman, but he hasn’t been up long enoguh for reality to outweigh hype. That could go either way for him, depending upon how he does. It is important to note that Walker has racked up a very substantial negative WAR in a relatively short time. In other words, his presense on the field has done more harm than good. That would not be the case if he was a full time DH.
Gorman has 625 PAs in the big leagues. That is a lot. His career BA is .228, and only .196 facing lefties. His OPS+ is 106, so 6% above average. His numbers this season are real close to his career numbers. No upward trend. Since he hasn’t shown any improvement by now, it is getting unlikely he will. But, unlike Walker, Gorman is not a total loss as a defender. He is around average. So he does not have negative WAR like Walker. I thinks its aroune 1.2 this year, and around 2.0 for the career. Nothing to get excited about, but at least he doesn’t do more harm than good. At this point, neither one is looking like the rock star the hype hounds had fitted for red jackets on day one.
Gorman has 625 PAs in the big leagues. That is a lot.
That’s about one season (Edman had 630 PAs last year).
This is Gorman’s first full season in the majors. Perhaps we should give him another year or two before we write him off.
I agree with your assessment of Walker’s defense. Need to make him a full-time DH, which means trading Burleson, Baker & Yepez (they are probably needed as throw-ins at the trade deadline if we want decent pitching prospects back).
That was a nice catch by Burly up against the wall.
Well, last game was a defensive disaster. Tonight we get a 4 inning start from Matz. We picked up where we left off.
I didn’t watch the first game, but see the 3 Das Boots in the line score. The way they score the action these days I’m guessing there were also probably 2 or 3 misplays that should have been scored as E’s, but instead were gifted as hits.
A viewer can sometimes watch 2 or 3 games before seeing any Cardinal pitcher throw a quality pitch when he really has to.
Pardon me for saying so, but every time the camera pans over to the Redbird dugout to focus on the bewildered facial expression that is omnipresent on the current Cardinal manager’s mug, it’s a humiliating representation of this franchise. Someone in a position of authority should either entirely ban the practice or have these camera shots redacted. It’s embarrassing.
Here is some good news about Walker’s defense, I’m assuming its good news at least:
Statcast metrics on the 6-6 Walker’s grab:
Distance covered: 93 feet
Walker’s top speed: 29.3 FT/SEC (30 is elite)
Hang time: 5.1 seconds
Catch probability: 60 percentWow, both Burleson and Walker make great catches. Burly with a nice offensive game as well.
That will help the confidence and overall play of these youngsters. Gorman will get better as well. I don’t agree that he will stay at this level. Still young with time to get better.
Carlson is the puzzler. He should be more like Lane Thomas, getting better – at least I thought he would. He still struggles on offense, especially from the left side. And that is odd as it should be his natural side.
I don’t think Gorman’s overall value is propped up by defense quite as much as Carlson’s, but I could be wrong on that, as I’m not a whiz at interpreting value stats.
He still has a horrendous platoon split and a 30% k rate, so he’ll need to ramp up his main attribute, which seems to be hitting for power against righties. Improvement seems likely to depend upon evening out his productivity by becoming less streaky.
My view is the negatives (lefties, SOs and extreme streakiness) are both stark and significant, which is why I have my doubts, but he is young and there is thunder in the bat.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.