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Pallante with another excellent start. Goes 6 vs a good Phillies lineup and gives up zero. They had several singles but most got erased on twin killings.
Santos had been pretty decent throughout his rehab and since returning to Memphis so that one is a bit surprising. Ramirez has never been decent, so far less surprising. With Santos, the decision likely came down to him being a free agent after this season and them deciding he isn’t going to be major league caliber by then. Might as well play someone else if that’s the case.
I’d like to see Jordan keep playing 3B most days as well. I don’t think he’s the answer long-term at 3B, but I do think he’s a talented hitter who is adjusting. He’s playing good enough defense as well. No reason to watch Urias there. Urias is not a long-term guy.
I think Masyn struggles a bit with who he is or who he wants to be as a hitter and has now changed his entire approach a couple times, which is probably hard to do at this level – especially for someone younger. We saw him come up as a singles hitter, morph into an alleys hitter, morph again into a guy swinging for the fences, and now try to morph back into the slap hitting singles hitter with some elements of the alleys hitter. I think where he is now is probably the best place for who he is. Maybe he just needs more reps to get there? I was thinking he had been a little better the last couple months, however, the numbers don’t support that.
I also appreciate the value Masyn brings to the team on defense. But he is going to have to hit a little more to ensure job security long term.
Indeed GScottar. And boy do we need it. We basically have Wetherholt, Herrera, Walker, Winn, and Burleson plus some guys after the Nootbaar trade. Fermin has been better than expected, but he’s still only Fermin. Let’s hope Baez hits when he arrives and Crooks finds his hit tool again as well. That could make this group interesting but until then, I’d expect a very hit and miss offense.
Dobbins already took May’s place. If you remove Liberatore, who are you replacing him with if not Matthews?
Do you believe Liberatore gets one more start before the September deadline rolls around and Matthews gets called up to replace him in the rotation?
The good news is we have been winning at a 60% clip since going all in at the deadline and remaking our bullpen to acquire Caleb Ferguson.
Either I need to accept that me, millions of fans, and all of the rest of baseball GMs and analysts are fools or I need to give up trying to convince you of what I see as an obvious math issue on your part. I guess I will do the latter. No more convincing from me on this subject. Not worth the effort.
I’m sorry Willie. But you’re just wrong. I am happy that you at least admit that it needs to be over the course of a season rather than just a few weeks or months. That’s progress anyway from where we were.
Batters hit in different ballparks. Batters face different pitchers. Even the same pitchers throw different pitches to different batters. Pitchers sometimes hang pitches. Batters hit in different situations. Batters have different hitters hitting behind them. Batters hit against different defenses. Sometimes a defender fields a play poorly. These all impact batting average. They do tend to normalize some over time – especially over full seasons or multiple seasons. But .280 vs .250 over a few months certainly does not tell you which hitter is better. Not even for a season. That’s just not enough difference. All it tells you is which one averaged a hit more often over the course of a series of at bats. That’s why the underlying data on hitters is valuable. The quality of contact leads to far more predictable results over time than simply using batting average. Teams know this and that’s why they use advanced data to help them know which hitters to target. No one just uses batting average anymore because they know how faulty that can be.
Part of Arraez’s problem was he was always considered a really poor defender. If he had been an average defender, he would have been far more valued because of his bat. This season though, he’s suddenly become a much better defender, hence the reason he had some better trade value.
Arraez also hardly ever takes a walk. That also tends to negate some of his value. On the flip side, he almost always puts the ball in play, which is good.
I’m certain Gwynn would still be highly valued. And Rose too if he wasn’t running his mouth. I’m not sure about the others GScottar as Carrew was mostly before my time and I didn’t ever pay much attention to Boggs career.
I think they signed him just as backup roster filler in case certain guys got hurt. He surprised them in Spring Training because they never planned for him to make the roster. When he did terrible his first month of Spring Training, they went back to believing he was roster filler again. Then he started hitting better and the team had a big need for a right handed bat so he got brought up and mostly has been who they thought he was. I’m not sure if Pereira will be any better but he fits better with his ability to defend: outfield positions.
Now that I agree with BB. JJ is not hitting well at all lately.
But you need to dig into the metrics to help learn why that is. And then the coaches need to come up with a game plan on how to fix whatever they find. Perhaps he just needs rest with it being his first long big league season? I have no clue. But it needs to be discovered and fixed.
And batting average or RBIs are not just as arbitrary of a stat? I’m confused Willie. If anything, batting average and RBIs are far more arbitrary as they are singularly focused and rely on a great deal of chance – especially when you’re talking about the difference between a .250 and .280 hitting line.
There is no way to reliably say a .280 hitter is actually better than a .250 hitter without looking deeper into the metrics. That’s what all those advanced stats are trying to do. Look deeper. They aren’t perfect either. They are just closer.
I didn’t watch this one so I don’t have a take on it. Maybe just some frustration playing out. I did see there was a costly error behind him before he gave up a grand slam early that may have amped that frustration. Either way, he has to be much better than he was this last game. Before that though, he had 10 really good starts in a row at Memphis.
That’s incredible Gagliano. I hadn’t looked at Blaze’s DRS numbers. I would have expected him to be around neutral though. The fact that he is a net 5 plays better than an average third baseman really stands out – especially in his limited time there.
I agree BB. He’s made the plays he should make and his throws look good. I’m assuming his range is nothing anywhere close to vintage Arenado, but he’s not screwing up the plays he should make as a third baseman.
Overall, I’m a big fan of Blaze being on the roster long-term. In a perfect world to me, he’s a right handed complement to Burleson and he could DH, pinch hit, and take some starts at 3B. But minus having a true third baseman, he’s filling in well – probably better than expected.
Yeah. Brian said that in today’s article. I wasn’t certain. He’s been called up this season but I wasn’t sure if he had been optioned as well.
Baez has played a lot of SS though so he could still be in line for 3B. It may have more to do with allowing Ortiz to play 3B at Springfield lately. Not sure. I’m really not sure Ortiz will make it there.
I think in part, this is the hitter Blaze used to be, which is why people were somewhat ho-hum about him. We were excited we got anything at all for a partial season of Matz, but Blaze was a contact-first bat with limited power – at least through most or all of last season. And it’s not like his base running or defense was/is anything to get excited about. He always has had the raw power, but it rarely showed up in games. Then, the staff at AAA worked with him (presumably), and he became an even better hitter with modest power. A really consistent hitter with some power. In my opinion, fighting for his life against MLB pitching which is far better than AAA, he’s reverted back to the approach that helped him survive in the Minors. That probably doesn’t maximize his potential, but it might make him a slightly below average MLB third baseman. That’s the best option we have there right now. Like you pointed out, Mendoza and Baez aren’t likely to be the future at 3B. Gurevitch might be next man up. But he just got to AA. So it’s Blaze for now. And he’s mostly ok. I like the ABs he takes. But hopefully he can slowly unlock some of that power again.
Peirera may be optioned to Memphis. He’s a long time minor leaguer who started at 17 and made the Majors at 22 with the Yankees. He hit a lot throughout the Minors and probably was a big prospect back in the day. He’s still only 25, but I think this is his last year with options. My guess is he goes to Memphis either now or on September 1 when rosters expand and Baez comes up.
