Moose Milligan

I don't disagree. Still driving AR to the airport. Because in the words of Kenny Powers "...but I am not going to stop yelling, because then that would mean I lost the fight."

None of that would help you get into Camden Yards, I don't think. @gold21030 summarized it well, though. But an iPhone is designed to be pretty intuitive. If my boomer parents can figure it out, I'm sure anyone can. I bet you'd surprise yourself with how quickly you'd learn it.

Tony, don't disagree with any of it, but it's still risk. I'd still take AR to the airport in a trade for Dominguez. A ball stats, small sample sizes, etc, reports from an alternate site where he played against major leaguers or did pitch in the majors...IMO, it's not much. The alternative site reports are a nothingburger. You know as well as I do that the guys who "were pitched in the majors" that were there weren't great competition. It was taxi squad guys. Again, he's not done it against higher level AA or AAA pitching. You even said it yourself, AA stats certainly mean more. You said it too, small sample sizes. This weird attachment to a #1 pick who really hasn't done much in the minors (again, not his fault that Covid wiped out a whole minor league season) with people clinging to small sample sizes, anecdotes from a alternate site and a college career that he's 2 years removed from is overrated to me. I will agree with you that A Ball stats provide some insight but no one can extrapolate if someone is going to be a good major leaguer based on A ball stats. Here's a hypothetical: let's say we didn't draft AR in 2019, say the Royals did. And we drafted Bobby Witt Jr last year. Would we be interested in trading Witt Jr for AR? Probably not, we'd have an allegiance to Bobby Witt Jr because OMG HE'S THE FUTURE. And why would you trade a SS for a catcher anyway? At the end of the day, we're rooting for laundry, just like Seinfeld said. Once again, I hope AR has a great career. I hope he becomes the player we all think he can be. But as for now, small sample sizes (the same small sample sizes we make fun of wildcard for) and alternate site reports? Bro, I ain't impressed.

If it's not one thing it's another with this guy. Unbelievable. And yet totally believable.

Something tells me the person who wrote the opening post won't be back to read suggestions on how he can figure out a way to get to a game.

You're right, Frobito, I can't dispute that. Then again, college ball and A ball aren't always direct indicators, are they? You said it yourself, AA would be a better indicator for Adley. And that's all I'm saying. You're right, there's slightly more information out there about Adley than there is Dominguez. I just don't think the information is all that great. Lots of college players rake and don't make it in the big leagues. I don't think you dispute that, either.

What's utterly hilarious is you thinking that A ball games are meaningful. You're clearly not following: I prefer Dominguez strictly due to the fact that he's not a catcher. Of course there's risk with Dominguez, I never said there wasn't.

What are you, Adley's cousin? Okay...if you think A ball level games are meaningful, we just need to agree to disagree. Professional baseball doesn't start at AA but players make the jump to the majors from AA and AAA. I thought I wouldn't need to explain that to you but I guess I do. Players don't make the jump from A ball meaning that A ball games are irrelevant. You can talk all about the scouts that saw him in live competition against professional pitchers outside the organization, that's fine. Scouts have been wrong plenty of times before. Call me when he's lighting it up in AA and knocking on the door to the majors. Until then, I'm skeptical.

I believe it is, however I think you have a kinky obsession with it.

Ah, there it is. Knew it would be coming up soon.

Oh man! Are we going to put a WOW offer on the table? Has Franco been seen anywhere near the Ravens training facility? No NFL games right now so I'm assuming they're wining and dining him as best as they can.

I don't want to go down the rabbit hole of nitpicking a great career, but for me I thought he should have been a better power guy. 16 homers, 23 homers, 20 homers in his first 3 years...and never cracked 20 again. Never really came close after hitting 18 in 2009. I never thought he should routinely hit 35+ but I thought he was going to turn into a guy who was routinely in the high 20s, low 30s.

Find me one meaningful pro (college isn't pro) game that Adley has played. I'll wait. Hint: He quite literally hasn't. And yeah, he's not done anything to cement the fact that I should be thinking that he's Jesus in spikes. He's put up some decent numbers in the lower level pro games he's played in and he looked good facing the same pitching over and over at the alternative site last summer. If that's supposed to make me think that he's a stud...well, it ain't. If that's enough for you to get excited, that's fine. The facts of the argument remain that neither one of these guys have faced high level (AA or higher) pitching. As I've said, I'd take the younger guy who plays a position that doesn't induce significant amounts of wear and tear. It's fine if you don't agree.

It's 8 million of risk vs. 5 million of risk. Adley hasn't played a meaningful pro game, neither has Dominguez. Again to SG's point of "I don't want Dominguez because look at all that Adley has done!" is a pretty tiresome argument. And you're banking on him being able to stay healthy in a position that has a lot of wear and tear. It's also easy to cherry-pick prospects off lists and say "Haha, this one didn't make it, I win the argument!" The top player on the 2013 minor league prospect list at MLB.com was Jurickson Profar and he's not that great! Prospect ranks mean nothing! I'm wary of the love-fest here for AR, it's a little bit weird. The guy hasn't done anything yet in pro-ball. Now if there was a minor league season last year and he absolutely raked and he was slated to be in Baltimore this summer, I'd agree with you and we wouldn't be having this conversation. Quite frankly, we're all excited about AR because he was picked #1 and he was great in college. Since then he hasn't done anything to cement the idea that we should be head over heels for the guy. Part of that certainly isn't his fault but I'm a bit wary of the OMG AR IS AMAZING HOW CAN YOU THINK OTHERWISE?!??! attitude because...it's easy to think otherwise. Ultimately we're talking about two guys that haven't done anything in pro-ball and acting like we fully understand the probabilities and can predict the outcomes for either.

Also, agreed on getting Andujar away from the Yankees if possible.

IMO, you're talking about someone you drafted 1 overall and comping that player to someone you spent your entire international budget on. It's taking two separate methods of acquiring future talent and going all in on them in both cases. In Adley's case you went all in on the consensus #1 pick. In Dominguez's case they blew their wad on one player and didn't allow themselves to take anyone else. Both players haven't faced high level minor league pitching at AA or higher. No one can dispute that last fact. To me, that's essentially a stalemate. We can argue about which is the better way to accumulate talent, draft vs. international spending but that's a pretty dumb conversation to have. I think anyone in an MLB front office would tell you they're both very important. We can (and have) talked about position preference. In regards to the extra 3 million, you're paying 3 million extra for a position that's susceptible to extreme wear and tear. You can drive your Ferrari to work each day, park it outside on the street and let birds crap on it. I'd take my Lambo on a nice Sunday drive once or twice a month in nice weather and store it in a garage. And I agree with SG once again, if you really like Dominguez that much, the 3 million isn't a deal breaker.

Hey, I'm not a minor league guru or anything but if high level D-1 pitching is similar to three years of A-ball stats, he hit over .400 for two of those years...there isn't anyone in A-ball doing that. College stats are really nice and we can tell that Adley was the best player in college during his last two years, however there's still a jump between that and A-ball. IMO, there's almost equal amounts of risk here. We just have a little more information to reassure ourselves on in regards to AR.

I've never heard that he's NOT a workout beast. I'm saying, if you play that well in college at a big time D1 program and are selected that high in the draft, he should be able to be a workout beast and he should hit at the lower levels. IMO, that's what's expected. You are probably correct though, had there been a season last year for him we might not be having this conversation...or maybe we would be, who knows. I am hoping that the lack of a season doesn't hurt his development but no one will ever to be able to tell.

So in other words, everyone who has an OD ticket gets to go. That's pretty cool.

Yes, this sums it up well, too.

I totally get where AR is where he is. But quite frankly, I'd expect rave reviews from people watching a top flight D-1 player work out. He should be a workout beast. I'm with SG on this one, it's the fact that he's a catcher that bothers me. It's the wear and tear and the fact that if he hits like a monster, we'll probably want to move him first base after a few years. It's a fast track to a skill set that doesn't age well.

Good post, I agree.

Tony's original point was that Jasson hasn't been challenged against high level pitching yet. Neither has Adley. Adley still ranks high on publication lists based off what he did in college, his draft status and perhaps what he did in the alternative site last year (which, as I said, facing the same pitching over and over again isn't much to brag about). At the end of the day we're talking about potential with very little information for each player. Give me the younger guy who's built like Bo Jackson and plays a less physically demanding position than the older guy who's a catcher.

I'm sure he played coach pitch baseball somewhere along the line.

You're making arguments for the success he had in Aberdeen and Delmarva. He should hit well there. We haven't seen what he can do against AA or AAA pitching. The alternative site information is nice but facing a limited pool of pitching makes those reports a bit suspect.