LookinUp

And another article responding to an OH thread. Beautiful.

I think we failed big time in his development. He needed a real plan. Instead, our 2 pitch starter was promoted to help the ML team.

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Maybe you could elaborate?

Go back far enough and it's probably 99% starters. I do know a kid who's a closer now, but that's just because it's where the coach wants him. He could be a starter. All the best can at a young enough age. The point, to me, is it makes perfect sense to move failed starters at the major league level to the bullpen in a lot of cases. There are some where the guy flat out doesn't have the stuff to be a major leaguer, but Gausman isn't that guy.

I don't understand your goal here. Is it to end the Davis debacle? Just cut him. Is it to save money? He'd have to agree to such a deal, accounting for time value of money, etc. Is it to buy pay him more so he leaves "voluntarily?" That's how it's worded, but there's no reason to do that.

I just remember him having essentially a perfect head of hair at fan fest. He should be a model.

I think it's because people picture Chris Davis playing SS and say Martin is obviously better. It's the old defensive adjustment issue in WAR again. Not exactly easily intuitive. Davis' OPS is .031 higher than Martin's. Maybe if Martin played 1B he'd be more valuable than Davis. It's hard to say. I'm pretty certain that if Davis played SS, he'd be less valuable than Martin, lol.

Betts' year last year was incredible, but he's on a great 5 year run. I decided to look it up. Then I looked up Trout for grins and jollies. His worst WAR was 7.2. It's because WAR is a counting stat and he only played 114 games. His OPS that year was 1.071. Dude is incredible. (I know I know, breaking news)

I love the theory, but it's hard to see Baltimore outbidding the Red Sox and the rest of the majors for a premier talent like Betts.

If you take 10 minutes I bet you'd find a ton of successful bullpen guys are failed starters. They usually don't see the lineup more than once. They get to throw with max effort. They get to focus on two pitches only. With better velocity and only seeing guys one time, even their mistakes are less likely to be HRs. This isn't a novel theory. It's been tried and successful all the time. Hell. Oliver Drake has pitched in 30 games for one of the best teams in baseball. It's simply easier to be a reliever than a starter. That's why it works sometimes.

If you read enough @Luke-OH posts about Harvey, you wouldn't be giving up yet. You still love to have that arm in your system and you can't discount the injuries and resulting lack of professional experience when judging how well he's executing pitches at the top of the minors.

Maybe not, but they don't dismiss him either. He's a legit talent evaluator. At least I think so. That doesn't mean he's always right. Sometimes I do think evaluators conflate current performance with ceiling though. A guy like Hall is a perfect example. I think his ceiling is a #1. Great athlete. Electric stuff. If it comes together, he could be special. I'd probably project him as a #2 at this point though because of the command/control (not that I'm qualified). Even that requires some growth. Others might not even go that high.

Not sure, but I think this is a bit of a cop out. I just think the standard for a #1/2 is very high. That said, before Law came out and questioned whether Grayson could hold his velocity, I think most evaluators would have said his ceiling is a #2. People listen to that guy. I'm not saying he's right, but he's no dummy regardless of what every fan base in baseball thinks of him. lol.

Ryan Conroy is just a bit down Luke's list because he's mostly a 2 pitch guy and the velocity isn't elite, but I love what he's been doing. He could be a pick to click. Who knows, maybe he'll get a feel for a third pitch and get another tick or two on the FB.

And OPACY will be a jewel for as far as the eye can see. Some stadiums last 30 years. This one will last 100 or more. It doesn't have the same history, but absent that it's on the level of Fenway and Wrigley in terms of iconic baseball stadiums.

It might take 10 before one rises to another level, but one will never rise if you don't find guys like this in the first place.

This is an appropriate question. I can imagine the O's wanting a steadier player than Martin. I can also imagine them wanting a toolsier player than McCoy. In the end, they'll look to upgrade over both. How fast can Gunnar move? lol

Yup. I agree with pretty much everything in your post, but your last point is my bottom line. I don't hate what we have (I like it), but there's a long way to go before we can fill out a 25 man roster that can compete. That's ok. We're early in the rebuild. I just think we need to remind ourselves every now and then.

I get that it's a pitcher's league, but it's AA, not the majors, and it's a .705 OPS, not .805. He's not projecting as a starting SS for a good team. Maybe a bench guy is my best guess. That's not terrible. It's certainly better than what was expected last year, but tempered enthusiasm is probably warranted.

I'm not real bullish on our position guys pretty much anywhere. I've wavered on pitching. A skeptic would say we have a lot of #4/5 starter to middle relief types of arms after our top 2. The optimist sees so many of those arms that we think a couple will exceed the current back of the rotation expectation. Baumann might be that guy. Kremer might be that guy. Neither is certain by any Means* though. *pun intended

I loved the story earlier this year as much as anyone, but when you look at the full AA stats, it's hard to get that excited over a AA short stop with average defense and a .705 OPS over 387 PAs.

Next year is going to be about development and evaluation too though.

Will it stay the same if we move to Nashville or will we have to work around the Titans' schedule?

I had never heard of Gio Urshela before this year. Now he's like the best player I've ever seen. So I looked him up. Many years in the minors. Usually in the .600s or .700s OPS. One year at .825. This year with the NYY he's at .940. I can't find him on any team's top 30 prospect list. Seriously. What are they doing to these guys? They have 4 guys with over a .900 OPS this year. I had never heard of two of them. The other two are Cameron Maybin and DJ LeMahieu. The mighty Luke Voight's OPS is .885. Maybin has been in the MLB for decades it seems like. He hasn't achieved a .700 OPS in 7 years. He's at .921. Mike Tauchman did have an awesome OPS in the PCL once, but I cannot find him on any Rockies top 30 prospect list for MLB pipeline. He's at .960 in almost 200 ABs. LeMahieu had a great 2016 in Colorado, but has been under .800 every other year of his career, including in the minors absent a 33 game stint the year he was called up. This is madness. We need to hire away their batting coach and performance enhancement drug specialists.