LookinUp

He was a mess when I saw him. Who knows why? It's entirely possible he was just in a slump, or even that he was trying to fundamentally re-work his swing based on some feedback from the new regime. You just don't know. Luke and Tony aren't that down on him yet, so I'll hold out hope too.

If there's a chance to get a return similar to the Cashner return (or even a little less if we like a kid), you have to take it. He's cheap and hitting HRs. People want that. We happen to have a similar, cheaper, and probably better player in AAA waiting his turn, in addition to Mancini, Davis and whoever is set aside from our OF competition.

It's Bochy's last year. I think they're going to go for it, which means they might even be buyers.

Yep. Good points C_o_C and Drungo.

Yep. The prospect lists won't be gushing over him, but he's worthy of a mention, IMO.

Can we turn this into a Nunez v. Mountcastle v. Mancini thread? That would be fun.

The thing about these catcher rankings is that they often really show an outsized value for pitch framing in particular. On one hand, I think it muddies the waters of every pitch. I think it needs to be adjusted for umpires, the pitcher on the mound (consistency gets calls) and maybe even how the game is being called that particular day. On the other hand, if god came down to earth and told me that catchers actually are far more valuable as defensive players than every other position, I'm not sure I'd be that surprised. So I just don't know what to think.

Didn't the mid-80's Cardinals rotate lefties and righties between LF and P? I have a vague recollection, but I was pretty young.

https://eutawstreetreport.com/asher-wojciechowski/

Good enough arm to keep around assuming we don't have a 40-man roster crunch.

Whatever the case, I hope they're going to be careful with the kid.

Right. My assumption is they're bootstrapping some of this stuff to look for potential. They know they're in low probability spaces already, so instead of using scouting eyes, they're just identifying guys that would otherwise not get a look. My absolute guess is that this Welk guy stands out considerably from his peers in Division III.

I'd argue that the discussion about Mountcastle on this board has actually been very good. I don't think anyone's saying he's a scrub. I don't think anyone's saying he's the next Mike Trout. I think a lot of us now have a better understanding of his strengths and weaknesses than we did a few months ago. Just my opinion...

I expect someone to be able to identify hitters that changed their profiles in a big way during their careers. Palmeiro and Ortiz are two that did, but I think they always had good OBP approaches and it's more the power that changed for them. Still, this is the $1,000,000 question. You could argue that Mountcastle's approach won't change until the league forces him to. For example, if his 23% K rate goes above 30% in the majors, he may need to re-think his approach on the fly. That's not easy.

The trade deadline will change things again most likely, but ignoring that, the question I have is whether Elias is slowly adding the right mix to make this a semi-competitive team. I'm not saying a team that plays .550 baseball or anything, but you have to wonder if this team (as currently constructed with maybe a couple of decent promotions) could play between .400-.450 baseball the rest of the way. I actually assume the answer to that question is no because I expect the pitching to regress again, but there aren't a lot of terrible players in the mix of Villar, Mancini, Nunez, Sisco, Severino, Santander, Stewart and Alberto. Martin and Ruiz are still what they are, and our CF is not going to be really good unless they promote Hays, but these guys can put up a fight on the right nights.

Detroit now has a worse run differential (-189) than the Orioles (-184). To put how much worse those two teams have been than others into perspective, Seattle is third worst at -109.

Ok, but adding another DSL affiliate is very different than going to a new town and setting up shop. If you told me they added another GCL team, I'd understand. Heck, that would be worth it, IMO. You could schedule your own affiliates against each other to build reps in addition to playing whatever league schedule they play.

I thought she did a good job. She's very natural at interviewing, which was her actual job. Hopefully for her she's on to bigger and better things.

But will he know anyone wearing the Orange and Black?

Not that .821 is bad, but I think Diaz's numbers this year will still fluctuate depending on your start point. He obviously had a bad start coming back from injuries. As another poster pointed out, if you focus on his last 32 games, the OPS is much more impressive. Either way, he's starting to sustain very good (or better) performance. There's no reason to draw final conclusions now, but his star has risen in my eyes for the time being. Hopefully he sustains something like a .900 for the rest of the year. If so, he'll definitely be high on prospect lists again.

I'm wondering if they have a proxy for bat speed. Something akin to pop time for a catcher that measures load to contact, or something along those lines. It would be a way to measure a physical trait that is independent of your competition.

I'm not 100% down on the guy by any means, but what would me going to watch him for a series this week do to change my mind about 13 BBs in 389 plate appearances?

This is all message board talk though, right? Don't get me wrong, in a land of unlimited resources, I'd want as many affiliates as possible. I just have a hard time seeing teams adding affiliates at this point.

He was picked with the hope that he is a diamond in the rough. I’d say there’s a chance.

I looked at the box score last night when the bases were loaded. I quickly looked away.