emmett16

People expected him to be the savior when he arrived. It was the first failure he ever experienced in his career. Pretty incredible for his first ever slump/failure to come at the MLB level at age 20. Most folks face adversity well before then.

He’s slugging .476/.921 AAA SLG /OPS before promotion: Henderson .504/.894 Adley .480/.879 Westburg .533/.899 Cowser .498/.896 Let’s not continue the narrative that he isn’t thriving at AAA.

Yes! I remember that. The difference is the old one we remember from the stadium was just a jugs machine & a projector. The Trajekt has the ability to precisely replicate pitch shape & spin rate for every pitcher in the league. It can also adjust the release point. I got to see one in action a few weeks ago. It’s very realistic.

Yes. And exact pitch shape & pitch spin.

Norby just turned 24. He made his MLB debut at an earlier age than Westburg, Adley, & Kjerstad. The narrative he’s being held down in AAA is a little overblown.

Asset management. The team is doing fine w/o him. He can be brought up when rosters expand allowing the team to hold on to Urias. He will be up the next time there is an injury for a position player.

That was a short slump.

If Kjerstad & Povich are still #4 #5 I'd have Etzel Slotted in at #10 behind McDermott, DeLeon, Norby, & Beavers.

Apparently Gunnar is, he took the cleats off mid-game.

The Norfolk anchor and “Triton” are pretty awesome.

It’s amazing. The M & b as a glove are awesome. Big fan of the logo.

Can’t watch the game but judging by comments I expect a “What makes Gunnar so untouchable?” Thread tomorrow. Think they send him down to AAA to get right?

So…..SEA has both Baumann & Voth. lol

Yes, he’s elite for his age. I also think he will be an elite ML player.

And working the pitcher to get to the power arms in the bullpen faster.

But how much have you actually watched him play? I've seen him do things that blow my mind. He's incredibly fast, he's beaten out at least a half dozen balls I didn't think he had any chance at beating out. He's hit some absolute moonshots to all fields LF, CF, RF. He plays very high-level D. He covers a ton of ground and can make all the throws. Does he have the arm of Manny or Gunnar, no. He's still learning, developing, and growing. We are only seeing a very early version of what he will eventually be. What he's accomplished at a young age is incredible and has only been done a handful of times in MLB history. He's head and shoulders above every other player born in 2003. That on its own merit makes him an elite player and to suggest otherwise is foolish.

Thats an understatement….

This thread needs to be renamed "What makes Holliday so untouchable?"

He was a major influencer of Kyle Boddy and his Driveline training techniques. The use of heavy balls & wrist weights to train decelerators and retrain pronating motions. He was definitely a pioneer and like a lot of folks in baseball who speak against the masses what essentially blacklisted and outcast. The Strom List: Dr. Mike Marshall - The Crawfish Boxes Reviewing ASMI's Biomechanical Analysis of Dr. Marshall's Pitchers (Focus: Performance/Velocity) - Driveline Baseball

Pros and cons. They could be on a crap team with crap development, get their MLB opportunity, and the fizzle out due to poor development. It could be a lot worse. I imagine they are pretty thankful for their opportunity to train with one of the best organizations in the league and will be better off for it in the long run.

I found this article pretty interesting. https://www.leanblog.org/2024/04/theres-no-special-cause-of-common-cause-variation-tommy-john-surgeries/

Thanks for posting this. I was trying to find it. I remember seeing something similar posted at the beginning of the year when Strider went down. It interesting that people point to travel ball and kids playing year round baseball as a major factor. There is a school of thought that the TJs occur because pitchers don’t condition their arms year round. A large amount of TJs occur at the very beginning of the season. Folks have pointed to the time off as the culprit. After going 2-3 months w/o throwing and then ramping up in Feb. and into ST is thought to be a huge stressor and reason for all the TJs early in the season.

I don't like the idea of moving an arm we have under control for 6 years for an arm we would have under control for 3 months. Especially since there are a ton of question marks on that arm of the 3 month rental. I think McDermott could be a pretty special pitcher if things fall into place. I'd hold on to that lottery ticket. I'd look to move someone else at a position of redundancy.

McDermott’s stuff is pretty nasty. I’m really curious to see how/if it translates to MLB. My observations from last night and in general are: 1. He takes a long time to get going. Walked the lead off batter on 5 pitches in the first. Walked the lead off batter on 5 pitches in the 3rd. Would have walked the lead off batter in the 2nd, but the batter swung at 3 pitches out of the zone. Walked the second batter of inning 2. Through 3innings he was at 58% strikes. 2. The swing and miss he gets are almost all on pitches out of the zone. 3. When he gives up hard contact it tends to be in the beginning of games. 3rd out in 1st was smoked right at the RF. 4. As he settles in batters take awful swings against him. You really see some awkward swings at pitches way out of the zone. It looks like the batters have no idea what’s coming and where it’s going. He keeps the batters off balanced and induces a lot of swing and miss on really bad swings. 5. he changes levels well. His fastball is a weapon up on the zone when batters are looking for the low curve/slider/change. The stuff is undeniable. You can tell no one is comfortable hitting against him. I guess my question on him is if MLB caliber hitters will be able to lay off the pitches out of the zone. I feel like if a team game planned him like the Yankees did for Povich’s second start and just not offer at pitches that were even close, he’d be in a world of trouble. Even with the 71% strikes last night I’d still like to see better command. I’d like to see him challenge hitters inside the zone and not depend on chasing so much. I think he has the stuff repertoire to do that.

If they play well we have a great shot to put a little distance between us and the Yankees. That would be a great story line going into the ASB.