Would other organizations value Walker and Alvarez the same?

[DrungoHazewood]

I think Alvarez is about 3 months at AAA away from a call to the majors. He will be a upgrade defensively in RF. He showed this spring that he can hit. One concern over the winter has been was he was disciplined enough at the plate. I think he overcame that in ST.

If Alvarez "overcame" his plate discipline issues in spring training that would be one of the more miraculous talent spikes in the history of sports. This is a guy who is 26 and has drawn 28 walks in his North American professional career.

[mdbdotcom]

I agree, but I would rather play neither at the big league level at this point. If we were to need an everyday first baseman at some point this season, my guess is Parmelee would get the call over Walker.

Parmelee is a decent comp for Walker. Although Walker hit 26 homers last year between AA and AAA, the most Parmelee hit in one season by the time he was Walker's age was 16 as a 21 year-old in Advanced A ball. It is extremely doubtful that Walker will do better in AAA this season than Parmelee did in his age-24 season, with a gaudy .338/.457/.645 line in 64 games with Rochester.

For whatever reason, Parmelee's AAA success hasn't translated to the Majors, hopefully Walker won't have the same fate.

Yes, I would rather have either as the AAAA guy at Norfolk until he's supplanted by the next Eddie Murray (for two weeks until he's called up).

[Frobby]

If Alvarez "overcame" his plate discipline issues in spring training that would be one of the more miraculous talent spikes in the history of sports. This is a guy who is 26 and has drawn 28 walks in his North American professional career.

I guess we will see whether he shows more plate discipline over an extended period of time in Norfolk this year. His North American "career" consists of 176 games and it's not really his "fault" that he wasn't able to play here until he was 24 years old. I don't think this guy is ever going to have a high walk rate, but if he can do a bit better than the Jones/Schoop level, that would give him a better chance to be useful to us.

[weams]

Walker's not out of favor with me. I thought he was underrated at the beginning of last year, and he proved that was true. He showed a lot more power in 2014 than in 2013, and he has moved up the ladder quickly. He's put himself firmly on the map. I just fear that his bat won't be quite good enough to play at 1B, especially if his defensive skills are just so-so (which, to this point, they are). I hope he proves to be underrated again.

I believe his bat will be better than we got from Chris Davis last season.

[weams]

If Alvarez "overcame" his plate discipline issues in spring training that would be one of the more miraculous talent spikes in the history of sports. This is a guy who is 26 and has drawn 28 walks in his North American professional career.

Man ain't gonna walk. Man ain't gotta walk.

[DrungoHazewood]

I believe his bat will be better than we got from Chris Davis last season.

That's not a tremendously high bar. But that would be nice if he's really a plus defender.