Cedric Mullins and the buntin’ Birds

[DrungoHazewood]

15 hours ago, SteveA said:

Worse than that, isn't it?

28 ft/sec gets you to 1st base in 3.2 seconds.   In 3.2 seconds Davis covers 77 feet.   So that's 13 feet using the low end (28) for Mullins.

I was being conservative, and you'd have to add in acceleration time.  They don't go to max sprint immediately (although I'm sure that wouldn't help Davis' case).

[Tony-OH]

30 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Agreed.    What I’ve found surprising about Mullins as a major leaguer is his lack of power. He had a .161 ISO as a minor leaguer, and even hit his share of homers for a little guy.   But his ISO in the majors is .098 and it’s been lower than that the last two years.  I wonder what he was able to do to generate power in the minors that hadn’t translated over to the majors, and why.    Any thoughts on that?

Looking back on old OH scouting reports, there always were concerns about his swing as a RHB, but not really as a LHB.    E.g. here:

 

When Mullins first came up he put up career highs in Barrel % (3.0%), hard hit (28.9%) and xSLG (.326) but he tried to elevate too much (LA on fastballs went to 24 degrees) and that caused a lot of flyouts and his xBA to fall to .173. Strangely enough, pitchers haven't really changed the amount of breaking and offspeed pitches to Mullins and he primarily sees fastballs which tells me they don't think much of his bat speed.

His LA on fastballs is way down to 3 degrees due to the bunting, but I don't have anyway of judging his launch angle when not bunting. 

The last two seasons pitchers have actually thrown him 3% more fastballs than that first season where he had some success. I haven't had time to look to see if they are pitching him more in or out or up and down to determine what they are doing differently, but what I can see is that despite his work in the offseason, his numbers look very much like last year but with bunt hits.

As four scouting reports, it really goes to show how little information we really have when it comes to scouting minor leaguers, particularly hitters. When they get to the majors, we now have a lot of information to be able to guage what is really going on and how pitchers are pitching to them and how successful they are against certain pitches. 

I feel like if I had minor league statcast info, I could much more accurate on my scouting reports but we have to go on what I see during my video work and what I hear from other scouts and baseball people.

I actually get giddy when new pitchers come up because I can then get actual pitch movement information and see if it matched my eye test from the minors. So far I've been pretty good.

Most of the information we need to accurately gauge what is happening is within the baseball savant site, it's just a matter of analyzing it correctly now which is still a work in progress.

 

[Tony-OH]

1 hour ago, weams said:

He's hurt all the time. Like Jeff Hammonds. 

Actually Hammonds is a pretty good comp for Hays so far. Lots of talent, struggles to stay on the field unfortunately.

[weams]

1 hour ago, Aristotelian said:

If it is a Billy Hamilton type, a bunt could be as good as a triple even if it doesn't show up in OPS.

No. And Billy Hamilton version one only barely hangs on as a major leaguer. 

[DrungoHazewood]

2 hours ago, weams said:

No. And Billy Hamilton version one only barely hangs on as a major leaguer. 

Billy Hamilton v1 was a legit Hall of Famer.  The one we have now is v2.

If you want the full Drungo, the O's actually had a Billy Hamilton in the minors the year I was born.  Kind of looked like a poor man's Dalkowski.  And there was yet another Billy Hamilton who played in the mid-level minors a century ago.

Not to mention the 5th one who played a bit for Cal State San Bernardino in '13...

[weams]

 

[catjuggler]

45 minutes ago, weams said:

 

That was awesome 

 

[OFFNY]

1 hour ago, weams said:

 

o

 

Randle also had a notorious incident 3 years later, when he attacked manager Frank Lucchesi in Spring Training which left with with a fractured cheekbone, a concussion, and a broken lip.

Lucchesi needed plastic surgery to repair his cheekbone, and Randle was traded to the Mets after serving a one-month suspension ........

 

 

3 YEARS LATER / 1977

 

How Lenny Randle's Unexpected Attack Shook the Rangers

(By Blackie Sherrod)

https://www.dallasnews.com/sports/rangers/2016/04/28/best-of-blackie-how-lenny-randle-s-unexpected-attack-shook-the-rangers/

 

o