Updates on young OFers

[Frobby]

I’d probably bet on Stewart to have a better major league career than McKenna.   But that really isn’t saying a lot.    If either has a 5 WAR career I’ll be pleasantly surprised.     

[Sports Guy]

21 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

So will Stewart.

I tend to agree.  He may be able to hit enough though.  I don’t think McKenna will.

[Frobby]

3 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

I tend to agree.  He may be able to hit enough though.  I don’t think McKenna will.

The way I see it, McKenna’s competition is Mullins, not Stewart.   

[wildcard]

Elias pushing for Mountcastle to be a left fielder opens a spot for Stewart at DH......at least until Diaz is promoted.   Its a small window that he needs to excel at to win more playing time.

McKenna has an opportunity coming up.   Hays is oft injured.   And when he goes on the DL McKenna is the next best centerfielder to back up Mullins.   It would be good if he showed he can hit in the minors before he gets the call.

There is some talk of Diaz playing CF but his speed is only rated as average.

[Tony-OH]

5 minutes ago, wildcard said:

Elias pushing for Mountcastle to be a left fielder opens a spot for Stewart at DH......at least until Diaz is promoted.   Its a small window that he needs to excel at to win more playing time.

McKenna has an opportunity coming up.   Hays is oft injured.   And when he goes on the DL McKenna is the next best centerfielder to back up Mullins.   It would be good if he showed he can hit in the minors before he gets the call.

There is some talk of Diaz playing CF but his speed is only rated as average.

I'd put Santander is center before Diaz, but they would play similarly out there. They would be adequate on most balls, but you lose the range that you would want because they don't have center fielder speed.

[Sports Guy]

41 minutes ago, Frobby said:

The way I see it, McKenna’s competition is Mullins, not Stewart.   

Totally agree.  

[Sports Guy]

19 minutes ago, wildcard said:

Elias pushing for Mountcastle to be a left fielder opens a spot for Stewart at DH......at least until Diaz is promoted.   Its a small window that he needs to excel at to win more playing time.

McKenna has an opportunity coming up.   Hays is oft injured.   And when he goes on the DL McKenna is the next best centerfielder to back up Mullins.   It would be good if he showed he can hit in the minors before he gets the call.

There is some talk of Diaz playing CF but his speed is only rated as average.

“To back up Mullins”. Lol

If Mullins is starting for us on an everyday type capacity, that is a big issue.

[Tony-OH]

34 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

I tend to agree.  He may be able to hit enough though.  I don’t think McKenna will.

All of Stewart's value is in his bat and the question is, what is that value? When you look over the stats from last year, he really had a nine game stretch where he hit like Barry Bonds, but other than that was almost a complete zero besides walks at the plate (4-for-54 with 18 walks and 1 extra base hit). 

Overall his WOBA was above average (.347 vs .317) but his xWOBA is just a little above average (.326 vs .321) suggesting he was a little lucky but also because some of that WOBA is driven by his exceptional 17.9% walk rate.

So as a DH who can go out into the corners and hopefully not let to many balls bounce of his face, he probably can stick out a major league career for awhile if he can keep his WOBA where it was at this year, but I think we'll need to see how streaky he is over a full season.

Either way, he's going to need to hit because if Diaz is raking in AAA, he'll need to come up which will move Mountcastle to DH or spelling Mancini at 1B, and that takes Stewarts PAs away.

As for McKenna, his value of course is in his defense,  but his tools at the plate including some occasional eye opening oppo power, keeps people interested in case he puts it all together. McKenna his an opportunity to be a Craig Gentry type of player as a 4th outfielder but his defensive ability and speed makes him worth watching.

 

[Sports Guy]

15 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

All of Stewart's value is in his bat and the question is, what is that value? When you look over the stats from last year, he really had a nine game stretch where he hit like Barry Bonds, but other than that was almost a complete zero besides walks at the plate (4-for-54 with 18 walks and 1 extra base hit). 

Overall his WOBA was above average (.347 vs .317) but his xWOBA is just a little above average (.326 vs .321) suggesting he was a little lucky but also because some of that WOBA is driven by his exceptional 17.9% walk rate.

So as a DH who can go out into the corners and hopefully not let to many balls bounce of his face, he probably can stick out a major league career for awhile if he can keep his WOBA where it was at this year, but I think we'll need to see how streaky he is over a full season.

Either way, he's going to need to hit because if Diaz is raking in AAA, he'll need to come up which will move Mountcastle to DH or spelling Mancini at 1B, and that takes Stewarts PAs away.

As for McKenna, his value of course is in his defense,  but his tools at the plate including some occasional eye opening oppo power, keeps people interested in case he puts it all together. McKenna his an opportunity to be a Craig Gentry type of player as a 4th outfielder but his defensive ability and speed makes him worth watching.

 

Can Stewart have a 240/350/450 type slash line.  If so, he has value while he’s cheap.

 

I think his slugging and OBp could get higher but I think his floor is low too.

[glenn__davis]

At this point I think you have to look at Stewart as primarily a DH who can play the OF in a pinch.  His speed and range are still better than most fans think, just because they see a tubby guy and assume he must be slow, but his simple coordination on fly balls just isn't going to play on a routine basis out there.  He seems to really struggle with the glove-side while running, which isn't all that uncommon.

 

 

[Chuck A]

I know it is completely unfair to judge Stewart's defense off of one play but I can't help it ... I can't unsee the ball bounce off his head.  And I didn't laugh at it, i cringed.  But even when he steps to the plate, that's what I remember.

[MurphDogg]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

I’d probably bet on Stewart to have a better major league career than McKenna.   But that really isn’t saying a lot.    If either has a 5 WAR career I’ll be pleasantly surprised.     

I think Stewart is more likely to have at least 5 WAR (maybe a 30 percent chance), but McKenna is more likely to reach 10 WAR (maybe a 5 percent chance). 
 

If McKenna hits enough to be a regular he could play a long time and carve out a decent career. I don't think it is very likely, which is why his floor is a lot lower than Stewart's in my view. Stewart's ceiling isn't as high as an average at best defensive (supposedly, although he has looked worse than that at the MLB level) corner outfielder.

[eddie83]

Just play Stewart a ton at DH 1st half of the season. Can sit him some so one of the regular OF’s can DH when you give Mullins a look. One of the reasons I didn’t have an issue with Núñez being let go is because it frees up at bats for others. 
 

Guys like McKenna and Mullins benefit from the 26 man rosters. Being able to do the little things like last year with Mullins bunting helps out their profile. 

[wildcard]

8 minutes ago, eddie83 said:

Just play Stewart a ton at DH 1st half of the season. Can sit him some so one of the regular OF’s can DH when you give Mullins a look. One of the reasons I didn’t have an issue with Núñez being let go is because it frees up at bats for others. 
 

Guys like McKenna and Mullins benefit from the 26 man rosters. Being able to do the little things like last year with Mullins bunting helps out their profile. 

To me  the addition of a 26th man adds a reliever not a position player.

[eddie83]

8 minutes ago, wildcard said:

To me  the addition of a 26th man adds a reliever not a position player.

Depends on how you frame it. It guarantees at all times a 4 man bench. Limits 13 pitchers.

Occasionally in past you would see teams flip a position player for an arm and go with a 13 man staff. 
 

I personally hope they keep expanded rosters (say 27) in the future with pitching limited to 13. It adds more strategy late in games to the offensive side.