Creed Willems 2022

[maybenxtyr]

4 minutes ago, interloper said:

I don't doubt it. At 18 I'm sure his legs motor pretty good. Hope you didn't take this as a dig on him! Catchers hitting triples is always a good time. Wieters' first hit in the bigs if I recall.

He hustles out of the box really well even on infield grounders. 

 

The triple was nice but I'm not sure where the 3B coach was. He took off like he was going home and was tagged out.

[RZNJ]

37 minutes ago, interloper said:

I don't doubt it. At 18 I'm sure his legs motor pretty good. Hope you didn't take this as a dig on him! Catchers hitting triples is always a good time. Wieters' first hit in the bigs if I recall.

Not at all.   I thought you meant it might be good for laughs to watch this overweight kid legging out a triple.

[seak05]

My guess is that he actually does work out/hit the gym. But that, for him, he really needs a nutritionist and diet change if he's going to change his body. At 18, most people, even pro-athletes, haven't committed to a strict nutrition diet. Look at Guerrero Jr

[RZNJ]

I don't know a quick way of doing this.   I wonder if Williams is the youngest U.S. born player in the league.   I wonder where he stacks up overall age-wise.

[Frobby]

3 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

I don't know a quick way of doing this.   I wonder if Williams is the youngest U.S. born player in the league.   I wonder where he stacks up overall age-wise.

Well, he’s quite young.   Among the top 100 hitters in the Carolina League as listed on BB-ref, there are only three hitters younger than he is.  One of them is an American, TJ White, who’s 7 weeks younger than Willems.  

That list is not every hitter in the Carolina League, but it gives you a feel.   
 

[Frobby]

Also, on his splits, all 49 of his plate appearances have come against pitchers who are older than he is.

[Tony-OH]

7 hours ago, seak05 said:

Out of curiosity I went and looked at a few HS position players from the first few rounds of the 2020 draft. It's a little bit of a hard comparison because the season didn't start until May 4 of last year. That said a number of players didn't debut until later in the summer. I wonder if we're seeing the impact of the loss of short season A baseball. Making for a much larger leap, especially for players coming out of high school. 

It can be a big jump, and the rookie leagues were great to give a high school kis a place to play while he gets his feet under him. It seemed though that baseball execs saw that most 19-year old that were true prospects should be able to compete in full season ball so they got rid of that extra rookie league. 

[seak05]

46 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

It can be a big jump, and the rookie leagues were great to give a high school kis a place to play while he gets his feet under him. It seemed though that baseball execs saw that most 19-year old that were true prospects should be able to compete in full season ball so they got rid of that extra rookie league. 

Maybe, but a lot of major leaguers spent time at low A. I just wonder how taking away that level will impact how we see prospects once we've had a few years of data

[Tony-OH]

3 minutes ago, seak05 said:

Maybe, but a lot of major leaguers spent time at low A. I just wonder how taking away that level will impact how we see prospects once we've had a few years of data

It wasn't Low-A that was taken away, it was Rookie plus and Short season-A. I for one liked the rookie leagues and think they need to replace it with a full season Rookie-plus that would allow those 18-20 year old a full season to play before going to Low-A. But I don't think it will happen.

[seak05]

35 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

It wasn't Low-A that was taken away, it was Rookie plus and Short season-A. I for one liked the rookie leagues and think they need to replace it with a full season Rookie-plus that would allow those 18-20 year old a full season to play before going to Low-A. But I don't think it will happen.

I was referring to short season A. I agree on both of your latter points, I’d like to see *something* name not important, between the short season rookie leagues and full season A ball, and it won’t happen.

[RZNJ]

On 5/15/2022 at 1:47 PM, Frobby said:

Veen has a .364 wOBA, Mayo .334.   Pretty clear advantage to Veen.   Mayo’s numbers are still quite good in light of his age.  

Granted, wOBA doesn't adjust for park, league,

[Frobby]

5 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

Granted, wOBA doesn't adjust for park, league,

Fair enough.   Per BA, Aberdeen had a 93 park factor in the Hi A East last year, while Spokane (where Veen is) had a 131 in the Hi A West.   
https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/minor-league-baseball-park-factors-2021/?amphtml

[oldfan]

Just to get a visual, Willems has a DJ Stewart body type?

[LookinUp]

2 hours ago, Frobby said:

Fair enough.   Per BA, Aberdeen had a 93 park factor in the Hi A East last year, while Spokane (where Veen is) had a 131 in the Hi A West.   
https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/minor-league-baseball-park-factors-2021/?amphtml

So polar opposites. Definitely worth noting in that comparison.

[Moose Milligan]

1 hour ago, oldfan said:

Just to get a visual, Willems has a DJ Stewart body type?

More like a young John Kruk.