Elias makes two things clear; 1st base and Irvin

[ThisIsBirdland]

3 minutes ago, HakunaSakata said:

Fair enough and I'm all for competitive advantages, but at the same time changing the dimensions of the ballpark rather than placing an emphasis on the development and/or acquisition of young pitching seems just as extreme to me. And prior to this season, have teams really moved their walls that frequently? Maybe they have, and I'm just not remembering. In hindsight, maybe using the word "ruined" was a bit too harsh, but I think OPACY definitely looked better before the change.  

Yeah I actually shouldn't have said all the time, I honestly don't know and was basing it on recent examples. And I'm definitely not going to take time looking it up lol.

I don't think it's an and/or with the pitching necessarily either. They know they need pitching of course. I think their emphasis thus far has been about adding value safely in every move, and the safest way to do that was to draft bats over pitchers. Once they have surplus value in the bats, then they can trade from a position of strength. That's starting to play out now and I expect it will continue.

With the park dimensions, I imagine they think it'll help the veteran FA market and their future heavy LH lineup. Admittedly that veteran market was for guys on 1 year deals like Gibson, and I agree that shouldn't be their only approach to bringing in pitching. But im conjunction with the trade potential of their bats, I think they'll find ways to add young quality SPs.

I also think picking in the mid (to hopefully late) first round may influence their risk analysis on pitchers too. Missing at the beginning of a rebuild on a top 5 pick is a lot more damaging than missing on a mid-late first round pitcher once the minor league system is developed.

[jrobb21613]

Has there been any mention of Stowers at 1st base? 

[Frobby]

2 minutes ago, jrobb21613 said:

Has there been any mention of Stowers at 1st base? 

No. Elias did mention that Santander had taken some reps there, and that they had Adley play some 1B in the minors.  

[sportsfan8703]

Just now, Frobby said:

No. Elias did mention that Santander had taken some reps there, and that they had Adley play some 1B in the minors.  

Backup 1B is not a concern.  It would be nice to have a COF that bats S or L to push Santander to DH full time, and to allow Cowser time to develop. 

[jrobb21613]

2 minutes ago, Frobby said:

No. Elias did mention that Santander had taken some reps there, and that they had Adley play some 1B in the minors.  

Interesting. I thought Stowers might be a fit there especially since he didn’t look to fluid in the out field last year grant it was a sss. Maybe he looks less fluid at first. Didn’t he play some 1st base Norfolk or am I mistaken? 

[Can_of_corn]

4 minutes ago, jrobb21613 said:

Interesting. I thought Stowers might be a fit there especially since he didn’t look to fluid in the out field last year grant it was a sss. Maybe he looks less fluid at first. Didn’t he play some 1st base Norfolk or am I mistaken? 

https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=stower000kyl

[jrobb21613]

7 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=stower000kyl

So only 20 games at 1st and that’s was in his college days. all but 1 of those games was in the summer league. 

[Can_of_corn]

4 minutes ago, jrobb21613 said:

So only 20 games at 1st and that’s was in his college days. all but 1 of those games was in the summer league. 

It's more time at first than Mancini had in the outfield before Buck stuck him out there.

[RZNJ]

4 hours ago, Jagwar said:

Hey ... at least he indicated that he'll back away from Westburg at 1B. Maybe he'll rename him "Mr. Mostly Everywhere"

Mr. Somewhere might be better.

[jrobb21613]

9 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

It's more time at first than Mancini had in the outfield before Buck stuck him out there.

I personally hope to see him log some innings there this spring. 

[RZNJ]

44 minutes ago, HakunaSakata said:

Fair enough and I'm sure you're not alone. For me, it just felt like they painted a moustache on the Mona Lisa, but to each their own!

Mona Lisa does have a moustache if you get up really close.

[Jammer7]

The sneaky thing about O’Hearn is how many loud outs he made against the shift. With no infielders in RF, I am curious what he’ll do. Not saying he is going to be some kind of star, but perhaps a useful piece. 

[Sports Guy]

Also..water is wet

[Jagwar]

3 hours ago, RZNJ said:

Mr. Somewhere might be better.

I like Mostly Everywhere. Makes me think of Miracle Max from Princess Bride

 

[OriolesMagic83]

6 hours ago, HakunaSakata said:

Perhaps they could have just tried to develop BOTH pitchers and hitters as opposed to ruining the aesthetics and charm of the best ballpark in baseball? I mean, look at the Reds. The play in a bandbox and they have a TON of great young arms in their system. And it's not like Elias didn't know the dimensions of the ballpark when he took the job. 

Playing in a stadium with tiny dimensions totally prevents a team from signing top free agents pitchers.  Look at the Yankees.