Jump to content
Twins Daily
  • Create Account
  • entries
    194
  • comments
    801
  • views
    409,164

mikelink45

7,918 views

 Share

Twins Video

blog-0885512001571450404.jpgWhy am I seeing shots at Eddie Rosario all over TD? No, he is not our best player, but he is a good player. He gets 1.6 WAR this year according to Baseball Reference. He had a line of .276 /.300/.500/.800 this year and in the little aside on the MVP for this year he sounds like he should be LVP. Last year he was .288/.323/.479/.803 and the same site named him MVP. Now we want to trade him for a broken bat and one of the regular season rabbit balls. What is going on.

 

He is not HOF, but he is good. Who will take his place? Who will hit 32HRs and 109 RBIs if he is gone? Can we guarantee Larnach or Kiriloff are ready to do it? I hate having to be the one to speak up for Eddie, but someone has to question the madness.

 

Here are some highlights - go ahead 3-run home run https://www.mlb.com/video/eddie-rosario-homers-21-on-a-fly-ball-to-right-center-field-luis-arraez-scores-m

 

Astudillo and Rosario lead win

 

Rosario 4 hit game https://www.mlb.com/video/rosario-homers-in-4-hit-game

 

Garver and Rosario lead win

 

Home Run 31 https://www.mlb.com/video/eddie-rosario-homers-31-on-a-fly-ball-to-right-center-field

 

No he is not great - but he is good and if we choose to trade him it should not be because we want to get rid of him, but because we get a player who can do even more to help us win in the post season.

 Share

38 Comments


Recommended Comments



 

Really? You wouldnt call 32 HRs and 109 RBIs good?

I realize you didn't mention THOSE stats

Huh? A 103 wRC+ is a 103 wRC+. It speaks for itself, and it accounts for Rosario's 32 home runs. But since you mentioned it...46 other guys hit at least 32 home runs last year...and a whole bunch of them were corner outfielders. Everyone hit home runs in 2019. In fact, Rosario's home run rate (HR/AB) was barely better than that of Jason Castro and Jonathan Schoop...and his OBP was basically the lowest on the team (lower than Schoop). So, no...those numbers aren't good...they're barely average for players that play his position.  

 

I don't hate Eddie. I do think he's a good RBI guy. You can't knock in runs if you don't swing the bat...and Eddie certainly does that. And he benefited in that regard from hitting immediately behind Kepler, Polanco, and Cruz all year long. And, as mentioned, I do think he was bothered by injuries in 2019. Maybe I should have also added that I don't think Rosario is a priority 'problem' to solve...Twins have bigger issues than left field, even at the level Rosario played in 2019. But the post asks people to weigh in on Eddie....and 2019 wasn't very pretty, IMO.

Link to comment

 

Huh? A 103 wRC+ is a 103 wRC+. It speaks for itself, and it accounts for Rosario's 32 home runs. But since you mentioned it...46 other guys hit at least 32 home runs last year...and a whole bunch of them were corner outfielders. Everyone hit home runs in 2019. In fact, Rosario's home run rate (HR/AB) was barely better than that of Jason Castro and Jonathan Schoop...and his OBP was basically the lowest on the team (lower than Schoop). So, no...those numbers aren't good...they're barely average for players that play his position.  

 

I don't hate Eddie. I do think he's a good RBI guy. You can't knock in runs if you don't swing the bat...and Eddie certainly does that. And he benefited in that regard from hitting immediately behind Kepler, Polanco, and Cruz all year long. And, as mentioned, I do think he was bothered by injuries in 2019. Maybe I should have also added that I don't think Rosario is a priority 'problem' to solve...Twins have bigger issues than left field, even at the level Rosario played in 2019. But the post asks people to weigh in on Eddie....and 2019 wasn't very pretty, IMO.

 

I agree with you.  There are a lot of things to like\love about Rosario but patience is not one of them and it makes him far more average than people realize.  Kepler has a worse average and his OBP is .36 points higher and OPS .55 points higher than Rosario and thus more valuable.  Max also plays some of the best right field in the league and Eddie not so much. 

 

There is a fatal flaw in Eddies game and if he can't fix it then Larnach or Kirilof will be better options either later this year or next for sure.  Granted the young guys won't likely hit 32 home runs but they still could end up with an OPS similar to Rosario. They would cost less and production even it went it went down slightly likely wouldn't hurt the team that much.  I mean even Jake Cave has a better OBP than Rosario and his OPS is essentially the same and he would play better defense in left than Rosario.  Granted it is a small sample size but our 4th outfielder can essentially play to Rosario's level right now.

 

Look I Like Rosario and I don't think the Twins will trade him this year, but if he doesn't improve his OBP and OPS then next year is another story.  I think at least one of Larnach or Kirolloff will likely be ready to go by then or as noted above Cave could step in..  He needs to learn to play cat and mouse with the pitcher or his value will never be that high.  He is a good trade candidate simply because we have minor league depth at the position not because of hate.  The numbers simply show he needs to be better or the competition will take his place.

Link to comment

So Eddie is not our best player, who is? It's really a team effort. Eddie hit a Bomba in the playoffs something others did not do...I was so mad when the Twins let Morneau and Dozier depart, that I refused to watch the whole season...I hope this does not happen again....

Link to comment

Eddie has a legitimate shot at being the worst defensive OF in the game. His OOA, (which is a metric that measures catch probably) Which you can read about here

was bottom of the league at -17.

Eddie does not walk, he does not have competive ABs, and he's a league average hitter according to his wRC+, which was mentioned by commentors earlier.

Sure, he is a solid clubhouse presense, but is that the only think he has going for him at the next level?

Link to comment

 

I agree with you.  There are a lot of things to like\love about Rosario but patience is not one of them and it makes him far more average than people realize.  Kepler has a worse average and his OBP is .36 points higher and OPS .55 points higher than Rosario and thus more valuable.  Max also plays some of the best right field in the league and Eddie not so much. 

 

There is a fatal flaw in Eddies game and if he can't fix it then Larnach or Kirilof will be better options either later this year or next for sure.  Granted the young guys won't likely hit 32 home runs but they still could end up with an OPS similar to Rosario. They would cost less and production even it went it went down slightly likely wouldn't hurt the team that much.  I mean even Jake Cave has a better OBP than Rosario and his OPS is essentially the same and he would play better defense in left than Rosario.  Granted it is a small sample size but our 4th outfielder can essentially play to Rosario's level right now.

 

Look I Like Rosario and I don't think the Twins will trade him this year, but if he doesn't improve his OBP and OPS then next year is another story.  I think at least one of Larnach or Kirolloff will likely be ready to go by then or as noted above Cave could step in..  He needs to learn to play cat and mouse with the pitcher or his value will never be that high.  He is a good trade candidate simply because we have minor league depth at the position not because of hate.  The numbers simply show he needs to be better or the competition will take his place.

You need to look at his clutch performance stats.  This is an area where young players usually fail.  Eddie is much better than Kepler in clutch situations. I like players who come through when there are men on base

Link to comment

As everyone has said, I like Rosario. But we have some holes on the team and our position of strength is in HR. Would it seriously hurt the Twins if they only had 4 30 HR hitters this season? Or 7 20 HR hitters? Not appreciably. And I wouldn't expect his replacement to cover his raw numbers.

 

So, if we trade from a position of strength, then my vote would be to move Rosario. I don't like his lapses in the field nor on the basepaths. I don't like that too many of his at-bats are not quality (too few pitches and swinging at non-strikes too often). And even though he was playing through injury this season the above issues aren't attributable to an injury, it's just who he is and the previous seasons reveal it.

 

He's fun and I root for him, but if the Twins front office feels the need to address holes via trade from the major league roster, my choice would be to trade Eddie.

Link to comment

Rosario leads the majors in HRs hit on pitches located outside of the strike zone, for the past two years, and his strikeout ratio is very low. The only guy I've seen like that is Vlad Guerrero. Maybe Rosario's average isn't at Guerrero's level, but his ability to hit the ball from various locations in and outside the strike zone is amazing. You can't let a guy like that go.

Link to comment

 

You need to look at his clutch performance stats.  This is an area where young players usually fail.  Eddie is much better than Kepler in clutch situations. I like players who come through when there are men on base

Kepler had a ,450 OBP in high leverage situations though.

Link to comment

 

 

Rosario leads the majors in HRs hit on pitches located outside of the strike zone, for the past two years, and his strikeout ratio is very low. The only guy I've seen like that is Vlad Guerrero. Maybe Rosario's average isn't at Guerrero's level, but his ability to hit the ball from various locations in and outside the strike zone is amazing. You can't let a guy like that go.

You can when he swings at everything. 4th highest chase rate in the majors

Link to comment

 

Rosario leads the majors in HRs hit on pitches located outside of the strike zone, for the past two years, and his strikeout ratio is very low. The only guy I've seen like that is Vlad Guerrero. Maybe Rosario's average isn't at Guerrero's level, but his ability to hit the ball from various locations in and outside the strike zone is amazing. You can't let a guy like that go.

 

The real question here is how many HR's did he hit outside the zone compared to how many did he hit IN the zone? Then compare that to how many times did he strikeout or make weak outs swinging at pitches outside the zone compared to how many times he struck out or made weak outs on pitches IN the zone. Do that and then you'll differentiate whether he should be swinging at everything or only pitches IN the zone.

 

I liken Eddie to Joe Mauer only they were direct opposites. Joe would take pitches right down the middle until he had 2 strikes and then start swinging. Imagine how many good pitches he didn't swing at over the length of his career. If Joe would have had a different approach at the plate, like looking for the first good pitch to hit and swinging at it he could have been even better than he was. I often wondered why you watch 2 pitches go by over the middle of the plate and then decide you have to swing at anything close to try to get a hit. Eddie is just the opposite of Joe. He won't wait for a good pitch to hit so he is likely never going to get one. Imagine how much better he could be if he did!

Link to comment

Rosario had 1.2 fWAR in 137 games and ranked 33rd among LFers. I would say that's not all that hard to replace. Jake Cave had .9 in 72 games. Assuming the the same performance over 137 games, he would have produced 1.7 fWAR. I don't think he is the answer either but I would play Cave until Larnach or Kirilloff is ready. The team would be better off taking whatever they get in trade and then spending the incremental $8M on pitching or a back-up catcher.

Link to comment

Guest
Add a comment...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...