cgreuling

What's the scouting report on Akins? His name keeps popping up the Cedar Rapids recaps.

Would something like a guaranteed minimum based on serivce time + performance based on an agreed upon WAR calculation make sense? That way when a player performs under team control, he still gets paid.

Is Navaretto a real option as a part time MLB catcher? He's actually hitting pretty well in AA (had a rough June but other months look very good) and his defense has always been very good.

Overall Kohl's numbers aren't great but when you check out his splits LHB have a .488 BABIP against him this season vs RHB at .308. He's actually been really good vs RHB overall, is that pointing towards him not having an out pitch against lefties? Is the defense letting him down (a lot)? Seems like he still doesn't give up much hard contact and his groundball rate is still absurd (2.5:1 GB/FB ratio).

It's still the holiday season, it's possible Darvish is traveling with his wife & kids. Same with Falvey and Levine. None of the other top pitchers have signed anywhere yet either.

I co-commish a league using OOTP 18 right now. We're a little faster paced than some other leagues, we sim 10-days at a time 7 mornings a week. http://400club.net http://400club.net/forum

I've always thought he compared well to Eric Davis. Similar skill set. Similar physical tools. With the way he's looking now, we should just enjoy him being the first Byron Buxton though. I'm not sure he has a ceiling and if he's at his floor now, we'll be holding many, many players to the Buxton bar.

There's been a lot of talk about Kohl's strikeout (or lack there of) rate and how it could hinder him. How does he compare to Rick Porcello? Obviously there are some big differences between the 2, Porcello pitched 1 full season in the FSL at 19 and was in MLB the next season at 20 but when Porcello came up he was primarily a sinker baller that struck out 4.5 per 9 and has evolved into a really good pitcher that is sitting around 7.5-8K per 9. Does anyone know if their pitching styles/pitches are similar?

Not trying to compare them but as an example of stats in A+ ball, as a 21 year old in A+ ball in 2011 Anderlton Simmons posted a .958 fielding percentage and had 28 errors, while also sporting a 5% BB rate. Let the kid develop...

Can we just fire Molitor now and bring in Redmond for the job? At least he has some personality!

I'm sure this has been answered somewhere around here before but didn't Nolasco sign a 4 year deal the year before Santana? How is Nolasco owed $24 million yet and Santana only $27 million? Shouldn't it be Nolasco $12.5 million plus the rest of this year and Santana $27 million + the rest of this year? Not that it makes much of a difference, still way more money than either should be paid.

Gave up a couple singes in the 6th but got a double play to get out of it.

If we're talking about the transition of knowing what to expect being a professional baseball player, sure. It doesn't change the fact that high school players do not hit against guys throwing 85+ on a daily basis as they do in the minors, half their HS plate appearance are against guys that might be lucky to hit 80 on a good day. Bloodlines doesn't help you catch up to that, it takes time. Plate appearances.

I like the Span comparison but comparing him to guys that were able to sign when they were 16 and got 3 years of instruction in the GCL and DSL before their 19 year old season at Cedar Rapids is a little unfair. Polanco struggled mightily with the bat in his first couple go-arounds in the GCL before exploding at Elizabethton. He had arguably twice the plate appearances before going to Cedar Rapids as Gordon did in his lone season in E-ton.

Anybody have a report on LaMonte Wade in Elizabethton? I read some draft stuff that said some good things about him coming out of college and he seems to be adjusting to wood bats pretty nicely. Could he be Joque Jones with a good eye??

I don't remember where I saw it but Molitor has a quote that said his curve started to flatten out in the 8th last night, mostly due to the long inning (didn't the Twins bat around in the top of the 8th?). If the bullpen was more consistent I doubt he would've been out there for that inning.

While I think the jury is still out on Walker I just want to point out that he has shown improvement when looking at April vs May splits. K% 39.7% in April (29K / 73PA), 23.6% May (13K / 55PA) BABIP .333 in April, .278 in May (when he's made contact he's been a bit unlucky so far in May) OPS .832 in April, .895 in May His walk rate is abysmal but he ls making more contact and could indicate that he's making better decisions at the plate. Maybe he's Sammy Sosa without the juice but could put up Sosa's juiced numbers??

I kind of think the hit tool includes plate discipline. You can't be a good hitter without knowing what to hit. It's not necessarily the ability to draw a walk cause there's been some very good/great hitters that didn't draw walks, they got hits (Kirby, Ichiro, Vlad Guerrero to name a few). With that being said, Hit tool has to be #1. 1. Hit Tool 2/3.Defense (Arm/Fielding) (I think this can vary, a guy with a great arm but less range can be just as effective as a guy with good range and a noodle arm) 4/5 Power/Speed - A tie? I think we can all agree that if you can hit, there's always a place for you in MLB regardless of the other skills/tools.

If they hire Dougie as the manager, what are the chances he can talk Johan or Radke into being his pitching coach? Maybe get Torii back as a player/hitting coach? Get Knoblauch to just hang around the clubhouse so the guys can throw hot dogs at him? Why wouldn't that increase clubhouse bonding? Little Nicky Punto as a bench coach? I'm only partially serious, the Knoblauch thing HAS to happen!

I wonder what it would take to get a guy like Hamels from Philly, if they actually go into sell off mode this off season. I think he only has 3 or 4 years left on his deal, that scares me less than going after a guy like Scherzer for 5 or 6 years.

The top 20 pitchers in WAR: (according to ESPN) 1 Clayton Kershaw 7.64 2 Corey Kluber 6.87 3 Chris Sale 6.59 4 Felix Hernandez 6.37 5 Cole Hamels 6.33 6 Johnny Cueto 6.14 7 Adam Wainwright 6.05 8 Max Scherzer 5.81 9 Jake Arrieta 5.3 10 Dallas Keuchel 5.18 11 Tanner Roark 5.16 12 Rick Porcello 4.44 13 Jordan Zimmermann 4.37 14 Garrett Richards 4.35 15 Collin McHugh 4.32 16 Phil Hughes 4.29 17 Henderson Alvarez 4.21 18 Zack Greinke 4.19 19 Masahiro Tanaka 4.1 20 Alex Cobb 4.01

This all day, every day.

What FlsPrpht said! Role models shouldn't be just because they're good at their jobs.

I think the fact that the media takes an interest in pro athletes personal lives has changed things. Personally I don't see anything wrong with idolizing an athlete for what they do in their profession but the role model for living life should really come from parents/grandparents and friends/other family members, and I think the world is lacking in that department. I lost my train of thought while typing that on my phone so I hope it makes sense :-0

I am think Gardy and Franc-y are having a good old fashioned manager duel. Winner gets to try and revive all the corpses watching the game.