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2020-21 Offseason Discussion

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.272 / .356 / .410 since with a 111 wRC+ is pretty good.

But that's pretty much the type of line you'd expect from Yandy. High OBP but somewhat disappointing SLG number for a guy of his statue and his exit velocity

Edit- His exit velocity numbers were top 10% of the league this year but are now below average this year.

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and 29 RBI in 327 AB's. Not super productive. Sorry, but sometimes the raw #'s are more telling than all these sabermetric stats.
 
I call it "don't know players/prospects" and expecting a rotten egg to turn to gold. In one hand you give no credence to a young players performance and athletic ability, and in the other you think that an average at best player that had a good stretch 4 f'n yrs ago and often injured is the answer. Just say something that makes sense will ya. According to you, Domingo should have remained on the team and penciled in the lineup everyday. After all, he's "done it" better than Naquin, Luplow, or any other OFer they trotted out there this season.

Well, considering I coach a college sport and recruit athletes extensively, I'd like to think I know a thing or two about athletic development. Maybe I don't, I dunno.

But what I do know is that I like not getting fired.

We bring in hot-shot freshmen all the time who we think can immediately upgrade over what we already have and, in a majority of instances, they just don't pan out. Or maybe it takes a few years for it to click for them. I've learned long ago that talent doesn't always = production the higher you go in sports. When it's your name on the door, the consistent and tried-and-true guys are like gold.

Conversely, we've given huge opportunities to freshmen and they've been successful. It's a balancing act.... you don't want to put a player in a position where they're not gonna have chance to be successful-- that could ruin the player for good. But you also want to give them enough rope to work thru things. Again, it's all about balance.

I would appreciate it if you didn't put words in my mouth. I've never mentioned Domingo Santana at all.... Naquin and Luplow are fairly proven commodities in their respective roles. I was literally saying that about Naquin in the post you replied to so I'm not sure where you're going with this Domingo Santana thing.

Look at Bobby Bradley. He raked at AAA Columbus (.912 OPS) and came up and struck out in 41% of his PA's and looked generally awful at the plate. Like, how is that good for his development? How is that good for the team? Sustained failure will ruin an athlete. If you're not ready, you're not ready. Guys like Urshela and Aguilar both had sustained failure here and the Indians were right in letting them go. Good on them for making the Indians look bad down the road.... but let's not try to re-write history.
 
and 29 RBI in 327 AB's. Not super productive. Sorry, but sometimes the raw #'s are more telling than all these sabermetric stats.

Well, he hit .320 with RISP this year if you're interested in raw numbers.
 
Yandy Diaz just get hits, to me he is a top of the lineup type. He takes pitches and gets on base a lot. He had more BBs than SOs. There is a high probability without even looking that his batting average is pretty much the same in every type of scenario. He is just a pure hitter, just doesn't hit for power but focuses on making contact with the ball.
 
I don't believe a 40 game sample size of him playing through an injury trumps what we've seen when he's healthy (admittedly not often).
With respect to Naquin, it's more than just a 40 game sample. Naquin blew out his knee on July 30, 2019. He had surgery and rehabbed all winter. In March he was doing drills and taking batting practice but was not ready to face live pitching and did not play in any games before spring training was cancelled.

In July he was ready to go and participated in the abbreviated three-week "spring" training but fouled a pitch off his foot in an exhibition game against the Pirates, resulting in a hairline fracture that caused him to miss the first 17 games. He didn't actually play in a regular season game until mid-August, over 12 months after his knee injury.

So I'm willing to give him a mulligan for this year, or actually one-fourth of a year after not playing for over a year. If he can spend this off-season doing baseball activities followed by a normal spring training I don't see why he can't put up the same numbers he did in 2019 which would be a big improvement over every outfielder we trotted out last year at a very reasonable cost, probably under $2 million.

In the two season where he's had at least 274 at-bats his OPS was .886 and .792. When he's been healthy and playing every day against righties he hits. Yes, he is an injury risk and he doesn't hit for power and he doesn't walk, but considering his salary ($1.5 M base last year) I think it's a worthwhile risk. But I won't jump off a cliff if they decide to move on. They eventually gave up on Chisenhall staying healthy and this could be the year they give up on Naquin.
 
With respect to Naquin, it's more than just a 40 game sample. Naquin blew out his knee on July 30, 2019. He had surgery and rehabbed all winter. In March he was doing drills and taking batting practice but was not ready to face live pitching and did not play in any games before spring training was cancelled.

In July he was ready to go and participated in the abbreviated three-week "spring" training but fouled a pitch off his foot in an exhibition game against the Pirates, resulting in a hairline fracture that caused him to miss the first 17 games. He didn't actually play in a regular season game until mid-August, over 12 months after his knee injury.

So I'm willing to give him a mulligan for this year, or actually one-fourth of a year after not playing for over a year. If he can spend this off-season doing baseball activities followed by a normal spring training I don't see why he can't put up the same numbers he did in 2019 which would be a big improvement over every outfielder we trotted out last year at a very reasonable cost, probably under $2 million.

In the two season where he's had at least 274 at-bats his OPS was .886 and .792. When he's been healthy and playing every day against righties he hits. Yes, he is an injury risk and he doesn't hit for power and he doesn't walk, but considering his salary ($1.5 M base last year) I think it's a worthwhile risk. But I won't jump off a cliff if they decide to move on. They eventually gave up on Chisenhall staying healthy and this could be the year they give up on Naquin.
In hindsight, giving up on Chisenhall was absolutely the right move.
 
One big difference, though, IIRC is Chis had the same injury over and over...a chronic issue.


He had the calves from hell..

Also for us Nolan Jones fans. IMO Chis was a "better" 3B than Jones currently is and look where he eventually ended up. If the FO feel Jones's bat is ML ready... I think we just filled one of our spots in the OF.
 
He had the calves from hell..

Also for us Nolan Jones fans. IMO Chis was a "better" 3B than Jones currently is and look where he eventually ended up. If the FO feel Jones's bat is ML ready... I think we just filled one of our spots in the OF.

I'll be disappointed if Jones isn't in Cleveland either to start the season or early in the season (if they play the service time game). I watched him in Akron and although it's obviously a different level, I loved his approach and his leadership on the field.

Maybe a Jones/Mercado/Naquin outfield with Luplow mixing in against LHP?
 
Two interesting KBO postings.. Both players profiled/mentioned here would be potential fits.

 
FYI:

Hey @Angels fans, I see y’all in my mentions a lot so ahead of my flight to LA later today, sell me your team in one tweet. Why should a player want to be an Angel? See y’all soon!

(Trevor Bauer)
 
Two interesting KBO postings.. Both players profiled/mentioned here would be potential fits.


Kims numbers look pretty solid. You almost have to look at them in my mind like AAA numbers, but Kim lower his strikeout rate, put up his walk rate pretty quickly. His defense isn't horrible (not amazing though, may end up at 3B). If I am going to target one its Kim. Na's SO totals scare me a bit and transitioning to the US, he is going to strike out way too much for my liking. If cheap (aka 2-4 mil a season) I would chance but otherwise I wouldn't.
 

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