jacksonianmarch

I am not denying that last season was his first one that he showed patience. That is not the issue. The issue is, that in 560PAs last season, he walked 57 times. At 21 yrs old. 21 yr old players typically are still very wild and free swinging. Most players garner control of the strike zone as they age. Most players who improve on patience do not regress in this area. If your argument is that he wont hit .280 again, I'd disagree, but we would both have grounds to be right. There are no instances that you can give me where you have a rookie player show a dramatic increase in patience and then fall back to baseline. There arent any. Control of your strike zone is something that isnt lost easily.

find me a player in the majors who started off his career in the minors as an impatient hitter, had a breakthrough season of patience in the majors and then declined back to being completely impatient the yr after that. You can't. Your point is essentially just bias based without any factual comparisons.

I was of the camp that Abreu's contract would be terminated after this season, but with the way things are going, if Abeu shows he is still a force at 33, then a 16mil option on a player with .300 20HR 100RBI 30SB and a .420OBP is quite a bargain. Also, there is one name that may start rising through the ranks faster. It is Jose Tabata. He turned 18 4 months ago, had a pretty good yr in the SAL as a 17 yr old and has started off strong in the VWL. He is the Yankees top position prospect and will likely see time in Single A Tampa this yr. Assuming he plays in trenton in 2008, he might be the replacement for Abreu after 08, so having a 1 yr stopgap in Abreu might be useful.

minor league stats bro. What about the full major league stats.

the stats dont matter? I'll take 94% bro.

Here are the guys who had 56 or more BBs in 2005 followed by their 2006 totals Beltran (95) Jenkins (56) Vizquel (56) F. Lopez (81) C. Lee (58) Burnitz (22) only had 300ABs Peralta (56) Eckstein (31) in 35 less Games Young (48) - Chavez (84) Bill Mueller (17) played only 32 games Mauer (79) Lugo (39) 200 less PA's than 05 Guerrero (50) Furcal (73) Varitek (46) in 30 less games Green (46) Matsui - injured almost all season Martinez (71) Inge (43) Floyd (29) down 53 games M. Cabrera (86) Figgins (65) Giles (62) A. Jones (82) Castillo (56) Posada (64) Roberts (55) Utley (63) Lawton - played in 11 games last yr Ibanez (65) Wright (66) Teixeira (89) Delgado (74) Kent (55) in 30 less games Zaun (41) in 35 less games Klesko missed entire season with injury Dellucci (28) 200 less PAs, used as a backup Jeter (69) Overbay (55) Gonzalez (69) Sheffield missed all but 2 months of season Counsell (31) in 200 less ABs Hafner (100) Johnson (110) Ramirez (100) Konerko (60) Wilkerson (37) missed 60 games due to injury Glaus (86) Ensberg (101) Lee missed most of season with wrist injury Sexson (64) Berkman (98) ARod (90) Edmonds (53) down 32 games from 05 Ortiz (119) Bay (102) Pujols (92) Burrell (98) Helton (91) Giambi (110) Dunn (112) Abreu (124) Giles (104) Of the 64 players above, all but 3 players were at or above 50BBs in 2006, were injured and missed a significant portion of time, or were relegated to backup duty. Here are the three that dropped. For analysis, here is Melky's BB rate. 10.9% (BB rate is BB's/PA's) Michael Young - TONS of PA's. His BB average in 2005 was 7.9%. His 2006 average was 6.5%. Career high BB rate is still 3% lower than Melky's rookie yr. Brandon Inge - in 2005, he had 30 more BBs than he did in his previous career high BB total. 2005 was his 5th yr in the league. His BB rate was 9.2% in 2005. His BB rate in 2005 was 7.4%. His career high BB rate is still a whole 1.7% lower overall than Melky's. Shawn Green - Green was on a major downswing in his career. His 2005 numbers were on a consistent slide from a career high of 93BB in 2002. His 2005 BB% was 9.6%. His 2006 BB% was 7.8%. This is consistent with the slide he was on. 2004 numbers were 10.7%. Consistent slide because he wasnt that good anymore, so he was being pitched to. Overall, 46 players surpassed 50. 49 players on the above list played a full season. Hence, the chances are 94% that he would surpass 50BB's if given a full season. I would say that passing 50BBs is not a fluke, especially since he is a rookie.

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/cs-0612200274dec20,1,2008606.story?coll=cs-baseball-print turning from one oft injured slugger to another seems to be the way the cubbies want to play it. They were considered to be the other team in the JD Drew sweepstakes and now they decided to sign Cliff Floyd to a contract. I heard that the cubbies will add a clause to his contract that kicks in an extra massage day if he plays more games than JD Drew this yr.

Michaels career got off track when he couldnt stay on the field. Also, Melky is a switch hitter.

was one of the best managers in baseball ted. I love Joe Torre. I think we dont win anything in the late 90s. I still think he is a fantastic ambassador for the game and a great ego-melder. But the one thing the guy has lost is his ability to make the right in game moves. He was even taped asleep in the dugout during one of the games. Without Zimmer, he is in trouble. Zim was the aggressive one.

the "mystery man" has had a solid season in the major leagues. David Murphy has had a cup of coffee in the bigs.

I dont think anyone views him as a viable everyday option, so your return will be minimal at best.

also, if he were in a different lineup, he may have been pitched around more than he was. In the yankee lineup, for the most part, he was considered early on as the easy out. So he was pitched to exclusively. If you have a rookie come up, be targetted as the easy out, and still come away with 57 walks, then you have to have an intrinsic sense of the zone and hence why he walked so much.

I dont think that argument will hold up anywhere in baseball at all. Rookies are characteristically overzealous. Melky had no pressure once Sheffield was deemed out for the yr, so there was no pressure to move him back down. So are you saying that Cano was told to take pitches 2 yrs ago when he was a rookie? Cause he sure as hell didnt, when he walked 16 times in 540PA's. Plus, a mark of a good hitter is to be able to be patient enough and confident enough to wait out the opposing pitcher, knowing that you can hit him. Most rookies have the mentality that they better show what they have and they may only get one pitch to hit, so they swing balls out. He didnt. He took a ton of pitches, fouled off numerous others, and was patient enough to work out walks. To say that it was because Torre didnt let him loose enough is a poor argument and an easy way to try and downgrade an opponent. Plus, Torre doesnt know what he is doing 3/4 of the time, to say that he maximized Cabrera's ability by holding the reigns is giving clueless joe a lot of credit.

you arent listening and I'd rather not continue to try. Hits, power. Those are things that could be lucky and we have seen people fluctuate in those many times. But show me someone who has had a "lucky" walk season and I will show you many who havent.

I think Lowell should be moved. The guy had a very bad yr in 05. Then he started out hot and faded again in 06.

in 500ABs the kid posted a .357 OBP that was heavily walk influenced. It isnt like a 100PA 15BB performance. He made incredible contact and was incredibly patient in his time in NY. It was no anomaly.

I love Nick Johnson, but Bowden is asking for the moon for anyone over there. He would have reason to ask for the moon for johnson as he and zimmerman will be the 3-4 in that lineup. If we are gonna trade away any big parts, we would need to do it for pitching.

Jeter was in another lineup. It was called the injury riddled 2006 yankee lineup featuring missed games by Matsui, Sheff, Giambi, Cano, and even a few by ARod. And man did he suffer /sarcasm.

regular arm? He was the 4th ranked LFer in baseball last yr. His defense was very solid. His arm ranks highly as well. His speed is above average, not in a base stealers eschilon, but he can steal a few. He has minimal power, well below average for a corner OFer. He has plus patience at the plate and makes solid contact. One other thing I forgot to mention is that he is 22 and is a switch hitter, who hit around .280 vs both lefties and righties. He has a lot to offer, hence why it seems everyone wants him.

So I was running by a few names in the times article today which included the preposterous idea of getting Loretta to play 1b and a name popped out which gave me an idea. Why not go with a platoon. Get Mientkiewicz for facing right handers, and go out to get Eduardo Perez to play vs lefties. The guy mashed lefties to a .857OPS last season. That would help to even out the lineup when facing a tough lefty while giving the yankees the D of Mientkiewicz for the majority of the games (seeing as there are more righty starters than left). Other options include the powerful yet defensively inept Josh Phelps, the I cannot hit a breaking ball Andy Phillips, and the barely able to break .700OPS Mark Loretta. Sounds like my idea would work.

I think he is a loretta clone.