FredLynn
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Everything posted by FredLynn
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No more ragging on Rafaela this year by popular demand
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No more ragging on Rafaela this year by popular demand
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Why on earth would you lose interest 🙄
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His OBP is abysmal at around .275 for his career. Average OBP for ML is .312 this year. I want someone who can actually get on base in addition to hitting for power-when he manages to make contact with the baseball, which is far too infrequent. Aside from the statistics there is the "eye test". He looks lost at the plate. He seems to make up his mind that he is going to swing or not swing before the pitch is even thrown. Thats the main issue: OBP and K to BB ratio. BTW, his OPS+ is 82 this year. I think thats more useful than just OPS. He is simply not a guy I want as my starting CFer. Maybe a backup...maybe. Overall I take Duran in CF and Abreu in RF as we find a new LFer. Regardless, I am not going to rag on him any more on the game threads, at least not as much-by popular demand. Everyone knows what I think about him. Give him another few months at the beginning of next year. No improvement and I'd get rid of him.
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Its not just the last six weeks, as you know. Its what he is: total lack of discipline at the plate. It has to improve or he's going to find himself out of baseball, no matter how good a defender he is. That time is not now; its probably not early next year either-but if he continues to routinely swing at balls foot off the plate and maintains an unacceptable OBP he will become a footnote in baseball history.
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Fortunately there aren’t many games left this year and no doubt Rafaela will be a .300 hitter next year.
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Of course I respect your understanding of the game! It’s much better than mine. That said, while his defense is a pleasure to watch-like that of JBJ-there has to be a better ability to hit the baseball than what he has shown so far. Maybe he’ll improve to an acceptable level which, because his defense is above average, doesn’t have to be stellar-just better. Watching him take huge swings at balls a foot outside the strike zone isn’t going to get him there. When Bradley sucked on offense he was dumped even though he remained an elite defender. I think offensively they are roughly the same when JBJ went south. I hope Rafaela doesn’t suffer the same fate. He’s got a long way to go.
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You aren’t being asked to join my bandwagon. Your problem is that you are grading him on his questionable offensive potential (which is by definition unproven ) and I am evaluating him on what he has done THIS YEAR. Maybe he’ll get better-and as I wrote I certainly hope he does-but THIS YEAR he hasn’t shown much with a bat.
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We aren’t discussing his defense. He’s clearly a well above average defender. We are going to have to agree to disagree on his offense. IMO he’s been awful this year. Too many K’s. No plate recognition whatsoever. Last walk august 9. Horrible OBP. So I’ll continue to criticize his offense and you can keep defending him. Deal?
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How about you? Do you think Rafaela’s offensive performance this year has been acceptable?
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And for the year? Is what he has done ok?
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I am making no such assumption. What I am doing is stating my opinion of his total performance for the entire year. Do you think Rafaela’s total offensive performance this year is acceptable?
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You can’t assume that Rafaela’s career trajectory will mimic that of JBJ. He may or may not have acceptable or better years offensively. I am comparing Rafaela to Bradley when Bradley was equally useless offensively. I am NOT comparing their whole careers. There will come a point where Rafaela will need to prove himself with a bat or he will no longer be in the game-anywhere.
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You don’t see that ever. Still only three runs to show for it.
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As of right now he isn’t even nearly acceptable with a bat. The only thing I can relate to is what is right now. Maybe Rafaela will improve offensively (I certainly hope he does); maybe he won’t. As of right now he’s awful.
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I wouldn’t put it past this pen to blow the lead
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Houck was an all star too and quite a surprise. Second place.
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He’s probably the brightest spot on the team this year. There are others: Casas, Wong, Houck etc Obviously they need to fix their pitching to become relevant again. And I don’t think we have much in the minor league to help out. Let’s see if Henry opens his purse to obtain good TOTR pitchers this winter.
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If you are arguing that when he was good Bradley was much better overall than what we have seen in Rafaela I’d agree. But when he started to suck with a bat they were the same-unacceptable.
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Unfortunately ALL the ABs count. There’s no reason for a pitcher to EVER throw him a strike.
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I don’t care about Blair. He was never on the Sox.
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Those figures are proof that stats aren’t everything. Bradley was a pleasure to watch in the OF too. He rightfully got jettisoned when he started to suck with a bat in his hands. Hey-I hope Rafaela reaches the level of “acceptable” offensively. He’s not there. He’s not even close.
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Good defense is mandatory. As is being able to hit the baseball
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Not am I! I’m a realist. As I’ve written here many times there is a good nucleus of young players on the team but without a helluva lot of better pitching the team will continue to suck.
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Yup i guess you’d have to say Rafaela is worse than Bradley. At least JBJ had some good streaks with a bat. Rafaela looks completely lost at the plate. I don’t see that becoming at an acceptable level.