I believe Houston is now more smoggy than LA. Been there many times...no way in hell I would live there.
Edit....just looked it up. Houston is not that bad as far as smog goes....#11 in the US. But it still is horrible there.
Exactly. Devers' *potential*, so often mentioned here, has not resulted in a decent enough performance for him to have earned a spot on the postseason roster. He may or may not eventually develop into a good every day player, but as of now, he is very raw.
How is using the largest most relevant sample size cherry picking?
Look at his game logs....
He played April 10, 14, and 17
Played April 22, then 27
Played May 3, 6, 14, 17, 18, 26
Huge gaps between games. No one can prove themself that way.
Neither Leon nor Vasquez can hit the baseball...which is fine when everyone else is hitting. But overall I think Swihart should be seeing more playing time. Thats twice Leon has not delivered tonight with the bases loaded. He could have put the game away right there if he could hit.
Let me understand this: you think that a month by month (week by week? day by day?) sample size is more valuable, more telling, more accurate for Vasquez than his overall contribution to the team for the 2018 season? Is that true? Which months (weeks/days) would you like to "not count" when analyzing his performance? And as for Swihart, I thought we stipulated that it is very difficult for any player to play one day then rest 3-4 days, then play again. Didn't we agree on that? So then do you really think that the time before Vas got injured (and hence more playing time for Swihart) should be as good an indicator of performance as the period of time when he was in the lineup more often? I say when you play regularly you get sharper....and that is what happened to Swihart.
Now who is really cherry picking?
Good lesson in cherry picking! Lets looks at the most relevant stats-all of his stats since he started playing more regularly, since Vas got hurt, and all of Vasquez's stats. Why go month by month other than to support an illogical argument? Why not go week by week, if you want to go there...or game by game? Fact: Vasquez has had a bad year both offensively and defensively....and Swihart represents an offensive upgrade by 200 OPS points AND he is playing good defense.
I am assigning less importance to Swihart's stats before he was given a chance to play regularly. I believe we stipulated a while ago that it is very difficult to get into a good groove when you play one day and rest for the next three or four. On the other hand Vasquez was playing regularly until he got hurt and, unfortunately, he was having a bad year both offensively and defensively. For a long time he was just a black hole. Since Swihart was given a chance to play regularly his OPS is about 200 points higher than Vasquez's OPS. His defense has also been good.....and he has earned a job.
All it says is that we have three catchers and that Swihart is versatile enough to play other positions. Otherwise one of the other two is an appendix.
Vasquez has a horrendous OPS and is having a bad year defensively. If I am the GM and had to choose two catchers for the postseason Vasquez would not be one of them.
Not buying it at all. You are implying that catcher ERA is an important stat-its not. Its the pitcher who throws the ball. If he is on and hitting the corners it doesn't matter who catches him. If he is catching too much of the plate he will get hit no matter who is catching him. Swihart has played in a total of 64 games this year and even fewer after he was given a chance to play regularly. How many opposing plate appearances could he possibly have for each of the Sox pitchers? Whatever it is, its a small sample size. I know Vas has a negative WAR this year so far....and he can't hit.
Swihart has, through his offensive superiority to the other two catchers we have, earned consideration for either a starting job or a backup next year. I understand that you will disagree with this but I am not buying your logic. Call it a difference of opinion.