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Oops. Would it be believable to say I was doing a head stand in my yoga class when I checked that?

FIP and xFIP are both half a run lower on the road for his career.

Because his dad was a Yankee!!

At some point, does it become relevant that neither Aiken nor Appel ever pitched in the majors?

Mark Appel would be another precedent…

While I like this team so far, it’s really not a winning season until we get that 82nd win. There’s still a long way to go….

Prior to his UCL tear in 2020, he was also 37 years old…

Jon Gray outside of Coors might be worthwhile…

While good, sometimes you find yourself paying for Justin Verlander but getting Justin Masterson…

Boone might never manage at the MLB level again. Cashman will be getting offers as he walks out of the owner’s office….

Another name I toyed with was Dexter Fowler. He did have a lot of mediocre seasons, however…

… and has already accrued 2.1 fWAR!! Third highest total on the team, just ahead of some guy named Mookie!

… until spending too much prevents you from extending Devers or Verdugo or…

History has shown that managers go before GMs. If Cashman gave Boone a team good enough to win and Boone can’t win, he’s likely gone…

How about Chris Taylor? Former infielder. Since 2019 has similar K/BB, top ten in BSR, good ISO (.201). Peaked at 4.8 fWAR, but has had issues with PT in a stacked Dodger lineup…

He’s also a better defender. But he is, when healthy, a 4-6 fWAR player…

Fair enough. Great if true…

So for me I’m thinking Marcus Wilson as a young Brian Goodwin with Duran as a young Tommy Pham. Pham has certainly had the better career and is the better player, but Goodwin has spent his career largely as an underappreciated and unheralded player whose always done his job pretty well. Good or bad comps?

Hamilton has been worth 10.8 fWAR in 8 seasons. Sure his BSR was good when he actually got on base. Grady Sizemore, especially early Grady, feels a bit lofty of a goal to me. Think Duran can post 6 to 7 fWAR annually? I was thinking more like maybe a Tommy Pham, but without the stab wound…

I don’t get to see the tools, only the results. But I probably wouldn’t know what to look for anyway. I get that Duran puts the bat on the ball better, but we’ve also seen lots of players with “game impacting speed” who really had very little impact, with Billy Hamilton at or near the top of the list. So to put it into terms I can relate to, who would be a good MLB comp for Duran? With Wilson, Brian Goodwin seems to leap to mind. At least to me. Any thoughts?

Just making a point about early evaluations of players. Despite my repeated condemnation of Wilson, I’m starting to wonder if he isn’t at least as good as Duran. He’s been as good or better for a few years now. Both Wilson (BABIP) and Duran (Polar Park) have reasons to question their current seasons. So I’m just wondering why Duran is “the answer” while Wilson is considered a stopgap at best. The one thing in Duran’s corner is the professional evaluators like the folks at Baseball America (who, needless to say, are superior to me at this kind of stuff) clearly love Duran and largely ignore Wilson. But that still makes me wonder why…

Oh it wasn’t for long. But they drafted Grichuk first. It’s just the most famous of many examples of inferior players being drafted ahead of superior ones…

One reason is Wilson is already on the 40 man roster. Duran went to college while Wilson signed out of high school, but taking this a bit further, At age 22 in 2019, both players were in AA. Duran posted a .634 OPS. Wilson had a .749. After that season, both players were on Peoria in the AFL. Duran posted a .737 OPS. Wilson posted an .878. This season, Duran has a .972 OPS. Wilson has a .956. Wilson is about 3 weeks older. But for some reason, the feeling is Duran is some future All Star with nothing to prove in AAA, while Wilson is a future 4th outfielder whose primary purpose will be shagging flies during practice. I'm also struggling to buy into Duran. In all levels of A Ball, he never posted a BABIP under .400. Wilson was never that high in A ball. This year, in AAA, Duran's BABIP is actually very low and Wilson's is .400. Duran's home road splits are atrocious. Wilson's are actually remarkably equal. Duran strikes out less but also walks a lot less. Wilson plays better defense, but has the advantage of always being an outfielder while Duran only moved a couple seasons ago. There are a few pros and cons that make me think these players are closer to equal than we get when going by amount of press coverage each gets. I'm hesitant to call either of the ma future All Star right now But then I almost never label a minor leaguer that way...

EXCUSE ME, SIR! But are you possibly suggesting that Manfred might be a bit of a baboon-brained buffoon? If so, good day to you! Also, yeah he is…

Maybe Wilson is a bit underappreciated (guilty of it myself) and Duran is a little overhyped. Sometimes these early evaluations are a bit off. At one point, the Angels thought more of Randal Grichuk than they did of Mike Trout…