harmony

ZiPS projects 2017 OPS+ of 137 for Edwin Encarnacion and 120 for Hanley Ramirez. FanGraphs Depth Charts and Steamer project 2017 wRC+ of 123 for Encarnacion and 120 for Ramirez. Bald opinions are occasionally interesting but rarely enlightening. I offer opinions sparingly. Instead I provide relevant information that the reader may incorporate or ignore in reaching his or her own opinion ... or not.

??? Edwin Encarnacion has posted more hits than Hanley Ramirez in five of the last six seasons, the lone exception coming in 2012 when Ramirez had 155 hits to Encarnacion's 152 hits. http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/ramirha01.shtml http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/e/encared01.shtml

Over the last five seasons Hanley Ramirez has an OPS+ of 123 in 623 games while over the same period Edwin Encarnacion has an OPS+ of 146 in 727 games. Each player was born in 1983 although Encarnacion is nearly a year older. http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/ramirha01.shtml http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/e/encared01.shtml Despite that wide five-year disparity, FanGraphs Depth Charts and Steamer project 2017 wRC+ of 120 for Ramirez and 123 for Encarnacion. http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=8001&position=SS http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=2151&position=1B/3B/DH

Thanks, moonslav59 The Seattle Times forum is probably busier than this site: http://forums.seattletimes.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=22 Over at SB Nation, Lookout Landing and Over the Monster probably have similar traffic: http://www.lookoutlanding.com/ http://www.overthemonster.com/ U.S.S. Mariner has slowed down significantly since the Dave Cameron days: http://www.ussmariner.com/ Prospect Insider plugs along: http://prospectinsider.com/ Shannon Drayer's blogs attract responses: http://sports.mynorthwest.com/category/mariners-blog/ My favorite Mariners beat reporter is the Tacoma News-Tribune's Bob Dutton, former president of the Baseball Writers' Association of America: http://www.thenewstribune.com/sports/mlb/seattle-mariners/mariners-insider-blog/article129618024.html

This question? Honest answer: Yes On Page 203 of this thread, I provided three recent examples in my answer to your question.

My original comp of Hanley Ramirez and Danny Valencia, on Page 201 of this thread, listed those three-year WAR and projected WAR.

In my recent comp of Hanley Ramirez and Seattle's Danny Valencia I could have cherry-picked their stats for only the past two seasons when Ramirez posted an OPS+ of 110 in 252 games while Valencia posted an OPS+ of 126 in 235 games. However, being arguably the most objective contributor to this forum, I thought the three-year sample presented a fairer picture: Ramirez OPS+ 117 in 380 games, Valencia OPS+ 116 in 321 games. The comp received this response in a FanGraphs chat on Monday: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/travis-sawchik-fangraphs-chat-2/

Perhaps a better comparison would be David Ortiz, who played 2,162 innings in the field, and Edgar Martinez, who played 4,829 innings in the field, focusing on their hitting numbers: http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/o/ortizda01.shtml http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/martied01.shtml http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=745&position=DH http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=1086&position=3B/DH Or not.

Quote Originally Posted by moonslav59 View Post Maybe not the best choice, but we need depth. I hope we have better in the works. http://www.talksox.com/forum/threads/18029-2017-Rotation?p=1046255#post1046255 Quote Originally Posted by moonslav59 View Post I was betting on 1.5 at about 100 IP. I'd take the over on 2.0 at 200 IP for sure. http://www.talksox.com/forum/threads/17991-A-Realistic-View-at-2017-Part-I?p=1046063#post1046063 Originally Posted by Spudboy View Post And how do the other outfielders compare for both teams? http://www.talksox.com/forum/threads/17790-The-Benintendi-Thread?p=1046055#post1046055

John Olerud posted 58.0 bWAR (57.3 fWAR) in 17 seasons while Mark Grace posted 46.1 bWAR (45.5 fWAR) in 16 seasons. As a point of reference, David Ortiz posted 55.4 bWAR (50.5 fWAR) in 20 seasons. The average prospect of Travis' age and prospect ranking accumulates less than four WAR in the seven years following the ranking: https://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/what-to-expect-from-baseball-americas-top-100-prospects/

In his bounceback 2016 season, Hanley Ramirez posted 2.6 fWAR, valued at $20.7 million, while pulling down a salary of $22 million. Two years and $44 million into his four-year, $88 million contract, Ramirez has posted 0.8 fWAR, valued at $6.2 million.

ESPN columnist Scott Lauber offered his take on Sam Travis: http://www.espn.com/blog/boston/red-sox/post/_/id/51654/sam-travis-aka-mr-intensity-is-hell-bent-on-the-bigs Lauber writes of Travis' relationship with Chicago Cubs slugger Kyle Schwarber, his teammate at Indiana University. On this forum I've compared Travis with Seattle first base prospect Dan Vogelbach, who coincidentally was a teammate of Schwarber's on the 2015 Tennessee Smokies. Compare their lines on the 2014 Indiana Hoosiers and the 2015 Tennessee Smokies: IU14 KS 232 AB, .358/.464/.659/1.123 IU14 ST 245 AB, .347/.415/.576/.991 TS15 KS 243 PA, .320/.438/.579/1.017 TS15 DV 313 PA, .272/.403/.425/.828 http://iuhoosiers.com/documents/2015/9/19//14_indiv.pdf?id=19925 http://www.baseball-reference.com/register/team.cgi?id=db646cfb I have not seen Vogelbach on any Top 100 prospect lists but Steamer600, which assume 600 plate appearances for each hitter, projects 2017 WAR of 0.7 for Travis and 1.1 for Vogelbach. http://www.fangraphs.com/projections.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&type=steamer600&team=3&lg=all&players= http://www.fangraphs.com/projections.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&type=steamer600&team=11&lg=all&players=

Providence Journal beat reporter Brian MacPherson writes about Hanley Ramirez and this offseason's class of righthanded hitters: http://www.providencejournal.com/sports/20170128/ramirez-may-be-too-rich-luxury-for-red-sox As a side note, over the past three seasons Hanley Ramirez has an OPS+ of 117 in 380 games while Seattle's Danny Valencia has an OPS+ of 116 in 393 games over the same period. Valencia and Ramirez are defensively challenged righthanded hitters born nine months apart. The slightly younger Valencia has a three-year fWAR of 3.7 while Ramirez has a three-year fWAR of 4.2. ZiPS, FanGraphs Depth Charts, Steamer and Steamer600 project 2017 WAR of 1.4, 0.6, 0.4 and 0.5 for Valencia and 1.8, 2.0, 1.6 and 1.8 for Ramirez. Valencia will earn $5.55 million in his final year of team control while Ramirez will earn $22.75 million in the third year of his four-year contract with a vesting fifth-year option. For the Mariners, Valencia is projected to be on the short end of platoon at first base and back up Kyle Seager at third base: http://www.rosterresource.com/mlb-seattle-mariners/

It's hardly a put-down to write that the Red Sox deserve to be in the conversation about AL favorites. https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/redsox/2017/01/28/red-sox-runaway-east-not-fast/ImKMmhw271PH00Irq5PcOM/story.html I'm excited about the 2017 Seattle Mariners but stop short of writing that the M's deserve to be in the conversation about AL favorites. I am hopeful that things can break the M's way to end the 15-year postseason drought. The Mariners have a better record than the Red Sox over the past three seasons with neither the highs nor the lows the Sox experienced over that period. Last year Seattle had the league's fourth-best run differential, finishing third in runs scored and third in team ERA. The M's were undermined by woeful defense and base-running. The hope is that the additions of Jarrod Dyson, Jean Segura and Mitch Haniger will address those deficiencies. Gone are the days of Seth Smith, Nelson Cruz and Nori Aoki patrolling the expansive Safeco outfield. This could be Seattle's year ... or not. As a Mariner fan I'm no stranger to disappointment.

Steamer600, which assumes 600 plate appearances for each hitter and 65 innings for each reliever, projects 2017 WAR of 0.7 for Mitch Moreland, 0.5 for Tyler Thornburg, 0.9 for Koji Uehara and 0.6 for Junichi Tazawa. David Ortiz posted 4.4 fWAR last year.

Indeed the Red Sox last year scored 101 more runs than they closest American League rival, the Cleveland Guardians (who this offseason added Edwin Encarnacion while the Sox lost David Ortiz). The previous year the Blue Jays scored 127 more runs than their closest American League rival, the New York Yankees. Without losing a David Ortiz-caliber hitter, the Blue Jays in 2016 fell to fifth in the league in scoring. In 2016 the Red Sox received stellar performances from Mookie Betts, Dustin Pedroia, Xander Bogaerts and Jackie Bradley, who posted fWAR pf 7.8, 5.2, 4.8 and 4.7, respectively. These are four great players but I doubt more than one will match or exceed his 2016 fWAR (and the current Steamer, ZiPS and FanGraphs Depth Charts projections support that). Few Red Sox players are projected to regress upward. The Red Sox deserve to be in the conversation of American League favorites but I'm unconvinced that the Sox have made a net improvement over the 2016 AL East champs.

Even with Toronto losing Edwin Encarnacion, no AL East club lost a player who posted the .315/.401/.620/1.021, OPS+ 162 line of David Ortiz last year. Like last offseason the Red Sox made a high-profile splash with the acquisition of an "ace" starter but also lost Koji Uehara, Junichi Tazawa and Clay Buchholz. The Red Sox are in a position to repeat as AL East champs but I question whether the outlook is much brighter.

I rarely watch baseball on television but instead listen to radio broadcasts on a regular basis because radio does not command most of my attention. Growing up in the Midwest in the 1960s I did not have radio broadcasts of my favorite team so I checked the box scores in the newspaper each morning. I would get the West Coast scores a day-and-a-half late.

I would not have minded if my Mariners had signed Kyle Kendrick, a Seattle-area product, to a minor league contract to provide rotation depth. Behind the current projected starting five, the Mariners have 28-year-old lefthander Ariel Miranda, who posted an ERA of 3.44 in 10 starts last year; nearly 29-year-old righthander Chris Heston, who two years ago posted an ERA of 3.95 in 31 starts, including a no-hitter; and nearly 23-year-old righthander Rob Whalen, who last year was roughed up in five MLB starts after five solid years in the minors.

Steamer600, which assumes 450 plate appearances for each catcher, projects 2017 WAR of 1.6 for Christian Vazquez, 1.6 for Sandy Leon and 1.4 for Blake Swihart: http://www.fangraphs.com/projections.aspx?pos=c&stats=bat&type=steamer600&team=3&lg=all&players=0&sort=27,d

The Red Sox add nine non-roster invitees to Spring Training camp:

The Red Sox sign right-hander Kyle Kendrick to a minor league deal presumably for rotation depth: http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2017/01/red-sox-sign-kyle-kendrick-to-minor-league-deal.html Every team needs to take chances to deepen the rotation.

Mitch Haniger and Andrew Benintendi each remain under team control for six seasons (assuming neither spends much time in the minors). Age seasons are typically calculated on July 1 so Benintendi turns 28 on July 6 of his age 27 season and becomes a free agent at the end of that season (barring an interruption of his MLB service time).

Andrew Benintendi joins Mariner catcher Mike Zunino and Seattle outfield prospect Kyle Lewis in "winning the 'Heisman equivalent of college baseball' and being ranked within the top 50 of the top 100." http://www.baseballamerica.com/college/college-player-of-the-year-lewis-powers-away-from-field/#xfe4816V7Mq6A3ev.97 http://m.mlb.com/prospects/2016?list=prospects The age difference between Benintendi and Mitch Haniger is also notable in that the Red Sox will control Benintendi for his age 22-27 seasons (through his 28th birthday) while the Mariners control Haniger for his age 26-31 seasons (assuming each spends little or no more time in the minors). Haniger reminds me of Jason Bay and Steven Souza at similar ages and stages of development. Haniger's production may fall somewhere in between ... or not. Here is another FanGraphs piece on Haniger: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/was-the-jean-segura-trade-really-the-mitch-haniger-trade/

ZiPS projects Steven Wright with a 2017 WAR of 2.0 in 122 innings: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/2017-zips-projections-boston-red-sox/