drewski6

If you do 30 pushups everyday for the next 2 months, I promise you that you will see the difference in your bowling average.

Im of the belief that its actually quite hard to ruin talent. I think in most cases its fans trying to blame anyone else other than someone they invested in emotionally. "HOW DARE YOU SAY MY MAN CRUSH IS A BUST! GRANTED HE WAS A TOP PROSPECT WHO IS NOW 29 WITH A .189 CAREER BA, BUT I BLAME.....THE MANAGER"

Jordan Walkers wrists are the size of my biceps, KC just isnt built that way. A better comparison to Walker is Roman Anthony because they are both going to struggle to maintain their athleticisms as they continue along in their careers. And its fine, probs. You either move them to 1b, dh, or you live with the fact that they are both too muscular to be perfect defensive outfielders.

Walker is 6'6, 250 lbs

Crochet.

It hasnt been that long since Salas was considered a top prospect + a rental pitcher has decent value at the deadline. This package isnt nothing. Of course, there is plenty of middle ground between a) a belief that the Sox overrate Duran's trade value and b) Duran not having trade value. For example, if the Sox and BTV peg Duran at about 35 trade value units, and you think thats too high and it should be about 25 units in a fair deal but you also think this Salas/Cease package is worth 15 units and not enough. So if thats about-ish where you are (and im just using it as an example) , I can reconcile you being like Sox shoulda moved Duran in a package, but they overrate and that gets in the way ...... But the 15 trade unit package is too low.

I look at variables. For example , there was a year when career .260 hitting Christian Guzman suddenly became a .300 hitter. And I was skeptical that it was anything more than a hot-streak in April and even into May. Then I changed my mind and realized the elevated production was the new baseline. Why did I change my opinion from just a hot streak to new normal? Well, you may think its because he did it long enough. Its one thing to bat .300 for 2 weeks, and something else to do it for 6 weeks. So you may think the reason I changed my mind was because the sample size expanded. But in actuality, it was because I learned he had gotten lasex eye surgery in the offseason. The reason why Id be nervous about Bo is because of the variable change. New league, new park. Hes not the only guy to struggle in that pitcher's park.

If one person says that someone has a pattern of starting the year in a slump and someone else says that the same player doesnt usually appear to be ready to start the year, I would submit those 2 are agreeing, not arguing.

He should be pitching to induce grounders since hes such a good fielder. Im not sure if the cutter is the right pitch to make primary when he has a heavy drop sinker.

I agree, but I still dont think Id do Cedanne (or Duran or Abreu) for Paredes, even if they threw in a prospect and reliever. I like getting the best player in the deal, and I honestly just think that all of Cedanne/Duran/Abreu are better players than Paredes, even though I agree that a trade could have made sense from a balance perspective. But to me, there is a big gap between the 2b/ss/3b worth going out and getting and the ones who are "fine options" aka "serviceable" and I think that both Durbin and Paredes are in this latter category. My disagreement with regret talk is more about Paredes than anything else. I think hes kind of par/run-of-the-mill. Its like theres "special guys" (and by definition of the word, "special" - there cant be too many of em) and there are "guys". I dont think Paredes or Durbin are special , but I think they are both fine. I honestly think there are not a lot of 2b/3b/SS who are available and worth "going out and getting" And these names dont excite me. YOu want me to consider trading Duran or Abreu, drop a name like Seager.

I believe that Astros preferred Abreu over Duran. I believe Astros were willing to include significantly more alongside Paredes for Abreu than they would alongside Paredes for Duran. I believe they asked for Abreu and we said no. But that last part, that we offered Duran for Paredes and tried to make that happen. And they turned it down. I think people here are making the mistake of grouping Paredes and Marte together because they were both targets at one point and both all-stars with at least an above-average bat. "Get a Marte for Paredes" but in actuality, Marte is like 88-89 overall ballplayer (if I were to assign him a video game rating), whereas Paredes is like an 81 and thats a big gap.

And these are all bad trades.

I agree I dont think they would have subtracted for the sake of subtraction. To move any of our 4 outfielders, the primary why should start with who we are getting, not about creating everyday roles for guys already in house.

Because there are very few 3b and 2b who are better than Duran or Rafaela. Paredes is not, btw.

Dont worry , we have IKF coming up this next inning.

For sure. I think the reason I put Maddux 2-seam above Mos cutter is because Ive seen Red Sox batters get the better of Mo ina few key spots and because those are like epic Sox victories (e.g. 2004) they stick out in my mind creating potentially a misconception that Mo wasnt 100% unhittable. Also, I generally give the benfit of the doubt to sp over rp, but maddux did have other pitches unlike Mo which is big points for his cutter. Because you knew you were getting it and still get fooled over and over.

The Maddux is a complete game shut-out, with 90 or less pitches thrown and 14 broken bats.

Maddux 2-seam/sinker (depending on what the scorekeeper felt like calling it) was probably the best pitch Ive seen in my life with an honorable mention to Johan Santana's changeup.

OPS and K% are different. Most OPS will be lower in April /May/September/October vs June, July, August due to weather/wind/humidity. Ball flies significantly more when its hot and dry. Some guys start hot, and thats often because fresh/healthy but when that happens its despite the fact that the weather conditions are better for batters in the summer months. So these OPS trends are nothing more than things Id expect to see, and I feel the K% is a better metric here to determine the degree of any slumps beyond what can be attributed to weather/uncontrollable variables.

I agree. I assure you that the catcher didnt set up for a high change-up, a high sinker, and then a second high changeup. That pitcher was making mistakes in the zone, which is worse than making mistakes out of the zone even though the walk junkies will prob disagree with that. Burying a pitch to a righty from a lefty would have to be either a curve or change. If they are throwing sweepers/sliders/cutters to a righty from a lefty, usually they are trying to back-door those. A curveball can start away and in the zone but wind up buried, ditto changeup....But sliders/sweepers/cutters, when they are low and away to righties from a lefty, thats an easy pitch to lay off. Coming in on a righty with a sweeper is so dangerous. I wouldnt do it ahead in the count cuz its so easy to overspin the sweeper and if you are coming in on a righty from a lefty, in an 0-2 count or a 1-2 count , you are asking to plunk the batter, on an 80 mph pitch, so thats a bail out. If the count is 3-1 a sweep across the zone, back foot sweeper is a better pitch (vs in a 1-2 count). But those high changeups are no doubt meatballs. The high sinker , maybe not as much, because usually a high sinker just becomes more of a 2 seam when its left up. Kind of like the Mitch Hepburn "an escalator can never be broken, it can only become stairs" joke. I honestly dont always know the difference between a 2 seamer and a sinker, unless its like Brandon Webbs obvious sinker. They have the same grip and arm action. But like Bello's...you could call that pitch either a 2 seamer or a sinker depending on what mood you are in. But a high chnage is different. THere is a yo-yo string pull effect to a good change, and that doesnt happen when its left up. Same thing with sliders. When too high the break is heavily reduced. There are very few pitches you want to leave up like that, and none of them are soft. 2-seamers, 4-seamers, and cutters really.

Anybody ever play base wars on regular Nintendo in the early nineties?

If Abreu and Contreras keep mashing, then it takes so much pressure off a guy like Durbin. And guys like Durbin, I feel they are better when they arent trying too much at the plate.

Am I allowed to pretend Eddie Romero is one of my faves, the late great, Eddie Guerrero?

Im on the other end of it. I was surprised that all the grade the offseason threads were all B+ to A+ and anything critical was like "needed one more BP piece" or "left too many outfielders" (so not enough subtraction). I graded the offseason a D. It felt chaotic, and that they failed to execute their plan which I thought revolved around Bregman (and still do). I was also critical of that plan, because I wanted a masher alongside Bregman, but that desire dissipated a bit when they brought in Contreras. Later preseason, started thinking I was too harsh because the end result is more important than the "how they got there", so even if it wasnt a linear route - it did start feeling like they took a playoff team and made it better. Especially when like everyone was mashing in spring/WBC. I dont feel like I can give any I told you sos or deserve a victory lap because what I thought was our flaw - inability to fix the offense, so go all in on pitching and D...To the point where I felt we went too all in on pitching and D. I even went out and said "you can have too much pitching and we do" But it doesnt feel like this team is where it is solely because of de-emphasizing the bats. It feels like pitching and D are , at least, as much of a problem. So even though I was surprised at all the rah-rah and optimism....And even though I eventually joined that rah-rah and optimism - it doesnt feel like when I was nervous about the team (before everyone started thumping in ST and WBC) .... even when I was skeptical, it doesnt feel like I was skeptical for the right reasons. Even when I was at my least optimistic. If you told me 2-8 start, I would have guessed we'd have 19 runs combined in those 10 games and a lot of 2-1 losses. But again, that doesnt seem to be the case. It doesnt feel like me being like "too much focus on pitching and d and not enough focus on batting" is a correct synopsis of why we are 2-8, and thats what I would have told you if you told me before spring they would be 2-8 after first 10 games.

I love me a "coming in hot" opening post.