Look at Ray Ray Run

Here's the literal quote defining that what the Bulls did was not required, and was well beyond what most would have done: Riding a motorcycle violates the standard NBA contract, and the Bulls could have terminated Williams' deal after the accident June 19. Instead, they put the No. 2 pick in the 2002 draft on injured reserve and continued to pay him. The Bulls not only paid him for the duration of that season - paying him his full pay - they then gave him an additional 3 million dollars during the off-season. The Bulls were loyal and took care of Jay Williams; regardless of how you want to portray Reinsdorf.

He owed him zero dollars; he violated the terms of the deal. The Bulls literally owed him nothing. They gave him millions. Insurance paid for nothing - insurance wouldn't cover a player who violated his contract. Insurance would only cover that player if that player was legally owed the money.

The audacity of this guy saying basketball knows no loyalty. Jerry pays the guy for his contract that he didn't owe due to Jay Williams violating the terms by riding the motorcycle... then 10 years later, Jay is ripping the Bulls publicly despite them taking care of him when they didn't have to.

As for your first point, we don't have that data at Birmingham so we can't really judge his swing and miss rates and etc.

I think his "hitch" has been greatly exaggerated. It is merely a timing mechanism and he really limited that movement towards the end of last year. Every player has a load/timing mechanism. When I speak of mechanical issues I'm discussing the swing plane, bat in zone time, and shoulder/hand positioning through the ball. A load/hitch really isn't a mechanical issue as much as it's a timing mechanism.

Enlighten me to his mechanical issues as a hitter.

How are you judging their contact rates? I hope not via K/BB rates given that Collins sees far more pitches and works deeper into the count.

In other news; Poor fucking Derrick. Jesus Christ how do the Lakers not trade for him? Derrick has been FANTASTIC this season - he can't play the big minutes, but he's a top 30 player in the league again when he's on the court. What a shame he's going to waste away in Detroit. On a rate basis, this is the best season of Derrick's career - his Per 36 numbers are absurd 25/8/3 on 50/32/85.

This front offices number one problem has always been properly valuing their own players; going on two decades, they have overvalued their own talent making trading them impossible. Then when they do trade someone, it's for personal reasons and they don't even get back proper value (see Jimmy).

Lauri isn't the future, regardless of who the head coach is. Every single player on the Bulls should be expendable.

Yeah, that "Mike Trout" growth, where the thing you learn and change the most is your approach and strike zone knowledge - learning to attack only what you can crush. Yoan made the first step of that change last year - he attacked pitches he could crush. The next step is now working counts and drawing walks to the level he did before. Once he combines the two, you're talking about an elite of the elite.

This would be a real easy way to make every team in baseball reluctant to deal with you. I imagine that Graterols shoulder has not shown up very rosey in his physical after issues with it last year.

Yet, I've literally never said it any other time but for this instance pertaining to Walker vs Mazara. All cases should be evaluated on an individual level.

The odds that Steele Walker has as many career plate appearances in the MLB as Mazara has had through his age 24 season is probably 10% or less.

But that player you have 2 years of control of is 3 times better at the same age.

This is just batshit. Nomar Mazara is 14 months older than Steele Walker. At Walker's age, Mazara had a 95 wRC+ in the big leagues. Steele Walker just had a 124 wRC+ at A+. Mazara's 95 wRC+ translates to around a 170 wRC+ at A+ - although that scaling isn't perfect for obvious reasons. If you think there's still a lot of development left in Walker solely because he was in A+ while there's no development left for Mazara because he was far too good for A+ at the same age, I really don't know what to say. You can't sit here and dream on Walker who has been 100% worse through the same age, while discounting the ceiling for a guy who was much more advanced at the same age.

Yeah, this adjustment PECOTA made seems to take away some of the penalty for young players that was worked into the models. I like that.

Just to show where people rank: Grandal is projected to be the 4th best player in baseball.

This has been why I have been so confused on some analytics sites grading Robert low. His projections across the board are absurd for a 22 year old; you don't see 3-4 WAR projections for rookies practically ever.

Being in the big leagues at 21 years old is 100% related to ones skills/tools. There's nothing else that drives a player up through the system that quickly.

I view that 1980 list as a glowing endorsement of Mazara's talent and tools/ceiling - not a shot at his production through the age of 24. That list is littered with incredibly talented players who were significantly better than their peers at a very young age. That's an accomplishment on it's own.

He's 24 years old. If he was in AAA raking, people would be infatuated with his tools and upside. Because he has stalled out a bit at the big league level, people want to call him a finished product. Development isn't linear, and there was some underlying growth in Mazara's approach last year. Most guys are developing - whether in college or at A+ ball - at the age of 20/21. Mazara was preparing for his big league debut. That's a lot for some to handle; even moreso for a kid who has to assimilate into a new culture while competing against the best in the world. Mazara may suck, but his upside hasn't changed due to a few stagnated years of big league play. I'm not going to hold getting to the big leagues at 21/22 against Mazara - in fact, I give him huge credit for that. That jump may have been too soon for him, and he may have had things to work out of his game still at a developmental level. He didn't get that chance, so he likely developed some poor habits, and lost some swagger/confidence. The good news is the tools that accelerated him faster than 99% of his peers are still there, and that potential still exists, it's just been clouded behind the challenges of developing in the best league in the world. Unlike most, I give Mazara a lot of credit for being that advanced at that age, and it gives me a lot of hope that his development isn't finished, and a change of scenery may be the best thing for a kid who lost his way a bit on a really difficult and challenging journey.

Robert projected to be a top 25 player in all of baseball.

PECOTA likes Robert more in 2020 than Yoan. Pretty crazy.