Look at Ray Ray Run

The hardest pitch to hit, in my opinion, is still and always will be a well located fastball; this coming from a guy who hit about 050 against off-speed pitches costing myself any chance at progressing further

Agree 100%, but usually what they disagree on is scouts don't care as much about actual production - "don't scout the stat line, scout the tools." Robert has, arguably, the loudest tools in minor league baseball and possibly the loudest tools in the world of Professional baseball.

I wan to point out one part of this scouting evaluation that is just comical and I see it all the time: "There are still concerns about Robert’s ability to hit good breaking pitches" No one hits good breaking pitches consistently. There are guys who hit off-speed well, but they are not teeing off on "good breaking pitches." If Robert had issues hitting a good fastball, that would be a big problem. Struggling with good off-speed just adds Robert to a list of 99.9% of MLB hitters - especially young ones.

Yeah, Eric actually addressed this and said there wouldn't be a big adjustment for Robert - they updated their rankings at the end of the year and he still sat in the 15-20 range with other 55 FV players. Maybe they move him to 60 based on league wide consensus - something EL takes into account - but they are very clearly not as high on Robert. It's just so bizarre given his projections by their systems paired with his tools.

Said this there, but the fascinating thing about FG's scouting stubbornness with Robert is that he's their top projected prospect in regards to WAR. Typically you see skepticism around guys who have more tools than results; leading their projections to be less than their prospect ranking - see Moncada for an example here. Robert is projected to be a 3 WAR rookie at 22 years old though; paired with elite tools. Robert pairs the two things that are usually love by evalutors - elite, All-MLB level tools with elite production and projections.

Well that's his instagram and he absolutely posted the picture. That's a screen shot of it posted by him.

Surprised nats went harris over Hudson given what happened...

Yeah, pretty much 2 years for 24 million for a non-closer. Bit too much. Not expecting much at 37/8.

Trout is 240 now.

This is the answer. Pretty incredible peak for Allen. I always knew he was good, but I had no idea he had a historically great offensive season like that. And now he posts on Soxtalk. Amazing turn of events.

Required 500 PA so I don't think the person you're thinking of counted. Brett was 5th at 198. Harper 6th at 197. 4th is a former White Sox. That is the only clue.

3 players since 1960. 3 players have done it - counting Frank. McGwire, Thomas and Bonds. 1 player came up 1 point short at 199. That player shocked me.

I posted the picture from insta - I know he looks good with his frame but that is not what a strong "lean" guy looks like at all.

By wRC+, he would have been one of only 3 players since 1960 to be above 200 - Bonds, Mcwire and Thomas. One player since then came within 1 point (199) of the 200 barometer. Can you name that player? I was shocked to see who it was.

It's sad because the strike deprived Thomas from a chance of having the greatest offensive season, not by Barry Bonds, post 1960. He still technically qualified, but it's not the same over 112.

Frank had 7 WAR. AS A -8 1st baseman, in 112 GAMES. 7 WAR, with negative base running and defensive value, in 112 games. It's one of the most absurd things in baseball history.

93 team had Bo too but his hip had already died by then. Still, he was there. 2006 probably the most exciting pre-season hype/excitement after 1993/94.

I literally just laid out that his batting average could go down 40 points and his overall production up.

Huh? Man, people need to slow down on the expectations. The odds of this team being as good as the 93 and the 94 White Sox is incredibly slim.

I have no problem giving mendick the chance to the back up IF'er with leury/engel being back to OF'er with leury helping at SS as well. I don't want to fill out the rest of the roster with vets. Would like to have one or two spots for the non-guaranteed everyday young guys.

93 team had: Ventura - 5.3 bWAR Thomas - 6.2 Tim Raines - 3.8 Karko - 3.2 Lance - 6.1 Burks - 2.9 Cora - 1.7 Ozzie - 1.8 Alvarez - 4.9 Bere - 2.6 Alex - 5.4 Berto - 2.6 Team was filthy.

Not sure I agree with this - 93/94 team was so stacked its absurd.

Eh, the balance of speed and power is what makes it so much fun. I'd say good luck getting Robert not to run; guy loves it. Can you blame him? If I ran like that I'd be stealing all day everyday.

Mike Cameron is the most underrated baseball player of the last thirty years. If Robert was as good as Cameron, that's a really great career and hes worth every dollar of his extension. I actually made the Robert/Cameron comp on this site during the middle of last year: so I'm with you here Caufield.

The thing people always ignore with BABIP regression is progression in other areas of the game; MQR is right in his thoughts on Moncada, and even if his BABIP goes back to sane levels of 350-380 that he likely warrants with his combination of speed/ex velo/LD%, he's still an incredible talent. That said, Moncada could add 2% to his walk rate back to 9% (where he was before), and that's 11 more times on base. If his BABIP regresses 30 points (3%), he loses 12 base hits from last year (with 406 balls put in play). That means, essentially his 2% increase in walk-rate would cancel out any BABIP regression from an OB standpoint. If he takes his ISO from 233 to 237, cuts down on his strike outs by an additional 2%, and now he actually is on base more and has more total bases than last year... simply by adding 2% to his walk rate, decreasing his k-rate by 2%, and increasing his ISO very slightly. He would actually be a BETTER player under the scenario above; ever so slightly. This is what people overlook so often. Anderson could have his BABIP come down to a 350-360 range, cut down on his strike outs again (from 21% to say 19%) while increasing his defense to 2018 levels, and his WAR would actually be higher than last year - his batting average would be lower, but he would actually be a better player. When guys start showing development, it's hard to gauge when they will stop showing significant improvement. Everyone who guarantees regression due to one or two stats (like BABIP) overlook a players overall progress and growth that is the true driving force behind their improvement.