CaliSoxFanViaSWside

You have been reminded he exists often enough to remember him, That's why people think you are trolling.

I had made posts about Mazara should look to improve his average launch angle above where it is right now.using Statcast data. Further research shows that he hits fly ball pitchers better than league average and hits ground ball pitchers worse than league average. Baseball Ref. uses a stat called Hit Trajectory to show how a player does when hitting fly balls, ground balls and line drives, The line drives might not look so bad when looking at his stats .588 BA , 580 OBP .813 Slg and 1.393 OPS . In these line drive . ground ball and fly ball stats Baseball Ref. uses stats called sOPS+ and tOPS+. sOPS+ compares how he does against the rest of the league in those categories and he looks to be well below league average when hitting line drives even though those other stats i posted look great . The line drive one confuses me a bit because the tOPS+ looks better way better than usual where 100 is the mean he is at 256 but the sOPS+ is at 80. I don't see how they can be so different. The groundball and fly ball stats look like they make more sense. On fly balls his tOPS+ is 222 and sOPS+ is 172. So it still looks to me that he needs to hit more flyballs which supports my Statcast /average launch angle data findings. Perhaps if the Sox wanted him to improve against left handed pitching they could use Mazara against LH fly ball pitchers. I have no idea if the Sox discuss this type of data with Renteria or make a game plan for every game to optimize lineup production or just leave it up to Renetria to make the lineup on his own. But when all this data is available it would seem foolish not to utilize it for player development and pregame strategy. Eloy has much the same problems as Mazara only Eloy tapped into his power much better but he still makes a lot of line drive outs and hard hit ground ball outs. Imagine them both improving and having 2 40 HR guys in the lineup .

Depends on your definition of good. Most might say he has shown to be average or slightly below average in his Major league career based on WAR and OPS+ . If you define good as having ton of talent that allowed you to get significant playing time starting at the age of 21 with a ML team for 4 straight years but with so so results then he is good but with the potential to be much better. The Sox have him for 2 years to see if they can make him better. At the age of 22 he had 20 HR's and 101 RBI's, In each of the 4 years he had 19 or 20 HR's. He has been very consistent but has not as yet tapped into the huge upside. He doesn't walk much and isn't regarded as a good fielder but has a strong arm. Some see him like the LH version of Avisail Garcia without Avi's speed. Lifetime Batting average .261. 79 HR's. 308 RBI , .320 OBP, .435 Slg. , .754 OPS. There are signs he is getting better, made some changes last year, put up good numbers against RH pitching .288 BA, .340 OBP .500 Slg. , .844 OPS. Isn't good against lefties. He probably has 40 HR potential if he can make more changes but you have to want to , then make fast adjustments and that isn't always easy. When Ohtani came to the Angels it took him less then one Spring training to make the changes that resulted in him becoming a better hitter. He listened and learned from his hitting coach and picked Albert Pujols brain about hitting. Mazara has been the same basic player for 4 years so if you think he is being stubborn you could be right. You could believe that he will soon realize that changes are necessary based on the change he made last year and for the betterment of his career and future salaries and that implementing those changes will unlock his upside.

Old Sox said he got hurt pig hunting but the article I posted said he had a boar in a trap and it startled him while he opened the trap so I have no idea where he got that from and didn't post a link. "Cespedes reported the injury to the Mets, including immediately that he was trying to sidestep a boar. Mets officials and representatives for Cespedes went to the ranch the following day and came away believing essentially that is what occurred. Officials from both the Commissioners Office and the Players Association visited the ranch at a later date and also confirmed that version of how Cespedes was injured." https://nypost.com/2020/01/03/yoenis-cespedes-ankle-fractures-came-during-incident-with-wild-boar/

That was already obvious . They knew there was an incident they deemed dangerous so the Mets tried to void his whole contract. The question was would an arbitrator now knowing the full facts of the incident rule in the Mets or Cespedes favor. Even though the Mets might think setting traps for wild boars that come on your ranch and doing whatever you do when you trap one is dangerous, the question was is it comparable to an outside activity such as a pickup basketball game or dirt biking. Cespedes side would argue he was doing what he has to do routinely to protect people and his property. The arbitrator has to make an all or nothing decision. Both sides had good arguments but not strong enough to be convinced they could win. The Mets didn't want to pay the whole salary and Cespedes didn't want to lose the whole salary. So they made a settlement rather than one side or the other completely losing.

So nice comeback win today. 3 rookie goals. Sikura with his 1st NHL goal, Boqvist , and Kubalik with an empty netter. Strome had the other one in a 4-2 win. 11 Hawks had 1 pt. each.

And then Brees fumbles it away.

Wow Taysom Hill has been amazing.

Sounds like a parlay.

Yep you hit the nail on the head. The Sox have had a good off season no doubt but we aren't yet in any position to be laughing at them. Every fan base on every fan forum has knowledgeable and not as knowledgeable fans posting. It would be real easy for a Twins fan to come here and make fun of numerous posts.

You LOL'd at stepping in a hole not the facts surrounding it because there were no facts before this.Both sides thought they could lose or win the arbitrator decision so they compromised. You said stepping in a hole is probably not what happened when in fact that is what happened. You never questioned how he ended up stepping in the hole , you just didn't believe he stepped in the hole. Don't go moving the goalposts . You could've ignored my updated post or admitted you were wrong but instead choose to try to change your story when it's right there on the page in black and white.

He stepped in a hole. https://nypost.com/2020/01/03/yoenis-cespedes-ankle-fractures-came-during-incident-with-wild-boar/

Ohtani. when he came the the Angels .had one of those kicks and he learned that it wasn't effective and changed it to a toe tap and it made all the difference for him. This is a good article on it. It explains who suggested it and explains Ohtani's willingness to learn and listen and inquiry and learn from others like Pujols. https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/23298771/shohei-ohtani-made-one-small-step-way-mlb-success

I listened. Good job. I know in those situations to make it more interesting to the listeners you have to focus on players. But I'm glad you asked about the Sox facility in the DR. I'm one of those guys who is more interested in the process and how things work in other country's. Do some teams not only pay their U.S. based scouts to travel to see players but also hire locals ? I don't know what Tatis Sr. does now but someone like him might be a good hire. Give him a yearly salary and let him be a local scout in the DR and if not him maybe he could recommend someone. I think someone respected in the area would go a long way. Pay him enough to be not tempted to make underhanded deals give him an expense account and be a Sox only type scout who doesn't pass info on to other teams. He would be much better at building relationships living there full time and knowing a lot of people . Do the same thing in other parts of the world. I probably have to watch some of those videos Caulfield always recommends about the "coyotes" to understand more about the dark side of the process.

Congrats . Good job !

Here's last years list , I can't tell what it's based on. https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/2019-20-mlb-international-bonus-pools/

There might be a $1-2M difference between the top and bottom teams. Bad teams get more than the good teams , You can also trade for more. Some teams might already have committed some of their money with players they have already established relationships.

You are terrible at self promotion . Give a link when you say things like that. I'm not real good at keeping up with podcasts on a regular basis .

I think he likely has to realize $3M isn't in his future.

I see it like this as well. Something is brewing. One or 2 of our catchers are out of here. Zavala released ,someone else traded ?

I know that but the strength of having a strong presence around the world and committing the funds necessary to do that was my point. Sorry if you though my response was thinking that Paddy was the only scout. I think I have built up a strong presence on Soxtalk here based on my knowledge and posts over 15 years to know you can't run a whole international department with just one scout. I only mentioned Paddy because you said: "There's either a reluctance to pay a "premium" in this marketplace or Marco Paddy can't scout and close the deal. I don't believe the latter is true. So my response was Paddy can't be everywhere. He just can't be everywhere the talent is so i'm not sure how strong the commitment around the world is using others beside Paddy. The strength of the whole department is what I am questioning and perhaps the funds needed to make it a stronger presence. More scouts , more travel a longer time in many areas ,network, build relationships close the deal. The reluctance to pay a premium not only means the signing of top players but the premium that goes into networking.

I still don't think it's risk aversion alone. Baseball is a worldwide game and talent comes from everywhere.Paddy is just one scout. He can't be everywhere. You need networking and continuity in many many parts of the world and often in some unstable places. Sure you can rely on lists of the best players and then plan trips to see them but I think you get the best results by having a strong presence in many areas making contacts . That is an expensive and time consuming endeavor. You need to establish relationships with the family's of 14 year olds for 2 years until they can sign or you decide they have not developed enough in the 2 years to warrant signing them. I am just not sure the Sox are willing to spend the time and money needed to do everything required to get the top players and settle for less in a few select areas. It's one thing to spend your whole allotment but it's another thing to spend time and money keeping scouts in different parts of the world for long periods away from their families. At least we can all agree that the Sox need to do better . We just have different theories on why they are so bad at it. To me it just comes down to spending more on scouts, establishing a presence, networking, building relationships and doing the job the way other more successful teams do it. It help's to have a "closer" , a guy like a top salesman who can close a deal.

Ok hope the spread sheet helped any research you are doing. We basically have the same argument that it doesn't seem to be risk aversion but then again you haven't given your reason for why the Sox have had so little success in finding guys who can become MLB stars among the normal IFA signees among the guys who didn't require a penalty to sign.

Right I'm sure that's the reason and I edited my post before your post came up.

And what the explanation for that ? Is it just the full amount that they were allotted ? Sorry researching this is hard without a subscription to Baseball America which probably has more accurate info on the IFA draft and bonus pool allotment than the rest of the internet combined .