Jake

He has focus lapses there like he did at 1B, but he's a very talented fielder so he can still come out ahead when playing in the middle infield. A good hands guy who hits like a 2B is basically wasted at 1B since 1B so rarely get difficult fielding plays but they can really screw things up if they make mental mistakes. The way I see it, if winning today was most important you would just have Vargas at 1B and Lenyn at 3B (well, you'd also not have Capra in but that's another story). But we want Vargas to develop at 3B so we get a little worse at each position for the long-term gain...which I can support but it has some possible downsides as we have seen.

I didn't care enough to rewind and see whether this was true, but my guess on what Taylor was doing is: pitcher hadn't paid any attention to the baserunners, perhaps something consistent enough to be on his scouting report, so he thought he was getting a free base. But it seems like somebody on the Rangers staff realized this at the exact same time and caught him with his hand in the cookie jar. For Taylor, you just absolutely cannot be wrong there. Obvious upside of being able to tie the game on contact from this weak hitter at the plate, but the downside is huge that if you get out the whole game relies on that weak hitter doing something and then getting production from other guys after that.

My read on it was that compared to Amaya (admittedly an extremely low bar), he seemed like a more useful bench player by virtue of being a fast baserunner and IIRC having outfield experience (not that there is any need for extra outfielders by now). But no reason to believe he's a better offensive player which really limits what he can do for you.

I've been trying to figure out whether we somehow managed our way out of having a way to pinch hit for him or if not, why Venable didn't choose to PH for him

The Sosa play at 1B is on one hand a very Sosa play but also one that I'm not super mad at him specifically about. He doesn't have experience at 1B. He saw Vargas field the ball with plenty of time to get the runner at home, then look like he was throwing home, and then decide not to because he didn't have a good enough grip on the ball or whatever it was that made him change his mind. An experienced 1B or someone with better game sense would just get to first and figure out the rest later but it doesn't surprise me that Sosa basically got faked off of first base. That's the occupational hazard of playing somebody out of position is the way I looked at that play. The "benefit" is hopefully he learns something from that fairly unusual play and he has gotten a little better at this new position in the process.

AFAIK there were no weapons used in that incident but certainly didn't cover themselves in glory either way

I'd say I can't imagine what it would be like to be a Ranger fan watching this but I actually know exactly what it's like

Colson has the third-lowest whiff rate on Charlotte's squad since coming back from AZ (only Fletcher and Julks whiffing less; the whole team has a very high whiff rate, FWIW). Downside is his xwOBA in that period is just .304. Just not getting any of the slug. EV looks alright and launch angle is pretty high, but not combining them quite the right way I guess. I'm inclined to be patient with him since he's clearly addressing the swing and miss issue. He hasn't seen a lot of >= 95mph pitches since the return, but Colson's whiff rate is very low against them which matches BamaDoc's observation. Has made some hard in-play contact on those heaters. FWIW, Kyle Teel has had virtually no production against high velocity besides working some walks. Very high swing and miss rate, virtually no good contact. This is something that has not improved during this recent period of improved hitting for him. Elko and Quero didn't do very well on those pitches either (makes it unsurprising that MLB pitchers have tried beating Quero with heat in the majors).

I think most likely outcome is Rojas getting reps vs RHP at 3B, with Vargas sliding to 1B on those days. You could put Lenyn at 1B instead, but he's your best 2B defender which makes it kind of weird. A couple bad plays last week notwithstanding, Rojas has a strong record of defense around the infield. Benny is your full-time DH. I assume Tauchman and Palacios man the corners in the OF against RHP. Not sure if they will platoon both of them. I don't think Taylor has played well enough to deserve regular starts.

I feel bad for Lee getting blocked here but he has a lot to prove with his bat. He really has never hit very impressively at any level, which will be a consideration for how eagerly you start moving him around to other positions. He's a decent athlete so he could plausibly play a corner OF spot, but he could just as easily be a major butcher out there. Thaiss has some infield experience but he was a real butcher, which combined with his bat is the reason why he converted back to catcher.

Pirates have more young MLB talent, but worse ownership and weaker market to compensate for the bad ownership.

I'm thinking the plan vs RHP is Vargas 1B, Rojas 3B.

Ballsy 3-2 pitch that will pay dividends later when it gets into the scouting reports

I'm happy that Booser got out of it tonight, but tbh I'm still pretty irritated that he walked Crawford on 4 pitches

Nobody involved in that inning had a strong grasp of the strike zone

Do you think Sox marketing comped the level of photoshopping they did on the Flo Rida picture or did they bill him for it?

These are clearly famous last words, but I think Eisert is at least in the top 3 most trustworthy relievers on this team. Not that the bar is very high

FWIW, he's got "bad luck" xwOBA as a LHH and "good luck" xwOBA as a RHH in the majors so far [xwOBA as a RHH is only slightly higher than as LHH] so maybe the numbers converge a bit going forward. But besides the track record I think there's some hints that he's a little less natural as a lefty hitter

Extra note from new Statcast swing data: Quero is a major oddball so far. Swing pretty slow and he makes contact very deep into his body while standing further back in the box than almost anyone in the league. Not coincidentally, his bat is angled to the opposite field more than anyone else in the league at contact. While none of that may sound good, a lot of the guys on those extremes tend to be good hitters...but the specific combo from Quero would likely put a lid on just how good he can be. Not going to do a lot of power hitting if you're pushing everything off your back leg with a slow-moving bat. On the other hand, giving yourself all that time to see the pitch probably helps make better decisions.

New Statcast swing metrics look interesting for Vargas IMO. Meets the ball on the right part of the swing at an elite level despite having a pretty strong uppercut and hitting the ball way out in front of his body with a pull-oriented bat. Seems to achieve that via a relatively slow swing along with presumably some natural talent ("good hands") Vaughn a little more conventional "let the ball get deep, then swing slow and flat to maximize likelihood of solid contact." Well conventional in one sense but probably unconventional for a 1B

I'm not saying I want Palacios on the team but I will concede that I can see how somebody could have talked themselves into wanting to give him a spin

I do feel like having the guy absolutely blow it out in 1 inning outings may not be *that* much easier on his arm than short, well-paced starts

as we all were saying in the other thread, the Houser signing was obviously a stroke of brilliance

I've made a few snipes at Elko's bat so it's only fair for me to give him props for what looks like solid D over at first base.

our team leader in xwOBA probably won't be sent to camp Arizona [whether you agree with that line of reasoning or not, I think it's becoming clear the front office puts a lot of weight into it]