Jake

Hope you're right, but I'm sure not seeing it in his splits: https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=tilson000cha&type=bgl&year=2018

Yeah it's not good. Tilson I'm not giving up on since his long time off means he would be expected to struggle for quite a while even if he's going to figure it out. But it's not like I'm going to spend any energy watching that process play out. I went to a Charlotte game a week or so ago and after Kopech left the game it was really hard to stay and watch.

Before Nicky got hurt I was talking to a friend about how dismal the AAA options are. I might take Tito Polo over May and Tilson.

No and what I'm saying can't be proved. But suppose the majority of Gordon's homers were about 15 feet past the fence. If he loses 20 feet on average with the switch to the new bats, then he loses a huge chunk of the homers. The guy who squares it up less often but clears the fence by 40-50 feet when he does, the new bats don't hurt as much. That's the logic — not everyone's game is as effected by the change in the bats.

Just wanted to emphasize the distinction here. You absolutely should not compare stats pre- and post-BBCOR metal bat standards. I've seen estimates of about a 40% reduction in homers and 25% reduction in run scoring attributable to the change in bats. The effects would be especially pronounced among guys like Beckham who had marginal power.

I've been following him a bit and my attitude is that I won't be treating this as a real development unless: 1. His BB%/K% change, especially the latter since it's pretty high. 2. His actual production gets better such that there's no room for doubt that his contact has gotten much better. As I see it now, it's not obvious statistically that he's doing anything differently than in the past.

I don't think Kopech is affected by the quality of the competition as much as just his own consistency. AAA hitters haven't shown any ability to hit him so it's just a matter of whether you want him to work through control and third pitch stuff in AAA or MLB.

Strike 3 is the one that was in the zone.

I would like, at whatever time it's needed, for Yolmer to try out the OF. I'm not sure if he has the athleticism to cover CF but you can see some of that Zobrist-esque full-time utility guy in Yolmer.

Well now I wish we had developed Fry as a starter.

Leury's a nice little player. There was a point in time when we had Semien, Saladino, Micah Johnson, Leury, and Yolmer in the minors and it sure felt at the time like we had an embarrassment of riches when it came to high-floor, low-ish ceiling versatile infielders. Turns out we were mostly right. I think we'd be happy to have kept Semien in the system, but getting some value for Micah when we could was impressive and Saladino's age and possibly health ended up making him expendable.

Good lord did Moncada smash that ball

I'm a stats guy, it's just who I am

Soriano had two god-level years with UZR in his first two season with the Cubs. DRS liked him that much in one of those years as well, though DRS rightly (I think) had it all riding on his tremendous arm whereas UZR was giving Soriano massive range which I don't believe he was truly covering (at least functionally)

"Todd Ritchie had some good moments for the Sox" Yeah I guess he did get guys out a couple times

Ha, I peeked

If he is I don't know why he differs so much from one outing to another.

lol, I hope the NBA gets bolder in their anti-tanking efforts

Unfortunately we decided to make it Chris Beck development night instead

He's already gotten beaten up. What's the use of killing the bullpen here? Lopez was struggling to miss bats but was throwing in the zone all night and looked like he could salvage some development from this thing. Instead we're all subjected to Chris Beck edit: You could tell Lopez was pissed because he didn't want to give Renteria the ball

Renteria is a fucking idiot

Funny-boned him

Lopez often gets on these runs where he becomes a perfect representation of the old command vs. control distinction. Tonight he's been throwing a lot of strikes but he's really not spotting it. It's hard to generate swings and misses if you're pretty much just aiming for the middle of the zone and generally not missing by much.

Lopez has a nice little cut up there

Look at all these non-cheapies