chitownsportsfan

Let's beat this weirdo tonight. Greinkie is a jerk. May, by most accounts, is a poor MLB defensive CF. Leury, by most accounts, is a solid MLB defender at CF, SS, 2B and 3B. I guess any player can improve but May has a long, long way to go. Even longer than Leury had coming into the year. Leury hitting like this makes him a very valuable player, but even if he never really hit more than say 240/280/340 he's hang on as a utility guy for a few years. May has no such luxury.

You should look at the update on my Avi thread from earlier. He's carrying the same APPROACH but his swing is much improved. His pulling more balls, lifting more balls into the air and overall he's making way better consistent contact on fastballs up in the zone -- something he struggled with mightily early in his career. Everybody knows you throw Jose Abreu junk down and away once you get ahead in the count: but you make a mistake a fastball or leave a breaking ball up and more often than not he'll cream it. He's not the most disciplined hitter but he sure can hit mistakes. Same thing applies to Avi this year. In previous years Avi didn't punish mistakes -- for whatever reason he couldn't catch up to fastballs in the zone and he was constantly either missing them entirely or hitting them into the dirt.

QUOTE (bighurt574 @ May 22, 2017 -> 04:53 PM) The guy had 400 games and 1,400 at bats under his belt before this season, all for a combined 0.1 WAR. That's after 2,300 at bats in the minors. He was a year or two away from being non-tendered. Glad he's shown some signs of life, but he still has to prove the consistency. Yea this.

QUOTE (Sox-35th @ May 22, 2017 -> 02:26 PM) The sound off the bat. Dang. Go Sox. It was funny on the day he signed I randomly was watching a Tim Tebow batting practice video and as I was watching I thought his swing looked pretty good. A bit stiff, but good. Then I watched the Robert scouting video that's on the web, the 17 minute one, and I immediately noticed how much louder his contact is then Tebow's. Robert has a bit of a long swing but plenty of guys with that sort of bat speed make in work in MLB. Key will be his pitch recognition improving over the next 2-4 years in the Minors.

If Kopech is blowing through AA and gets promoted into AAA in say August, makes a few starts down there and still has 20 odd inning until he reaches his limit, I'd love to see him used like Sale's first year and get his feet wet in MLB in September.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 22, 2017 -> 01:42 PM) Is there anything out there on exit velocity? It's actually down .5 a MPH from 90.1 last year to 89.6 this year. What has really improved is his ability to hit balls up and his ability to get the ball in the air. He is absolutely crushing pitches up and out over the plate this year. https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/player?playe...amp;season=2017

Just a quick bump here now that the sample sizes are getting bigger: 1) K% is down to 19%, which is 6% lower than last year. 2) He's getting hits on 18.4% of his IF ground balls, that's insane, that's downright ichiro esque. That will regress but it speaks to his increased speed and his hustle. 3) GB/FB ratio remains much improved, at 1.55. 4) Pull percentage is also improved at 44%. 5) Which explains a lot his improved linear weights on fastballs, which has NEVER BEEN POSITIVE is now 11.4 runs above average. You gotta be bleeping me! 6) His defense over the past 100 or so games has actually improved to "passable", someone noticed that last last summer he improved and he's carried that over to this year, only -1.8 runs below average in RF, which with the way he's hitting you hardly even care about. All in all I don't see much in the numbers indicating he's improved his approach or batting eye. What I do see is a guy that has improved his swing quite a bit. He's making a lot more loud contact this year. His swing plane is better and his bat is much quicker on fastballs. He and Thames are similar stories although obviously Avi lost bulk instead of adding it. This could be a Steverson victory, and a hard work victory for Avi as well.

QUOTE (Lip Man 1 @ May 22, 2017 -> 12:27 PM) The MLBN was talking about Frazier last night and they said his issue was the fact that his hand was in a cast all off-season. The hand looks good now they said and his power is returning. The game I sat behind the plate he put a really great swing on a ball he drove into the gap in right center. One of the more balanced swings he's had all year. I don't think he's ever going to hit above 230 again, not with his pull happy swing and declining speed, but maybe he can at least hit for enough power to entice a "B-" prospect out of some team at the deadline. To his credit, his defense remains solid to good at 3B.

QUOTE (flavum @ May 21, 2017 -> 11:02 AM) He turns 20 in August, so he's in his Age 19 season. It would be great if he's that good of a player, but one step at a time. If he ends 2018 in Birmingham, I'll take that as a positive. ROY 2020 If he ends up in AA by the end of next season he's on a path to super stardom. I'd be happy if he's in AA by midway through 2019. The Sox seem to have changed their ultra aggressive approach to toolsy prospects, thank goodness.

QUOTE (flavum @ May 21, 2017 -> 10:56 AM) I'll take a Holland quality start in a 4-3 loss. Yesterday was fun, but back to the tank, please. on paper, with all their injuries, the Sox lineup and SP today will be >>> than the Mariners. I hate to say it, but with Avi, Sanchez, the other Garcias and Jose hitting like this, this Sox team isn't bad, they are mediocre to average. I don't see more than 80 wins but this also looks far from a 100 loss club.

eh, with cano and hanniger out there isn't a lot of pop in this M's lineup. Sox will win, maybe 8-5, but they will win.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 20, 2017 -> 09:59 PM) I still say CF just need to ditch todd then you can find 20 odd PA a week for Sanchez at 2B/3B, Sally is the odd man out in the IF at the moment.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 20, 2017 -> 09:57 PM) 991 ops for Avi Garcia now. it's a thing of beauty, especially considering his defense is suddenly passable.

great frame.

slick play by Sanchez, what else is new.

some hard shots early from the boys.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 20, 2017 -> 06:50 PM) Schwarber OR Happ, Jimenez and Clifton for Q, then Cubs' fan will really be shook. And no, we're not going to settle for Almora. f*** schwarber that is guy is their avi, maybe he figures it out, maybe he never does.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 20, 2017 -> 03:46 PM) How lucky can you get? This is a huge step forward in a group that needs all of the positional talent it can get. The Cuban pipeline and being a player friendly organization really did work out for them. Kudos to Hahn and the front office, now it is time to pray it works. Sounds like preparation met opportunity. Kudos to the FO.

Didn't it come out that Jose bunted on his own? Anyways sox do bunt to much but overall I give him a solid B. He has a better handle on the pen and when to try and use the platoon advantage then RV. Not to mention he owns up to mistakes like the other night when he left in the starter one batter too many. Sss had a good article on it.

QUOTE (turnin' two @ May 20, 2017 -> 04:00 PM) The Sale deal, coupled with their other moves and not really adding any even mid dollar veterans may have freed up the capital this move required. It is hard to say for sure, but, really, it doesn't matter. The Sox now have 2 elite hitting prospects. Pair this with the emergence of Adolfo, and the future is looking better than it was a month ago, even with Giolito's struggles. Avi possibly turning into a solid ever day player and Robertson dominating have also been positive. Honestly this rebuild is going awesome so far. Giolito is only one guy among many promising pitching prospects. On the balance even if he never pans out others should. Sox need to build same depth position player wise.

Today is a great day! Love the aggression and keeps the Cuban Sox pipeline wide open.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 20, 2017 -> 01:36 PM) If he was sporting a Cardinals hat, there is no one here who would think it was a negotiating ploy. I think I just agreed with you for the 2nd or 3rd time in history.

QUOTE (ChrisLikesBaseball @ May 20, 2017 -> 01:32 PM) I keep reminding myself that 19 year olds are immature. Therefore the instagram photo change could absolutely be a negotiating ploy. At 19 I was a f***ing idiot. It's amazing most of these guys are as professional mature as they are.

Sorry to keep spamming the game thread but just a couple other quick notes: Avi's first time up I yelled "hey Avi keep it up buddy you're making a believer out of us Sox fans" and he looked at me and gave a little nod. Avi's a cool guy he acknowledged me in the spring as well. He looks so slim this year and the fans around me on his triple were chattering about how fast he is. Sanchez made an incredible ranging play up the middle look easy. Compared to RV, Renteria is very chatty, both with the fans and the players. Not sure if it's better or worse just different. On the ball Covey took off his body (leg?) he was laughing with Herm as they entered the dugout. The bat that went into the stands probably would have been stopped by the new netting a bunch of clubs have installed. Safeco hasn't put up the netting and I don't mind. The fan that got the bat looked pretty happy. There were a lot of hard hit rockets into the stands last night, hooking line drives. Safeco actually got pretty loud on the walkoff, not sure what they announced as attendance but there looked to be about 10-15k in the stadium. The micro beer stand at our section had no line the entire night.

QUOTE (soxfan2014 @ May 19, 2017 -> 11:57 AM) That's awesome but doesn't seem to matter when they have retractable roof haha Safeco is notorious for keeping the roof open whenever they can so in April and May during night games they keep it open even when it's damp and in the 40s. I've been to some miserable games in early spring where you are chilled to the bone by the marine layer. It's been a really cold spring here, I think everybody, including the players, is glad it's finally warming up.