50 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

Still means a roster move.  We already cut one OF at Bham.  Who gets cut?

That Brett guy isn’t really a prospect so he can go at any time.  I’m not opposed of rotating Booker, Fisher, & Polo across two OF spots.  At some point they’ll need to bump up a couple of the W-S outfielders to AA to make room for Robert & Luis Gonzalez, so some of the more fringey prospects at AA or AAA will have to be casualties for the legit ones.

34 minutes ago, thxfrthmmrs said:

The 2 best teams to follow this year has been WS and Kanny. Early return from the 2017 draft has been very good outside of Burger and his injury.

Hopefully when Eloy gets going and when Hansen returns, Bham starts cooking as well.

Puzzling to me the lack of power Sheets has shown as a professional

32 minutes ago, Feeky Magee said:

I know people are down on him, but Zack Collins is walking 27.7% of the time, top of the Southern League, next highest is 20.6%. He's running a .059 BABIP. If he had last year's .283 BABIP, he'd have an OBP of .404. He also had a wRC+ of 166 at Birmingham last year. He's not been great but far too much doom and gloom about him. I think he'll be fine.

Of course his walk rate is high, he doesn't swing at anything. Not sure I've ever seen anything like it.

Just now, fathom said:

Of course his walk rate is high, he doesn't swing at anything. Not sure I've ever seen anything like it.

Might be frustrating at times but he's had wRC+'s of 151, 133 and 166 at his 3 extended stops so far before this year. You can't say it's not largely working overall unless you think he's suddenly lost any ability to get hits on balls in play.

1 hour ago, Feeky Magee said:

Might be frustrating at times but he's had wRC+'s of 151, 133 and 166 at his 3 extended stops so far before this year. You can't say it's not largely working overall unless you think he's suddenly lost any ability to get hits on balls in play.

The kid has 2 hits in 12 games this year and a 152 slugging percentage. In what bizarro world is that considered good? 

3 minutes ago, tlongo81@gmail.com said:

The kid has 2 hits in 12 games this year and a 152 slugging percentage. In what bizarro world is that considered good? 

Might be worth reading what I said. I said he's not been great this year but he's been largely good as a minor-leaguer so far and with some normal luck he'd basically have been fine this year in a small sample-size.

 

54 minutes ago, fathom said:

Puzzling to me the lack of power Sheets has shown as a professional

He reminds me of Rangel Ravelo as a prospect, but might develop a tad more power when it's all said and done.

However there's more hope for that type of hitters these days. Good contact hitters could easily hit 15-20 HRs a year thru good use of launch angle. 

4 hours ago, Feeky Magee said:

Your 2018 AL Rookie of the Year Eddy Alvarez was 1-3 with a homer and 2 walks tonight. Was 2-2 with a walk, a double and a SF on his season debut.

Love this

Alvarez's upside is a slightly better Saladino...hopefully with the same positional versatility (age is the biggest factor working against him at the moment)

13 hours ago, fathom said:

Puzzling to me the lack of power Sheets has shown as a professional

I wouldn't sweat it too much yet.  His FB% last year was ideal for power but he had an abnormally low HR/FB% (4.7%).  That number is probably an aberration and should start to creep up over time even if the power hasn't really translated yet.

15 hours ago, ChiSoxJon said:

Time for Spencer Adams to hit the 'pen (where I think he can be very successful)

Seen you say this a couple times now. I don't see it. What about him screams reliever to you?

 

10 hours ago, caulfield12 said:

Alvarez's upside is a slightly better Saladino...hopefully with the same positional versatility (age is the biggest factor working against him at the moment)

Probably more like we originally thought of Leury.  A track guy with zero power.

2 hours ago, NorthSideSox72 said:

Seen you say this a couple times now. I don't see it. What about him screams reliever to you?

 

Doesn't seem to be overly effective as a starter

30 minutes ago, ChiSoxJon said:

Doesn't seem to be overly effective as a starter

That is not a reason to see him being successful as a reliever. What do you see that makes you think he A) won't be a good starter and B) would be better in relief?

 

3 hours ago, southsider2k5 said:

Probably more like we originally thought of Leury.  A track guy with zero power.

Anecdotal, but he crushed that HR yesterday through the wind. It didn't have huge distance, but it was loud off the bat and the wind was knocking everything down to LF that day. The girlfriend was making fun of how tiny he is right before that pitch.

 I would still take Engel's defense over Leury's quite easily. I think Adam is taking his struggles onto the grass.

That said, I am losing what little hope I had of him ever hitting enough. Not just because of a year's worth of results, but how he looks doing it. I think you start working Thompson in more starting now, and give Engel until like June or July to get going on offense. If he can't do it, ship him to AAA and he's just not part of the plan anymore. Hopefully by then you'll have a healthy Cordell, Tilson with his feet under him too. So there will be options available.

 

3 hours ago, NorthSideSox72 said:

That is not a reason to see him being successful as a reliever. What do you see that makes you think he A) won't be a good starter and B) would be better in relief?

 

Guy is in his third year in AA with not much improvement if any, given his pedigree worth a shot

Same goes for Guerrero

3 hours ago, ChiSoxJon said:

Guy is in his third year in AA with not much improvement if any, given his pedigree worth a shot

Same goes for Guerrero

Adams just turned 22 and hasn't even been eligible for the Rule 5 draft at this point

Adams improved pretty dramatically last year in the areas he needed too. This year its 2-3 starts and I wouldn't read a lot into it yet. And yeah, he's still a good couple years younger than the average player in his league.

But again, there are legitimate reasons why a pitcher may do better in relief than starting. As far as I can see, none of those apply to Adams.