Just in case anyone was wondering.

They are bad at the thing Getz said they'd be good at.

Also, they were 25th last year.

In their (about only one) defense, they did lose an absolute stud at 3rd base and in CF.

 

Edit - However, still fire Pedro.

Edited April 23, 20241 yr by PaleAleSox

Looking at the individuals, Maldonado, Benintendi and Vaughn are the worst full-time offenders. Fletcher's over-matched in CF, while he's adequate in RF. DeJong and Lopez are the team leaders. While Sheets is in negative territory at 1B, he's way better than Vaughn. 

Priceless. They can’t do anything right. ?

15 minutes ago, WestEddy said:

Looking at the individuals, Maldonado, Benintendi and Vaughn are the worst full-time offenders. Fletcher's over-matched in CF, while he's adequate in RF. DeJong and Lopez are the team leaders. While Sheets is in negative territory at 1B, he's way better than Vaughn. 

Maldonado was brought in for his defense.

Fletcher was making similar gaffes in RF. Was also touted for defense.

Shitty defensive team is shitty.

3 minutes ago, Quin said:

Maldonado was brought in for his defense.

Fletcher was making similar gaffes in RF. Was also touted for defense.

Shitty defensive team is shitty.

Great analysis. Fletcher's more exposed in CF than in RF. That's why CF play is more valued than RF. Fletcher has positive numbers in RF, negative in CF. I didn't like the Maldonado signing, but I didn't beat the pulp of that dead horse into liquid. 

I sure hope Getz set a date of reconning, after which, Grifol's fired, Vaughn is optioned, Benintendi is benched, Maldonado is DFAed, and they move on to the next stage of drowning. 

The two elite defenders that were already on the team are hurt. Go figure.

3 minutes ago, chitownsportsfan said:

The two elite defenders that were already on the team are hurt. Go figure.

And replacing them with utility or AAAA guys exposed those replacements during an historic slump. If we had a guy in AAA who could step in, rake, and pick it with the best of them, he would have been in the opening day lineup. 

Shewmake had been worse than I thought defensively but I bet most of that negative war is in the outfield. Benintendi and Grossman are two of the worst defensive outfielders I’ve ever seen play baseball. These are the kids you stick in right field because nobody is left handed in little league. Fletcher is ok but doesn’t have the range to play cf and it shows 

The entire team still makes very dumb defensive lapses (how about that Harper run down) which can only reflect on the coaching staff 

43 minutes ago, WestEddy said:

Looking at the individuals, Maldonado, Benintendi and Vaughn are the worst full-time offenders. Fletcher's over-matched in CF, while he's adequate in RF. DeJong and Lopez are the team leaders. While Sheets is in negative territory at 1B, he's way better than Vaughn. 

Dang, I knew Vaughn wasn't exactly good, but I didn't realize he was that bad. Dude brings absolutely nothing to the table right now. 

Just now, Snopek said:

Dang, I knew Vaughn wasn't exactly good, but I didn't realize he was that bad. Dude brings absolutely nothing to the table right now. 

Poor guy seems lost. Just the look on his face walking back from another strikeout. On a personal level, I feel terrible for the guy. Drop him down to AAA, just so he can feel what it's like to go on a bit of a tear, again. 

4 minutes ago, nrockway said:

Shewmake had been worse than I thought defensively but I bet most of that negative war is in the outfield. Benintendi and Grossman are two of the worst defensive outfielders I’ve ever seen play baseball. These are the kids you stick in right field because nobody is left handed in little league. Fletcher is ok but doesn’t have the range to play cf and it shows 

As someone who has been coaching 11-13 year olds for about 2 years now, this is a misconception. The majority of the balls I see get hit to RF because the majority of these kids all swing late. I use to think with the same mindset of stick the worst kid in RF but that was quickly proving to be costly. At least for the 11 year olds and up range.

5 minutes ago, nrockway said:

The entire team still makes very dumb defensive lapses (how about that Harper run down) which can only reflect on the coaching staff 

I think when you put kids in this position, and there's no big veterans to carry them, they press, and start doing bone-headed plays. Shewmake and Sosa are going to be exposed. I'm surprised/not surprised that DeJong and Lopez are far and away the 2 best defensive players on the team. 

16 minutes ago, nrockway said:

The entire team still makes very dumb defensive lapses (how about that Harper run down) which can only reflect on the coaching staff 

These guys were studs on defense until they got here. The coaches must be teaching then a new way to handle run downs. 

7 minutes ago, Snopek said:

Dang, I knew Vaughn wasn't exactly good, but I didn't realize he was that bad. Dude brings absolutely nothing to the table right now. 

I think however fangraphs calculates defensive WAR for first base and catcher is way off. Both sites do first basemen dirty, to my eye Vaughn has been pretty good defensively. He's turned a lot of bad throws into outs that I don't think other first basemen get. I don't think they do a "zone rating" for scoops/stretches but they should. 

The catcher point is mostly an aside, but boy does Fangraphs love "framing", something that can't actually be effectively quantified, is a skillset that is predicated on umpire ineptitude and will become entirely useless the second the automated strikezone replaces the home plate ump. Let's consider two catchers: Salvador Perez and Yasmani Grandal. Perez has a fWAR of 16.5 and a bWAR of 34.3. He's so bad at framing that it cost him 20 WAR. Now let's look at Grandal, 38.6 fWAR, 19.6 bWAR. Framing evidently earned him 20 WAR. 

How can there be such a discrepancy between the two calculations? 

10 minutes ago, T R U said:

As someone who has been coaching 11-13 year olds for about 2 years now, this is a misconception. The majority of the balls I see get hit to RF because the majority of these kids all swing late. I use to think with the same mindset of stick the worst kid in RF but that was quickly proving to be costly. At least for the 11 year olds and up range.

True. I played mostly catcher and right field. We hid the weak armed guy in left. He wasn't making throws to first but I was making throws to third. 

1 hour ago, WestEddy said:

Looking at the individuals, Maldonado, Benintendi and Vaughn are the worst full-time offenders. Fletcher's over-matched in CF, while he's adequate in RF. DeJong and Lopez are the team leaders. While Sheets is in negative territory at 1B, he's way better than Vaughn. 

Why is Benitendi the proud owner of the largest contract in team history?  He can’t hit, can’t field.  What good is he?

20 minutes ago, T R U said:

As someone who has been coaching 11-13 year olds for about 2 years now, this is a misconception. The majority of the balls I see get hit to RF because the majority of these kids all swing late. I use to think with the same mindset of stick the worst kid in RF but that was quickly proving to be costly. At least for the 11 year olds and up range.

Yeah when I was a kid we always stuck the worst player in LF.

21 minutes ago, Texsox said:

True. I played mostly catcher and right field. We hid the weak armed guy in left. He wasn't making throws to first but I was making throws to third. 

I can recall one flyball going out to left field so far this season through 10 games. There have been about 5-6 out to right. Even the ground balls either go up the middle or to 2nd base. Everyone at this age is swinging late on 45-55 MPH pitches from 45 feet away.

1 hour ago, WestEddy said:

Looking at the individuals, Maldonado, Benintendi and Vaughn are the worst full-time offenders. Fletcher's over-matched in CF, while he's adequate in RF. DeJong and Lopez are the team leaders. While Sheets is in negative territory at 1B, he's way better than Vaughn. 

Do we really think Vaughn is worse than Sheets at first? Really?

7 minutes ago, T R U said:

I can recall one flyball going out to left field so far this season through 10 games. There have been about 5-6 out to right. Even the ground balls either go up the middle or to 2nd base. Everyone at this age is swinging late on 45-55 MPH pitches from 45 feet away.

I wasn't in right until traveling ball. I was a bit miffed at being in right until the coach explained it to me and we looked through the score cards. I was involved in more outs than the left fielder. 

1 minute ago, KipWellsFan said:

Do we really think Vaughn is worse than Sheets at first? Really?

Vaughn's numbers are worse than Sheets' in the early going. I think Vaughn is just mentally messed up right now, and needs to get away from this team. 

Just now, Texsox said:

I wasn't in right until traveling ball. I was a bit miffed at being in right until the coach explained it to me and we looked through the score cards. I was involved in more outs than the left fielder. 

Yeah I made sure to explain to them before game started that just because your in RF doesn't mean you aren't good. Everyone has something to do on every play and each position is just as important as each other. That of course was just coach speak and I stuck the worst kid in RF straight away. Had to shuffle things a little bit when they were getting too much action.

I was the everyday catcher and couldn't understand why my coach didn't let me catch both games in a double header. Hubris. 

I had the catchers mentality. You're going to fucking try to go first to third on me? NFW