Monday at 03:43 PM2 days 40 minutes ago, caulfield12 said:Aren't Thome and Prosek also projected as high ceiling hitters, moreso than plus plus fielders?They are. They are also a few years away. Smith might be in the bigs very soon.
Monday at 03:59 PM2 days Positional ambiguity aside. Trading a guy who is hitting like Smith is, doesn't make me feel good. If he manages to be an OK catcher, he can be a monster with that bat. Even as a LF who mashes, that's valuable. The upside is not hard to project.
Monday at 04:34 PM2 days Boston Smith$50,000 signing bonus, Round 6, pick 171 (Nationals)unless a prep pick with high signing bonus, those 6th-10th rounders aren't taken so seriously as prospects, usually...a lot of times they are throwaway picks like the Braves did this past draftPositions: Catcher, Leftfielder and Third BasemanNo clear defensive position. That's a massive ding on his scouting report/potential impact. His size, at under six feet as well.Also went through college transfer process, from Cincy to Wright State, which is hardly a traditional ACC or SEC power program.Plus his only and first milb at-bats have all taken place this season...so a bit of a blank slate to prospect evaluators
Monday at 04:38 PM2 days 51 minutes ago, zisk said:They are. They are also a few years away. Smith might be in the bigs very soon.Everyone in the world knows how much the Seattle offense has struggled this year, particularly at home.Everyone also knows no hitters with over 60 homers historically have ever been below the 700s for OPS the following season...Cal Raleigh was just at 579.But jumping to the majors from a 6th rounder (at catcher of all positions) the following year after being drafted...don't think that has ever happened, at least to my knowledge.hoopaholik91•9d agoYou're looking at ABs. He's a walk machine, 21.3% in the minors, and his K rate is a more palatable 27.7% in that context.Totally fair, that does help some. But that's still high at AA.I haven't found any defensive evals of him yet, can he legit catch?AtYourServais•9d agoDestined to be a corner outfielder, according to most shouting reports. Edited Monday at 04:45 PM2 days by caulfield12
Tuesday at 04:59 AM2 days “Clubs weren’t willing to pay for that much more control,” an NL executive said. “Whether it was because of labor concerns, short-term focuses, or prospect overprotectiveness, it seems like the market segmented itself into rentals, and players with control, but that second group seemed bucketed together, whether it was two, three or four years of control.“To me this is the continuation of a trend we saw last season where certain rentals – Merrill Kelly and Tyler Rogers stick out – had pretty strong returns, and the players with control didn’t return as much as you thought.mlb.com
10 hours ago10 hr Season high 10 strikeouts and 22 whiffs. 22 whiffs on 45 swings is ridiculous. (49%).He threw 20 changeups today, responsible for 5 of the K's and 8 of the whiffs (on 10 swings).His previous season high for whiffs on the changeup was 4 on 11 swings. Previous season high for K's on the change was 2.The last time he had 22 whiffs in a start was April 2024.5Ks on the changeup is a career high (previous high was 4 back in 2023).
9 hours ago9 hr 1 hour ago, Autumn Dreamin said:Season high 10 strikeouts and 22 whiffs. 22 whiffs on 45 swings is ridiculous. (49%).He threw 20 changeups today, responsible for 5 of the K's and 8 of the whiffs (on 10 swings).His previous season high for whiffs on the changeup was 4 on 11 swings. Previous season high for K's on the change was 2.The last time he had 22 whiffs in a start was April 2024.5Ks on the changeup is a career high (previous high was 4 back in 2023).These are some wild numbers. Please be a sign of things to come. This team desperately needs it.
8 hours ago8 hr 44 minutes ago, Bonemer, I Hardly Know Her said:I think part of why he was so effective with it tonight is that the scouting report was that he no longer throws it that much, nor does he throw it all that effectively. Reds hitters looked clueless when they saw the pitch.
8 hours ago8 hr 4 minutes ago, chw42 said:I think part of why he was so effective with it tonight is that the scouting report was that he no longer throws it that much, nor does he throw it all that effectively. Reds hitters looked clueless when they saw the pitch.This was actually mentioned in the initial trade thread. Someone mentioned that Castillo had stopped throwing his changeup which caused his downfall this year, but I think it may have been @fathom who said that he stopped throwing it because he couldn’t get it over the plate. It was probably a little of both.So hopefully, he continues getting his change over the plate way more consistently and continues to gain confidence in throwing it more and more, which will lead to a shrinking ERA.It doesn’t matter how hard you throw. If you throw all fastballs, you will eventually get hammered by major league hitters. You literally need to “change” it “up” and “change” speeds which is what completely fucks with even the best hitters. Edited 8 hours ago8 hr by WhiteSox2023
7 hours ago7 hr 9 minutes ago, chw42 said:I think part of why he was so effective with it tonight is that the scouting report was that he no longer throws it that much, nor does he throw it all that effectively. Reds hitters looked clueless when they saw the pitch.He started against the Reds a couple weeks ago and threw it a fair amount (17 pitches) but the usage/sequencing was different and it was not getting whiffs at all (1 whiff on 8 swings). He also threw it to RHH then which he didn't do at all tonight.Still turned in a solid outing (7 IP, 3 ER, 3 K) but obviously tonight was a different level.
1 hour ago1 hr Castillo apparently said he was coming off a shoulder injury when he was first traded to the Mariners and the changeup wasn’t quite right at the time. The Mariners then had him focus on the slider being he his key secondary as the org prioritizes that pitch and he never really went back to his previous changeup usage. Given this info, there is a reason to believe the nasty changeup is still there and can be ramped up as we saw last night. If so, this could be a far more impactful trade than many of us were thinking (including myself).I still like on paper we lost from a value standpoint, but if the dude produces like a #2 or #3 SP down the stretch and into next year then none of that matters and this will be a win for us.
31 minutes ago31 min 48 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said:Castillo apparently said he was coming off a shoulder injury when he was first traded to the Mariners and the changeup wasn’t quite right at the time. The Mariners then had him focus on the slider being he his key secondary as the org prioritizes that pitch and he never really went back to his previous changeup usage. Given this info, there is a reason to believe the nasty changeup is still there and can be ramped up as we saw last night. If so, this could be a far more impactful trade than many of us were thinking (including myself).I still like on paper we lost from a value standpoint, but if the dude produces like a #2 or #3 SP down the stretch and into next year then none of that matters and this will be a win for us.https://www.si.com/mlb/2022/07/04/rise-of-the-slider-science-the-opener
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