nsacpi
06-26-2015, 09:46 PM
I've always thought that what I call "deep depth" is very important. By that I mean both the guys on the bench and front end of the pen in the majors and those in the upper level minors. This article provides some interesting evidence on the importance of avoiding giving bad players much playing time.
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/jabo-the-importance-of-not-having-bad-players/
Much of the focus around here during the off-season was on the good players that were traded. That matters for sure. But I think it has been compounded by an inadequate attempt to build "deep depth." Finding replacement level guys or slightly better to populate the bench and the upper minors at positions not filled by promising prospects. It has shown up most glaringly in the pen. But we also penciled in guys like EYJr and Callaspo for roles that were a bit too prominent for what they were capable of delivering. We have made some progress by replacing those two. I think we also took some pretty big risks at catcher, including having a pretty weak group in the upper minors at the start of the season.
Finding a solution to the pen has turned out to be tougher. I suppose you can blame some of that on bad luck (the suspensions of Vizcaino and McKirahan). But I think part of it was not doing a very good job populating the Gwinnett pen with guys who could potentially have helped.
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/jabo-the-importance-of-not-having-bad-players/
Much of the focus around here during the off-season was on the good players that were traded. That matters for sure. But I think it has been compounded by an inadequate attempt to build "deep depth." Finding replacement level guys or slightly better to populate the bench and the upper minors at positions not filled by promising prospects. It has shown up most glaringly in the pen. But we also penciled in guys like EYJr and Callaspo for roles that were a bit too prominent for what they were capable of delivering. We have made some progress by replacing those two. I think we also took some pretty big risks at catcher, including having a pretty weak group in the upper minors at the start of the season.
Finding a solution to the pen has turned out to be tougher. I suppose you can blame some of that on bad luck (the suspensions of Vizcaino and McKirahan). But I think part of it was not doing a very good job populating the Gwinnett pen with guys who could potentially have helped.