Adam Duvall

I had mentioned him before as a potential Kemp replacement, but was actually a little surprised to see a blurb that mentioned we were poking around on him earlier in the week. Love the power and how it would probably play just as good in SunTrust as it does in the Great American Smallpark, but he's yet another low OBP guy like Moustakas. I do think it would be pretty exciting at times to see a middle of the lineup filled with the pop a Freeman/Acuna/Moustakas/Duvall could provide, but adding him without Moustakas would make us awfully right-handed when Acuna replaces Markakis.

With all our pitching, we obviously match up well with the Reds regardless of who we'd be interested in and I don't think the acquisition price for Duvall would be steep enough to warrant real concern because we can probably get him with lower level arms.

Would it really be that bad an idea to add all that power if you could surround Moustakas and Duvall with high-OBP guys like Freeman, Acuna, and Flowers?

I have no problem with his hitting. He can hit well enough to start at any position and not kill you. His defense is in question though. Looks like he has found a home in LF after butchering 3b. He was good his first year in 2016, but his defensive numbers dipped last year. I don't put a ton of weight into defensive statistics but we should expect him to start declining soon, so how good will his defense be?

If his cost is low, I say go for it. Otherwise stay away. He could easily be a DFA candidate this time next year.

That's a hard pass for me. He has a career OBP below .300 and is a subpar LF about to turn 30. The cost would have to be peanuts for me to even stomach it. The idea behind finding a Kemp replacement should at least be to find an improvement over him. Hell, diving a little deeper, it looks as though he doesn't really get many XBH outside of his HRs. I'd keep him in the Star Wars category: far, far away.

Over the last 2 years the only LF who have played better defensively are Gordon and Gardner. I think his defense is actually a plus in his value, not a negative. The other plus is he's hit just as well if not better away from the Great American Ballpark. Obviously being a 30/100 guy is a plus.

The cons are his K rate and BB rate.

Depending on what else we do I could see a play for Duvall, especially if we're focusing on defense as much as we say we are.

Career OBP of .297.

Yeah, no thanks.

As I said in the other thread, Duvall "had an 8 DRS in left last year and 14 DRS the year before and has graded strong there in both range and with his arm. I like his power but his OBP is terrible as noted. Maybe the Braves are interested in him only if he comes cheap in a trade and want to platoon him at 1B (back-up for Freeman), LF and maybe some 3B too. Just trying to make sense of it. He isn't bad on defense and did hit .279 vs lefties so I suppose he might be decent in a platoon when you factor in his defense in LF. That said, there may be nothing to this rumor."

This latest article is about Inciarte's great defense but it also includes this on Adam Duvall: "It should also be noted that Hamilton spent some time this season flanked by Adam Duvall, who has totaled 30 5-star and 4-star plays over the past two seasons." Source: https://www.mlb.com/braves/news/stat...se/c-264775690.

[QUOTE=Braves1976;456957]This latest article is about Inciarte's great defense but it also includes this on Adam Duvall: "It should also be noted that Hamilton spent some time this season flanked by Adam Duvall, who has totaled 30 5-star and 4-star plays over the past two seasons." Source: https://www.mlb.com/braves/news/stat...se/c-264775690.[

If the price is right, we can do a lot worse. He has actually hit a good bit better away from the Smallpark than at home, and has a positive dWar in LF.

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Originally Posted by mqt

That's a hard pass for me. He has a career OBP below .300 and is a subpar LF about to turn 30. The cost would have to be peanuts for me to even stomach it. The idea behind finding a Kemp replacement should at least be to find an improvement over him. Hell, diving a little deeper, it looks as though he doesn't really get many XBH outside of his HRs. I'd keep him in the Star Wars category: far, far away.

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Other than the 68 doubles and 9 triples he has hit in the last two years, you may be right. He was 8th in the NL in XBH in 2016 and 5th in 2017. Again, he has more XBH on the road than at home.

He strikes out a ton and doesn't walk much, but he does everything else well. He's 29, and if the price is right we can do worse. A lot worse.