Debbie Downer maybe but I just don't see the optimism

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Originally Posted by Horsehide Harry

Enscheff steps in at the plate....

CLVCLV steps in to throw.....

Enscheff - take your base, don't charge the mound

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I'm confident he can't throw a baseball hard enough to worry about haha.

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Originally Posted by thethe

Markakis continues to be undervalued. Statheads had it right initially. OBP is tremendously valuable and you know you'll get somewhere around .350 from him.

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If Markakis was a plus defender he would be valuable. But he's not we know that. He's a negative defender and as a RF a negative hitter. RF, LF and 1B are the most offensive first positions. If you aren't a plus bat you're typically a minus value there. And you can't argue that Marakis is a plus bat. He's a decent bat, an acceptable bat, but not plus. Markakis if he was playing Shortstop with this stat line or 2B or especially catcher would be hella awesome. But position scarcity exists for a reason. It's a lot easier to play the corner OF than pretty much any other position in baseball.

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Originally Posted by nsacpi

When we upgrade in left (with Acuna moving to right) and third, I think it makes sense that one is a lefty and one is a righty hitter. Or one is a switch hitter. It would not make sense to get two righty hitters or two lefty hitters.

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I think we should just focus on gettting the best possible value there regardless of how they hit. The Phillies won it all with Howard and Utley as their best players, yes they had right handed bats to counter them (Werth being the best) but they were the 3/4 hitters for Philly all through their peak. And Howard couldn't hit a lefty if he tried.

bump to discuss

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Originally Posted by cajunrevenge

Baseball is a funny sport. Teams with good young talent like this always have a chance to catch lightning in a bottle. Just as many players struggle when coming up to the majors some have fluky good performance. Soroka could get Cy Young votes this year and never do much of anything the rest of his career. Not every player has to be good for a long period of time to be of value. I always enjoy watching the young players coming up in the majors so 2018 should be fun to watch unless they all crap the bed. I am really happy the way the team is set up for the future now that we got rid of Kemp, didnt trade the farm to win sooner, and avoided bloated free agent contracts. We might not win this year but we are set up really well for the future. Maybe all we need this year is to be good enough to lure some big free agents like Machado.

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a prescient post

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Originally Posted by nsacpi

bump to discuss

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Possible thread of the year front-runner already.

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Originally Posted by Hudson2

Yeah that lineup sucks. Once Acuna is up I’d go with this.

Inciarte
Albies
Freeman
Flowers
Markakis
Acuna
Swanson
Camargo

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This lineup aged well.

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Originally Posted by nsacpi

Thematically, 2018 versus 2017 is a case of unproven youth replacing aging veterans. From that it does not necessarily follow that the W-L will improve.

But looking at a position by position comparison:

Catcher--same personnel but will likely get less in 2018

First--Freddie missed time in 2017, so likely we will get more in 2018

2nd--Albies > Phillips

SS--Same player but will probably get more in 2018

3rd--was very poor in 2017...will probably get more in 2018

LF--Acuna > Kemp

CF--push

RF--push

So likely get more at five positions, less at one

Now to the pitching:

Teheran--probably more in 2018

Folty--probably more in 2018

Newcomb--probably more than from Newcomb/Colon in 2017

Gohara--push with Garcia

McCarthy--push with Dickey

Pen--I'm mildly optimistic, but lets say a push

So improvement at three starting pitching spots.

Bottom line. Likely to improve

Bottom bottom line: 80 win team even without fantasy signing of Moose to play third.

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I think the positions where we got positive surprises relative to my preseason expectation were left, right and third...Folty also improved a bit more than I expected...those were the major positive surprises...but we also got quite a few other small positive surprises...sum total is a team that outperforms by about 10 games

Folty giving a lot of credit for his progression to his newborn child. This, like BiLe, is something we can't always quantify properly. Need Newk and Gohara to have kids too if we're gonna keep them.

pen was 1.0 WAR last year and 3.2 so far this year...a lot little things added up to the team making the jump forward

Glad to be wrong. The young guys really stepped up in a big way and Markakis found the fountain of youth, at least for 2018.

The biggest surprises to me was the development of Folty and to a certain extent Newk (at least early), the near MVP level play by Acuna out of the gate, the power shown by Albies and most of all the play of Camargo.

Obviously, I didn't see the 2018 of Markakis or the catchers and even Teheran outplayed where I thought he would be.

Fantastic year, especially after much needed rebuilding down years....

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Originally Posted by Horsehide Harry

Glad to be wrong. The young guys really stepped up in a big way and Markakis found the fountain of youth, at least for 2018.

The biggest surprises to me was the development of Folty and to a certain extent Newk (at least early), the near MVP level play by Acuna out of the gate, the power shown by Albies and most of all the play of Camargo.

Obviously, I didn't see the 2018 of Markakis or the catchers and even Teheran outplayed where I thought he would be.

Fantastic year, especially after much needed rebuilding down years....

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from a longer term perspective I think one of the things we saw this year is how hard it is to project power in young hitters...none of Albies, Acuna or Camargo projected to hit for the kind of power they have shown this year

moral: in drafting and signing amateur talent give a lot more weight to the hit tool and defense than the power tool because the latter is very dicey to project