Around Baseball Offseason Thread

dak said:
This HR call for Adonis last night was top notch! I remain skeptical of his defense, but I'm getting a bit more curious about his bat. He's absolutely tearing up the VWL.

[video=youtube;cZLFBJGe4Kc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZLFBJGe4Kc[/video]
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That was outstanding! On a par with Andres Cantor in futbol. They absolutely freaking love beisbol in Venezuela. I've been. Great people. Strong Cervezas.

Also, Adonis hit straight ball very much.
 
Hawk said:
Nationals trade Storen to Toronto for Ben Revere.

Also hire Dan Jennings as a Special Assistant to Rizzo.

I think Rizzo is out in 2016 if the Nats don't perform.
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Nats now have had the two former Twins' CFs that were traded in the same off-season; Span, then Revere.
 
Dalyn said:
Wouldn't surprise me a bit if he ended up with a better year than Olive.
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Wouldn't surprise me either. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Olivera ended the season on the bench or even in AAA (assuming his contract allowed it). There's a very, very real chance that Olivera is a low .200's hitter with mediocre power and no defense.
 
striker42 said:
Wouldn't surprise me either. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Olivera ended the season on the bench or even in AAA (assuming his contract allowed it). There's a very, very real chance that Olivera is a low .200's hitter with mediocre power and no defense.
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the way he pulled off outside pitches resulting in Ks or weak grounders, I would definitely agree. But hopefully his timing and real swing is there and we just haven't seen it. But if his swing is like what we saw last year. Nope, he will be a huge bust!!
 
bravesfanMatt said:
the way he pulled off outside pitches resulting in Ks or weak grounders, I would definitely agree. But hopefully his timing and real swing is there and we just haven't seen it. But if his swing is like what we saw last year. Nope, he will be a huge bust!!
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It just seemed like he had a lot of trouble adjusting to the variety of pitches MLB pitchers can show. Offspeed, control of location, whatever, it seemed like he was just a step behind. That could be due to rust since he was out of the game for so long, or it could be how he is going forward. Hard to know with such a small sample size, considering he was good in the Dodgers system. 2016 will be interesting.
 
praeceps93 said:
It just seemed like he had a lot of trouble adjusting to the variety of pitches MLB pitchers can show. Offspeed, control of location, whatever, it seemed like he was just a step behind. That could be due to rust since he was out of the game for so long, or it could be how he is going forward. Hard to know with such a small sample size, considering he was good in the Dodgers system. 2016 will be interesting.
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it is very interesting to see how well he did in LA and why he hasn't shown anything since the trade. I could say rust is a factor too, but why did he hit so well with the Dodgers? Maybe it is attitude with him.. Maybe he didn't fully heal after groin pull.. I will be interested to see how he performs.
I wonder about his arm in LF. Nick has no arm in RF.. Inciarte is avg throwing the ball.. if he can't cut runners down, then our poor pitchers are going to get murdered by an aggressive base running team. I already dread the first to thirds on Nick Markickass.. That is one aspect I miss about Heyward. I think it is hard to quantify how many runs a good throwing RF might save. Even the slowest runner can make it to third on Nicky..
 
I think we need to slow down a little on Garcia. It's great to see him having success in Venezuela, but basically all of his value last year came through his power; his OBP was under .300. And he had never shown that power before in the minors and hasn't really shown it in Venezuela, either, with 3 HR in over 130 AB. He's riding a .370 BA.

And while his OPS is pretty good, even if he qualified for the league leaders, he'd be 4th behind two guys who have never played in the majors and a 44-year-old 1B who played in the majors for one year...in 2000.

I hope Garcia can duplicate what he did last year, but I don't think it's very likely.
 
smootness said:
Inciarte does not have an average arm...he has a cannon.
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Cannon?? where did you get that.

two videos of him throwing. Both are one or more hoppers to the base. He uses his speed to get into good throwing positions.. but his arm is not a cannon by anything I have seen or read. I would love to be proven wrong though..

 
praeceps93 said:
It just seemed like he had a lot of trouble adjusting to the variety of pitches MLB pitchers can show. Offspeed, control of location, whatever, it seemed like he was just a step behind. That could be due to rust since he was out of the game for so long, or it could be how he is going forward. Hard to know with such a small sample size, considering he was good in the Dodgers system. 2016 will be interesting.
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He only had about 40 at bats in the Dodgers system...
 
smootness said:
I think we need to slow down a little on Garcia. It's great to see him having success in Venezuela, but basically all of his value last year came through his power; his OBP was under .300. And he had never shown that power before in the minors and hasn't really shown it in Venezuela, either, with 3 HR in over 130 AB. He's riding a .370 BA.

And while his OPS is pretty good, even if he qualified for the league leaders, he'd be 4th behind two guys who have never played in the majors and a 44-year-old 1B who played in the majors for one year...in 2000.

I hope Garcia can duplicate what he did last year, but I don't think it's very likely.
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I don't think anyone's going crazy. They are just pointing out his successes thus far and have noted that he could be better than Olivera.... don't think that's too crazy to say when it looks like Olivera has the potential to be simply awful.
 
zbhargrove said:
I don't think anyone's going crazy. They are just pointing out his successes thus far and have noted that he could be better than Olivera.... don't think that's too crazy to say when it looks like Olivera has the potential to be simply awful.
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I guess...but I'm not sure where this idea that Olivera will be awful comes from. Is there a pretty good chance he's not good enough to justify that trade? Yes. But is there much evidence to suggest he's going to be awful? Not that I see.
 
zbhargrove said:
He only had about 40 at bats in the Dodgers system...
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He had about double that, which is only a bit less than what he had in the Braves system. That's why I was comparing them and thought it was weird. Small sample size of course, but he completely flipped his production when he came to the Braves organization. Just an interesting thing, and demonstrates the problems of small sample size errors.
 
smootness said:
I guess...but I'm not sure where this idea that Olivera will be awful comes from. Is there a pretty good chance he's not good enough to justify that trade? Yes. But is there much evidence to suggest he's going to be awful? Not that I see.
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He was bad in our minors, looked bad in his brief stint in the majors at the end of the year, then was woeful in winter ball before being kicked off the team.

The thing people trot out to support him is that the Braves scouts love the guy. They also thought he'd be able to play third but was so bad there that they moved him to left even though the closest thing we have to a replacement is an over 30 career minor leaguer whose success is limited to a portion of a year. If they were that wrong about his ability to play third, why should we be confident in their judgment of his hitting ability.

Just watching the guy last year I didn't like what I saw. His plate approach was almost primitive.
 
I guess I'm in the minority, but I didn't think he looked bad in Atlanta last year. I won't say he looked particularly good, but he definitely showed some flashes, and a .253/.310/.405 line in his first MLB action isn't awful and doesn't spell doom.

All I can find about his winter numbers is that he had 20 AB and hit .400.

I'm not expecting much from him, but I certainly don't just assume he'll be bad. I think he has a good swing and showed some pop in his time in Atlanta, so I'm intrigued by him.
 
I really don't think we'll know about Olivera for a while. To me, the adjustment from Cuban ball, the rust from the layoff, and the rust from injuries all adds up to a big tangle of questions that isn't going to be unraveled until he's got some time and reps against MLB pitching. I really think he could be surprisingly good, or end up a genuine brick.

I liked what I saw from Garcia last year. He was one of the few bright spots down the stretch. He barreled some balls impressively and didn't look intimidated. I think his ability to be really useful depends on if he'll take a BB occasionally and if the power shows up again. I think the power may be legit, but the first part of the equation may be the rub. He's limited, and definitely a longshot, but I'm not ready to write him off without a longer look.
 
smootness said:
You think hopping a ball is a sign of a weaker arm? Those were both bullets.

The guy has a big-time arm.
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No. But I didn't think those were bullets. YouTube some heyward throws. Or old frenchy throws. Those are laser beams. Those looked good compared to what nick at night could do. But that was not a cannon. Again. I couldn't find much on his arm in write ups. And I haven't seen him throw since I didn't watch zona games.
 
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