yeezus
It's OVER 5,000!
If a guy like Schwarber fell to wherever we end up, I'd be ecstatic.
FWIW I believe the Phils will be locked in on a pitcher.
Implications of the Trade
- Thread starter nsacpi
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If a guy like Schwarber fell to wherever we end up, I'd be ecstatic.
FWIW I believe the Phils will be locked in on a pitcher.
Absolutely. If we have an opportunity to draft a Bryant or Schwarber, you have to do it. I'm not sure there will be a college bat like that available, but you never know.
From early lists, it does look like most of the top talent is pitching. Blake Rutherford and Nick Banks are consistently listed as the top bats, but that will almost certainly change to some extent.
nsacpi
Expects Yuge Games
Toussaint, Soroka and Allard versus Albies, Davidson, Yepez, Riley, Acuna, Salazar, Herbert, Ventura. We have more hitting talent in the low minors. Not to mention the 3 international signings this year and possibly Maitan next year. To me the case is there for tilting toward high upside pitching in the early rounds of next year's draft.
Eh. First, you don't mention Sanchez among the pitchers. Second, if we're ranking these guys on ceiling alone, it's Toussaint and Allard 1-2, Albies 3, then Soroka and Sanchez in there with Davidson, Yepez, and Riley. You could argue Riley a little ahead of that group, but regardless, the clear top 2 in terms of ceiling are pitchers and there are 2 other pitchers in there with most of the group. Albies would be the top overall prospect, but I don't think his ceiling is a superstar at the major league level.
Acuna, Salazar, Ventura...those are just names at this point. They've done pretty well at their levels, but they don't stand out at this point. They only serve to make the hitter group look bigger than it really is. And they're further away than any of the pitchers. Ventura is in the dang DSL.
We'll see what Cruz and Pache do, and whether we sign Maitan. But I'd rather have one or two clear studs as hitters than a large group of solid guys, which is mostly what we have right now. We have the clear studs as pitching talent.
Heyward
<B>Voted Worst Poster <br>'13, '14, '15 (Co-Winner
We were good but over-achieved and it showed when LA owned us in the playoff series.
Never said they werent good but Simmons having the 4th highest WAR with an under 300 OBP is skeptical.
sturg33
I
If I remember correctly, we faced Kershaw and Grienke for 3 of the 4 games, and should have won two of them if we had a competent manager
cajunrevenge
Well-known member
As much blame as Fredi gets for that he did make the right call in pitching Garcia and for sending Garcia back out for the 7th. Even if we won the game he would have ****ed it up by pitching Medlen instead of Minor in game 5.
yeezus
It's OVER 5,000!
yeah no, we were outmatched that series.
Heyward
<B>Voted Worst Poster <br>'13, '14, '15 (Co-Winner
Even still, our offense was shut down for the most part.
That team wasnt built for playoff baseball.
Agreed. And most of the guys we do have all profile as the same types of hitters (speedy guys without much pop). Outside of Riley and possibly Davidson we really don't have any true power bats in the system. Yepez and Acuna could potentially develop into interesting guys, but they are way too far away to have any idea of what they will be.
sturg33
I
We averaged 3.8 runs in the 4 games. The Giants averaged 4.3 runs in their 7 game WS winning series - and didn't face even close to the pitching quality we faced (Kershaw, Grienke, Ryu, Kershaw)
Heyward
<B>Voted Worst Poster <br>'13, '14, '15 (Co-Winner
No, but KC's 7-8-9 is as tough to face as it gets even though their SP wasnt as dominant as LA's/
Still the offense was pretty inconsistent as a whole that series.
And I'm saying that part of the reason it looks like we overachieved is because we were getting tons of value out of a guy OBP'ing under .300. The way we're conditioned to understand baseball, we just say, 'Well, we won more than we should.'
I'm not going to argue semantics over whether Simmons should have been 4th or 10th. He did provide tons of value because his defense was unbelievable, off-the-charts all-time great that year.
Offenses will be inconsistent in the playoffs. Was still good enough to win without horrible pitching.
What's funny to me is that Heyward thinks WAR overstates the value of defense thus great defenders are overvalued. Yet he mentions we overachieved with 96 wins that year because someone like Simmons with his sub 300 OBP was 4th in WAR because of his great defense. So that great defense helped the team overachieve to 96 wins. Seems to me that WAR is doing a fine job in measuring performance.
That's exactly my point. It's like those who argued early on that our hitters were just better with RISP, but then used other reasons, rather than simple regression to the mean, to explain why we suddenly became a worse offense.
If you think WAR overrates defense and especially Simmons' value 2 years ago, then you have trouble explaining why the team won so many games. But if you believe WAR properly valued him that year and his defense was just that good, it makes perfect sense. I'll go with the one that makes more sense.
50PoundHead
Hessmania Forever
Simmons hit 17 HRs in 2013. isoSLG was highest of his full seasons by far as was his oWAR. Haven't seen that mentioned yet. Braves had 5 guys with 20+ HRs and another 3 with 10+. Led the NL in HRs.
That's not to say Simmons and Heyward aren't both great defenders, but let's not overlook that team's biggest strength.
That's not to say Simmons and Heyward aren't both great defenders, but let's not overlook that team's biggest strength.
True, and that came after people said the offense wouldn't work because of the Ks. The difference in our 2013 and 2014 seasons shows that Ks really don't matter that much as long as you have power to go along with it. If you have Ks but no power, obviously you're going to be terrible.
Still, it was Simmons' defense that carried him that year. 5.4 dWAR is just stupid. He saved over 31 runs; it's almost incomprehensible how someone can be that good over the course of a season.
The team's biggest strength was it's defense and pitching. The offense was slightly above average but the pitching and defense was 5th and 7th best in the league. Overall it was a well rounded team.
I just don't see how you can state WAR is useless due to the way you think it overvalues defense then use Simmons as an example of why a 96 team really wasn't that good because his WAR was high.