Is everyone else as pleasantly surprised by this guy as I am? I personally was not expecting this type of production from this guy this soon.
His 3 home runs are his only real production over his first 50+ plate appearances. Other than that, his hitting has been mediocre, he is striking out 25% of the time and his defense has been average.
He is also walking 12.5% of the time (though that seems unlikely to last). His LD% is terrible, but his hard hit% is solid. We just really need to see more of him to make an informed decision on his potential spot going into next year. No question he has been an improvement over Gomez/Rasmus.
I'm glad his hitting is way better than Rasmus-with-ear-issue and Gomez-full-stop But I despise his routes and overall effort in the OF. He's slow to grounders, slow to balls in the gap or against the wall, takes bad routes, and tops it off with bad catch fundamentals (moreso than just the typical no-off-hand stuff). Oh right, and the multiple cutoffs missed--though he does have a strong arm I'll take him in LF over current options (at least platooning with Colby if he's back to normal), and I feel like all of those defensive things are correctable if he's open to trying. And it's certainly more tolerable with 2 other elite defensive OFs out there. But he needs to put in defensive effort in the offseason for me to think he has a shot at a starting OF spot longterm
His walk rate has been pretty respectable, and his speed has been a factor on the bases at least, even if not in steals. The strikeouts should be watched, but they're not horrendous for a rookie, especially relative to our other big prospects -- Bregman's got a 24% K rate, and Reed is at 33% (ouch). The speed+power combo is enough for me to like him as a 4th/5th OF option for next year, with the possibility for more.
He's decent; the reason why you feel this way is because Gomez sucked so much for us that Teoscar's averageness feels much superior. His defense in the field is also average at best. With that said, I like him so far, but just don't see him as a starting CF for us in the future. Can definitely see him being a 4th OF going forward though.
Not sure what to make of him, yet. Defensively, he's not looked good to me, but he's not Tucker, either. It does not look like he plays the wall well nor does he look good at reading balls hit hard at him. He does not look confident in LF. Offensively, his HR output should slow, but his BABIP should increase. K rate is worrisome because he has a history before this year of high K rates. I'm worried he'll become Singleton with speed, but a high number of TOOTBLAN.
I heard on the radio yesterday that Rasmus was 3 for his last 70. It was said several times - is that true? I could check bbref, I guess. But, seriously? Hernandez certainly looks the part; big kid. He seems to have DH written all over him. I'll tell ya... between Bregman and Gurriel, this is suddenly a significantly better offensive team. The hole might be too deep - but they could go into next year with a 1-5 I'm not sure any team in baseball can touch, in terms of performance, age, cost...
His plate discipline this year in the minors was a major step up from years past. BB rate up, K rate well down. It also led to a far higher BA than prior years. The K rate is a little higher than you would like, but the BB rate has translated. The BA is down, but the .250 BABIP probably has a lot to do with that becuase he should carry a really high one. If he can maintain this approach, he's gonna be productive because he has some pretty good tools. Hard to judge OF's defensively using the eyeball test. He hasn't looked great, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. Maybe his range and arm is compensating for poor reads, maybe not. The metrics are pretty useless with this small a sample, but FWIW his numbers are in positive territory. I think when the dust settles he's gonna be a net positive in the field, not great though.
I am hoping he finishes the season strong, mainly to boost his trade value this offseason. Just like I felt with Preston Tucker last offseason, I feel we maximize Teoscar's value to this team by trading him. Even with our future outfield uncertainty (really just Springer as an everyday guy at the moment, and possibly Bregman in LF), I think Teoscar ends up being "just a guy." That's not to say there is no value in that, but I think he is pretty easily replaceable, so you may as well trade him for some talent. My personal hope, and I know many will not agree with me, is packaging Teoscar with a pitching prospect for Puig. I think a potential OF of Bregman, Springer, and Puig can be fun to watch.
If it's not exact, it's pretty darn close. That is the one thing that I think Luhnow and Hinch can truly be blamed for - allowing Rasmus to try and play through the inner ear problems rather than DL'ing him to get it addressed.
No; the hole was their 8-18 start. They've been chasing ever since. They have to outplay 5 teams who are all within 3.5 games of the 2nd wildcard spot. That's an uphill battle. Doable; but tough (especially when 20% of our remaining games are against the Rangers).
Looked it up - it's TOTALLY wrong. He was FOUR for his final 70 ABs...... Yeesh! .057/.095/.143/.237 since July 1. His OPS fell 105 points in just 20 games.
I agree with this. The problem for me is that a big portion of his issues in the field appear to be related to effort and willingness to listen. Just try harder in-game, and do a couple of *super* easy-to-learn things (which I acknowledge may take an offseason), and you'll be 80% of the way there. Really hoping those things happen.
