I really hope that by some miracle Borchering's defense can stick at 3rd base. That would give us another power threat. Luhnow might have to trade for a top 3B prospect or sign someone there. Ruiz and Correa are going to be in the system for a while. I think Grossman's low power is balanced out by his OBP and average. He just excels at creating runs. It's a real moneyball move. With a power hitting CF like Springer, you can afford to have a speed and OBP guy like that man LF.
DDJ & Villar both project to be double digit guys. If you say 20+, that becomes 3-6. I also think we shouldn't concern ourselves with being traditional. If he can give me 10-15HR, and do everything well, I'd be okay. Would you feel better if we called him CF, and Springer LF? I'd like to see how DDJ could be in CF. I hate having that much speed at 2B and sacrificing it where its needed (though obviously his quickness is an asset at 2B).
Ya I think he's a great #2 option. It'll obviously depend on where everyone's power settles at. Some people say Springer could be a 30/30 guy; some say 20/20. I meant the three through six hitters in that lineup. I'm pretty bullish on Villar and DDJ's power, but they're no guarantees to hit double digit home runs . If they both settled into the 7-10hr range I wouldn't be surprised. Grossman's in the same ballpark. They could all end up in the 10-15 range or none. I agree, traditional/non-traditional on the individual level is moot. On the team level it's not. 4 traditional power hitters in a lineup is a good, not great line-up. Take that same line-up, drop Grossman in the 2/LF spot for Springer in the 2/CF spot and Krauss/Borchering in 6/LF and that becomes a much more dangerous lineup. All minor points to quibble over, but I prefer a more traditional line-up to a moneyball lineup.
I was implying the 3-6 hitters as well. Villar & DDJ I see as guys who could hit 20 on occasion, but 10-15 is more likely. Those other guys should be perennial 20+ HRs if they are going to make it. I imagine Springer/Santana/Singleton/Krauss to give us the Hunter Pence 20-30HR power. Hoping for more than 30 is too much for any of us to ask in today's game (It wouldn't surprise me if they did it occasionally, but not regularly).
I went and ran some numbers on team home run totals. From 2008-2011 (4 years), the first place team averaged 176 home runs (159-210) and the second place team averaged about 170 (109-224). Anaheim and Texas were 7 out of the 8 first or second place finishes. In any event, that's roughly the kind of power we're going to need to compete yearly. My thought is you gotta start with 5 known power hitters and just take anything over 10hr from DDJ/Villar/Grossman/Dominguez as gravy.
Interesting. The 109 seems like a major outlier. Maybe the year the Angels had like the entire team batting over .300?
A's in 2010. Finished 81-81 in second place. Major outlier and that team obviously wasn't a wild card. Anaheim finished one game back at 80-82 with 155 hr but zero full-time players hitting above .281 You're thinking of the Angels in 2009 when they had 9 guys who hit over .290 in greater than 400 pa's each. They collectively hit 173 hr, went 97-65 and won the division.
The River hit an RBI double in the 1st for Greeneville. He came home on a Mike Martinez single to give the Appy Astros a 2-0 lead.
I would think most, if not all, should have at least a cup of joe with the Astros by late 2014 assuming they all maintain their pace.
DDJ might be a stretch but everyone else has a reasonable shot. Anyone noticed that Lexington is kind of boring to follow now? With DDJ gone, only Folty and Fontana remain as top 30 prospects. And we all know how Fontana's been doing. By contrast, Corpus is LOADED. Tri-City is a championship team even without Aplin. OKC has Paredes, JD Martinez, Jose Martinez, Cosart, Cisnero, etc.. Lancaster's got Santana, Aplin and Trope. Greenville has Correa/Ruiz/McCullers/etc..
Mike Foltynewicz vs. Savannah: 7 IP, 4 H, BB, 6 K Frederick Tiburcio vs. Bristol: 7 IP, 4 H, 4 BB, 7 K Greeneville won 10-0, while Lexington is up 10-0 in the 9th.
Hmm... Telvin Nash sent his 24th of the season out. Good news... it wasn't a solo homer. 3-run shot puts Lancaster up 4-3.
I'm pretty disgusted looking at Lancaster box scores and continually seeing K's up and down the lineup for our hitters. I was curious if this season is particularly bad for Lancaster hitters, because we have some notable free swingers (Springer/Santana/Nash). The advanced stats disagree. As a whole, the team isn't striking out any worse than last season. The team K-rate itself is extremely concerning though. Code: [U]Year PA's K's K-Rate[/U] 2009 5523 1120 20.27% 2010 5386 1000 18.56% 2011 4854 1075 22.15% 2012 4742 1049 22.12% I can't even fathom how an entire team strikes out that much. The team K/9ip against is 8.8. I bring it up because I'm curious to see how non-power guys like Lino and Aplin will adjust to Lancaster. Extremely small sample size but Lino has 4k's and no walks in 16 ab's and Aplin has 4 k's, 1 bb in 14 ab's. Both had extremely favorable strikeout to walk ratios in their lower levels. Some of that is due to the increase in pitching difficulty Lino and Aplin are facing but it's a phenomenon worth watching. Trying to evaluate performance in the Cali league really grinds my gears.
If you take out Telvin Nash's 43.3%, I have to imagine the K-rate improves a lot. Outside of Springer/Nash/Santana, have any other mainstays had K-rates that high?
Tuesday Stories Death spiral halted. Dominant pitching performances. Recap OKC's 10-game losing streak came to a halt with a 4-3 victory over Fresno. Don't know what exactly is going on, but it seems that they're pretty much mailing it in. The Redhawks got 3 in the 5th to take a 3-2 lead, using a solo homer from Brad Snyder (18), an RBI ground-rule double from Jimmy Paredes, and a sac fly from Jose Martinez. Matt Downs had a solo shot in the 6th, his 2nd with OKC and 9th of the season. Paredes finished 2-4 and added 2 steals (33). Fernando Abad went 5 innings and allowed 2 runs on 8 hits, walked 1, and struck out 3. Lancaster was doubled up by High Desert 8-4. The Jethawks got all 4 of their runs in the 4th, on a Drew Muren RBI single and a 3-run shot from Telvin Nash, his 24th of the season. He finished 2-4, and it really shouldn't be a surprise as to what he did in the other 2 at-bats. Domingo Santana went 3-3 with a double. Blair Walters was OK, but considering how his first couple of starts with Lancaster went, this was a step in the right direction. In 5 2/3 innings, he allowed 4 runs (2 earned) on 7 hits (solo homer), walked 2, and struck out 7. Andrew Robinson, who has been completely locked in since a terrible April, got the loss in an uncharacteristically poor outing. A Jio Mier error in the 9th allowed 2 unearned runs to score, breaking a 4-4 tie. Jose Trinidad got the last out in the 9th, but not before allowing a 2-run double, allowing 2 more of Robinson's runners to score. Those runs were earned. Lexington dominated Savannah in all facets of the game in their 10-1 victory. Mike Foltynewicz got his 14th win by throwing 7 shutout innings, allowing 4 hits, walking 1, and fanning 6. Justin Gominsky went 3-4 with 4 RBI. All of his hits went for at least 1 RBI. He had a 2-run single in the 2nd, and added 2 more RBI singles in the 6th and 7th. Brandon Meredith went 2-5 with a double and a 2-run triple. Jobduan Morales had a double and a sac fly, and Chan-Jong Moon drew a walk with the bases loaded. Mitch Lambson pitched a scoreless 8th. Gabriel Garcia surrendered the only run... whatever, the Legends still won. In the New York-Penn League All-Star Game, the NL All-Stars (teams whose parent clubs are National League clubs) whacked the AL All-Stars 8-1. Austin "Catfish" Elkins had a 2-run single in the 9th. He came on for Batavia's Breyvic Valera in the 7th. Tyler Heineman, who started at catcher, went 0-2. Aaron West threw a scoreless 5th, allowing a hit and striking out 1. Brian Holmes threw a scoreless 8th and walked 1. Blake Ford finished it out, despite allowing a solo shot to Connecticut's Tyler Hanover. Greeneville manhandled Bristol in their series opener with a 10-0 dismantling. Frederick Tiburcio allowed 4 hits, walked 4, and fanned 7 over 7 shutout innings. Brad Propst struck out 2 in a 1-2-3 8th, and Andrew Walter struck out the side in order to end the game. 7 guys drove in 1 run apiece. That would be Rio Ruiz on a double, Carlos Correa on a force play, Mike Martinez on a single, an Ernesto Genoves sac fly, a Jean Carlos Batista single, an Ariel Ovando single, and a Jose Monzon sac fly. Also, Martinez scored on an error. As did Ovando and Genoves. Toney, Martinez, and Genoves finished with 2 hits. Everyone had a hit except for Terrell Joyce, who is in a terrible slump at the moment. The GCLstros topped the Cardinals 9-3. Darwin Rivera went 4-5 with a double and scored twice. Yonathan Mejia was 3-5 with 2 RBI singles. Wallace Gonzalez, Teoscar Hernandez, Yoel Silfa, and Edwin Gomez had RBI singles as well. Brandon Culbreth went 5 innings and allowed 3 runs (1 earned) on 7 hits, walked 3, and struck out 4. Raul Rivera got a 4-inning save, allowing 2 hits, walking 1, and striking out 4. The Academy threatened in the 9th, but they couldn't break through to tie/take the lead, losing to the Royals 5-4. They did not convert a 2nd and 3rd opportunity with 2 outs, as Pedro Coa lined out to end the game. Luis Reynoso, Mesac Laguna, and Hector Roa each had 2 hits. Reynoso and Laguna had RBI singles in the 5th. Reynoso added 2 steals, giving him 6 on the year. Jean Carlos Cortorreal had an RBI single of his own in the 8th, and in the same inning, Randy Cesar scored before an inning-ending double play was completed. Francisco Baso walked 2 and struck out 2 in 2 scoreless innings. Rayderson Chevalier got the loss, allowing 3 runs (2 earned) on 2 hits in 2 2/3 innings. He walked 2 and fanned 1.
Erik Castro, with 136, is the only other regular above 100 Ks. In 478 plate appearances, that comes out to a 28.2% K rate.
Jonathan Meyer - 18.9% Ben Heath - 28.0% Adam Bailey - 18.7% Alex Todd - 22% Chris Epps - 24.7% Jio Mier - 18.2%
