Brown on the record today saying Altuve and Bregman need to retire as Astros and he wants to extend Framber and Tucker. Stop, I can only get so erect.
I wasn't concerned with Yordan in 2021 because he traded Slugging for becoming a complete hitter. Though older, Abreu was trying to improve his contact rate which cost him some HRs. He is one of the steadiest overall players in baseball. The club house still will not permit resting on past success. I love it. The hardest working team in baseball.
Apparently the hitting coach in Chicago stupidly decided they were going to de-emphasize launch angle and not worry about hitting home runs b/c they wanted to make more ground ball and line drive contact. What a ****ing garbage organization/mess they were with Tony the Drunk Larussa. They had a good team and pissed it away almost soley through managerial incompetence and short sighted FO bs. It's sort of hard to imagine anyone screwing up that badly by accident- you almost have to try to be that bad at your job. Either that or be a Rockie.
Brantley is at an age he will decline for non-injury reasons. But even with the injury, he was still getting his rate stats. I think we got a gift.
I'm not really worried about the power to be honest. I don't need him to hit 30 home runs. I am more concerned about his OPS+ than anything else. While his power was down last year, he decreased his strikeouts a large amount and he hit over .300 He hit more line drives last year but his hard-hit percentage and exit velocity were the same as they always are. He is very good at making adjustments and can fill roles really well. He was every bit as productive last year as his career average output. Unless he completely falls off a cliff (which I don't see happening) fans are going to be happy with him in the middle or back end of the line up. Very professional hitter. If I have any concerns it is with his range at first base.
Anyone from the media who brings up his decline in power because of his lower homeruns isn't really paying attention. Abreu sacrificed distance for contact which is why his batting average went up but his homeruns went down. 15 homeruns is stupid low for someone that consistently hit the ball harder than Bryce Harper and only 1 mph below Kyle Schwarber. https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/lead...022&position=&team=&min=q&sort=6&sortDir=desc
'History Book' scout recalls Chipper, Sheffield August 10th, 2020 Alexis Brudnicki Russ Bove didn’t think he needed scouting. He was an assistant coach at St. John’s University in the early 1980s when baseball legend Ralph DiLullo began trying to coax him over to the evaluation side of the game. Bove remembers telling him, “scouting’s an old man’s job,” and believing that he would make an impact in development. DiLullo had an answer for that: “He told me he was going to be brutally honest with me. He said, ‘If you think you’re going to coach or manage in professional baseball, I have to tell you, you’re a no-name. They’re going to hire guys who played in the big leagues.’” It wasn’t long after that Bove was up for a job at Fordham University. Another friend had warned him he wasn’t going to get the gig, for reasons similar to those DiLullo presented, but the New York native was hopeful, and after six interviews for the job, he was confident. “At the last minute they gave the job to Paul Blair,” Bove said. “He had played center field for the Baltimore Orioles; he was a really good big league player. That’s when I thought maybe I should get into scouting. So I called Ralph DiLullo and said, ‘Ralph, I’m ready to scout.’ That was 1982.” Now, Bove has 38 years of scouting under his belt and can barely fathom anything else. DiLullo got him started as a part-timer with the Major League Baseball Scouting Bureau in New York, and after four years of staying close to home, he took a full-time opportunity with the bureau in Florida, which was a very different landscape in many ways. “The first game I saw, Gary Sheffield was playing short, Flash Gordon was pitching, and Derek Bell was playing center field,” Bove said. “I remember calling home and saying, ‘wow. I’ve never seen guys like this.’” In ’92, Bove began working for the Brewers, and then had stints with the Expos and Mets before joining the Blue Jays, reuniting with an old friend-turned-general manager. “Alex Anthopoulos used to do the charting in Montreal,” Bove said. “He’d sit behind home plate with his chart and his gun and he’d ask the scouts four thousand questions a minute. A lot of guys brushed him off, and in all sincerity, he was a pain, but he just wanted to learn. So I used to say to the guys, ‘come on, you guys were all in that position at one time. What’s the worst thing? Tell him you’ll answer his question between innings.’ So I was nice to him, [and] when he got hired with the Blue Jays it was a natural fit.” Now, Bove is a special assignment scout with Toronto. In a typical season the Florida resident will see amateur players right up until the Draft, and then if the Blue Jays are sellers, he’ll focus on players within the organization who have been sought out by other teams for trades, and if they’re buyers, he’ll do big league evaluations. Beyond the Trade Deadline, he hones in on impending free agents. Over almost four decades, there are four players who still stand out above the rest -- Sheffield, Chipper Jones, Alex Rodriguez and Josh Hamilton. “When I saw those guys I thought, ‘oh my God, I have never seen players like this is my life,’” Bove said. “I remember I had just moved to Florida and I see this guy playing shortstop, taking infield batting practice, and I said to the coach, ‘man, that shortstop is a great-looking player. He should be a first-round pick next year.’ And he said, ‘Next year? He’s only 14 years old.’ “It was Chipper Jones. That’s how good he was and how much he stood out. … And the best power I’ve seen was without a doubt Josh Hamilton. I saw him hit balls where it was just like, 'you’ve got to be kidding.' Sheffield in high school, I was afraid he was going to hurt somebody, he hit the ball so hard. A lot of people don’t know he threw 93 off the mound on the old Jugs gun. And he was a 6.6-second 60-yard guy. He could have played anywhere on the field.” The best player Bove had the privilege of drafting was Ian Desmond, who made an early impression on the scout before the Expos selected him in the third round in 2004, and solidified that impression not long after. “Ian was my favorite guy,” he said. “We drafted him and I remember I got to the house and we didn’t talk about money or anything. There was a suitcase on the front porch, so there was no doubt he was going to sign. He was ready to go. He wanted to play. You get guys who love it more than anything and want to compete, and Ian was one of those guys. He had a few trials and tribulations along the way, [but] I remember when he got called up to the big leagues I was covering Washington. His first big league game, he homered and doubled, it was unbelievable. And I happened to be there. It was really special.” Almost four decades later, Bove could make a case to revert back to his notion that “scouting’s an old man’s job,” but he has 38 years’ worth of experience and stories to share that prove that it’s not just for anyone. “I’m a history book,” he said.
Toronto's Bove named East Scout of Year December 15th, 2017 Gregor Chisholm 1:04 1:54 TORONTO -- Sabermetrics have become an integral part of evaluating baseball players, but Russ Bove is proof that the traditional way of discovering young talent is still alive and well. In fact, it's what helped the Blue Jays land top prospect Bo Bichette. Bove -- named the East Coast Scout of the Year at this week's Winter Meetings in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. -- was part of the group responsible for Bichette being selected in the second round of the 2016 MLB Draft. Bichette has turned into one of Toronto's best assets, but at the time the pick was no sure thing. There was some internal skepticism about Bichette's skill set coming out of high school, but Bove saw all of the tools required to become an elite hitter. Bove lobbied for the power-hitting infielder, and in the weeks leading up to the Draft, he played a role in moving Bichette's name higher on Toronto's board. "It's a battle, but they do have a place," Bove said in reference to the emergence of advanced stats. "I just get a little concerned when you start using analytics on high school players. It's just so hard to compare apples and apples [at that level]. But we're fortunate. Joe Sheehan, who's our analytical guy, is very flexible. "Bichette did not come off too great with analytics, only because high school position players [are] typically the biggest failures. So we had to keep convincing Joe, and we kept moving Bo Bichette up our board, and fortunately we were able to pick him." Bove's career began in 1983 with the Major League Scouting Bureau. He spent 11 years as an East Coast supervisor for the Brewers, worked as an area scout for the Expos and served as the Mets' scouting director before joining the Blue Jays in 2011 as a special assignment scout. Some of his recent success stories include Marcus Stroman, Anthony Alford, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., T.J. Zeuch and just about everybody found on Toronto's list of Top 30 prospects by MLBPipeline.com. Almost every scout has a favorite success story, and Bove did not have to think very long when asked. He pointed to infielder Ian Desmond, who was taken in the third round of the 2004 Draft. At the time, Desmond went to a high school that did not have the best reputation for developing baseball players, but Bove liked what he saw, stuck to his beliefs and helped prove there is an exception to every rule. Based on Bichette's case, he's still doing that for the Blue Jays, too. Scout of the Year Awards have been handed out every year since 1983. They cover the East, Midwest and West regions, and there's also an additional award for International Scout of the Year. In order to be eligible, scouts must have at least 25 years' experience. Mel Didier was the last Toronto scout to receive the award in 2011, while last year Toronto's Pablo Cruz took home top international honors. "In our view, and in our minds, the unsung heroes of the game are guys like Russ, who pour their heart and soul and make countless sacrifices for the game, for the organization that they work for," Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins said. "When you think about someone being honored as the scout of the year and you pull back and think about the individual sacrifices, commitment and ultimately accomplishment, it's the bloodline and the heart and soul of our organization."
Astros have 7 starting infielders and outfielders. 6 of them are in the top 40 on the MLB Top 100 Right Now list. And then you have Michael Brantley at DH. Let that sink in.
He practiced that line in the mirror for 45 minutes before finally using it. Look at how pleased he was to get that chuckle out of the crowd. Oh Gerrit, you hilarious b*stard.
#23 - Altuve #24- Bregman #30 - Tucker #40 - Abreu #56 - Framber #64 - Pena #80 - Javier Safe to assume Alvarez will be in the top 20.
These lists are always weird to me. I'd have Bregman and Tucker higher than Altuve; and Pena higher than Abreu. Mostly for injury risk and aging concerns. Tucker, he's had 2 really solid seasons (probably underselling it here), but he just doesn't seem lucky. If he ever has a lucky season, he's going to put up monster numbers. I'm surprised to see Javier listed. I believe Javier has a very good chance of being a Top 100 Player this year, I just would not expect a national list to have him that high.
Tucker was impacted by the shift more than any other player in baseball by some measures. He was a 5 WAR player last year when his bat was honestly a bit below what he is capable of. If he can get his batting average/OBP up, he can be an 8 WAR player next year. Abreu is weird, because about every other year or so, he plays like one of the top 5 sluggers in baseball, and the other years he is basically Paul Konerko. Which version do we get in 2023?
