. But why do swing and miss numbers matter vs K%? Doesn't a swinging K and looking K amount to the same thing?
So it looks like the opening day lineup through the 5 hole is going to be: Pena Alvarez Bregman Abreu Tucker TBD the rest of the lineup Hensley Diaz McCormick Maldonado ??????
Lee is a lot stockier than I remember from last season. Dude's got legs, which bodes well for a catcher.
I'm a big fan of Hensley. Even his outs are generally productive. He works the pitcher and rarely lets them have an easy PA.
At this point I think Diaz is gonna make the team over Dirden given that he's already on the 40 man. It could also give the team a good firsthand look at him occasionally as a catcher in meaningful games. I imagine Meyers place on the team is safe, but Brown is a different GM and he may or may not have the same opinion of him as the previous regime. As for the last infielder, I hope they are gonna look at guys who become available at the end of camp around the league because Rylan Bannon...I'm not sure what they even saw with him. Him making it as the last infielder isn't gonna have a huge impact on the team, but that's some ugly looking offensive depth with Dubon and him.
I agree. From the sound of it, his arm is his greatest asset as a catcher while his framing skills are pretty raw. The rule changes favoring base stealing and the likely implementation of an electronic strike zone in the next few years strongly favor him.
Besides the fact that the former heavily correlates with the latter, the type of strikeouts can say quite a bit about a player. If a guy strikes out because he’s swinging at pitches outside the zone, then you know it’s a pitch-recognition and/or a patience issue, both of which are theoretically fixable. If a guy puts up a ton of Ks because he’s unable to hit pitches inside the zone, then that’s a whole different issue.
So you're not arguing the results, just the ability to change future results? This is interesting and innovative.
He's one of the guys from Cespedes Family BBQ, one of the best baseball social media presences. Also a mariners fan, so probably well versed in the Stros.
Tuckmoose is absolutely right on. The Luhnow era was littered with hitting prospects with intriguing and/or concerning K% and BB% profiles that went one way or the other. Springer had some red flag K rates at AA: 30.9% in 2012. But the dude can flat out hit and i bet if they broke down his in zone contact rates, they were probably pretty good. He was able to become more selective (swing outside the zone less) and his major league K rates been closer to 20% (and under). Of course, he also does a lot of damage when he does make contact. Nolan Fontana was drafted cuz he had a super high walk rate and relatively low K%. Turns out he was way selective relative to his peers but once he got into the high minors and people stopped throwing a ton of balls, his K% shot up cuz he couldn't make contact in the zone (and/or do damage in the zone). Definitely got to evaluate hitters on their in-zone contact rate and quality of contact.
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