Yeah, we're on the same page here. Schmidt and Brooks Robinson are the 2 best 3B in history, for me. Not sure where Adrian Beltre slots on the list, but pretty damn near the top.
Brooks Robinson played during the dead ball era in the 70's, which a lot of people don't consider. Defensively he has to be the best. Adrian Beltre is an interesting guy. He was one of the biggest international prospects ever. He signed at like 14-15 with the Dodgers and was considered a disappointment until his last year in LA when he should have won the MVP. Then he signed with the Mariners and didn't hit all that well again. Once he was out of those pitching paradises, his bat exploded in Boston and Texas.... no one saw it coming either.... Had he played his whole career in Texas or Boston or even Baltimore - he would have had 600 homers. I know Arenado has had a long run .... Rolen.... even Manny Machado.... The other one I didn't get to see, but if you dive deep, you realize how incredibly good he was, is Ron Santo.. Craig Nettles is forgotten as well.
My wife is a NY native. She Grew up a Yankees fan until I converted her. She still has 2 Yankees Jerseys. Nettles and Munson
I am a baseball fan and do not give a rats ass what color they are or what their economic status is. I hope the Astros never consider those things when evaluating players. It would be a sad day indeed.
I'm pretty sure this was said in reference to the good of the game. As a sport baseball needs kids from many different economic and geographic groups, and yes, sadly when any racial group has been declining in participation like American black players are, it's nice to see a few more.
Pena, Santa, and Yeriel Santos all have looked pretty good this year. Guys to keep an eye on to see if the international pitching pipeline can keep churning em out.
What baseball needs is kids who love baseball. All the rest is politics and has no place in sports or the discussion thereof.
Anyway, uh... Before his three-run blast, Nehomar Ochoa had a two-run single. Big night for him as he finished 3-5 with 5 RBI. Alimber Santa allowed three hits and struck out five over three scoreless as the Woodpeckers beat Delmarva 16-8.
Alimber Santa is striking out half the hitters he faced and has a 22 to 1 K to BB ratio so far this year. 5 games is a really small sample size, but I don't think he's been this good before.
Zobrist had 12 homers in 1263 plate appearances over three milb seasons which were ages 23-25. He did have more speed and positional versatility. Obviously the Wade Boggs comparison was a bit out there but it's just to say that you don't necessarily need power to be a legit 3rd baseman. The Boggs k rate was in a completely different era. Lots of people had k rates below 10% back in the 80s. Ken Oberkfell retired with nearly twice as many walks as strikeouts and had a better k% than Boggs. Tough to compare that era to now in terms of walks to strikeouts. No comparison is perfect but please do not get rid of will Wagner is all I'm asking the Astros to do.
I view Will Wagner like Mauricio Dubon, Jake Meyers, or a dozen other players. Useful but will never be a top 10 player on any given team and CERTAINLY not untouchable. If he brings back a potential all star trade him twice!!
