I would really happy with Lebron and Rose. Rose’s offensive potential reminds me of Cam Smith’s, but Rose has no defensive value and very little speed.
Defense and speed are pretty much all Smith has offered at this point, how is that an endorsement for Rose?
Smith is far from a finished product. He has elite bat speed and exit velocities and just needs to improve his launch angles to become a premier power hitter, that’s really where I’m making the comparison. Personally, I think if Smith had spent last season in AAA working on his bat path and making his approach more consistent instead of floundering in the majors trying to save Dana Browns job, he’d be a lot more productive in the majors right now.
Any combination of the following college bats (especially outfielders) would be a great addition to the farm system: - Ace Reese - AJ Gracia - Justin Lebron - Sawyer Strosnider - Zion Rose - Tyler Bell - Derek Curiel If Dana Brown wanted to go with a high upside high schooler, that would be great as well. This is supposed to be his bread and butter, the reason why he was hired as the GM --- to acquire amateur talent and grow the farm system. With more slot money than they've had in over a decade, pardon the pun, but Dana Brown needs to hit a homerun in this draft.
I would've thought Cam would've worked on this during last offseason. If he did work on changing his launch angle the his work hasn't been successful. How long do you think it will take before the fruits of his labor will be realized? Right now I'm not against moving Cam in a trade for an above avg OF with at least 2 yrs of control. But I would hope they would do a deal for and OF bat with multiple yrs of control using Matthews, Neyens, Pecko.
Lebron is just an all around better baseball player than Matthews. They both have big tools/ceiling, but Lebron is much more likely to stick at SS (and even have that be a plus part of his game). If Matthews was a plus defensive player at SS his 35% k rate wouldnt stop him from being a viable/good everyday player.
I keep hearing "he's just got to change his launch angle" where the term JUST is really doing a disservice to the difficulty of the transition. We acknowledge guys like Altuve and Paredes who maximize launch angle and their spray chart to exceed the expected stats year after year. By the same token, there are guys who just don't have an optimized swing path and never get there. It may never happen, and not because he's not trying...
I actually thought about that as soon as I posted it. I said “just” to highlight that improving his launch angle is the only real thing he needs to improve to be a star player, but the connotation is that it’s easy to do, and it’s just not. At this point, as deep as he is into his major league career, the odds of him being able to successfully make that change are falling. Plenty of dudes just like him ended up with middling careers because they couldn’t get enough hard hit balls off the ground.
maybe im an ignoramus here , but in all of this talk about launch angle , it cant be the same for every swing .. ? I know this to be true because yordan , the greatest hitter of our time, sometimes hits HR with varying exit velo and launch angle. What that stat launch angle (over a season) captures ..... im not sure .. ? Is it the average ? IMO , launch angle is also a byproduct of swing decision, timing, and pitch type and location . It would make sense to hit a line drive the other way off a high oustide fastball , and pop up a hanging curve . The launch angle for the pop up would be much greater no ? Cam is dealing with the usual growth in approach from a young player , adjusting to MLB pitching last year and MLB pitching learning his tendencies and going after him . Overall , Cam's OPS+ , WRC + whatever you wanna look at is about 10 % below average right now . But his peripherals are looking better and better , fangraphs is projecting him to get to avg this year if i am understanding his page correctly ? Not to mention his value defensively. I think Cam is growing in front of us ... and yes there are growing pains . I think hes still a very good bet to be an all-star caliber player in the next year or so . Hes playing GG defense in RF and is on pace for basically 20/20 . A little bit better approach , a few more pitching mistakes punished, a few more walks taken ... and hes gonna be a stud. Granted, he might never get over the final hump .
I don't get out much but my dark horse, day 2 draft pick for the Astros is ... Javar Williams (Wake Forest CF) Williams has elite speed and some raw power. His CF routes are instinctually good and he has elite range, but he only has an average arm. With his speed, he always a threat to add an extra base on any hit. His power distinguishes himself from other like elite speed prospects. I saw 4/5 college baseball games this year and by far Williams was the best player I saw. I can easily see Williams having a long MLB career, while he still has his wheels. Again I am no baseball scout .. but ... I find it hard to believe that there are 135 players (number of day 1 draft picks) better than Williams.
Cam Smith is going to be a multi-time all star. I sure hope we don't give up on him like we did with JD Martinez. Completely different types of players of course, but Smith is on the verge of being an outstanding player.
JD Martinez was batting way lower and acting like Albert Pujols crouching really low and being late on swings, injury prone. All JD Martinez did was fix his batting stance which is a normal stance. Coming into the Astros last season he fixed his swing by fixing his batting stance (There were reports his batting practice with the Astros he looked much better. Jeff Luhnow released him. Signing with the Tigers. Jeff Luhnow I knew made a huge mistake.
