Even though he hasn't hit a homerun in a couple games, he still hits the crap out of the ball and he makes good contact. I would not be surprise that pitchers pitch around him until at least Correa gets back into the lineup to protect him.
If he works on his launch angle like JD, he could threaten Barry Bonds record. His power is effortless.
Why would you do that when you are trying to build a championship team and pushing the luxury tax line. you control yordan for over half that contract you are proposing for cheap. 3 years of team control then 3 more arbitration years. extensions happen after a couple years down the road when you want to buy out arbitration years to save money. You dont give a guy 15 million per the first time you call him up when he is under team control. We have him for a minimum of 6 years. Thats plenty of time to figure it out.
Agreed. Even the best player out there (Trout) got his "early" extension after his first 2 years, exactly what the Astros did with Bregman. I think you try to lock in the special ones after 2 years. Sometimes they sign (Bregman), sometimes they play it out (Springer), and then sometimes you do get them locked in for the remainder of their prime (Altuve).
97 mph fastball last night that he turned and ripped. 93 MPH fastball that he hit 320 or so oppo. Haven’t seen him make good contact on a quality high fastball in the zone but he seems to lay off up out of the zone.
I’d offer 10/150 right now too. Might lose but if you don’t it’s huge value. There’s a risk with everything that’s done. We might have locked Altuve up past his prime. If so he more than earned it and I will never complain he got his after overproducing so much the first 6/7 years.
Can we somehow sneak him into the Home Run Derby? It won't ruin his swing. It would be an amazing thing to see him effortlessly clubbing ball after ball into the stands.
Agreed on the massive contract but pitchers have already been overly cautious with him and he’s been hitting in the cleanup spot...it’s not like he’s snuck up on anyone Tyler White style.
While I agree, he's been thrown head first into the clean-up spot and done admirably. There's only so much pitchers can do differently than what they're already doing.
Only high fastballs or lay off of them and make pitchers throw strikes. The thing about Alvarez compared to guys like judge is that Alvarez has hit .320 plus in every stop of the minor leagues. What he's doing isn't any different than what he was doing in the minors since he was 19 years old. He's just doing it against major league pitching. His power has increased but that easily explained by the fact that he's went from 180 pounds on a 6'5" frame to 235 pounds. Judge's numbers actually went up when he joined the Yankees.
I’ve been a huge supporter of Alvarez for years. He is a skilled hitter that happens to have power. He has been unfairly stereotyped. Still, he still has some issues with fastballs.
I was 100% the wait and see guy on Alvarez. I never assumed he would be bad or anything....but my god he looks good. Is there room on the bandwagon?
Anybody is welcome to appreciate his greatness. I just love the mechanics of his swing, and the fact that he just hits the ball hard with such ease. After many years of seeing top prospects bust I had my doubts on him (and other top prospects too, not just him), but once we were far enough into this AAA season, that's when everybody knew he was the real deal.