Laika

Am I missing something? This app sucks. I don't even see how to view a box score, or follow a Gameday type thing.

Wow, my boy.

That's literally what the positional adjustment does, Olerud. If a player moves to a more difficult position they get a positional adjustment - a bonus - applied to their WAR calculations as a credit for manning a more difficult position. There is an implicit assumption that they are able to man that more difficult position. Their WAR will only fail to go up if their defensive talent at the new/harder position is worse than their defensive talent at the old/easier position to an extent that is exactly equal to the positional adjustment. Which is, in most instances, actually the case. But talent is compared to the average player at the position, so if a player simply cannot handle the position (imagine Bautista in CF, or Vlad at SS, or whatever) they will be a lot worse there than the positional adjustment will assume and their WAR would in fact go down (which kind of proves your general point).

The positional adjustments are based on data from actual players switching positions, not absurdities like Kendrys Morales playing CF. Of course it matters where players play; specific players often have a best position. In real life, players also don't typically slide from DH to SS or CF. The positional adjustment scale assumes a neutral CF will be a +10 RF. Sometimes, for player specific reasons, a +10 RF might be a +5 CF; this player would benefit a bit from a positional change to CF. But making the assumption that a specific player is special and has characteristics that trump the adjustment scale is often a trap. Defensive metrics take a long time to stabilize, so be wary of working from past data without heavy regression.

Thank you for this reasonable post. Buffalo's seasons starts tomorrow. A brief cameo in Toronto is better for Alford than sitting in Buffalo for ~2 days waiting for the AAA season to start.

Obviously players that walk are good, players that hit for power are good, and players that do both are doubly good. Toronto was and is in the market of trying to acquire low-cost players with upside. In the modern game of baseball, one way to use fancy stats to sift for gold is to acquire undervalued players with nice exit velocity stats. The theory is that with some adjustments (launch angle, etc.) raw exit velo can be channeled into offensive production. It's possible to teach a powerful hitter to be more patient. With experience they can learn to lay off outside pitches. Or, as they become more establishes pitchers will pitch around their power more. It's very hard to teach a low power hitter to hit for more power. High BB% players are very much not a market inefficiency anymore; every team knows that outs are bad. There really is not a viable rebuild strategy in the modern game of baseball that involves going out and acquiring players that like walks. It's just not an efficient metric to focus on. There aren't much gains there. It's kind of a chicken and egg thing. Sometimes, a nice batted ball profile can indicate that a player has the ability to develop into a good hitter who also might have a nice plate discipline profile. Sometimes players with nice batted ball profiles are available for cheap because their approach, or luck, etc. has lead to poor production. It's less likely that players with nice plate discipline profiles will be available for cheap because a) they might already be good or they probably have highly regarded hit tools. It also might not follow, at least not as often, that nice plate discipline profiles will indicate that a player has the ability to develop into a powerful hitter (although this has happened historically, you could probably find examples). Regardless, a lot of the bats that Toronto is developing seem to be capable of taking walks so I don't think this really matters as far as Toronto is concerned. You're basically just pointing at 3 or 4 players on the current big league team who happen to hack away (Grichuk, Teoscar, Gurriel...).

Yeah, a 1 WAR player does not get 3/$28M in free agency, unless it's the Rockies inexplicably outbidding themselves for the next Gerardo Parra or whatever. It's silly to think that Toronto doesn't value OBP, or that they should place some sort of emphasis on OBP above and beyond general offensive production or overall value.

That must feel nice

I mean we can assume that when the organization outlined their developmental plan for Vlad a few years ago they were hoping / projecting that giving him more defensive responsibility would help him stay athletic. Who knows if they even give a s*** about him actually playing an MLB 3B anymore, in light of him showing up to spring training at 450 pounds and immediately getting hurt.

Bo-eautiful hair

Beautiful hair

Yes, this is basically the rationale I think. It's not likely that Toronto will internally develop 3 MLB starting outfielders for the current Vlad-Bo timeline, so they might as well extend the one currently on the roster given the facts that he is young and willing to sign.

Sad day for former Aces. Bumgarner is sitting 90, just gave up a grand slam. No strikeouts through 3 innings. I wonder how long Greinke can hang on.

On the other hand, they have tons of projected payroll space and extending decent players like Grichuk, Stroman is a lot better than Rogers just keeping the money. The cost is fine here I guess I just don't like the player as much as some others do.

Chris Sale sitting 89-90, topping out at 91. Just in case anybody missed the 8 posts.

Chris Sale looks hurt. Like he's not finishing his pitches. Very much seems to be entering that "2013 CC Sabathia" phase of his career.

I am not in love with it. Serious flaws in the offensive profile. Meh.

There are several ways!

I always like it when Toronto acquires someone who was on my deep fantasy league sleeper radar a couple of years ago. So today has been a good day because that would apply to Socrates, Hanson, and De Paula.

Good.

Acuna's signing bonus was only $100,000. He is from Venezuela so you can assume he comes from less than nothing (socialism).

The two team options at the end of Acuna's extension are unconscionable and I can only assume Acuna agreed to them under duress.

*stayed up drinking and realized the game was on, you mean?

I mean it would have been nice to get a Trent Thornton type but I'll settle for a Juan De Paula if that's what the market was. Pillar's value wasn't going to increase. De Paula's scouting report posted above is one of those all-too-common generic scouting reports that essentially tells us nothing. Maybe he is a legit SP prospect, according to data we don't have? Remember also that everyone grumbling in this thread also probably hated the Aledmys trade until like two days ago when they saw Thornton pitch. This front office knows what they are doing! lol Derek Law helps with the bullpen depth, which only recently became a major issue, of course. He doesn't have to have any real value, he just fits a hole at the moment. Not sure why they want Hanson but whatever.