John_Havok

Vlad has 2 walk offs this year, against the O's and Red Sox. but yeah, overall it'ss like he forgets his approach completely when there's guys on base and just tries to guess along with the pitcher and guesses wrong a ton. Same with Gurriel before his injury.

To paraphrase me.... "Most fans, including Buck and Pat, are dumn"

My English Lit prof just threw up in his mouth

Why the hell is Tapia still in the OF….

Kirk might get hit here now

Thank god Bo bails out Vladdy’s ********. Nice!

Lol, vlads approach is a joke. He’s guessing every time. 1st pitch he decided to swing before the pitch was even thrown(brutal slider in the other batters box), second pitch decided to take no matter what(hanger he should have murdered) then swings at the same garbage slider in the other box to strike out. Pure garbage

Oh s***. Espinal putting on the foil

That’s part of all the pitch clock rules so pitchers can’t just keep throwing to 1st or stepping off to get a new clock

Javy Guerras numbers just scream 3 strikeouts to this lineup doesn’t it

My only counter to your post for converstaional purposes is... why were expectations low in your mind for those guys? The answer to that will tell you how much "credit" you should be giving Martinez. Like, If you expectations for Chapman were low... if it was because of physical health concerns, and he hasnt really had any of those, it's not really a surprise to see him at 120 or higher since that's where's he's been career wise prior to the hip issues - which means Martinez probably has very little to do with that. Biggio, also hitting right around his career #'s absent the injury issues from last season. Kirk - hard to know exactly given his limited sample size history. I dont know if anyone really expected a near 140 wRC+ but he was always touted a bat first catcher who was gonna take a tonne of walks and make a lot of contact. Jansen - who the hell knows, his career has been largely derailed by injuries prior to this year so projections and expectations were going to be low for sure. Im just glad he's finally healthy and putting it together.

Other food for thought he has 7 hitters over 120 ... but only 2 over 130 and 0 over 140. random picked year of 2015 Jays had 6 hitters over 120. Of those 6 only 1 was under 130, 1 was over 130, 2 were over 140 and 2 were over 150. The hitters over 120 this year (2021 WRC+ is in brackets) are: Kirk 138 (106) Vlad 134 (160) Springer 127 (140) Teoscar 127 (132) Bo 126 (122) Jansen 125 (105) Chapman 120 (102) Hard to say exactly what is the driver behind the gains in some and backwards steps in others, but overall the teams WRC+ in 2021 was 112, in 2022 it's 116. Slightly better but not markedly so and probably within error bars. Both #'s are/were #2 in baseball.

Just to clarify, you’re suggesting we need to win only 2 of the 5 games we play against the Rays?

The rays won’t let their pen get killed. They’ll sacrifice a guy or 2 to just throw innings until the 7th regardless of the outcome then stick position players in. The Rays never let their pen get killed

I much prefer listening to my transistor radio. Those talking pictures make no sense to me.

Facing a few fewer lefties doesnt have a thing do with his value increases in defense or better baserunning value. Whether its skill related or opportunity related is another conversation. It's also doubtful that 25 PAs against lefties would equate to him losing a tremendous amount of offense. Either way, compare his 2022 to 2020 then when in 2020 his overall batting was definitely better, but overall fWAR was slightly lower... due to being less effective on D. And the point of the post was not to compare sample sizes, just to illustrate that baserunning and defense contributions from a guy like Biggio give him so much better of a floor than he already has, which is markedly better than f***heads like Tapia, who is still getting more playing time for some f***ed up reason.

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=868d90ca-f9dc-4a1b-af4f-12dab8110bb0 Kiebert Ruiz taking the most foul of balls...

Just a quick check of Biggio the last two seasons... really shows how an uptick in power, improved baserunning and even average defense can make a guy much more valuable.

Lol, typical Rays horseshoe up their ass kind of thing. Had that been Gurriel in the field and the Yankees hitting, a gust of wind would have pushed it foul at the last minute and the ball would have bounced off the fence back into his face and shattered his jaw or something.

Telecasts…what are you 90?

Whatever numbers they’re using they need to burn. He’s straight garbage in the outfield every game he plays out there and his only half redeeming quality is the occasional stolen base and scamper from 2nd to home IF he manages to even get on base, which is seemingly more rare than a Vlad Jr fly ball. He’s the exact prototypical player that never develops actual skills from his tools, has a brick between his ears, and hangs on by a thread due to athleticism.

They cant call it mid motion, per the rules the pitcher has to have started their motion before the pitch clok ends, not release the ball before it ends.

The tunneling on that and the fastball must nearly identical until that certain point where it just disappears. Looking at it's raw data its vertical and horizontal movement are basically average to below avg vs the rest of the league. Good velo separation though at about 10 mph, previous years like 2020 that separation was only around 7mph.

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/mlb-set-to-implement-rule-changes-for-2023-including-a-pitch-clock-per-report/ If anyone has a subscription to The Athletic they get into far more detail than this CBS article about full details, but the short version is: the Pitch clock will be 30 seconds between hitters. The catcher must be in his box and ready with nine seconds left on the timer while the hitter has to have both feet in the box and "be alert to the pitcher" within eight seconds of the clock starting. Pitchers can still step off the rubber, which would reset the clock to 20 seconds if there's a baserunner and 15 seconds if there isn't. They are only permitted to do this twice per batter, though. The shift ban: Upon release of each pitch, there must be a minimum of four defenders -- other than the battery -- with both feet within the outer boundary of the infield dirt. Upon release of the pitch, there must be two of the four infielders on each side of second base. The team must designate two infielders for each side of second base and they cannot switch (for example, a team can't have a stud defender move back and forth based upon the handedness of the hitter). Larger bases: The bases have been 15 inches, square, on each side for decades and the size will increase to 18 inches on each side. There are a list of reasons for the change, among them that players' feet are much bigger now than when the bases were designed, possibly increasing the action on the basepaths (making it easier to steal bases or take the extra base on hits) and to possibly make it easier for players to stay on second and third in close plays instead of having long replays to see if a player barely came off the bag for a split second.