John_Havok

Scouting reports on the two picked up prospects from Dan Farnsworth of Fangraphs prior to 2016 season Ramirez is a very unique hitter to watch at this stage of his career. His hit tool may already be above-average at the major-league level, but the way it works is awkward to see. To me, it looks like someone took one of the most athletic upper halves in baseball and plopped it on some sort of swiveling rocking chair. Not to downplay his overall athletic ability, since he does have plus raw speed and a (very?) outside chance at sticking in center field. Most likely he ends up a corner outfielder light on arm strength and power but with enough on-base ability to be a well above-average regular, hitting his way into a starting role. As alluded to above, Ramirez’ legs and hands work on completely different wavelengths, making his raw power pretty untouchable and leaving him looking fooled on a lot of swings. The fun part is his hands and barrel awareness are so good that he can consistently dump balls in the outfield even when he has completely lost his balance over his legs. In the video above, this manifests itself in a swing on which Ramirez appears to have been punched in the stomach by an invisible fist, hanging on for dear life to make contact, only to square it up and hit a sure single into left field. Major-league pitchers will be able to get him off balance more than he is now, but there’s a special place in the game for hitters with his ability to barrel the ball. Even if he is limited to left field defensively, his hit tool will carry him into a valued job in the big leagues. Hit: 50/60+/70 Power: 30/35/40 Run: 55/50/55 Field: 50/50/50+ Throw: 45/45/45 Overall: 40/55/65 I was pleasantly surprised with the Reese McGuire that showed up in the Arizona Fall League; he finally showed some potential to use his plus bat speed to drive the ball with some authority instead of just making contact. It wasn’t just the numbers where he showed improvement either; his swing looked like it was meant to be doing some damage. He still has work to do on both his offense and defense, but the changes this fall were encouraging enough to project him closer to his offensive ceiling than I would have admitted at this time last year. Prior to the fall, McGuire had the same bat speed and loose, athletic swing, but his swing plane was geared for low line drives and ground balls. To that end, he had delivered through the regular season last year, with few swings and misses but not much to show for it. His path in the fall looked good enough to tap into his above-average raw power given enough time to develop, making him a much more interesting prospect than the good-glove, questionable-hitting catcher he looked like before. He has plus arm strength out of the crouch, but below-average footwork and transfers pull his current arm grade down to average. He gets great reviews for calling a game behind the plate, and present above-average receiving and average blocking ability give him plenty of skills to be a valuable backstop. Team sources swear by his receiving work as a whole, so I’m trusting their judgment by bumping his future grades up. With the emphasis the Pirates have placed on his defense, it’s reasonable to see future gains made in all his defensive tools, giving him upside as a true plus defender. His improved hitting forecast makes the total package look like an above-average regular at minimum. Hit: 35/50/55 Power: 35/45/50+ Run: 45/40/45 Field: 55/60/60+ Throw: 50/55/60 Overall: 35/55-60/65

Kevin Newman would be nice but that's probably wishful thinking Edit... Wtf... Reese McGuire? This is amazing

As they do in every market

Even better. 17 million must be the total money owed between now and the end of next year

Good thing we didn't have a Drew Chavez.. he'd be gone for sure

Bingo. Essentially this is the Jays agreeing to take money and and arm, for another arm and 2 prospects and the pleasure of paying Liriano 17 million for 1 year in 2017. Theres no such thing as a bad one year deal.

I agree with all your ponts, but subtracted for everytime OF was used when you should HAVE used the word HAVE instead.

Jays still talking about Hellickson also

Sanchez insurance maybe?

I think alot of folks have it in their heads that a major win-now move is needed, and for some reason think that the Santana trade would be that move and are reacting accordingly .... when it's obviously not much of a needle mover for 2016, but makes sense for the next 3.

12:37pm: ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick now tweets that a medical issue may be holding up the Mets’ acquisition of Bruce. Crasnick adds that the severity of the issue isn’t known, but the medicals are no longer a formality.

I can say I'd rather pay Santana 13.5 million than pay Dickey plus Thole their combined 12.8. It's probably not rational...but what can I say. I hate 1 trick pony pitchers

More to it than that, but he got a last minute better offer and took it

Lol. Greene would be likely ... or Rios as the main piece. SRF would not be on the table

Cubs are in on Smith

Haha, no need to be so dramatic. No milb team can be full of age appropriate or younger players, there's just not that many of them to go around. Roster filler is there for that exact reason, to fill rosters and ensure games are able to be played.

Really solid July considering his early season injury issues. Let's see him keep it rolling into August. .255/.366/.826 with 24k, 16 walks, 3 HR and 8 SB. Great walk rate, K rate was down but still higher than you want to see, but it's trending in the right direction now at least.

Well s***. Jays fever got me by 3 to nudge me into oblivion

Might be lucky and stay in the points this week. 108.8 seems solid if spats doesn't get big points from turner or Pujols for the rest of their games or vdub 3b doesn't go massive

Quite simple really. For full season ball, Low A (Lansing level) age 21 is borderline about to be irrelevant, 20 is good, 19 is better, 18 or younger is exceptional. Advanced A (Dunedin level) 22 is borderline, 21 is good, 20 is plus, 19 is exceptional AA New Hampshire level, 23 is borderline, 22 is stillgood, 21 is plus, 20 or younger is exceptional AAA 24 is borderline, 23 is still good, 22 is plus, 21 and young is exceptional. These are the guidelines I use for regular players in full season leagues. Short season leagues are a bit harder to use agelevel because since they start up after the draft, there's always a bunch of new players that are probably better than that but end up there because there's nowhere on full season rosters to put them, and for pitchers because they've already pitched in the college or high school seasons and teams pt them on limits. But... Generally speaking, rookie ball (GCL)I'd want them to be 17 or younger to be plus. 18 is still fine, 19 is pretty borderline unless it's their first season Advanced rookie ball (Bluefield) ablut the same as GCL except 17 or younger would have more shine to them. For sort season A ball, (Vancouver) ... pretty much the same guidelines as Low A. Then of course, you also have to consider results and how many years they've been in pro ball already. Like a 21 year old Cuban raking in Low A would still be something to keep an eye on if he's in his first year in pro ball, vs a 21 year old in his 4th season of ball.

No, just saying for a player to be a "relevant prospect" with a better than decent shot at becoming a useful regular major league player, age vs level is extremely important. A 24 year old who wasn't drafted and is only in Short season A ball in his eecond season is looking at something like 100,000 to 1 odds of ever even getting to see a major league stadium without buying a ticket, let alone playing as a regular player. And as with any generalization, there are outliers like Bautista that come along once in every 10,000 players.

He does have 2 more years at 13.5 and then team option for 14. Maybe theyre looking at him as back end of the rotation for the next 3 seasons... but we could probably cobble that together with FA signings rather than giving up assets

Not sure he moves the needle at all...gotta have the sights set a bit higher I think