Tanner Roark had a significantly better track record of success than Matz and about as equal if not better than Ray. Matz was damaged goods entering 2021, Ray was inconsistent with flashes of brilliance mixed in with awful 5 BB performances. Kikuchi I'm pretty sure was well regarded coming out of Japan and had decent stretches in 2020 and 2021.
The difference of Roark vs Matz entering their respective Blue Jays careers was like a 2-3 win difference.
Drury has a higher OPS but Vlad is a better hitter by most metrics because *points to Jonah Hill*
"He gets on base"
In all seriousness though there's a lot of fluky performance in the Statcast numbers, Drury doesn't really hit the ball all that hard although he has been barrelling the ball often which helps. Vlad completely crushes the baseball though. Drury will likely regress closer to league average hitting both in general and especially now that he's out of the bandbox that is GABP.
I see what you're saying. Personally I value McClanahan more simply because he'd been better and projects better, and I feel like it's such a fool's errand trying to project which of the two has greater injury risk. Manoah is absolutely built and looks like he could handle starting more, but McClanahan could be Chris Sale in his 20s for all we know in terms of endurance. I feel like the additional velo (from the left side to boot) if anything just gives him the higher ceiling and both can spin some filthy breaking balls.
I distinctly remember Merryweather having a lights out performance at Yankee Stadium in 2021 where he struck out the side and made Gary Sanchez and Gleyber Torres look silly pumping 100 past them with a disgusting bugs bunny changeup.
Romano, Pearson and Merryweather have all hit triple digits. The Cards have Junior Fernandez and Jordan Hicks who routinely throw 100 but are f***ing awful, so I mean it's not like that's all there is to it.
Yeah for all the talk about us giving up on Rowdy too soon and missing that lefty bat he's basically a replacement level player. You need to do a lot more in the MLB than to just be an okay hitter with no defensive or baserunning value - in his case actually costing the team a lot of value in both aspects.
https://www.fangraphs.com/players/gabriel-moreno/22664/game-log?position=C&season=&gds=2022-07-13&gde=2022-07-26&type=-2
Too lazy to take a screenshot.
28 PAs, 7 H, 3 2B (no other XBH), 3:3 K/BB (10.7% for each), 1 SB, .292/.393/.417, 124 wRC+
I wonder how much it would take to acquire Victor Robles. Capable CF defender with good speed, swings an absolute pool noodle but projects well enough to be better than Zimmer. Also another Latin guy who could mesh well with the team and potentially give him the motivation to unlock his prospect tools, is only 25 and has a couple of years of control, but his value should be so diminished that you wouldn't need to pay very much for him and we know the Nats are selling.
Just looked, his max exit velos aren't awful so there's at least the potential to hit the ball hard, but the majority of the time currently he might as well be tossing grounders and soft liners into the outfield himself rather than bringing a bat.