Orgfiller

Varsho neither walks as little as Grichuk nor does he whiff as often. Swings less at balls and makes more contact on them when he does, more contact overall/less whiffs. I actually think Varsho has a pretty decent eye, it's not often he's whiffing at garbage outside the zone, he just has current holes in certain areas of the zone so I think he's been pressing which has lead to not optimal swing decisions at times. This is unlike Grichuk who just kind of swings at everything, there was never a breaking ball low and away that he didn't love. They both have good power with some swing and miss, that's really the extent of the comp.

That was a pathetic effort from Pham. From 1st and 3rd to a run and RISP.

Man I don't know why you're being so combative about this. Here are your own words: So your whole argument was that Harper was overhyped and never met his expectations. My argument is that can't be true, given that he's well on track for a HOF career with multiple MVPs. If he was overhyped then by definition he's been a disappointment relative to expectations right? Trout didn't live up to expectations, he exceeded them. Unless you think it's fair to expect all-time great performance from a prospect as they're coming up. I think merely settling for average HOF means they did pretty well for the expectations set on them.

Yeah of course there's the debate from when they were both coming up as prospects and Harper's 2015 season when it was fair to compare them. What I'm arguing is it's unfair to label Harper's career as a disappointment simply because he didn't become Trout. Harper of course had generational prospect hype and was extremely highly touted, but he's also won 2 MVPs, reached the ASG 7x, 2 silver sluggers (surprisingly much fewer than I was anticipating), and has a career wRC+ of 141. He made it, he was worth the hype. His ceiling was best player in baseball (or at least best player in the NL), heights he reached in 2015 and 2021, but his more realistic career outlook became feared hitter who didn't quite have everything to be consistently in talks for best player in the game. Any career where a prospect was highly touted and they're on track to be a Hall of Famer is successfully meeting the hype. Unless you're LeBron James whose expectations were inner circle HOF'er and he exceeded those. Baseball prospects are too volatile to have those kinds of expectations, so Harper properly met his. Harper needs about 15 WAR in 10 years to be considered a relative lock for the Hall, I don't think he really even needs multiple monster 5 WAR seasons in that span to get it done, those will just give him a much stronger argument to be inducted early. As long as he keeps trending in his current path and doesn't decline heavily earlier than anticipated, he'll get in.

Would you look at that, he is back out.

I feel like with the way he was airing it out to Brian Anderson last inning there's no way. He knew he was done by pumping it up like that.

16 swings and misses, hardest pitch of the afternoon clocking in at 99.3 mph on his 100th pitch, his last of the start. Just your typical Kevin Gausman performance.

Another absolute hanger that should've gone 450 feet. I'm sorry but these high arching warning track flyouts don't do it for me.

He hit 3 singles two nights ago...let's not say he's fixed until he has a couple of 430+ foot shots, or at the very least some barreled line drives to the warning track. Vlad has too many tools to not be performing as a fearsome power hitter. Bichette just hit a homerun to straight CF. It's not just about pulling the ball, it's about hitting it with complete authority as he's more than capable of.

Harper is 30 years old...right now he obviously wouldn't be either of those things, but he's easily trending as a HOF, likely a first ballot. Big difference between an inner circle guy like Trout who is one of the best players of all time, and Harper who is a more "decent" Hall of Famer whom everyone will remember for years to come. Mookie Betts is another guy who should cruise into the Hall barring catastrophe, and he's only 8 WAR ahead of Harper at the same age, 30 WAR behind Trout. It's unfair to compare anyone to him.

I mean it's still early for them/Tork so you can't throw the book out yet. It could be worse, they could be Mark Appel or Mickey Moniak. Casey Mize who has sucked or been injured. Royce Lewis who can't stay healthy. Dansby Swanson was pretty mediocre over his years of control. Sometimes even getting a 2 WAR guy is a plus.

Tork's xWOBA is the same as Vaughn's so they're not as far apart as you'd think. If anything Tork is further ahead in development/value given he's 1.5 years younger and with similar performance. Both are butchers though, and already awful runners, a 120 wRC+ isn't gonna cut it for either of them.

Don't forget Andrew Vaughn! 1-3 the draft prior to Torkelson's.

It's honestly not even May, it's literally the last 1.5 weeks or so. From May 1-19 he had a 5 wRC+, with zero walks, a 35% K rate, 3 hits and a double in 17 PAs. From May 20th onwards (19 PAs) he has a 236 wRC+ with a .375 ISO and walk rate above 10%. Maybe the increased consistent PT is helping him out, and he's been working on his swing with the coaching staff, leading to a positive feedback loop.

Yeah probably just simulating being in a real start. Throw 10-20 pitches, take a break to simulate waiting between innings, thrown another 10-20. Chad Green probably doesn't even need to practice this until very late in his recovery and even then if he's essential and you want to rush him then only limit him to 1 inning stints which is already reasonable injury or not.

The Cubs have held to Rays to 1 run over 2 games. Win both, although barely both times.

Disgusting stuff from Nate.

Pearson just undressed Rowdy there, nasty breaking balls.

Pitchers love throwing to Kirk.

Belt is such a vetrin hitter. Those might be his first couple of 3-0 swings this whole season.

Vlad wtf man, it's like he has the yips with a runner on 3rd and 1 out. Consistently god awful ABs in those spots recently.

Man, if the Biggio from the past week is the one we could get consistently, that's the guy the team needs as a super utility guy.

That was an excellent 3-2 pitch.

Yelich might as well have a 20 arm lol.

Good swing, would've preferred it in the air but beggars can't be choosers.