baubau

Smoak - UZR @ 1B: 2.1 | UZR/150: 7.2 Bello - UZR @ 1B: -14 | UZR/150: -45.1 Yeah.............................. Smoak's above average glove > Bello's near historic terrible defense at 1B.

This series can be summarized in: http://media.giphy.com/media/jLPjEjSVBGLi8/giphy.gif

Can we withdraw the 11 extra runs from last night's game to this? We will need it.

I blame JF19. I want my thanks back!!

Put me in coach! At least my GDTs have drama. Two of them were the come back against Royals and O's, but subsequently lost due to the pen. The pen has my back now!!

I'm conflicted. Can they both loose?

Severino has been impressive. He's no Osuna though! E: Awe yeah! 1-0 for tribe.

Just looking around fangraphs and wow, Votto has had a great come back this year. 5.5 WAR & 169 wRC+. That contract is still going to be nasty for the Reds down the road but at least last year looks like it was just due to injury and not regression.

Watching David Price "and Donaldson, Tulo, Martin"*. Get it together BC! Joking aside, glad you had a great 50th! You should turn 50 each day the Jays play. Clearly you are onto something here.

Bad trolls, whatcha want Watcha want, whatcha gonna do? When sheriff GD come for you Tell me whatcha wanna do, whatcha gonna do?

Are most of the Angels revilers lefties? This bodes well for us.

Sure. I'll likely work on how good the pen has been article so it'll go in with that. Have them both up by middle of next week-ish again?

How are Soto and Quintana having this much dysfunction in the middle of a game?

That is fair! You can certainly make the case that the increase in Hard% has a correlation to the distance the ball travels. Thanks AB. Will work more into that for the future articles.

Everyone is watching the Angels and here I am enjoying Baltimore getting bashed by the Twins. After seeing Sano and Buxton play, I realize just how unfair of a minor league talent the Twins still have. Good lord they're stacked for the future and if they can manage things right be the next Cubs-esque franchise.

Sup peeps. Just posted my first article on Smoak. http://www.breakingblue.ca/2015/08/20/can-he-really-smoak-it/ Feedback?

..but what about all the money he's lost them the past 2 years? I mean, if I had a contract with and gave my money to an investment banker and he looses 10% for 2 years in a row but got me 10% back in the final year, I am still firing him once the contract is up.

Looking at his history Shapiro has robbed some people. I know he is going to be more in the "business" side of things but its nice not having a total f***ing idiot in the game being President. Bartolo Colon for Grady Sizemore, Brandon Phillips and Cliff Lee Ben Broussard for Shin-Soo Choo Drafting on the other hand is not his forte. I admit I didn't look far back into 2001 but for the final few years the best players he got were Jason Kipnis and Drew Pomeranz.

While he is at it, might as well bring that Kluber fella. I hear he's OKAY at this basebol game. A side note, I think I was one of many (or what I believe to be many) who was willing to give up Pillar as compensation for DD last season thinking he'd just be a "throw in". I now realize if you are going to throw away something for a exec, throw away something that has years of proven sucking. Pretty happy that the O's went nuts with their demands and nothing ended up happening.

Were you sodomized as a child? Legit question. You just seem overly negative on everything. I know the old term, prepare for the worst and wish for the best but you live more along the "everything is the worst.. period!".

Wow 2012 sucked bad.

The f*** did this baseball talk come from? Go home Hurl, you're drunk.

You aren't missing much. Coffee puts me to sleep. I am part of the few. Does not taste good either.

Ah you kids are just too hyper on sugar these days. Overreacting parents sending children to psychiatrists and drugging you up for being kids. Pft! Just kidding GD. I know what you mean. I have a few friends in similar situations too.

He was in the middle of the packish with "meh" type players. May not be the best argument for him. It was a great idea! I would have never thought of looking at production on non-contact PA like that. The most amazing thing I found from that was Albert Pujols was a destructive tank back in his day. Would be a great article on Bau and Eddy and potentially JD if you look at it year by year. This is what I have now. I removed the "why has he not performed" part. Unless someone has anything else they'd like to mention, I'll post it: Can He Really Smoak It? Originally noticed by scouts whom were initially looking at his teammate and friend, Matt Wieters, Justin Smoak became a top 5 rated talent in the 2008 draft due to his ability to hit and hit for power. Taken 11th overall by the Rangers, Smoak continued to impress in the minors with his bat, being ranked by Baseball America in the Ranger’s organization in having best power, best strike zone discipline and best hitter for average. He was so highly regarded he was the main piece in the Cliff Lee trade from Seattle to Texas. Looking at his Major League career so far, it has been a disappointment in terms of his ability. Some could be wondering, where did his ability to hit and hit for power go? In actuality it may have not gone anywhere. The overall popular stats used by many such as batting average does not reflect well on Smoak, career .224 hitter, however the advanced statistics show a different story. Hard% measures how hard the ball has been hit and while there is no guarantee that a hard hit bill will fall for a hit, it is more likely to than not. Over the past 5 years, Smoak’s Hard% has increased. 2011 – 28.2% 2012 – 28.9% 2013 – 36.6% 2014 – 36.4% 2015 – 37.3% In 2015, for players with at least 200 PA, his Hard% is good for 27th in the league, ahead of bashers Nelson Cruz, Prince Fielder, Tood Frazier, Joey Votto and teammates Josh Donaldson and Jose Bautista. Smoak batted ball distance has also increased each year since 2011: http://cdn.fangraphs.com/fantasy/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Justin-Smoak-Distance-Trend.png Image per fangraphs. Smoak also has not lost his plate discipline. He has a relatively high strikeout at a career 22.7% K, to be expected from a power hitter, but he also has a respectable walk rate at a career 10.6% BB. For his career his 0-Swing% has been 27.5% and steadily declined over the past 3 years. 2013 – 29.2% 2014 – 27.8% 2015 – 25.2% He is chasing less pitches outside the zone, but mind you there is understandably some discrepancy in this data as in 2013 he had nearly twice as many PA as 2014 and 2015. While playing the majority of his career at Safeco Fields, a pitcher friendly ball park, Smoak has met or outperformed his xHR vs actual HR. 2010: 17.5 xHR | 13 HR 2011: 16 xHR | 16 HR 2012: 16.3 xHR | 18 HR 2013: 18 xHR | 20 HR 2014: 7 xHR | 7 HR *stats per baseballheatmaps xHR, HR Smoak’s defense has also brought value to a team whose previous 1st basement were a tandem of Edwin Encarnacion and Adam Lind, both of whom are rated below average to awful. While he may still split duties with Edwin, he has been brought in as a pinch defender late in the games often for the Jays. Among 1B with at least 200 PA, Smoak ranks tied for 5th at Defense (Def) at -2.3. His Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR) rates him as an average defender at 2.1, however his UZR/150, UZR scaled to an average number of chances for a season, has him as an above average defender at 7.2. He has rated so well his defensive metrics are ahead of renowned gold glove winners Eric Hosmer, Adrian Gonzalez and Mark Teixeira. Justin can Smoak it. There is still potential in his bat and while he may never win the batting championship he can provide 10-20 HRs over a season while playing great defense at 1B. There is value in that.