Dagagad

Zulueta maybe, the others probably no I’d say. Maybe Juenger.

I thought the hitting approach noticeably changed in the first St. Louis game and has continued since. There were so many good at bats in that game.

Velo bumps completely change what a prospect is. Not just the fastball, but harder breaking balls as well. It’s massive.

I don’t know if anyone listens to baseball prospectus ‘there is no off-season’ podcast. I’m catching up and was listening to the may 24 one (ep 98). It’s really interesting if you play fantasy. In the last 5 minutes, they rave about Frasso and Zulueta. Frasso, they seem to like all three pitches, he’s had a velo bump, if he can command (which is his possible weakness) he could ‘explode up rankings’. Zulueta, 4 pitch mix, great stuff, sits upper 90s, not terrible command. The most interesting thing to me was they think he could move fast and even debut this year as a starter or a reliever. They also seem to think that’s he’s a starter but that’s reading between the lines. I’m guessing if he comes up as relief, it’s more necessity and inning limits than him having just reliever stuff. They seem to think Frasso’s stuff is electric because they were talking about him like that after just one start.

Yea that made it better. I think at the time, I just thought that our playoff odds didn’t justify such a big trade. I thought we should have spent more prospect capital than we did earlier on relief. I think it’s obvious that I was wrong though. They missed the playoffs but they won enough to usually get in.

DidnÂ’t Moreno out perform him pretty well in double A. There isnÂ’t that much difference in quality that IÂ’d put that much stock in just triple A numbers. I still think groshans can be valuable without power though. Especially with this ball.

I hated the berrios trade at the time (I thought it was too much value for our playoff odds + other reasons). However, it’s way too early to start panicking.

It’s not hard to look at Kirk if you are another team and think that he could be the 2/3 games catcher. To me, that’s a big increase in his value. Almost to the point that it’s hard to trade him lol.

Zimmer is kind of perfect for the pinch run 4th outfield role. Merriweather does have good stuff and is probably worth keeping as long as you can. He has options. I think Thornton and borucki will be gone before long.

I don’t get the complaints about the manager on this. The front office put borucki on the roster. He should be able to throw competitive pitches and get outs. The front office have a strategy of aiming for good not great in the bullpen. That’s the choice and there are upsides and downsides to it. However, it’s not on the manager that if reliever sucks. He has to play him. I think this is a great front office but that’s on them.

Just absolute dumb bad luck. Some teams bloop singles sometimes. It happens. We have had tons of great contact tonight and three runs. Baseball sucks sometimes.

That last half inning… just pure bad luck. The quality of contact in that inning deserved more than one run.

https://www.prospectslive.com/prospects-live/2022/5/18/hooths-scouting-notebook-518-524 Pretty high praise. “Yosver Zulueta, RHP, TOR, High-A Game Stats: 5 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 8 K Notes: Health has been an issue. Zulueta was signed as an IFA in 2019 and got Tommy John surgery almost immediately. Then the 2020 season was cancelled and in 2021 he tore his ACL 3 pitches into the season. He’s healthy now and after three rehab starts in Single-A he made his High-A debut. I’m not going to mask anything, this is one of the most impressive arms I’ve ever watched. To be frank, this is the stuff that potential aces are made of. And I hate throwing that term around. His fastball has plenty of life and is 97-100 MPH. His slider is sharp, has depth, and he can get whiffs to both righties and lefties. He also has great feel for a changeup and curveball. Of those two the changeup is the better pitch. There’s 10 MPH velo separation off the fastball and it mimics the movement well. His curveball is more of a show pitch. It has short break, but can be effective stealing strikes early in the count, which is how he uses it. He doesn’t walk too many, but his command is still spotty at times. He doesn’t miss the plate by much, but he can have the tendency to miss the side of the plate he’s going for. It’s by no means a foregone conclusion that he reaches the ace status, but the potential is there. His changeup still needs to take a step forward and so does his command. This was really just his fourth professional start though and he is noticeably better in each. These are lofty expectations, even admittedly ridiculous expectations, but to me, he looks that legit. This being his first start in High-A he was giving up contact early trying to blow fastballs by hitters like he did in Single-A. What I liked most about him was as the game went on he was more purposeful with his pitches both in location and sequencing. The delivery is low effort, it’s smooth, and theres some deception.” This dude is well worth a follow by the way if you play fantasy especially.

It was my impression that there are quite a few from the Dutch colonies in the new world but not from the actual Netherlands itself. Apologies if that’s wrong. I’m not saying people from the Netherlands Antilles aren’t ‘really Dutch’ more that I presume the baseball dev environment is different there. I definitely could have worded it better.

Sem Robberse went 7 innings, 0ER, 2H, 0BB, 4k tonight for Vancouver. Not a ton of strikeouts but he continues to get results. Interesting dude. 6th youngest guy in high A. Would be 3rd youngest at double A and was apparently considered for promotion when Kloff was sent up. He also came from a country where there isn’t a ton of pro baseball players from there (Netherlands) so you wouldn’t expect him to be this polished so soon.

It’s not just how much you spend in free agency, it’s all the way down the org from your pitching philosophy, developing swing and miss pitchers, trades you are willing to make and spending in free agency. The Yankees seem to have a philosophy of always having a good pen and do all of the above. For a different approach, look at the rays dealing a pretty good short stop for two relievers with great stuff last year quite early. I’m not even necessarily criticizing the front office. Our bullpen projected to be average before the start of the season. Our front office knows that, and they obviously are ok with that. The Yankees and the rays aren’t. It’s a different philosophical approach but it’s real. I don’t see any reason to not call that as it is. This year, we are starting to see a lot more swing and miss in the minors so as soon as next year, maybe things will change. I don’t think this FO will ever spend big in relief in free agency and they possibly won’t ever give big trade assets to gain relief pitching. Which is fine but is also real.

Just like last night, plate discipline has been good. Hope to see more of that going forward.

Yea, I’d agree with that. I’d hope they are spending time trying to get vlad right.

Vlad was fine swinging at that pitch. It was a bad breaking ball that found a ton of the plate. That’s not on Charlie. Borucki is on the team because the FO has a calculated strategy of not investing much in the bullpen. We have decided to have a bullpen that projects to be average, that doesn’t generate much swing and miss and is generally cheap. That’s not on Charlie. He can’t not use borucki. Borucki should be able to throw competitive pitches to Sosa. I don’t know what you do with the offense. But honestly, I’m not even sure the offense was the problem in this particular game. I just thought they were generally unlucky. Like vlad hammered that gimme into the ground but sometimes it misses the shortstop, right. We aren’t getting ANY hitting luck AND we are cold. I hope that the people who had good at bats last night were reminded to just do that again and things will happen. Don’t change that approach for most of them.

I think I have a different reaction to this game than most. I thought the at bats were generally good. Not a lot of swinging outside the zone, a few guys hit the ball hard, nothing found gaps or missed gloves. Vlad and Teo are worrisome. Vlad… I don’t know what he needs to do to raise his launch angle. Teo is rolling over everything. I didn’t hate putting in borucki. I wish our bullpen had more swing and miss and less boruckis, but he’s on the roster. He’s supposed to be able to come in and at the very f***ing least not walk sosa. Our front office does not prioritize having a really good bullpen. You cannot blame the manager for using the best leftie he has there. I think Montoyo’s clear weakness is not pulling starters soon enough. Berrios should have been out one hitter after the home run.

I wouldn’t necessarily fire a hitting coach, but maybe hire a few more? I know the giants last year had a ton of success and they increased their major league staff a lot. Different guys can connect with different players.

I’m not sure how to embed tweets but, He’s a prospects live guy said Zueleta was 97-100 with the fastball and had a filthy slider. Im back in BC next week, I’m going to have to figure out a way to see this whole Vancouver rotation because they all look like real prospects.

The rationale behind trading Bo, is that you probably can’t pay all three anyway. You also get to keep way more prospects (maybe get to keep Martinez in this scenario). Bo is also a player who could fall off a cliff mid extension because of his approach. Soto more than replaces Bo’s bat and then you trade for a SS who can play plus plus defense and save runs compared to Bo. He can bat 9th. I don’t know if I agree with it but it makes sense in a way. Especially with the schedule being made more fair next year, it will be easier to make the playoffs and the goal is just to make the playoffs and then get hot as many years as possible…. not to be as good as possible over the next three.

If I’m sotos agent, I want the extension to not be a cent less than what he’d get on the open market come free agency. So, 10/400 or something like that? Maybe 10/375. There’s no impetus on Soto to sign an extension. He’s going to make 60m just in arbitration at least over the remainder of his term. I donÂ’t see how vlad and Bo could take big discounts to win if Soto is making that much money. Guys are competitive. I think you sign one and let the other go. Probably vlad. Edit: I mean 10/400 starting after arb. I guess how it works is that they buy out arb years. So maybe, something like 14/450 including the bought out years.

I can’t really get my head around what Soto would cost. Possibly the best hitter in baseball. Two and half years left under team control, will be a free agent at 26. Has a profile that will age really well so teams will be offering massive contracts at that point. I guess that’s irrelevant though, you are trading for the two and half years, not what comes after. If I’m Washington, I think I’d want basically all the top prospects and especially guys who are two years out rather than one. We might be able to keep Moreno if we have everything else. If I’m Toronto, I’d try to sell them on major leaguers with some control (Kirk, biggio, gurriel, etc) as part of the deal as a way to keep prospects with higher upsides who are close. All in all, I don’t know if I’d give up Martinez, Moreno et Al for the simple reason that’s it’s unlikely that they would give soto 30m+ a year in 3 years and then give vlad 30m+ in 4. I’d rather roll the dice that Moreno or Martinez become a cheap star to extend the window. Edit: I do see the argument tho that you’d rather have Soto than vladdy long term, so let him go after arb. However, you don’t have to give up assets to keep vladdy.