Well, the last game of the spring is just a few minutes away. The team will be traveling to Denver tomorrow for Thursday’s opener. Temps are supposed to be mild. The game is nationally televised on ESPN.
Good thing it is a day game. It is supposed to drop to 29 that night and Friday and Saturday a frigid 36, then 42. Sunday it is supposed to be 80. Welcome to Colorado.
Also today, there is a 50 percent chance of snow in Denver, so the grounds crew is going to have their work cut out for them getting Coors ready by the start time on Thursday.
Kersh takes the mound for his 9th opening day assignment. Frankly, I wish he wasn’t the guy. Although he has a winning record at Coors at 11-5. His ERA there is 4.44. He has allowed 19 HR’s in 23 games. 139 hits, and 36 walks in 140 innings. Not great numbers. His WHIP at Coors is 1.250. The Rocks only hit .203 against him there, but they get the most out of their hits.
That being said, the Rockies are nowhere near the team they were early last year and they really miss Arenado in that lineup. Roberts has said that Bellinger is going to hit cleanup despite having a shortened spring and working with a new stance.
Muncy has been hitting better as of late, and Seager has been a monster this spring. Betts cooled off some at the end of spring and dropped under .300, but he looks ready. Taylor is also locked in.
HR’s are down all across the cactus and grapefruit leagues. So the new ball is having some impact. The umpires are in midseason form. Missing a lot of calls.
Despite bad outings over the last several days by the core group of starters, Kersh, Bauer and Buehler, most pundits think LA’s rotation is the best in the majors simply because they are 8 deep right now on the roster.
Don’t sleep on Nelson. He seems to have found it again. Price has said he will do whatever the team asks. You have to love a guy who does that and he gained a ton of respect from me when he gave each minor leaguer in the system a 1000 dollars last year to help them.
Gonsolin can pitch in pretty much any situation. May cannot. He is much better suited as a starter. Knebel, Treinen, Jansen, Alexander, Gonzalez. The bullpen is loaded and has plenty of back-ups.
The starting 8 are as good as any teams in both leagues. The bench is the only real question mark, and that is simply because it is a little lefty heavy. But there is a lot of experience there except for McKinstry. But they believe in him and love his versatility.
None of the non-roster guys made the team except for Nelson. And frankly, I did not think any of them would. Neuse and DJ Peters will benefit from starting almost every day as will Ruiz. He is not on the roster mainly because he had such a short spring. Not that it hurt him any. He hit like he had been playing for months.
They have enough talent to stock a couple of teams, and there are guys who would probably be high on other teams depth charts. I was impressed by a couple of the kids, Outman was outstanding defensively. Neuse showed none of the power that was advertised, but he showed versatility.
Busch and Hoese did not get a lot of reps to show what they have, but both showed some serious tools. Guys like Davidson, Ravel, had no shot really to crack the roster. Had Davidson kept hitting like he did the first week or so, he might have stuck because his power is impressive.
Jackson and Robertson have impressive stuff. One bad inning skewed Robertson’s spring stats. But he has some serious movement on his pitches. They can send Cleavenger back to where he came from as far as I am concerned. 16 baserunners in 7.2 innings.
7 of their pitchers had ERA’s over 10 for the spring, including Kershaw. Bauer led the team in HR’s given up with 6. Hard to judge guys who only pitched a couple of innings.
If they happen to lose tonight, they will finish at .500 for the spring with 5 ties. They are 18th in hitting with a .248 average. They have hit 31 HR’s in 28 games. Kansas City leads with 48. The Giants have 38.
But come Thursday, none of that matters and the games finally mean something. Should be an interesting year. I am a terrible armchair GM. I have no clue which way AF will be leaning at the deadline. I do know that if there is an area that needs to be addressed, he will do it. ‘
So lets all enjoy what should be one hell of a ride. Go Dodgers !!!
Press Release
DODGERS SINGLE-GAME TICKETS FOR MONTH OF APRIL TO GO ON SALE FRIDAY
LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Dodgers today announced that single-game tickets for the month of April (excluding Opening Day) will go on sale this Friday, April 2 at 10:00 a.m. PT at Dodgers.com/Tickets.
Fans are encouraged to visit the Dodgers’ Fan Safety Portal at Dodgers.com/FanSafety to learn more about the club’s policies and procedures for the start of the 2021 season.
If Corey Seager is the 3rd Best SS in the NL West, the other guys must know how to fly!
It’s the stupid defense argument.
I’ll take Seager’s bat over anybody’s defense.
Homers. I expect nothing less.
Take note: it’s about Wins.
Story: 5 years, 21.1
Seager: 6 years, 17.8
Tatis: better than both of them and he’s only 22
You’re welcome.
Have you proven something here? If so, I missed it.
How are they ranked in oWAR?
You might want to look that up Eric. I did of course. Tatis, Story, Seager.
Look, we are negotiating with the Devil Agent here. You guys are gonna have to do better than this.
If agents base their clients salary based on war stats that’s fine with me. Because war is a flawed stat in my opinion. A good GM could get better production at a smaller price.
That’s not an accurate response.
I call FAKE NEWS.
Seager missed more than a year with injuries and Seager does not play in Denver.
If he played in Denver, he might have 30% more WAR.
Seager still beat Story on OPS+, notwithstanding his injury.
Improve your argument, because you lost that one!
Not true. That’s an excuse, not a fact. Alternative fact? Yeah, you can say that.
You have to be on the field to qualify for “the best”. Story has been consistent for 5 years. Tatis is, well, Tatis.
I don’t follow any of the WAR stats that’s why I asked.
It’s a valid question Eric.
Look, I’m a Seager fan. I hope he has a great year. It’s a contract year so I expect he will. But just because he’s a Dodger does not make him something he’s not. The NL West has the Top SS in the game and 3 of the Top 6. I’d take any of them going forward but I expect the Dodgers to make a strong effort to keep Seager. The Yankees will make sure they pay up.
BANG!
But his defense is very underrated!
Pretty sure Tatis knows how to fly.
But he’s the only one.
This year I’m taking Seager over Story all day long! When he’s healthy he’s an MVP candidate. No way for Story. Homer that! Thank you
Hey, I’m negotiating with Bora$$, not Dodger fans.
That said, Corey Seager ranks 6th in Top 25 SS Fantasy rankings, behind Tatis, Turner, Story Lindor, and Bogearts.
How many have been a World Series MVP?
ZERO!
Nice try Homer.
Wins. It’s always about Wins.
He’s talking fantasy. Nevermind.
I’m taking Wins Above Replacement. And yes, Fantasy Rankings consider Wins because OF COURSE THEY DO!
Well so much for Mookie’s power outage!
Smith bomb.
Lindor had a bad year in 2020.
Was that an aberration or not?
I don’t know.
Story is a great SS on a very bad team.
Seager was the MVP of the team that won the World Championship.
Post all the stats you want.
I call “Scoreboard!”
Scoreboard? I thought we were talking contracts?
Baseball IS stats Mark. I would say baseball is more about stats than any major sport. Baseball players are paid for stats. I know you know that, you’re just throwing haymakers here trying to win a debate and doing so by yelling louder. I have yet to hear an argument that supports Seager being worth more money than the other 2 guys who, by the numbers, are clearly better shortstops. Bora$$ would mop the floor with you.
Tatis is a monster but Story barely has a better career OPS than Seager and Story plays in thin air. There’s no way I would rate Story higher than Seager.
BRUINS!!!
Well, this has been fun. My ranking … Tatis, Seager, Story.
Unfortunately Gonzaga is waiting for them!
True. But who had them beating Michigan?
Morning. Well they finished with a bang. And it never fails, as soon as I pump some guy up he has a stinker. I guess I jinxed poor Jackson. I was not watching by then, I had switched to watching the UCLA game. Exciting ending. What people forgot to mention was Michigan missed their last 10 shots from the field. But Gonzaga is a whole different animal. There is a video on Yahoo this morning showing the Dodgers top 3 HR’s according to stat cast since 2015. Joc Pederson has two of the three, and he hit them both on the same day in separate games of a double header in Colorado in 2015. The third longest was Pederson’s blast of 472 feet. Number 2 was Edwin Rios shot in San Diego that went 473 feet. The same day he hit the third longest shot, Pederson hit a ball into the left center field bleachers at Coors that was measured at 477 feet. I admit, statcast is fun to watch. The launch angle and exit velocity’s on all of those HR’s was impressive. Rios looked like he barely swung and that ball was crushed. Trevor Story hits 54 points lower on the road. ,304 to .250. He has 172 extra base hits at Coors and 120 on the road. He has played 304 games at Coors and 299 on the road. He murders left handed pitching at a .310 clip, and is respectable against RHP with a .266. He has 40 more HR’s vs RHP than left. Which makes sense since he see’s them more often. He is very good against the other 3 teams in the division, but is only a .239 hitter against the Dodgers. He is also very good in interleague games. Seager’s split’s are much more even. He is .300 at home and .291 on the road. He also hits RHP at a .307 clip and is very respectable against lefty’s at .272. He is much more consistent than Story. But he does not quite match his power. Both are very good in the second half, but Seager is close to a .300 hitter after the break. Only in the power department does Story beat Seager in offense. He is a better fielder. But I think away from Coors he is not the same player offensively. Same as Arenado. Tatis is poised to be one of the best. One thing to know about the Padres is that they have one LH hitter on their bench, and he is a rookie. They are going with Darvish, Snell, Paddock, Musgrove and Morejon. Lamet is still rehabbing in AZ> . They are starting their season without Nola. And Tatis Jr. is nursing a sore shoulder while still playing. It is time for the games to begin. SD starts against The Mad Bum. Oh yeah, on the road each team will have a 5 man taxi squad.
I forgot to mention how impressive Mitch White was last night. If that kid is healthy, look out. Another great option over the course of the year.
I don’t know why May didn’t really throw his four seamer much last night. It looked great in his last start, and really adds a vertical plane to the zone. I think I saw him use it a couple of times to get a low strike, but I really wish he’d use it more high in the zone. It’s a great way to mix it up between the arm side run and sinking action of his hard sinker, which he throws a lot and can get predictable.
I think maybe it was by design? It seemed he was working on expanding the zone horizontally with the two seamer rather than vertically with the four seamer, and he looked good using that natural movement of the sinker to get strikes on the inside part and the outside part of the plate. Not a lot of stuff left out in the middle, which was good. I think his curve got better as the game went on. It was a little high in the zone at first and didn’t have a sharp break, but a few times he broke a few off that started in the zone and dove out of the zone to get the batter to chase. Pujols looked bad on a couple of those.
To really take his game to another level, May needs to master and incorporate that high four seamer, but he looked pretty good last night.
Are we having another chest beating ego contest over Seager again? Why? Seager’s awesome, he’s now just reaching his peak offensively – and I think his swing evolution with the backspin he’s able to get now just looks awesome, and a lot of the doubles he used to get at a prolific rate will now be homers. He’s just starting to click, and It’s hard to believe he’s still only 26. The Dodgers aren’t getting Lindor. I don’t know why we still are having this discussion.
Tatis is awesome and is maybe the next superstar. Lindor is perhaps the best defensive shortstop in the game outside of Andrelton Simmons, and he had an outstanding offensive year in 18, but I would take an offensively peaking Seager. Story is an outstanding defensive shortstop with good offensive numbers that are inflated by Coors. No one mentioned Carlos Correa, either. Trea Turner? Tim Anderson? The most highly touted prospect and perhaps the next superstar is Wander Franco. There are a lot of great shortstops out there, Seager has the highest career wRC+ of all of them in spite of his injuries, is finally healthy and is only getting better. Seager is elite, is homegrown talent, and one of the faces of the Dodgers. His defense is not elite, but it’s serviceable.
…and WAR is a cumulative stat, not a rate stat. Lindor is the beneficiary of having nearly 1000 more plate appearances.
“ I don’t know why we still are having this discussion.”
Because that’s what this place is for.
Because Seager is a free agent after this year, as are a few other top shortstops. Because Boras is his agent, because he’s a third baseman playing shortstop, because even though “defense is a stupid argument”, some people, including all pitchers, still value defense (Seager is ranked around 21st by fangraphs). Because he may just want to play in New York. Because… why not? It’s not political, so why shouldn’t we discuss it?
Uh…ok.
Just be aware that in the course of your Quixotic obsession over dWAR you tend to condescend to those with whom you disagree … but knock yourself out.
Seager’s elite. There’s no controversy in saying he’s a top three shortstop. He’ll be really expensive, as will the other FA shortstops. The Dodgers will want to keep him rather than shop around. It’ll be in the Dodgers best interest to keep him rather than shop around. Lindor is a great player. I don’t know why there is this imperative to get him versus Seager. Both elite with slightly different skill sets.
My apologies. I’ll try to drop the lawyer attitude.
As a former college shortstop and coach, I was adamant about defense. No standing around watching like I see so many Major League players do. Work as hard on being perfect with a glove as you do with a bat. I do realize the game has changed, with fewer ground balls every year, but dWAR, evolving as does, is still a thing. All pitchers love the incredible defensive play and there some guys who are better at it than others. Seager just isn’t one of them. Lindor is. Story is. Tatis is. We are lucky to have him but he may in fact be leaving. Does Story fit here? Is a Lux Busch combo in our future. Is Lindor worth $350 million?
I find these things fun to talk about
Naw, sparring and arguing over baseball is all good. Sometimes when we start getting cocky and want to be right (myself included) we don’t always recognize how our tone comes across (myself included).
You’re right. Seager is not a great defensive shortstop. Defense is something that contributes to a player’s overall value as measured by WAR. Shortstop is probably the most important defensive position.
Is this enough of a reason to not sign him next year? He’ll command a lot of money. If they pay him it’ll make it hard for the Dodgers to get under the cap if they wanted to reset the penalty. He also has an injury history, and as a bigger guy, my hunch is he’s more likely to break down.
If his offense plays like it did last year, pay him. If he plays like he did in 19? …. tougher call. If you remember, there were a few folks here who were talking about trading him after his terrible playoffs. … He didn’t play Dodgers ball. He was too aggressive at the plate and that was exploited in the playoffs.
I think the fact that he’s healthy and he’s refined his swing a little to get more backspin bodes well.
If I had to choose between exceptional defense and exceptional offense, I think I’d go offense.
You can’t take the Badger out of the Badger, plus he can’t stand Timmons, plus he is a cranky old contrarian. Besides that…
It’s just a debate Ouch, why do these discussions bother you so? What is it about difference of opinion that frightens you?
It’s your condescending way that bugs people
It’s meant in jest. In this instance I’m taking on an agent’s perspective. They’re lawyers. A certain amount of arrogance just comes with the role.
I’ll give the Seager argument a hint: wRC+
It’s not the discussions, it’s you and how you “discuss” things. You are a disgusting discusser.
You act like a person who is truly unhappy and thus want to spread your unhappiness to all that you come in contact with. I have always observed that with you, it’s nothing new.
Yeah…it’s better than it was, though – especially compared to Scott’s site. It got bad.
BTW, I assume that Penguins guy either went into self exile or was banished for being too argumentative again. Pity. He’s actually got good baseball takes and understands the game. I always liked reading his posts. He’s from Huntington Beach and drives a Stang. If you’re from Orange County, you understand the type: a little bit of a d-bag edge. Think the West Coast version of Jersey Shore with a little bit of surfer dude mixed in. Once you understand that little subculture, he doesn’t offend as much. I didn’t mind him and hope he comes back.
I grew up in West Orange County, after I got out of the service I came back to a career here, then left in ‘74. Went North for college and new career pursuits. Now I’m back. I’m not the same guy of course, and this place IS NOT the same place it was 50 years ago. But what place is?
Scott’s place got crazy for a very specific reason. No need to bring it back to life. Most of us have moved on. I like this place for its baseball talk. Not everyone is able to debate without getting edgy, I find most here get it. Older guys are often contrary. We’ve seen it all, or most of it anyway, and have earned the right to move about freely in Curmudgeonville.
So I’ll ask Truth, and others, if you could pick any of the free agent shortstops for next year, all will likely cost similar numbers, who would you pick? I think I still would choose Lindor, but I think maybe this could be the year Seager changes my mind on that. I still value defense up the middle and Seager is down the list in that department. But his stick, and the fact he’s already here, could move me off Lindor. And for the record, I am a Tatis fan. Love watching that kid play baseball.
Correct me if I’m wrong but among the free agent short stops Story and Seager have the best career OPS.
Story plays in thin air. Seager is homegrown and I value homegrown players if they are good so my answer is Seager.
If you want to normalize for park effects, I’d evolve away from solely relying on OPS. The offensive stat I like the most – the offensive stat to rule them all, IMO – is wRC+. It takes takes into consideration the influence of the ballpark and weights variables against the league average year to year.
https://library.fangraphs.com/offense/ops/
Story has a better career OPS than Seager, but Seager has a better wRC+ than Story at 130 vs. 114.
Thank you for the link. I use Baseball-Reference and it doesn’t have that stat but it does have OPS+.
Seager career OPS+ 129
Story career OPS+ 114
It seems like OPS+ and wRC+ are similar.
I’ll definitely use it when comparing Colorado Rockies players vs other team players.
OPS+ and wRC+ correlate very closely with each other. You can really use either one. I like wRC+ because I think it adds more individual data elements and is slightly more accurate (if a made up stat can be accurate) – and I’m just accustomed to using Fangraphs all the time to look stuff up.
https://www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article/45445/comparing-drc-ops-and-wrc/#:~:text=Baseball%2DReference's%20OPS%2B%20is%20park,end%20result%20is%20almost%20identical.
My family lived in Tustin/Orange, first off of Crawford Canyon and then Skyline near the base of Red Hill, which still has abandoned caverns from it’s mercury mining days. We used to skulk around up there and occasionally get chased off by the old man who used to live on the base of it on the La Colina side.
I now live on what used to be orange groves next to old Irvine Blvd. We used to sneak around in there and have orange fights. Up until last year I lived in Great Park, which is on the old El Toro air station. If you know which gravel road to trespass on, you can still access the abandoned control tower and some of the hangers. You can still see handmade name tags and the outlines for the hearing protection the ground crew used next to the runway. There are also some fruit orchards in there, which is sort of weird because they’re old enough to have been planted when the air station was still in operation.
I often get coffee at a place in a strip mall that used to be a horse ranch my older sister boarded her horse. I often ride up Meads to Orange Park Acres just because it reminds me of the way OC used to be.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/9iHNSZH3kRfXV3B96
https://photos.app.goo.gl/uUpirFN8PrbVX2dc6
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ij8Xo3r2sHpxC4hW7
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Zef6ufNEDcd4AYxz6
https://photos.app.goo.gl/iadcd3N6gCMdeDG8A
We aren’t far from each other patch. I live in Forest Lake now. Arenado country. I went to Western, after Messersmith, before Tiger, and with Dr Randy Schekman.
wRC+ and OPS+ are what I believe to be the most weighted offensive stats. dWAR admittedly is evolving if a guy puts up positive numbers in that category he WILL get paid. The conversation regarding these shortstops began with a comment about who the best shortstop is, and how these guys will be compensated. Trevor Story and Francisco Lindor are both impressive offensive players, but what separates them is their ability to add to their WAR numbers defensively. In 6 seasons Lindor has put up 8.7 dWAR, in 5 Story has put up 9 dWAR. Seager is nowhere near that good, putting up 2 dWAR in 6 years. Now there will be those who choose not to believe in Wins Above Replcament but none of those people are sitting at Baseball Operations desks around Major League Baseball. Those people pay very close attention to Wins.
I too believe the Mets will pay Lindor. It will be somewhere in the neighborhood of the Betts contract. Seager will likely get close to that too, but I won’t be a bit surprised if it isn’t here. Tatis got paid already and until he’s 29 he will be most cost effective player in the league.
Watching Miriam Nessler (Bette Midler) on Coastal Elites. Funny.
Bulldogs and Penguins was not banished. He is free to post here. He doesn’t bother me at all and I appreciate most of his takes. I just had a few people complain and so I told everyone to tone it down and he has not been back.
It’s his choice.
I was banished under a different name.
I’m here, but Mark and AC keep threatening me for being right and having wrong think. If they are trying to set up an echo chamber, they’re doing a good job. It seems that a lot of guys that brought up good points have disappeared.
Meh….we all have egos and occasionally get butthurt. I do and I have.
I’d let it go and just post.
Fire away BP!
You can disagree all you want, but you don’t have to be disagreeable.
That just creates problems.
However, I did not direct that e-mail to you, because was not directed to JUST you.
I knew all bout your name change and it was fine.
I’m not sure what e-mail you’re referring to, maybe it was filtered as junk. I was threatened with a ban in the opening paragraph of one of your posts, so I stopped posting. The first time you banned me, I didn’t know I was banned because I stopped posting under similar circumstances.
I really didn’t try to hide the name change since the email account is almost identical. It just comes down to this. I dislike being threatened more than I like to participate.
To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize – Voltaire.
I like the Souza move. It’s a long play, like for mid-or-postseason.
Yeah, I just looked up his stats. Another classic AF / under-the-radar smart move.
https://www.fangraphs.com/players/steven-souza-jr/5667/stats?position=OF
I’m hoping Peters figures it out by mid season. It’s time.
I like Peters but he just swings through so many center cut fastballs. If he hasn’t figured it out by now I don’t have much hope for him.
Peters was everyone’s shiny new toy for a while. He’s always had a strikeout problem. I tend to agree with you. Local kid, though … from Glendora.
As a fan, I like Seager. He’s home grown and was fantastic in the postseason last year. He has been injury prone which makes him a little bit of a risk compared to other free agent SS next season. And as some have observed, at his size he will likely move to 3B at some point in the next few seasons, which potentially reduces his value compared to some free agent SS on the market.
I haven’t seen as much of the other guys so it’s hard to rank them given the eyeball test. As for Trevor Story, it’s always hard to know how much of his mile high performance will translate to sea level. As for Lindor, I assume that the Mets will end up extending him at some point – they wouldn’t have traded for him otherwise. We leave out Javier Baez when we talk elite free agent SS.
Badger makes an important point. SS is arguably the most important defensive position on the field. According to Baseball Reference.com, in 2020 Javier Baez and Trevor Story were 1 & 2 in range factor at SS – Seager was 9th (among starters at SS) and Lindor was 11th. In defensive runs saved above average, Baez is 4th, Story is 5th, Lindor is 7th. Seager is 15th and he has a negative number. Seager is tied for 5th in most errors at SS – Story has most errors, Baez is tied with Seager and Lindor only made 1 error all season!
Going back to 2019, Story was 2nd in range factor, Baez is 5th, Lindor was 22nd and Seager was 25th. In DRS, Baez is 1st, Story is 3rd, Lindor is 6th and Seager again has a negative number.
I think we have to concede Badger’s point that Seager is not as good a defender as the other free agents to be. But maybe Lindor isn’t as good as he is reputed to be either and maybe Story and Baez are the more elite defenders.
How much extra is it worth to keep Seager because he’s home grown and an important part of the Dodgers’ success?
Here’s an interesting take – The Athletic had the Harris polling people poll baseball fans and almost everyone disliked the impact of analytics on the game:
“Nearly nine in 10 very avid fans and four-fifths of all fans agreed that analytics, which is the use of data to make decisions, is taking over baseball games too much and dictating how players compete, according to a new Harris Poll conducted exclusively on behalf of The Athletic. In fact, the poll found only 19 percent of fans disagreed with the negative sentiment to analytics.”
Great takes Rick.
I’m not one who believes data is taking over too much. I still don’t agree with that 3 outcome nonsense. Put the ball in play dammit. The rest of it is just stats. Stats don’t trouble me.
I like Seager because he has the very real potential to hit 45+ homers this year and OPS 1.000. I think he’s a strong MVP candidate. Obviously if he doesn’t rake offensively than he can’t rank with some of these other SS’s because of his defense. But this is probably the greatest group of young SS’s in the history of the game.
B & D,
Just to clarify, some commenters complained to AC and me about a few people (not just you), by e-mail.
The post was not just directed to you… even if you felt it was. There were a couple of things that were more egregious than what you did. I was just trying to nip it in the bud!
That’s all! I always have liked most of your stuff… even with what I disagree with.
So, here goes on my two cents on Corey Seager:
1. Before he was even in the major leagues, many fans were “moving him to 3B” in their minds, and to justify their original position, they keep doing it.
2. Defensive metrics are highly subjective, so I look at them but do not worship them.
3. Of all the Top SS’s mentioned: Story, Seager, Baez, and Lindor, only Seager has won a Would Series (as a SS) and only one was the World Series MVP – Corey Seager
Career BA:
1. Seager – .295
2. Lindor – .285
3. Story – .277
4. Baez – .264
Career OB%
1. Seager – .362
2. Lindor – .346
3. Story – .343
4. Baez – .304 (Ouch)
Career OPS
1. Story – .877
2. Seager – .863
3. Lindor – .833
4. Baez – .777
Story is helped greatly by Coors. Watch and see what happens to Nolan Arenado this year. He hit .239 in ST.
Baez is a joke to even be in the running as a Top SS.
Last year Seager “broke out” and I think he will keep it up. After this season, he may be cemented as the best SS in baseball. He ain’t moving to 3B for about 6 or 7 years… and then it might be 1B!
Here’s how MLB ranks them right about now:
1. Trevor Story, COL (Last year: 1)
2. Fernando Tatis Jr., SD (6)
3. Xander Bogaerts, BOS (5)
4. Francisco Lindor, NYM (2)
5. Trea Turner, WSH (Not ranked)
6. Corey Seager, LAD (NR)
7. Carlos Correa, HOU (9)
8. Bo Bichette, TOR (NR)
9. Javier Báez, CHC (3)
10.Tim Anderson, CWS (NR)
I like “home-grown” because according to some I am a “Homer.”
Who cares who is the best SS? The right question should be: Who would you like to have on your team?
A. Seager
B. Tatis
C. Story
That’s all, no matter so much statistics, in the world series is when the true best SS is recognized!
MLB releases the list of the 20 most popular player jerseys, topped by Mookie Betts
Dodgers has 4 (5 counting Kike) in the top 20
01. Betts
02. Bellinger
03. Tatis
04. Harper
05. Kershaw
06. Judge
07. Acuña
08. Lindor
09. Kike
10. Trout
11. Arenado
12. Baez
13. Seager
14. Cole
15, Molina
16. Yelich
17. Freeman
“Who cares who is the best SS?“
I do. Love that position. Played it for 40 years. Strong up the middle used to be THE thing but it’s been replaced by launch angle. Fewer ground balls, though pitchers are trying to change that with downward spin rates. Exit velocity has always been a thing. “7 out 10 line drives are base hits.” Tommy Davis told me that at a hitting clinic in ‘62. Though we didn’t have a way of measuring it, hitting the ball hard was the goal. And in every league I played in (except slow pitch) 90% of everyone on the field were single or gap hitters. Just about every team and one cyclopean force but most of them were blind squirrels. Everybody else was aiming for a base hit. Now? These guys are enormous and spent every off season getting stronger. Betts, my size, is the outlier.
I still believe defense can help win ball games. It’s easy to think that when you watch games lost by bungling defenses. My philosophy in coaching defense was to take the outs they give you and steal at least 3 over the course of the game. Do that and two things will happen – 1. you get one more inning than they do and 2. they will likely give you enough runs to win. I do not believe defensive metrics are “highly subjective”. Though it is true you know it when you see it, they have established ways of measuring it now.
You’d have to say that Bett’s defense won us a WS last year. But no matter how hard you hit it with the shift today, especially if you’re a leftie, if you hit it on the ground you’re out 90% of the time. Therefore launch angles
I saw it reported that Roberts disclosed 4 of the 5 members of the initial road trip taxi squad.
Keibert Ruiz – C
Garrett Cleavinger – LHRP
Dennis Santana – RHRP
DJ Peters – OF
5th player is to be determined.
For discussion, who would you take as the 5th player?
I’ll choose Sheldon Neuse as he would be roughly an IF replacement.
Probably agree with you