Are you talking about Rafael Devers? I'm not sure how to interpret / project minor league stats, but he had an OPS of .689 in Salem last year and judging from soxprospects.com, his fielding isn't great ("limited range"). They project him to be ready for the majors in 2018. At that point there will be 2 years left on Pablo's contract. Maybe at that point he'll have competition. God help us if we actually need Devers in 2017 - it looks like he has some developing to do in the minors first.
Not to undo your basic argument, but in Salem, Devers put up an OPS of .778 in 128 games. It was in Escondigo that he had an OPS of .689 in 13 games.
Nor should he. The argument was only that Devers is an emergency option, fourth or fifth on the 3b depth chart, behind Panda, Holt, Rutledge, and Hernandez, in some order.
To start the year, there is no chance. I think it's far more likely Rutledge gets more playing time than Devers this year, but that it's far more likely Devers would get 20+ starts at 3b than Rutledge. I'd guess they wouldn't cut bait with Pablo until June. If Devers is tearing it up in AA, you call him up or buy a few more weeks with Holt/Rutledge. If not, you make a trade for a 3b. I can't see Holt or Rutledge filling in for much more than a few weeks, at least if we are still in the playoff hunt.
I'm a Panda skeptic but this is overkill. Sizemore hadn't played a game in 2 years and was 5 years removed from being even replacement level in the majors. Sandoval was a 3 win player for the Giants as recently as 2014 and, based on the nature of the injuries, has much better prospects for at least some level of bounceback. Depth charts and Steamer both like him for a league average bat and about 1 win over 500 PA, which obviously isn't good, but wouldn't kill you.
Without Ben10 and Devers, they have a top 50-60 prospect and 2 guys in the 80-150 range. That's a bottom 10 if not bottom 5 system. If somehow Sam Travis were to graduate too, it would make it that much worse (there's a 25% chance one of Travis/Devers graduates imo, the chance of both is under 5% and that's being too generous). Not that it matters greatly given all the young, cost controlled talent on the MLB roster. The success or lack thereof of Dalbec and Groome will have a huge impact on the farm systems health and future rankings going forward.
So what's happening here is that cryotherapy is really just a metabolic boost to jump-start fat-burning? Not knocking it, just curious. Can it help him hit right-handed?
I mean, you can just stand in a cold room for that effect, which is pretty minor.
No, it wouldn't. That's how it works.
http://fullcount.weei.com/sports/boston/baseball/red-sox/2017/01/19/pablo-sandoval-inexplicably-thinking-about-playing-in-world-baseball-classic/
Pedroia looks great, not sure who the other two non-roster invitees are....
Did they ship him down in the truck? That's not a good sign.
Looking at his splits, for 2015 his batted balls as a RHH went 34.5% pull, 48.3% center, 17.2% oppo. Compare that to his career numbers as a RHH in SF: 38.2, 35.2, 26.5. So "pull-happy" in this case translates to balls that would normally be going the other way ending up in center. And you can see this in the spray chart. Compare that vs. L version to the same chart from 2012-14, and you can see that with the Giants he had a noticeably greater tendency to go to RF with fly balls vs. LHP.
Oh, of course. It's not broken down by his handedness, only the pitchers' handedness. I knew I must have missed something, because it's not like Victor Rodriguez is going to be wrong about that.
Yeah, this whole "amazing transformation" narrative is definitely getting a little carried away with things imo. Especially now that we are passing the carefully-scripted-presentation-only stage.
I'd like to see someone talk about his recovery from shoulder surgery, instead of how he looks naked.
He looks more athletic than David Ortiz at least. And that's a vast improvement over any other point in his Red Sox career.
He's done everything I'd imagine he needed to do in the offseason to get ready. That alone is encouraging in light of where we were a year ago. I'm looking forward to a Hanley type resurrection this summer. It would make for a pretty neat story if it happens two years in a row.
Did he get on the Tom Brady diet? I don't even know if that's available or even public. I'll believe it when I see him get through a whole season at less than 235, which I think was his best weight/shape with the Giants. That's still a lot for a guy 5'11.
No doubt. But he's ours and there's nothing we can do about it. If we dreamed a scenario as to how he'd show up, early and in shape would be all we would have asked for. He's done that, so I'm hoping for a good season.
Expecting an obligatory Carlos Quentin bounceback article any day now... Then we get down to who shows up early for spring training, and the sportswriters favorite article bashing those who merely show up on time.
Don't forget the story killing the guy who has Visa problems. That's coming. Next executive order will probably target guys with "u" in their last name.
Maybe I'm terrible at judging weight, but he looks bigger than 235. Papi was listed at 6'3 230lbs so maybe. Papi also looked like he had far more muscle mass than Panda too though. I guess where fat weighs less, he could be 235. Still, he's clearly in better shape than last year but the pictures earlier this off season were more flattering.
He's also at least 4 inches taller. So using him as a Panda body size comp seems problematic.
Yeah, and that's a huge thing but I'm also guessing Papi was considerably bigger than 230 pounds. I'm still optimistic of a bounce back to average or at least slightly below. Just less now than I was a month or two ago. The shirtless picture of him he looks good, so hopefully it's just angles playing tricks on the eyes.
