Obviously it is, but one of the outs was a 400-foot blast against the wind that was the first ball I've ever seen caught in the triangle for a right fielder.
Not only is Lin a nice player to have on the bench, but I’m coming around on him being a legitimate potential successor to Bogaerts in a way I did not expect.
Wait a tick, a week ago before his injury X was an irreplaceable MVP-candidate and now with one week of BABIP-fueled hitting we can afford to replace him with someone projected majorly to be a glove-only utility guy?
Lin showed very little power in the minors, although he did pick it up last year. Still, replacing Bogaerts:
After 80 AB across two seasons, the only thing we can be sure of with Lin is that he has a pulse.
Holt should have been traded prior to the season. He is not worth his salary for a below average utility player. Once Pedey comes back, the 2B/SS/3B bench should be Nunez and Lin. Blake and JDM can back up the OF. DD should be to find a taker for Holt in the NL where he would potentially be more useful. Lin has a good eye and plays solid D.
In the hypothetical Lin is competent with the bat, I think the player he replaces plays 2b anyway. Lin can easily get 400-450 AB the next few years playing 2b, 3b, SS and all 3 OF positions until that time comes.
If they found no suitable takers for Holt three weeks ago when they were shopping him and Marrero at the end of spring training, why would there suddenly be a buyer now? Because of how Holt is tearing the cover off the ball so far? If Holt is playing well enough for Dombrowski to find a suitor, I'd argue he's playing well enough to stick around here a bit longer.
Not unless you mean all prospects are equally worthless, which I don't believe. The very best prospects have a combination of high performance in the minor leagues and scouting assessed tools that help project that performance to the major leagues. Lin has neither of those as a batter, except for a short period in AA which was quickly followed by poor performance the same year in AAA in a roughly equivalent sample size. So stating that a very small amount of information about a player who does not project to be a good hitter based on large amounts of information (from scouts and perfromance data) shows that he is a capable major league hitter is foolish to me.
Unless Lin turns into at least career average Stephen Drew, I can’t see a team like the Red Sox having him as starting shortstop (If Xander were to leave). No Freddy Galvis’s for this team. Actually, Galvis is having a career year so far. They’ll find a way to keep X.
Agreed that they would have been best served by moving Holt prior to the season but DD didn't get that done. Teams needs are fluid based on injury and player performance and hopefully will provide them with an opportunity to move Holt.
And he had a huge jump in ISO in AA, then a huge drop in AAA and the majors, where he was back to being way, way below average in that category. Maybe the launch angle change has helped him, but there isn't all that much evidence except a few good swings in 14 PA this year to say so. I hope every prospect works out, and I'm not saying he can't possibly hit, there is of course a chance that he will. But I don't see any significant evidence yet that he can, and talking about not resigning Bogaerts because Lin looked good in 14 PA so far this year is nuts.
It's Dombrowski's fault that no one wanted Holt? He was dangling Holt and Marrero and got a better offer for Marrero (and that was only cash). Should tell you all you need to know about Holt's trade value.
Do you have a source for this? I, for one, have no idea whether anyone was interested in Holt nor what they were (or are) willing to pay. Just because Marrero was traded for a bag of balls doesn't mean the market was even weaker for Holt.
I'm actually closer to your views on this than my last post maybe makes me look. Lin was *real bad* in AAA in 2017 after his MLB stint, and any projection of him going forward needs to account for that somehow.
Can't find the source right now, but at least one of the Sox beat writers had the story about Dombrowski offering Holt around and finding no takers.
I remember it, too, but if I'm remembering it correctly it didn't have much context or detail. There's a difference between DD offering Holt around and asking for a live arm, B-level prospect versus asking for a bag of balls (a la Marrero) or offering to send a million dollars with him. Without that type of information, we don't know what his trade value is. Of course it's not great - he's a 29yo utility player coming off a .548 OPS who hasn't proven his concussion issues are fully behind him. And then there's the question of what would be an acceptable offer (in my, your, or DD's eyes).
Given that Dombrowski accepted the proverbial bag of balls for Marrero, I think we can safely infer that he wasn't asking for the moon in exchange for Holt. Given the uncertainties around Holt it is likely that teams were unwilling to take on much of his salary at all.
Do you think Lin will be as good as the #3 guy on that list who had 29 plate apperances compared to Lin's 28? That would be Ryan Flaherty, who put up a .539 OPS last year with a 51 WRC+, and has a career -31.5 OWAR over parts of 7 seasons. That stat doesn't seem to be very good in a sample that size, from looking at that chart.
