He's 21 and in his first full season. He'll hit with time. He will probably always be a bad fielding 3b though.
I'm still bullish on his fielding. He has a good arm, and he showed very good range on that grounder today. The accuracy is the only thing that concerns me. X struggled big time his first season, but improved a ton his 2nd. I think Devers has a chance to be at least average. He is very coachable from what I have heard.
Read an article recently somewhere that said most of Devers’ fielding mistakes start with a “head” mistake or technique mistake. IOW, mistakes that can be fixed with coaching and experience. For example, most of his bad throws originate with poor footwork, causing him to have to hurry or throw off balance. HUGE upside.
Yeah, if there’s one guy in the lineup who didn’t need a more aggressive approach, it’s Devers. They ought to dial him back a little and work on driving balls away to left. Should help him especially at Fenway.
Here’s my dream lineup when Pedroia comes back. Wondering what you guys think and how you would set your lineup...
Moving JDM from 4 to 3 would be making his bat less useful, not more, and while Bogaerts would be fine in the 2 spot, putting Benintendi there gives him a bit of LOOGY protection as you really don't want a LHP facing the hitters around him.
I also hope they work on getting him to chase a bit less. His O-Swing is up near 40 now, and while getting it down to league average may be too much to hope for, just getting it down under 35 would mean he's getting into better counts more often and getting more access to pitches he can drive. He's making it a little too easy for pitchers right now.
Quick reactions, soft hands and a canon for an arm. The hand-wringing over Devers’ fielding always amuses me. He’s only 21, the same age as a kid I coached who now plays 3B in college, so I have a different perspective. Devers hits like a pro and fields like a really, really, really good 21-year-old. Reminds me of a bats-left Adrian Beltre. (Beltre made a career-high 29 errors in his sophomore season, BTW. Devers is on a pace to commit 40.) The fielding will come.
While his free swinging has been a little disappointing, the most important thing from what I see is that he has remained confident and has still been relatively productive. He is only going to get better as he learns how pitchers are attacking him.
Not even remotely true. His time in the minors was defined by low-walk rate and high power with amazing carry to all fields.
The correlation is actually pretty strong, if you quantify "patient eye" as O-Swing percentage. Here's what that looks like--this is career BB rate vs. O-Swing from 2002 on:
Pedroia in the #9 slot is worth looking at. A high OBP guy in front of Mookie's 1.100 OPS is worth 40-50 extra runs a year relative to the historically abyssmal #9 hitters rounding out the line-ups so far. Plus, fewer at bats for the aging Pedroia might actually be good for his health in the long run.
Yup, it's Bonds.
Put Dustin in the 9 hole and keep 10D batting 2nd. Breaks up the three straight righties at the beginning of the lineup.
Yeah, I'm liking this idea too.
He may be so happy to be back playing again this might be the best time to put him down low. Sell it to him on the basis of fewer AB's and a few less trips on the basepaths to save his repaired knee. Besides it might take him a while to really get back in the groove anyway.
I think some players should be expected to be at an inflection point where their defense because of range is better than "they look" because more obvious "errors" are easier to see than plays made from good positioning and fundamentals.
I think we need a new term or phrase for, like, when the "Peter Principle" works against a young player who gets promoted early out of need.
If Cora was concerned about that, he could just present it as a choice to Pedroia, ask if he wants R or RBI, and let him choose.
Mookie's already said he wants to lead off, and it's working. Betts at 1 and JDM at 4 seem to be the only constants — if only because batting JDM in the 2 slot would expose the rest of the lineup to LHP.
Not sure what it adds (other than I was curious), but 3 of Mookie's HRs this season have been of the lead-off variety. Springer had 9 last year.
This article IS great - and I'm surprised there wasn't more reaction to it. Read it.
Something like this:
Yeah it is kind of crazy. 60 hits over the course of a 24-week season = 2.5 hits per week. It really doesn't seem like much when you look at it that way. And that's a big gap - a .300 hitter vs. a .200 hitter. How about a .300 hitter (good) vs. a .275 hitter (average)? We're talking 15 hits over the course of 600 at-bats. That's 0.6 hits per week. Or about a hit every two weeks.
If you guys don't already read everything David Laurila publishes — highly recommended. Somehow he manages to get a lot of players to open up and speak forthrightly.
