Yankees acquire Didi Gregorius

jon abbey

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SF evidently planned to use one coming out of spring training last year, but that seems to have fallen by the wayside almost immediately when Brandon Crawford (who was going to be benched against LHP) had an OPS of .879 against LHP (178 PAs) and a .637 OPS against RHP. 
 

Hoplite

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Wingack said:
 
 
Wingack said:
 
Kind of reminds me of Will Middlebrooks. He also had a reputation as a plus defender in the minors and has an even better career line drive rate of 21.8%. But the defensive results at the major league level were underwhelming and his lack of plate discipline never allowed him to take advantage of his line drive rates.
 
EDIT: Don't want to double post, but did want to add that the Astros and Tigers had shortstop platoons last year.
 

Sampo Gida

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EvilEmpire said:
I like this better than Drew. Or starting Ryan. Not exciting, but it'll do for now. He certainly isn't the kind of signing that will keep the Yankees from trading for something better if a deal is out there.
 
Didi seems a younger and cheaper Drew who cost them a young cost controlled SP'er. 
 

jon abbey

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Gregorius is cost-controlled for 5 years, Greene would have been cost-controlled for six. 
 

Sampo Gida

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jon abbey said:
Gregorius is cost-controlled for 5 years, Greene would have been cost-controlled for six. 
 
Also a Super 2 who gets arbitration 1 year earlier.   Its not a bad move if Cashman plans to bolster the rotation with a couple of FA SP'ers. but they could have signed Drew for perhaps 5 million guaranteed + incentives on a  1 yr deal and kept Greene
 

EvilEmpire

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SS is a greater position of need for the Yankees. I like Greene and hopes he does well. Hate to lose him, but I think it was a fair trade for all sides. Nothing to dislike from my perspective.
 

LuckyBen

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foulkehampshire said:
Apparently Didi's a huge fan of the last Yankee's SS. Drew this picture of him.
 
Dude. Need to go to art school because that is awful.
 

Hoplite

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Wingack said:
 
Andruw Jones is the outlier I guess?
 
I am fascinated by the Dutch Carribean. They have a tiny population but their TV ratings for watching baseball are higher than any other region in the world. Andruw Jones is by far the best player to come out of the islands. Otherwise, they have a lot of highly regarded players to flamed out. But it's not large enough a sample size to draw any reasonable conclusions from.
 

ThePrideofShiner

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Hurt his wrist diving for a ball today. Girardi pulled him in the fifth, said it hurt Gregorius to check swings, but not to do full swings.
 

jon abbey

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This deal is looking like one of Cashman's best recent moves at this point, Didi seems to get better every week, 14-32 on the just-finished road trip with consistently solid and sometimes spectacular D, and Shane Greene has been the worst pitcher in baseball since mid-April (9.50 ERA and 1.046 OPS allowed in 59.2 innings since 4/24). 
 

terrynever

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jon abbey said:
This deal is looking like one of Cashman's best recent moves at this point, Didi seems to get better every week, 14-32 on the just-finished road trip with consistently solid and sometimes spectacular D, and Shane Greene has been the worst pitcher in baseball since mid-April (9.50 ERA and 1.046 OPS allowed in 59.2 innings since 4/24).
Shane Who?

Didi has shortened his stroke and become a better hitter. Jeff Pentland keeps a low profile but I suspect he had a hand in this.
 

jon abbey

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He's looking so good in recent weeks that Cashman even relented on Mateo being untouchable, although he didn't end up actually being dealt. 
 

terrynever

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jon abbey said:
He's looking so good in recent weeks that Cashman even relented on Mateo being untouchable, although he didn't end up actually being dealt.
Saw that. Didi, 25, may end up blocking Mateo. But let's see how Didi finishes the season. He has certainly fit in very well with this team.

Slightly unrelated but the bottom of the lineup is hitting so well, Refsnyder is not needed until September call ups. I am pleased with the Ryan-Drew platoon. Veterans in a pennant race. Both good fielders. Refsnyder would have scared us to death.
 

jon abbey

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David Cone, who is usually not prone to statements that can't be backed up statistically, has been saying this week that Didi is the hardest throwing SS on average currently in MLB, comparing his arm more than once to Shawon Dunston (!). Does anyone know if that is a stat publicly available somewhere, average throwing velocity to 1B for SSs? I don't see it on Fangraphs, thanks. 
 

kieckeredinthehead

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jon abbey said:
David Cone, who is usually not prone to statements that can't be backed up statistically, has been saying this week that Didi is the hardest throwing SS on average currently in MLB, comparing his arm more than once to Shawon Dunston (!). Does anyone know if that is a stat publicly available somewhere, average throwing velocity to 1B for SSs? I don't see it on Fangraphs, thanks. 
Statcast has this (anybody know where/when that data will be available?). Here's a video from July, Didi is fifth: http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/73955164/v274574383/mlb-now-looks-at-arm-strength-leaders-at-shortstop
 

jon abbey

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Thanks, man, interesting. I saw what I'm pretty sure was a more recent graphic somewhere that said he was tops in the AL, which is possible as he's gained confidence as the season has progressed, but doubtful that he has caught Crawford and Desmond for tops in MLB. 
 

kieckeredinthehead

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jon abbey said:
Thanks, man, interesting. I saw what I'm pretty sure was a more recent graphic somewhere that said he was tops in the AL, which is possible as he's gained confidence as the season has progressed, but doubtful that he has caught Crawford and Desmond for tops in MLB. 
I'm really dying for this data to be released publicly. Average throw speed seems like a dumb way to do it - it would be more interesting to know max speed, or maybe mean of top quartile or whatever.
 

jon abbey

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