The Orioles have the No. 25 and No. 36 picks in the upcoming draft, and Baseball America’s John Manuel tells MASNsports.com’s Steve Melewski he thinks high school pitching could be big for teams who pick in that range. Mike Nikorak (from Pennsylvania), Donny Everett (Tennessee) and Ashe Russell and Nolan Watson (both from Indiana) could all be possibilities at around that point in the draft. Injured pitchers Michael Matuella (Duke) and Nathan Kirby (University of Virginia) have connections to the Mid-Atlantic region and could also be possibilities. Here’s more from the AL East.
- Blue Jays slugger Edwin Encarnacion will receive 10-and-5 rights this summer, Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca tweets. The Athletics claimed Encarnacion following the 2010 season, but he became a free agent and re-signed with the Blue Jays a month later, so he will have had five years of uninterrupted service time with Toronto. 10-and-5 rights, of course, mean that a player has at least ten years of service overall and at least five with his current team. Players with such rights can block any trade.
- Stephen Drew and Didi Gregorius have been awful this season, but the Yankees will likely stick with them for now, Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes. Drew’s agent, Scott Boras, says he does not believe his client is likely to be released, and GM Brian Cashman has said he still likes Gregorius’ potential. Still, the pair has been disastrous so far — Drew is hitting .173/.238/.345 (although he hit two homers yesterday), and Gregorius has only been a bit better, at .229/.289/.299.
All or Nothing Edwin can block a trade soon!
Not like they planned to trade him anyways. His value isn’t very high so far this year.
OBP last three years
2012: .384
2013: .370
2014: .354
Definitely not your all or nothing player. I’d love to have him at 1B.
His OBP is moderately high for sure. But all or nothing means he swings for the fences or takes a groundout/flyout/strikeout. You never see him take a 2 strike approach and try and drive the other way, and never see him do the fundamentals to try and get runs in.
All. Or. Nothing.
That is not what all or nothing means.
All or nothing is associated with hitters who consistently bat for low averages and usually strikeout, but have high power numbers (HRs, triples, and doubles). For example, Mark Reynolds and Dave Kingman are two players usually associated with all or nothing.
Edwin Encarnacion is not an example of an all or nothing hitter.
I’m sorry that I don’t agree with your own definition of an all or nothing player.
When a player *only* swings for the fences, and can’t play fundamental baseball, and even on 0-2 count tries to crush a ball, then he’s an all or nothing player. Doesn’t look out for the team, just wants to hit homeruns. No, he doesn’t strike out a TON like a guy like Adam Dunn or Chris Davis does but he does a large amount. Yes he walks a lot, but as far as his hitting goes, it’s certainly all or nothing.
Except he’s not all or nothing as you mention. He hits for power, but he also draws walks. That’s all or something or nothing.
Really the point is that he is an extremely productive hitter on an awesome contract, and you have to be pretty crazy to not want him on your team (even if he is off to a slow start).
Oh okay, you’re dragging all or nothing to different aspects of the game. My bad. I’m talking about hitting only. He does take walks, sure. So did Adam Dunn. The frustrating part about Adam Dunn and Edwin is that when it was 0-2 count, instead of shortening up, or hitting the other way as an example, they still try to crank the ball and end up grounding out or striking out. When Edwin is on and hitting tons of homeruns, its fun to watch. But when he’s scuffling, there is other stuff he can do to still be a productive bat, and he doesn’t.
In 0-2 counts last year EE had a 102 WRC+ with only 4 GIDP in 100 plate appearances.
FACTS!
Walking and striking out are all part of hitting. You can’t just exclude those aspects to suit your narrative.
You do not have to accept it but that is what it means, you would just be denying a generally accepted fact. What you describe would be more accurately described as a three outcomes hitter, meaning a BB, K or HR.
Okay SOrry I’ll rephrase.
Edwin strikes out a fair bit, and he does draw walks. But other than that he is an all or nothing player. He doesn’t hit for contact or play fundamental baseball. Doesn’t shorten up his swing in pitchers counts, and doesn’t care about moving batters over. No matter what he’s always swinging for the fences, and as a result of this All or Nothing swing, a huge majority of the time he just pulls the ball and grounds out.
The numbers don’t support that at all. Outside of this year he hasn’t struck out much compared to most power hitters/ his walk rate. “doesn’t care about moving batters over”… seriously?
Nope, he doesn’t. You see Bautista come up with runners on 1st and 2nd for example, and at first, hes trying to homer. If he gets into a 0-2 or 1-2 count, he shortens his swing, and tries to hit the ball the other way to try and move runners over. It’s fundamental baseball. Edwin’s got an all or nothing swing. Plain and simple.
He is a pull hitter, but far from an all or nothing hitter. He is probably one of the shining examples of power hitters who are not that (excluding his slow start this year). It always amazes me how people hold firm on a belief despite objective indisputable evidence otherwise.
The only thing said in response to my comment was he doesn’t strike out a ton, and walks a fair bit, which I acknowledged as true. That’s great he’s got a good eye to not strike out a lot, and walk a fair bit, but when you put everything you have into each swing, if you don’t homer, you’re going to ground out a lot, or pop out a lot which is what we’ve seen. Selfish baseball really from him.
If there’s a guy on 1st and 2nd, less than 2 outs, I’d rather he struck out than hit into a double play or something stupid like that, personally.
Yes, because it’s that easy… I’m pretty happy with him continuing to be one of the best hitters in baseball. Other than this year he doesn’t even hit for a low batting average (not that that matters very much). Chris Carter, Trumbo… those are examples of “all or nothing”
Never said it was easy. It’s worth a try now and then though.
Trumbo and Carter are all or nothing as well, just much much more extreme cases and they don’t have an eye like Edwin has.
True outcome hitter. Most notable Adam Dunn
Ha, it’s Three true outcomes hitter.
Zobrist for 2B please.
Not worth it.
There will definitely be a bidding war for Zobrist and the price will be very high.
I agree. He’s a good player, and would certainly be helpful for them, but there will be teams that could top what would make it worth it for the Yankees. If he wasn’t entering his walk year, it’d be a different story. I’d rather see them look for a marginal upgrade rather than the splashy one at this deadline.
Zobrist is hitting .240. How less of a marginal upgrade do the Yankees want to go.
The cost for him won’t be marginal, that’s what I’m getting at.
What I’m getting at is that his slow start (if that’s all it is) and the fact he will be a rental, may make him less than you expect.
Yanks have the good young players to make the deal that Beane would want. They just need to wait until the A’s are out of the mix or Beane gets antsy. Lindgren would be a good chip since he is another lefty and reminds me of a left handed Monte. Sell high! Jagielo would be another chip who is doing well in AAA, he is blocked. Add Refsnyder and you might get both Zobrist and Clippard, if not sweaten the pot with Sanchez who is also blocked.
I don’t know why people want NY to sell high on Lindgren so badly, the kid was just drafted last year and he’s already looking nasty. They don’t need a high end guy like Clippard anyhow, they just need one more reliable arm beyond DnA and Shreve(Wilson has looked better of late as well). If they can work out something manageable for Zobrist, sure go for it, but he may be tough to nab because if he’s held onto, he’s a definite qualifying offer candidate, and Beane would want something at least of that type of late 1st round level in return theoretically. I don’t see NY being the team to give Oakland that.
It is going to take a top 100 prospect probably to just get Zobrest. Refsnyder isnt that great a prospect. Sanchez has fallen off a map and would be blocked in Oakland too. Other teams could put a much better offer out there. With all the contenders out there Beane is not gonna get antsy and make a bad move.
Zobrist and Clippard put the Yanks in the drivers seat!
Stephen Drew fWAR: -0.2
Robinson Cano fWAR: -0.3
Ben Zobrist fWAR: -0.7
And how long is that gonna last? Cano and Zobrist have both put up 5 WAR seasons consistantly for 5-7 years now. Drew’s been average at for most of his career and hasn’t been good in 2 years.
Yeah low value right now. Older, more injuries etc. batting average down. Good person though, I think.
Doubt he goes anywhere .
I think the Jays have to look to try and get something for him or Bautista… They’re getting older and the Jays are lacking in the youth department everywhere but pitching. They’ve got a potent offense even without one of those 2 guys.
They can move them both, and I agree that it wouldn’t be a terrible idea, but I think they should wait until the off season. The AL east is so bad this year that even with a sub .500 record the jays are within striking distance of first, and are getting hot. I think they should trade some of their young pitching prospects for ML ready pitching, and then use Bautista and/or Encarnacion to get some positional prospects this winter.
They are definitely overstocked with pitching prospects and their scouting has let them down because other than pitching, their position playing depth is awful. Something has to be done for sure. If these young kids are as good as they should be though, with the jays offense, the jays could be a force!
Dat bullpen tho….
overstocked?
Not sure how you can be over stocked with pitching prospects but ok. Overall I think the jays have done alright in drafting young position players. They just keep trading them away as they don’t value them as highly as pitching. If the jays are out of the playoff picture by mid July then EE. Bautista, Reyes and Buehrle should be traded. As well as Dickey if they can find a buyer. I suspect the only way an ale team makes the playoffs this year is if they win the division. Division winner or fire sale.
Overstocked was bad wording. I just meant compared to non pitching depth thats all.
But yes, they will have to sell if they can’t do well. Buehrle is making like $20 mil this year thanks to that horrible contract so he’s a rental. Reyes makes ovre 20 mil the next few years and isn’t worth that much. Jays have to eat serious money to make that trades hapen with those 2 fellas.
except, the following players who are all under 30: Donaldson, Travis, Saunders, Pompey, Pillar, and Goins. Admittedly, Pillar and Goins are probably utility players.
And Pompey, who was just sent back to AA.
Gregorius has notably looked better the past month, namely with the bat, his BA jumped almost .30 points from April to May. His defense has also looked a lot closer to advertised recently, he made 2 great plays last night, including one amazing play that likely saved the game, and at least kept it from going to extra innings. He’s still making mental gaffes occasionally, but any progress is welcomed with open arms, given the incredibly thin market for quality SS.
Yanks can win the East with Drew and Di Di in the infield, but not without Tex and A-Rod staying healthy. Add to that Tanaka!
Drew is the best defensive player on the team this year, it’s a marathon season!
Stephen Drew fWAR: -0.2
Robinson Cano fWAR: -0.3
The 10 and 5 rule should be re-named “the Curt Flood Rule!!”
For the record since May 1st Didi Gregorius has actually hit better. He’s batting .245 with 2 HR’s and 8 RBI’s. It’s not ideal but it is better then when he started out.
We have enough hitting locked up that having our embarrassment in riches be in young starting pitching is a blessing. It’s actually perfectly constructed, just a shame the kids aren’t a year or so ahead development wise. Still though a lot of great young players coming up through the jays system this year and into next. With Donaldson, Martin, EE, Bautista, Travis and Saunders all under contract past this year… i feel pretty good about how the organization is constructed. Don’t understand the hate for AA, I think he’s been amazing, only a matter of time before the results match up, may even be this year.
Saunders stepped on a sprinkler head, don’t count on a freak injury like that to happen all the time
Yeah. Other than that he’s got a clean bill of health.
When healthy, he can easily be an above average fielder. It’s just to bad that he was finally healthy, and suffered such an unfortunate injury
Agreed, above average defender for sure.
When healthy, he can easily be an above average fielder. It’s just to bad that he was finally healthy, and suffered such an unfortunate injury
I’m curious who you (anyone who wants to guess) think the Phillies are going to take with pick #10 in the draft. I’ve heard the names Ashe Russell, Jon Harris and Brady Aiken kicked around by some Philadelphia radio people and writers.
You can look up 5 or 6 Mock Drafts and get a different guess on each one. It’s very wide open this year. I don’t think Aiken goes near that high, I’d guess closer to #20 than #10, but if the Phillies like what they see in the medicals, you never know. If high school catcher Tyler Stephenson is still on the board, I can’t see the Phils passing on him.
Hes another good choice. BA actually has him going at 1:1 to the D’Backs.
Yeah there’s rumors he could go #1. I’d be surprised if they don’t take one of the SS’s. But as I said, there’s so many different scenarios for the top 10 this year.
I wasn’t a fan of the Drew signing to begin with, but these two are it for now. No reason for the Yankees to empty the farm and take on another big contract to fix this. It’s not clear to me that changes the arc of their season, nor they can get any reasonable value. The Yankees need to get younger–Didi actually is younger.
Rob Refsnyder 2B
Didi Gregorius SS
Free Refsnyder.
It seems like even the Yankees don’t think he can play second base.
You needed to leave out the first three words.