We’re a bit less than two months away from the 2016 amateur draft, and there figures to be quite a bit of chatter regarding the top high school and college talent in the nation over the coming months. Today, Keith Law and Eric Longenhagen of ESPN.com released their Top 50 draft prospects (subscription required and recommended), adding another excellent resource to stand alongside previously released rankings from Baseball America and from MLB.com. For those interested, MLBTR will run the first installment of its Draft Prospect Q&A series tomorrow afternoon, starting with one of the top bats of the class.
A few more notes from around the game as Tuesday night winds to a close…
- The Red Sox have considered activating catcher Christian Vazquez from the disabled list, manager John Farrell told reporters, including the Boston Globe’s Alex Speier (Twitter link). Per Farrell, nothing is imminent, but the club has had ongoing discussions about its catching situation. ESPN Boston’s Scott Lauber points out (Twitter link) that sophomore backstop Blake Swihart had a rough game defensively but also notes that Vazquez, who is recovering from Tommy John surgery, has yet to catch three games in a row on his rehab assignment.
- Former Blue Jays/Mariners outfielder Eric Thames sat down with Blake Murphy of VICE Sports to discuss his transition to the Korea Baseball Organization and his rise to the status as arguably the league’s best player. The 29-year-old outfielder/first baseman was the KBO’s MVP last season, batting .381/.497/.790 with 47 homers and, incredibly 40 stolen bases (despite never stealing more than eight in a North American season). Thames explained the work he’s put in with coach Jun-ho Jeon — known as the Stolen Base King of Korea. “Even little things like the way the glove’s tilted a little bit—’OK, go.’ ’On this pitch, go,'” Thames explained. “It’s like, are you serious? And then—bam!—it’s a high leg kick or a curveball. It’s like, how do you even know that? He’s one of those guys that has a natural eye for base-stealing.” While the KBO is a notoriously hitter-friendly league, it’s tough to write off Thames’ outrageous production as a pure result of that environment. Thames discusses some elements that he feels have helped him improve his game and also discusses the cultural differences between playing in North America and in Korea. He’ll be a free agent next winter and added that he’s keeping an open mind to taking another shot at playing in the Majors. He’ll be somewhat of a wild card on next winter’s thin free agent market.
- The Dodgers’ bullpen has struggled early on, writes Andy McCullough of the L.A. Times, but the team isn’t planning on making any drastic alterations to the composition of its relief corps just yet. McCullough notes that if the Dodgers do elect to make some changes, there are myriad internal options, and those alternatives will only grow in numbers as Hyun-jin Ryu, Brandon McCarthy and Brett Anderson get healthy. A return from any of those arms could push a starter like Alex Wood or Ross Stripling to the bullpen, and McCullough points out that the Dodgers’ large slate of arms and ability to take on salary should also present the club with various trade scenarios as the deadline approaches this summer.
Eric Thames in MLB would probably have a .275 average with 28 homeruns and 13 stolen bases imo.
I’d be surprised if he hit pass the 25 homerun mark, I’d say around 15-20 homers are the most likely numbers he’ll hit there in the MLB.
Struggling is a massively understated way to describe a Dodgers bullpen that may be one of the worst of all time. They have essentially zero middle relief, nobody who is even halfway effective. These problems were blindly apparent last year, but this supposedly brilliant FO called it a pat hand for another year. They made no significant moves then, and no fan who is halfway paying attention is expecting them to make any now.
We’ve seen this act before and it never ends with a World Series victory.
Eric Thames also had 2 hit for the cycles last season (against the Kia Tigers at Gwangju, and against the Nexen Heroes at Mokdong). Most KBO league catchers have very weak/no control throwing arms when it comes to throwing runners out or making good throws, most even winds up going to the outfield or off the bag… below average if you compare em to catchers playing in the NPB… the only KBO league catcher I know with great defensive abilities and a strong arm there is Busan Lotte Giants Kang Min-ho…
I don’t have a video regarding Eric Thames’ stolen base in the previous season, but I do have this though, all of his homeruns last year hit youtube.com/watch?v=B8GheLGD98g.
What would the posting fee be for first base coach Jun-ho Jeon? Sounds like he could help a lot of teams here.
It seems that Ben Cherington took the brunt of complaints for signing Sandoval and Ramirez. Does anyone have knowledge of Larry Lucchinos’ involvement? After all, it was Lucchino who pushed the now infamous signing of Bobby Valentine over Cherington’s objections, and Lucchino’s insistence of more control over Epstein that Epstein was comfortable with that contributed to Epsteins’ initial, short term departure from the Sox. It is refreshing to see Tom Werners’ statements that ownership doesn’t sit in on lineup decisions or dictate who will play – not sure I would bet the farm on the veracity of that statement, but until it is challenged, I guess Werner is speaking honestly for ownership. Nor do I believe that Ben Cherington resigned completely out of his own reasons. Mutually agreed to part company might be a more honest public company. However, professional sport ownership puts political types to shame in creating very creative ways of shifting responsibility to anyone else but themselves. Which takes us back to the argument of whether it was Lucchino or Cherington who “really” got ownership to sign off on the exhorbitant salaries for these two once stellar ball players….I may never know the truth, but I’m guessin’ it was the old master of total control, Mr. Lucchino himself, who orchestrated the disastrous signings. After all, he had his fall guy three offices down!!!
Why isn’t Neuse ranked? He has a good enough glove and arm to stick at SS he has a similar build to Trout/Schwarber his athletic ability would fall some where in between the two, more athletic than Schwarber not as athletic as Trout. He is crushing the ball and showing much improved plate discipline. He also is the teams closer so he has that to fall back on.
I’m hoping the Braves either draft Blake Rutherford as the third pick or if they go with someone else then try to trade up to get Will Benson. They need a little power in their minor league system and both these OF’s look like they would provide that along with a good hit tool as well.
You want to see a struggling bullpen just go look at Atlanta
In observation, we view the current mess of our bullpen. Shouldn’t the FO look at the men responsible for guiding these relievers as well.
Is RH REALLY doing all he can to mentally prepare against at bat situations; in the same way AF FZ
I respectfully disagree and offer as an example the Jay Howell debacle of last weekend. He was tossin 82 and couldn’t retire a lefthanded hitter. Nothin RH can do about that. No amount of mental preparation will prevent a soft tossing reliever from getting spanked. Again, the horses aren’t there and I agree with Blue Sky that they can only play what they have. The only managerial alternative is to continue to trot out any reliever who has had any success and risk overuse. No good answer here.
The Dodgers bullpen is horrible, yet again. You can tell how Roberts feels about it by him yanking Baez after a walk and bringing in Jansen for a 5 out save. The way this is going, if the Dodgers do make the postseason, they will probably have at least 3 starters leading the league in complete games.
Yup. I was at that game last night. As the innings wore on and it was clear Wood was running out of gas, the sellout crowd got about as quiet as any I’ve heard at Dodger Stadium. Then the bullpen gates opened and the crowd audibly moaned. With the four-pitch walk from Baez they grumbled and booed. Cheered when Jansen trotted out. Fortunately it worked out, but no way Roberts can go to that well every day.
Dodgers ranked 19th in relief ERA last year. This year looks like it will be even worse. Seems like everybody knows what’s going on here but the stat geeks.