Yesterday, we heard word of extension talks between Francisco Lindor and the Indians that was broken by a unique source — Cleveland GM Mike Chernoff’s six-year-old son, Brody. Brody said during a game broadcast that his dad was “trying to get Lindor to play for seven more years.” But the young Chernoff had his facts wrong, according to Cleveland.com’s Paul Hoynes. “Brody overheard my phone call about Jose Ramirez finalizing a deal that could keep him here for seven years,” says Mike Chernoff. “It was pretty funny. You gotta love kids.” This weekend, of course, the Indians reportedly neared a five-year extension with Ramirez that included two club options. It appears Brody’s first scoop was a bust, although he’s got plenty of time to work on his craft — recent history shows that baseball rumor reporters don’t peak until at least age 13. Here are more quick notes from the AL.
- The Red Sox announced a number of roster moves this morning, including their decision to option Blake Swihart to Triple-A Pawtucket. The team also optioned infielder Deven Marrero to Pawtucket and reassigned catcher Dan Butler and first baseman Sam Travis to minor-league camp. Swihart had a strong spring, batting .325/.386/.400, but both Sandy Leon and Christian Vazquez were out of options, and it’s not likely the Red Sox would want to lose either one.
- The Astros’ last remaining roster spot comes down to righty relievers James Hoyt and Jandel Gustave, writes Jake Kaplan of the Houston Chronicle. Collin McHugh is likely to begin the season on the DL due to a dead arm, which means both Mike Fiers and Joe Musgrove will make the Astros’ rotation and Brad Peacock (who is out of options) will be on the team in long relief. Peacock’s presence on the roster will keep the Astros from having to use Chris Devenski (who was quietly terrific as a rookie in 2016) in as many multi-inning outings, allowing him to pitch in higher-leverage spots. Hoyt or Gustave will pitch one-inning stints. Gustave has struck out ten batters in 8 2/3 Spring Training frames, but Kaplan notes that Hoyt profiles better against lefties, a potential factor since lefty Tony Sipp has struggled this spring (and he recently missed an outing due to back trouble, although that issue appears minor).
Red Sox fans will defend Swihart till the bitter end..such as is age and so on. The guy was so over hyped like so many prospects..probably east coast bias.
I dont get the east coast bias thing. Correa, Bregman, Urias, Seager, etc, all received just as much hype as Benintendi, Crawford, Moncada, etc
The east coast bias is predicated on which coat your allegiance lies.
That and the fact that a lot of the major sports
There is a east coast bias in baseball but many factors make it that way. Example on the east coast games are played during their time zone and they miss many of the great players on the west coast because of viewing time. Second most major networks start their broadcast in eastern time zone so there is a bias to hype what just happened instead of great plays that happened yesterday. East teams are older so they have a bigger fan base because of age. The team I follow have some of the best prospects coming up in the next year or so but most fans do not even know their names because the sport writers like writing about only 4 or 5 teams.
America’s National media outlets absolutely hate west coast teams, could you imagine if Trout was on the Yankees? He’s literally the greatest player of our lifetimes, a certified all-time great, but because of the Angels not being in NY, I feel like he’s not as beloved as he should be. Harper I get, he’s been obnoxious before, but Trout? All that dude does is play ball better than everyone ever.
He’s not beloved because the Angels haven’t been as successful as they should be with by far the best player in baseball.
It also doesn’t help that Trout’s postseason stats aren’t even close to his regular season
Blame NESN and YES networks. It’s really only Red Sox and Yankees prospects that get hilariously over-hyped. 15 years ago it was a viable marketing scheme to boost value when trading those prospects. Now there’s so much info on everyone it just comes across as homerism for BOS/NYY sport commenters. All the people Brixton picked are examples of top draft talent that deserves the praise regardless of ‘coast’.
While if a guy has a pawsox jersey he’s likely the second coming of Ted Williams if NESN has anything to say about it…
Yup Betts, Bogey, Bradley were horribly overhyped. Cmon man every team has overhyped prospects. Right now you have Pirates, Braves, and Astro fans that don’t want trade for Quintana because why they think here prospects, that have done nothing so far, will be better than Q. Cmon man it’s every team not just the Red Sox and Yankees.
Yeah brooo the A’s totally should have traded Addison Russell – he never even walked on a MLB field before, totally useless!!!
“15 years ago it was a viable marketing scheme to boost value when trading those prospects.”
…wait just one cotton-picking min there buddy, are you trying to tell me a guy like Brein Taylor wasn’t deserving of the tag ‘#1` prospect in the entire game’ before ever throwing a single pro pitch? Nonsense!
Anyway, it goes back even longer than 15 years
Will also say Cubs prospects have historically been lumped in there though too; likely because of the lovable-loosers tag creating way over-inflated hope
Not true at all. neither Nesn, or Yes network has terribly biased networks compared to the majority of others, at least since Phil Rhizzuto left the Yankees broadcasts that is true.
Listening to Rod Allen with detroit one would think every flimsy (of which they have few) prospect they have is an All star to be. Add Tampa bay’s DeWayne Staats plus brian Anderson to that severe homer crowd..
Nesn and Yes broadcasters? I doubt it. Favoritism? Some, but not nearly as bad as some of these other scum around the league.
Sure dude. Like the way every Orioles pitching prospect is hailed as Cy Young, Jr.
I think you are misunderstanding the logic behind the bias, you appear to be saying “All hyped prospects are hyped” – this bias is over the consistency over the level of hype/writing about of the prospects who flame out that specifically play for the Yankees, Red Sox and Mets – but does not mean all their prospects are bad, obviously. The “media” part of the bias comes from those teams having the most media, so all those writers need to fill word counts, so they will talk up the prospects more than teams with small media followings.
With Benintendi & Moncada, the hype is pretty justified. But why are there literally 15 million articles online about Henry Owens, a type of player who every org has half a dozen guys of? That is the bias. Good = good. Bias is saying: not good is good, because X, and X is “plays for NYY/BOS/NYM”.
According to google, there’s 15.7 million articles about Henry Owens and 0.4 million about Raul Alcantara, a guy who just made a MLB Opening Day rotation. It’s like that for almost all NYY/BOS/NYM prospects.
Major League average the last 2 seasons for a catcher was: .240 avg, 86 wRC+, and a .690 OPS. Over same period, Swihart has a .271 avg, 95 wRC+, and a .714 OPS. That puts him above average offensively for a catcher.
But someone will chime in about passed balls again, MB, and completely ignore his catching of a knuckleball pitcher contributed to those passed balls.
No you’ve got a good point. The positional average matters a lot. I feel like he should be on the team over Leon , but u know how managers think with “he hasn’t done anything to lose the job”
Swihart has options also.
“But someone will chime in about passed balls again, MB, and completely ignore his catching of a knuckleball pitcher contributed to those passed balls.”
And some REd Sox fan will chime in about passed balls again, Eck, and completely ignore that he has caught 740 innings in his career with only 70 of those innings coming from the knuckleballer. I wasn’t aware 70 > 670
Among 48 catchers who have caught 700+ innings the past 2 years, Swihart is ranked 43rd in DRS with -10 DRS. He would be far and away dead last if he caught the amount of innings that the others behind him have caught
Ranked behind him are Hank Conger (839, -10), Travis d’Arnaud (1185, -11), Miguel Montero (1383, -11), AJ Pierzinski (1441, -12) and Tyler Flowers (1564, -14).
But yes, let’s put the full blame on knuckleballer Steven Wright and the 70 inning sample.
As far as his Offense goes. Yes, he has solid numbers for a Catcher.
Yes, but the majority of these past balls came with Wright pitching.
4/10/16 1 PB, Wright pitching.
5/17/15 1 PB, Wright pitching
6/14/15 1 PB, Wright pitching
7/25/15 4 PB, Wright pitching
7/20/15 2 PB, Wright pitching
8/5/15 1 PB, Wright pitching
8/11/15 1 PB, Wright pitching
I count 11 passed balls by Swihart while catching Wright. Anyone who sites DRS and dismisses 11 passed balls in 70 innnings of catching a knuckleball isn’t very bright.
I’m not sure if you are aware of this Eck, but DRS is not just about passed balls. And I never said the majority of his passed balls weren’t from Wright. I already knew that they were Wright.
But as mentioned, DRS isn’t solely about passed balls.
Wellington Castillo tied for the lead with 10 passed balls last year. His DRS was +7
DRS for a catcher also incorporates rSB. How easy is it to steal a base on a knuckleball pitcher? Here’s a hint…. about as easy as when Betances pitches.
RA dickey is one of the hardest pitchers to steal on, so no it’s not like stealing on betances.
LOL. Once again, you’re blaming it all on Steven Wright. Love it.
I’m not going to research every game, but I decided to look up games in which he allowed a Passed Ball in. There were only 8 SB attempts in those games, and he threw out 4 of them. That means in all other games, base stealers were successful 40 out of 53 times which is over 75%. But yes, that’s all because of Steven Wright, Right?
So your argument is “he only has 8 PB in the 670 innings of non Wright play”?
Compare him to the 4 catchers with a lower DRS then:
.108 PB/9 – Swihart (8 over 670)
.127 PB/9 – Flowers (22 over 1564.1)
.076 PB/9 – Pierzynski (10 over 1441.2)
.038 PB/9 – d’Arnaud (5 over 1185)
.046 PB/9 – Montero (7 over 1383.1)
Or lets put it this way, this is how many PB Swihart would have if he caught the same amount of non-Wright innings as:
18.5 over 1564.1 – Flowers had 22
17.2 over 1441.2 – AJ had 10
14.1 over 1185 – d’Arnaud had 5
16.5 over 1383.1 – Montero had 7
So he is the second worst at keeping the ball in front of him as far as the bottom of the DRS barrel catchers go, and all but 1 of the guys below him have a *dramatically* better PB rate
It all shows us two things; PB do not affect the DRS score that much at all (only logical since there are soo few of them, that cant affect runs all that much) and Swihart is really bad at keeping the ball in front of him even when catching non-Knucklers anyway
…and that means you would be better off staying away from ‘PB because of Wright’ as some kind of defense – it doesn’t help your argument
The knuckleballer on atlanta (can’t say his name or it gets reported) is one of the hardest pitchers to steal on in the league. Nothing like betances
Right on point MBp23
Swihart still has some potential, he’s certainly been mishandled some. I will admit that the Red Sox were one of the teams to start overhyping prospects. I.E. Lars Anderson or Henry Owens.
Do you have a point?
Brody’s rumor was at least believable and made more sense than some of the trades people make on here. Should give brody a job here when theyre older and let em discuss trade and extension scenarios.
Idk this is just me but I’d rather get something for leon while he’s worth somethjng and have swihart and Vazquez up and both playing.
Teams realize that Leon’s breakout last season probably isn’t sustainable, so I doubt he is worth much in a trade.
Yeah, but they could flip him to someone with rotation depth for a 3/4 starter with upside.
Dave Stewart, is that you?
Lol. It was supposed to say 4/5… off by one number. Didn’t proofread it. Whoops. Honestly the Sox have so many risky guys as depth that I wouldn’t mind a young #4/5 from someone who wants to take a risk on Leon having figured something out. Maybe that starter becomes the next Anthony Ranaudo, maybe he becomes something. I’d be happy to bring in a depth guy under 27 with an ERA under 5.50.
No more Tony Sipp please….
Someone would be wise to pick up Sam Travis.
How is someone going to pickup Sam Travis are the Red Sox going to trade him?
“…recent history shows that baseball rumor reporters don’t peak until at least age 13.”
A great chuckle to open the day with! Thanks!
“MLBTR is currently in negotiations with Brody to buy out all his option years…”
Let’s see catchers that ops 800, which is what he did in the second half of 2015, don’t grow on trees. He will be become at least league average defensively and well above average offensively. Nearly all of his passed balls were with a knuckle ball pitcher. I am not saying he is going to be the best defensive catcher in the league but his pop times at least average arm and athleticism will make him at least average defensively. He is being sent down because he has options and the other two catchers don’t and the Red Sox want him to work on his defense at triple A. He will be up as soon as there is the inevitable injury at catcher.
He will not be at least well above average offensivly. His floor is exactly what he’s been doing for the past two years.
Which is well above average offensively for a catcher. If you throw out the first three weeks when he was called up he ops’d nearly 800 in the rest of the season which is well above average for most positions and yes I think he will be 750 to 800 ops hitter which is well above average for a catcher.
If you throw out when he was bad, then he was good!
That’s not what I said you obviously haven’t watched him play probably at all. He was overmatched for like three weeks when he was called up due to injuries. He ops’d something like 500 for three weeks. After that he had an ops of nearly 800 for the rest of the season. I’m simply saying for the people that didn’t watch him play on a nearly daily basis that he was pretty damn good in the second half of 2015 and was about league average defensively according to fangraphs metrics. I am willing to bet he will be a starting catcher in the big leagues if not in Boston than somewhere else and he will be at least average defensively for a catcher and well above average offensively.
Which is reasonable when it’s a 3 week sample size. There is an adjustment period. If he said 3 months, I’d laugh it him. But cutting his first 3 weeks back up and looking at the rest of the season is a reasonable measure.
2015:
1st half – .323 BAbip, .241/.279/.323/.602, 59 wRC+
2nd half – .391 BAbip, .303/.353/.452/.805, 118 wRC+
…yeah, as long as he keeps up that nearly .400 BAbip, he will hit like Buster Posey!
Of course, if he sports a more realistic BAbip like the projections sites expect though…
Further, Swihart’s excessive hype is linked to his ability to catch. Frankly, Swihart is not a big league catcher. As a Sox fan, I must agree on prospect hype – truly exhausting. Henry Owens? My god, what did the Sox see in this guy?
or Brian Johnson
Is Keith Law biased? Swihart was #10 and Owens was #20 on his 2015 top 100. Nearly everyone from the top 25 of that list is still considered a top prospect or is already an established major league player.
I’ve never seen anybody got dissected so much over 350 PAs. lmao
I love all the hate for Swihart. All the blurb says was that he had a good spring offensively but because he had an option left and the others didnt hes headed to Pawtucket, and everyone craps themselves over how overhyped he was lol.
Hes not gonna be Pudge, or Piazza, or even Lucroy, but he’ll likely make a fine catcher if his offense stays up and hes actually given a proper amount of time behind the plate to develope instead of throwing him all over the place.
No one is hating on Swihart, that’s silly. But even sillier is the “hes a good defender, only Wright makes him look bad!”/”he will be a great hitter for a catcher, he did so good in the second half of last year!” types of comments in this thread
If the stats don’t say what some wish they would (and even insist they do, when twerked to fit the desires), that doesn’t mean people pointing them out are “hate(ing)” – it means there is a disconnect between reality and what others are trying to claim
And reality is quite simple:
– Really bad defender
– only .283/.340/418/.758 in the minors (inc .268/.333/.341/.675 in AAA)
– and just .271/.328/.386/.714 in the majors, despite an unrealistic .357 BAip
…if that guy, based solely on the stats, played for the Brewers or Twins, I’m not so sure many would even know his name
Now could he develop into something more? Yeah, of course, anything is possible. But right now, what he has shown us is not really all that interesting. Pointing that out isn’t hating.
And just in case you want to argue with what I am saying, lets look at another player:
– Above average fielder
– .268/.377/.417/.794 in the minors (.230/.347/.356/.703 in AAA)
– .195/.280/.378/.658 in majors off an unrealistically low .247 BAbip
– 90 wRC+ last two seasons despite .247 BAbip (Swihart is 92 wRC+ off .357 BAbip over the same time)
…that similar stat line from the dramatically better defensive catcher is the career of Curt Casali (he plays for the Rays, in case people don’t know who he is)
He’s not-great at baseball, period. Every team has many guys of his talent level, but east coast bias means we ALL have to know his name, instead of actually-good prospects, national media thinks everyone is either a Yankees, Red Sox or Mets fan, smh.
I’m not sure why it surprises you that the two biggest markets receive the most national attention…
I didn’t know that anyone was still surprised that there’s a big market bias in national sports media.