a cheap and slightly better hitting Adam Everett, that’d be fine by me. Honestly you fill a slot like that for cheap, and get good defense, and use the money for pitching or a good COF, and that’d be great.

My concern with him is that I hear so much about his defense, but isn’t Andrus leading the Texas league in Errors? I know Errors are a bad stat and all that, but, since there probably aren’t any advanced defensive stats, isn’t it a concern when the guy who’s number one attribute is defense is near the top in errors?

It looks like we can’t expect another A-Rod. It looks like we’re stuck with another Alan Trammell-, Robin Yount-, Derek Jeter-, Ozzie Smith-, or Omar Vizquel-type.

Although a post-ASB BABIP in the area of .365 (imprecise, but somewhere in that range) suggests that his post-ASB OBP has been aided just a little bit by luck in the batting average department; that being said, his walk rate has been quite solid since that awful April, and even more so when you remember that he’s still a week away from his 20th birthday and in AA ball.

Of course, I sorta tuned out from Goldstein’s opinions on Andrus when he wrote this back on June 19th:

Stock Report: Down significantly. Scouts are tired of hearing about how young and toolsy he is; he’s at Double-A and it’s time to produce.

Guh.

In his 29 game showing in Bakersfield in 2007, John Whittleman definitely raised expectations with a line of .240/.372/.413. So yeah, going .257/.370/.392 in ‘08 probably gives you a case of the “Mehs”. But keep in mind that he’s 21, and using the Scott Lucas data (the online Bible on the subject), he’s younger than at least 83% of High-A Ball. And if asked to repeat next year in Bakersfield, using our Sacred Text, he’d still be younger than 62.8% of his peers.

that it is not a stretch to project each of them hitting around .300 and stealing around 40 bags in the majors while playing very good defense.

He’s struggling on the base paths. He was 36 for 43 at stealing bases Bakersfield. If you’re placing wagers on any given prospect, it’s rare that you’d take even odds, but I think you’re using a pretty small amount of information to rule out a guy who’s in the youngest fifth of his league (although, to be fair, Double-A does have its share of journeymen) and is starting to show that his bat is catching up to the glove we keep reading about.

13 for 22 now

They’ve altered Beavan’s delivery in a manner that is more asthetically pleasing and that they think reduces his potential to injure himself, and that has corresponded to a season long drop in velocity. I don’t think it’s a coincidence.

i think in Grant’s mailbag, was that nolan would “simplify” the pitching instruction. hopefully that will take the focus away from uniform delivery styles, etc.

…if you are only targeting a particular type of pitcher and putting them in the same program. Like the Cardinals who only draft guys that meet a certain mechanical criteria. However, we seem to do the right thing and draft/LA sign the best available talent and then try to make them meet a certain mechanical criteria, which like you say, makes no sense. Every body type is different. Every guy has an arm slot that he is most confident and effective in. Some guys aren’t best suited to be a sinker/slider guy. It scary as hell when the future of the orginization is basically in their hands.

…someone said that Erik Thompson’s injury problems were the result of the organization jacking with his mechanics, which were unorthodox…

How else would you explain Chris Young’s jump when he was like 25 and had just worked extensively on mechanical changes with our minor league instructors? How about McCarthy? Just like changing something mechanically can take away velocity, reversing that in essence can add it back so that you’re closer to reaching your maximum velocity. Heck, maybe you make a mechanical adjustment that adds velocity because it takes away movement.

But I do think that what he is describing fits Beavan’s scenario, and I think that while he is surely fatigued, his connection of the two is mostly wishful thinking.

Washington may get get their re-do before the Rangers pick, but they ain’t taking Crow again.

I think it was the 5th.

pretty entertaining

you wouldn’t want to miss the 77th hour of beach volleyball.

Every single one of these guys is at the very tail end of his career too.