Bleacher Bums Forum

Jeffrey Baez is on fire!!  I guess all it took was moving him to the leadoff spot.

Sorry I forgot to add the qualifier when Baez was ready.  You could back through my posting history and see I posted the same thing about Baez and his timing issues on Aug 3, or a day before I was calling for is recall in your mind.

Okay, so at least you are now backing off your nonsense that, "There is nothing in the full quote that implies I want it done this very instant in the partial quote you pulled," and the implication I was taking your quote out of context or that something in the rest of your post made clear you did not mean what you were saying in the language I quoted.  At least that is some progress.

Of course there was nothing in any of your posts on August 3 to suggest YOU felt Baez should be left in the minors (you did post to the effect that you recognized, "Baez might not be up for a few weeks at the earliest," but not that he also should not be called up for at least a few weeks, just that if might not happen, regardless what you might want).

Okay, so at least you are now backing off your nonsense that, "There is nothing in the full quote that implies I want it done this very instant in the partial quote you pulled," and the implication I was taking your quote out of context or that something in the rest of your post made clear you did not mean what you were saying in the language I quoted.  At least that is some progress.

Of course there was nothing in any of your posts on August 3 to suggest YOU felt Baez should be left in the minors (you did post to the effect that you recognized, "Baez might not be up for a few weeks at the earliest," but not that he also should not be called up for at least a few weeks, just that if might not happen, regardless what you might want).

There is nothing in that quote that was meant to say right now. I may have not been clear enough for you. I'm sorry that I don't put absolutes in my posts when dealing with prospects, but it was pretty clear from all of my previous posts that I thought Baez wasn't ready. Please don't dislocate your shoulder trying to pat yourself on the back for being the only one to say Baez wasn't ready.

With Almora's hot streak, he's move up and beyond several thresholds:  .250 batting average; .290 and .300 OBP; .630, .650, and .670 OPS; with some hits he's up to .373 slugging now, too, high point on the year. 

I'd been concerned with groundouts; but his GO/AO of 1.12 isn't bad.  I haven't been reading the game logs much since May.  But checking these last two nights in which he's gotten six hits, two of them were actually reported as line drives, both to left field.  (The others were two grounders, a bloop, and a bunt.)  If he's going to blossom into a .700-OPS type guy, he'll probably need to both hit some line drives once in a while, and to use left field at least a little bit, so that's nice to see.  He appears to have become an accomplished bunter. 

Even after recent binge, BABIP only up to .272, low for a supposed line-drive contact guy.  Not sure it's all bad luck; if you take weak, soft swings towards CF/RF, perhaps not conducive to line drives or BABIP.  But, supposed the BABIP is just bad luck; replace .272 with .300 BABIP would add 23 points to his batting average.  Adding an extra 23 points to average, OBP, and 23+ to slugging, at .730 OPS and .400 slugging he'd look more interesting.  .300 BABIP shouldn't seem unrealistic; most good-hitting prospects in the minors BABIP much higher than .300.  But, that kind of goes with hitting line drives and hitting the ball hard semi-regularly. 

Maybe Almora future can emerge like Contreras, scuffle for several years, than suddenly becoming a high-BABIP hitter. 

The nice thing about Almora is he doesn't have to be a great offensive player to be a useful major league player. I wonder if some of his struggles have been working to refine his approach. It would certainly be great if he could a .700 OPS CF, wth his defense in center that would be a 3-4 WAR player. Even if he's below league average on offense he could still be a 2-3 WAR player.

Jes don't bother replying I put you back on ignore.

I'm told that doesn't stop him. 

Hitting the ball hard and hitting line drives is important. 

There is no IMPLICATION in that post that he wants anything done IMMEDIATELY.  Just because you INFERRED something that no one that has read his previous posts would have inferred, that does not change the meaning of the post.

And there was also nothing in my post which said anything about "immediately."  He used the present tense in referring to wanting something done in the replacement of Castro when he wrote that a lot of people, himself included "want Castro gone or benched for Baez."  If he had only said "want Castro gone," the implication would be that it is a present desire for something to happen in the present, though it would leave open the interpretation that he was expressing a desire for an off-season move to be made, but when he followed that with "or benched," he eliminated any reasonable interpretation of it applying to anything other than the present, whether you want to consider that "immediate" or not (a bit like Bill Clinton quibbling over what the meaning of the word "is" is) does not alter the fact that it is WRITTEN in a manner which addresses the present, the here and now, and not some time in the indefinite future.  Now, as I mentioned, I wrote nothing about "immediately," but I did accurately represent what what written without anything close to distorting it or inferring anything from it beyond the plain meaning of the words.

Now, since you believe that I did infer something which was not implied, can you take the words, "want Castro gone or benched for Baez," in the context in which they were used (it was not a discussion about playoff lineups or what anyone thought should be done after September call-ups), and offer a rational interpretation where those words would not have been addressing the present?

With the VSL coming to an end this weekend I can now admit that I mostly checked the VSL box scores to see if Francisco Garay could reach 100 strike outs before reaching 200 at bats. While he will miss this dubious distinction (assuming he avoids a golden sombrero tomorrow) he did lead the team in errors and is batting ~0.130.  Must have a lot of tools!