Bleacher Bums Forum

Those are some pretty fun videos.  It sure would be fun to see him become good.  The bar used to be a little higher, but with Castro the worst hitting starter in baseball, the bar isn't that high.  Baez wouldn't need to be that great to match or perhaps exceed Castro's .270 OBP or .575 OPS.  So, maybe the time is right.

I wonder how Castro would fair in a utility role?  Take Hererra's place? 

More fun to check to the box scores with Baez back at Iowa, and perhaps Olt showing some hints of life. 

Contreras has been having one of the most steady hitting seasons.  44K/38BB/34XBH/99 hits are some very interesting lines.  The ranking buzz seems surprisingly quiet.  Just not enough power to buzz?  Just because he's got no scouting-popularity tenure?  But after the season it will all come out?  Or I wonder if his framing/calling/pitcher-handling just is kind of bad? 

For reb's bench, I wonder if they'd have more motive to carry a 5-man bench is they had 5 subs worth carrying?  If the extras were more interesting than a Baxter or Herrera or Szczur, maybe there'd be more interest.  If you have Olt up and he's hitting .180 and whiffing every time with 1 HR per month, not much value.  But, if he was hitting .265 with 2 HR's per month, maybe easier to do? 

Maybe Cubs should be sellers.  Sell Denorfia or Fowler or Coghlan, and take another look at Lake or Olt or somebody somehow. 

Sell sell sell!

Lake... deserves to be up. As the saying goes, he's "done everything they've asked him to do" when they sent him down. Yes, he'd have to battle for playing time but, for a guy in his position, better to be in big leagues.

It might be better for Lake to be up, but it would be much better for the team for him to remain on a roster where he is getting regular playing time.  For the rest of this season, he needs to be on the roster where he will be played most regularly.

jes, yes I do think he'd do lots better than his career away performance, for several reasons.
1.  I think it's normal/common that guys pitch better at home than on the road, just for familiarity reasons.  Even if the home park isn't necessarily pitcher-friendly.  So, I don't think that home-away is all San Diego stadium.  I think he'd bring a lot of pitch-well-when-home-and-comfortable-on-home-mound wherever home is. 
2.  I think he's a better pitcher now than he used to be. 
3.  I think he's got a chance to be a significantly better pitcher future than he's been past or is present.  He's got a very good arm with very, very good stuff. 
4.  While the Cubs defense isn't good, I think he's been effective with San Diego in spite of some very poor defense.  So I think he'll benefit from some improved defense. 
5.  Bosio has done an excellent job with several pitchers who had variably good stuff but had inconsistency issues prior.  I'd be very optimistic to see what Bosio might be able to do with Ross. 
6.  As Blue has mentioned, Ross has been tinkering/adding to his former repertoire.  I think he may be poised to emerge as a higher-level guy future than he's been.  That's some projection stuff; so just as with Baez it's all projection, which is justifiable, I read Ross as a guy who, even this many years into his career, still has some untapped potential to become better.  But with very little non-injury risk to be less than good, which risk I think is very real for Baez. 

I don't think it's relevant.  Padres aren't going to trade Ross at a price the Cubs are willing to pay, I don't think.  May be that two years from now, he'll be hurt, or as high-walk as ever, and Baez will be emerging as a force, and we'll look back and say "Man, are we glad we didn't trade Baez for Ross, can you remember when Craig actually thought that might be a fair deal, and Blue thought that while he wouldn't do it, that Baez wouldn't even be enough to get Ross straight-up?"  But it may also be that two years from now, Baez will be an AAAA guy, or a .240-batting average guy with a .275 OBP in the majors who just doesn't hit the ball often enough to hit all that many HR's, and Ross is improved to one of the top ten starters in baseball, and we'll wish we'd done it.  Will be fun to track.  heh, heh, maybe I'll keep an eye on Ross kind of like with DeGrom! 

My questions for you did not address Baez at all.  His evaluation, or how one stacks up against another, are other questions entirely.  My questions dealt exclusively with Ross, and your six numbered responses all focus much more simply on what you feel, either without true data or rational to support them, or, as in the case of the first two, when the data are actually contrary to your positions --  the difference between home/away splits for starting pitchers generally is not close to as wide as seen with Ross, and with an ERA+ this year of 103, compared to 122 last year, it would seem the believe he is "a better pitcher now than he used to be" would also seem more a result of what you would like to see than it is a result of what is there.

As to the hope Bosio would do wonders for him, or that his tinkering with his repertoire of just "think(ing) he's got a chance to be a significantly better pitcher future than he's been past or is present," it would appear even more clearly that your opinion of Ross is based more on how you hope Ross will do than anything else.

Baez with a SO and a BB so far tonight.