SB Nation User Blog: casejud

Monday 4/20 Minor League Thread

casejud — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:32:37 -0000

PCL-Nashville is at New Orleans and Brett Sinbeil (1-1 11.57) takes his crack at slowing down Mat "The Bat" Gamel. Good luck Brett but, I'm not hopefull. Mat has been amazing thus far - 10 Games, 11 Runs, 14 Rbi, 9 XBH's, hitting .436. Shoot, if he can go three games in a row without an error he might get his ass to the big leagues.

Round Rock is at Iowa and speaking of amazing, Iowa's Jake Fox has been that through 11 games- 7 Bombs and 50 TB's in 46 AB's. I know he'll be 27 in July but, wow.

IL- Micheal Bowden is going for Pawtucket vs Lehigh Valley. He's tossed 2 scoreless already too

Eastern League- Jake Arrieta deals for Bowie vs Erie

Southern League- Jeremy Hellickson goes for Montgomery vs Mobile. He's been unscored upon his first 2 starts.

Texas League- Dan Cortes goes for NW Arkansas and tries to get his season untracked (0-2 8.10). asking a guy to repeat the TL is cruel and unusual punishment.

The sublime Jhoulys Chacin pitches for Tulsa vs the Padres AA kids tonight

Cal League- Angel V is the shit. After all he's been yakked on about - here he is - 18 years old and raking in the Cal League. .393 3 Bombs, 10 Games. I'm sure all we'll here about is the o walks though- lol - Lake Elsinore is at San Jose.

Carolinja League- The sweet left arm of Danny Duffy takes the mound for Wilmington vs Salem, as well as the rest of him.

Speaking of sweet left arms, Jeff Locke takes the mound for the Myrtle Beach Pelicans. Jason Heyward plays for them as well. He's good

FSL- Only one game today in the FSL, Daytona at Dunedin. Just wanted to take this opportunity to say that the folks in Sarasota got to see a legend blaze through those parts this weekend - Jupiter's Micheal Stanton - he homered in all three games of the series and went 5-5 in the capper- thats 8-11, 3 bombs, 7 rbi.

I also think he is behind only Mr. Wieters as the second best prospect in the game. The key is to see these things before they happen guys not "Uh, Im worried about the strikouts so Im gonna wait and see how he does in the FSL..."

Anybody can say "gee, he's awesome " now. Its gonna get worse too. I dont think ANYBODY will be questioning this kid by mid-season. Of course I overestimate the audience here at times :-)

Enjoy the games! Talk amongst yourselves

Pablo Sandoval Crystal Ball

casejud — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:23:40 -0000

I've always wanted to do one of these so, I figured why not do one of the most interesting and unique players in the game right now. This is what I think the back of Sandoval's baseball card might look like many, many years from now....

AVG G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS OBP SLG

08 SFG .345 41 145 24 50 10 1 3 24 4 14 0 0 .357 .490

09 SFG .305 152 633 82 194 34 4 9 76 32 78 6 3 .341 .415

10 SFG .322 138 566 85 182 27 2 21 92 44 72 2 1 .373 .488

11 SFG .296 144 594 88 176 33 3 16 113 36 88 5 0 . 335 .443

12 SFG .332 155 647 108 215 44 1 22 105 40 66 3 3 .373 .501

13 SFG .277 129 524 66 145 18 0 12 62 38 56 0 0 .326 .378

14 SFG .300 146 597 76 179 36 2 18 82 37 57 3 0 .341 .457

15 SFG .319 157 625 102 199 43 3 26 112 48 63 4 1 .366 .522

16 SFG .275 77 258 33 71 14 0 7 44 16 33 0 0 .314 .411

17 SFG .288 144 465 68 134 24 1 11 72 22 46 0 1 .321 .415

18 LAD .311 134 447 55 139 26 1 5 64 18 38 1 0 .337 .407

19 LAD .256 113 332 38 85 11 1 7 47 25 46 0 0 .307 .358

20 NYM .303 116 238 28 72 16 0 4 24 11 28 0 0 .332 .420

Career: 6071 AB's, 1741 Hits, .287 AVG, 161 Homers

All-Star in 2010, 2012, 2015- Batting Tittle in 2012

A knee injury in 2016 robs him of already declining mobility and moves him back to role of part-time Catcher/ Pinch Hitter.

All in all a memorable and often spectacular career.

What do you think of my trade?

casejud — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:01:28 -0000

This one really happened, btw, albeit in my DMB league. I don't think I've ever asked about anything related to my fantasy league on here in my 4-5 years on here so i thought it would be fun.

This morning I sent superstar SS- Jose Reyes and OF- Gary Matthews Jr. away

in return I acquired SS- Erick Aybar, 2B- Asdrubal Cabrera, CF- Franklin Gutierrez

By way of some context my league is 24 teams. It simulates real baseball pretty closely if you aren't familiar with Diamond Mind Baseball- Defense counts and matters- so think of it just as you would a real basball trade. Jose Reyes' steals aren't as valuable as his homers or whatever.

From my end I am rebuilding this season (based on 2008 stats) so all that matters is going forward and I had only Blake deWitt slated to play some 2b in 2009- and not much at that with Hudson on the Dodgers. Also had only Sarge Jr. and Brian Anderson on the depth chart for CF and Gutierrez fills that.

Aybar, Cabrera and Gutierrez are all young, have jobs, can play defense but there are some question marks about them all as well. What do you think?

Poll

Who's end of the deal you like better?

Dude who got Jose Reyes andf Gary Matthews Jr.

144 votes

Dude who got Aybar, Cabrera and Gutierrez

8 votes

152 votes | Poll has closed

Adam Dunn has no power

casejud — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 05:57:02 -0000

...is about as logical a statement as saying Adam Dunn is a terrible LF

I know this won’t stop any of you foolish ones who criticize Adam Dunn’s outfield play from doing so – (this will just be for fun and my own benifit and whover else is entertained by it) – but there is a way to measure defense – a very BASIC one- its called, well i just call it the amount of plays a guy has made.

In 2008 Adam Dunn made 1.97 plays per game (per 9 innings) as a LF – the league average was 1.90!!

For Adam Dunn’s career he has made the same exact 1.97 plays per game, in 950 games out there – since 2001 when Dunn came into the league the league average for ML Lf’s is 1.93!!!

Do you understand what this means you idiots out there? Dunn was and has always been and was again last year an A-V-E-R-A-G-E major league LF. Do you understand that? ? He’s not a Gold Glover, He’s not GOOD, He’s not BAD, He’s certainly not a DH unless of course you wan’t to classify all of these Left Fielders as Designated Hitters…

Pat Burrel 1.77 in 1185 games
Moises Alou 1.76 in 1244 games in LF
Luis Gonzalez 1.99 in 2418 games
Josh Willingham 1.76 in 371 games
Ryan Braun 1.95 in 149 games
Carlos Lee 1.98 in 1403 games
Jason Bay 1.97 in 740 games
Man-Ram 1.76 in 890 games in LF
Matt Holliday 1.92 in 687 games
Adam Lind 1.87 in 153 games
Carlos Quentin 1.83 in 135 games
Delmon Young 1.99 in 151 games

Endy Chavez, Alfonso Soriano, Randy Winn, Dave Roberts, Carl Crawford, Johnny Damon, Shannon Stewart, Jay Payton, Ben Francisco, Garett Anderson were/are significantly better than Dunn at catching the ball in Left Field over the years. they were ALL also more athletic players and were all able to play a decent CF at times during thier careers. Besides Soriano, Lee, and sometimes Anderson, NONE of them can put runs on the board like Dunn

The most interesting players on the top list are Holliday and Quentin. Both are damn good hitters like Dunn is, both are error-prone OF’s like Dunn who don’t throw particularily well but catch the balls near them and a few more. Enough to hold down jobs as average fielders who earn thier living with thier bats. Whats the difference?

Neither of them have to listen to MADE UP FANTASY BULLSHIT about how terrible of a Left Fielder they are!

He’s okay out there. Thats it. He isnt killing anybody. Would he more of an asset at 1b? Sure. Maybe. He just isn’t that bad of an outfielder folks

Garett Mock?

casejud — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:09:15 -0000

I'm new to FB. I thought I'd see if any nats fans know or have heard anything about if Mock will get a good shot at a starting spot or if they plan to keep him in relief? What do you think of Collin Balester so far? Also, does Tyler Clippard have any chances left? He really hasn't pitched bad in the big leagues when he has been given a shot. I suppose any expert rundowns of the Nats starting siruation would be interesting to hear. Jordan Zimmermann in 2009 possibly as well?

NEW Community prospect list: Vote on Twins prospects! and Royals results

casejud — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:28:36 -0000

Here are the results of the voting on who should be considered for the top 100 from the Royals and which bracket the will initially be in. There will be PLENTY of opportunity for them to be voted higher as things move along. I'm just interested in pushing the good prospects UP for now as we will be voting for the #100 prospect first when the time comes

Royals: Mike Moustakas- 21st (21-30 poll), Eric Hosmer-41st (41-50), Dan Cortes- 76th (71-80), Kila Ka' ahiue- 95th (91-100). Guys in the mix for 100th prospect: Dan Duffy, Micheal Montgomery, Tim Mellville

Now, lets here it Twins fans out there. Who belongs in the top 100 for the Twins. Please vote exctly WHERE if you can. If you say "Top 100" I count that as 100. If you say 70-80, I count that as a vote for 75th, and so on.

NEW Community List: Royals Top 20

casejud — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 15:26:10 -0000

I'm sticking to my guns here. Here's how I'm going to start this and i am open to any suggestions other than "don't do this".

I'm going to have the community evaluate ALL of John's top 20 lists as they come out. Just give a simple ranking for all the players on the top 20 list or make a more in-depth comment if you have seen or know more about a player. But what I am looking for is to classify them, generally, and begin the true polling after the last list is out.

You don't have to think about the entirety of the list. Just give me your opinions of the players. Every opinion counts!

This will be the only initial classification for Royals prospects so let your voice be heard!

I'm looking for either a number, as in ...Mike Moustakas: "55" or a range "10-30", or for a player you can just say "not in top 100". Any player in the Royals orginization who gets any vote in the top 100 will be considered, or moved up to be looked at later.

Have fun voting on the Royals top 20!

I won't be posting that often so it won't interfere with the other list and again voting won't start until all the top 20's are out and evaluated. i will post the reults for the voting on each list as the next one comes out or it looks like the voting has stopped on a list.

I'm only going to list the top 10 of the Royals but feel free to vote a ranking or range for ANY player in the orginization.

NEW Community Prospect List, from #100 to #1

casejud — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 19:12:24 -0000

I've been curious about this for quite a while so I'm just going to go ahead and try this myself guys. I am going to start at 100 and work our way up. The way to counteract any prospect being left off is to revauluate the list at any time and re-poll if need be. I'll explain further as we go along.

i actually think it would be pefect to run mine concurerently with John Sickels top 20 lists so we can classify all these prospects as they come along and really sort them out.

@ Just to be clear I'd prefer my list to be based on one simple criterion: Who, has signed a professional propect as of today will have the best big leuge career

I know a 16 year old kid isn't as sure a thing as a 24 year old guy tearing up AAA but it makes for good arguments. For instance, most consider Angel Villalona to be a better prospect than Kila Ka'aihue but there is room for one to think that Villalona doesn't even make the big leagues. if that is what you think you can vote that. I'd ask you just not to vote for Kila because you think he will help the Royals next year and Villalona won't help the Giants. Can't stop you though so whatever.

On that note the way I'm going to handle ballot stuffing, sock-puppeting or anything of that nature is... I don't care! It is just a list. If something looks completely ridiculous I reserve the right to re-evaluate anything.

I'm going to start with all of the Royals prospects who even vaguely could be considered for the 100 spot. I'll say thier names and you vote, manually, if you think they should be higher (in the top 99) lower (101 or lower) or considered for the top 100. Also, feel free to nominate ANYBODY who you think should be considered for #100 and vote, plus or minus on anybodys nomination. I'll let this run for a couple days then I'll have enough players for a poll.

This list will likely take quite a bit longer than the 1 to 100 list but it may be more interesting to some. Feel free to participate in BOTH lists as I will. We aren't competing. It is just a different way of looking at things. i find the sorting out and discussing the lower rated, mid-level prospects more intereresting. By discussing them you may find out why certain guys fall through the cracks. lets get started

Will Inman study or... keep your pitching prospects out of the Texas League!

casejud — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 07:59:13 -0000

In reading a recent, spirited debate on here (The Cahill thread) my pal, and sometime rival, Bleedjaxblue's description of a couple of pitchers as "puss arms" made me laugh and got me to thinking about Inman, specifically. It seemed to me, intuitively, that only really, really good pitchers could put up the kind of season he is having in the Texas League (8-3, 2.96, 6.7 Hits/9, 9.7 K's/9). So, I got ambitous and decided to check!

Baseballref.com's stats for the Tex League go back to 1992 and I though I'd go through and find guys who were A) 21-22 years old. Inman is 21 but for the sake of argument I thought I'd look for guy who were his age or OLDER since someone might complain that a guy who was 19-20 wasn't truly comparable B) Guys who have his specific, statistical profile.

Basically I didn't want to include guys who were sucessful by COMMAND, ie: guys who didn't walk guys or k guys so those kind of guys were left out. There isnt anybody in that group who was a 5-6 K per inning guy in that above group but there were guys who allowed a hit or two more per inning. Without going through EVERY guy who was close. The guys who were MOST similar were...

1993 Duff Brumley: Was 22, Allowed few hits 7.12, K'd slightly more 9.9, and walked a about a walk less 2.86. Similar but he DID allow more hits and less walks.

1993 Rick Helling, 22 Similar K's 9.5 but again allowed more hits and less walks.

1997 Scott Elarton 21 Pretty darned close. Low hits, high K's, walks just above 3.

1998 Freddy "The Chief" Garcia was pretty dang close also...low hits, higher walks and lower k's.

1999 John Patterson 21. He was very similar in K's and walks but gave up about 2 more hits per

1999 Eric Gagne might be the MOST similar statistically which I'll mention but he was 23 years old.

2000 Roy Oswalt was the first guy I found who fit the profile of Inman but couldn't be counted as similar because he was BETTER. Which makes sense. Even Inman's biggest fans, like myself, aren't thinking he'll be quite THAT good.

2001 Tim Redding, who was 23, was another guy who fit the mold but was BETTER. More K's, less walks, less hits. What happened?

2002 Jesse Foppert 21 was very similar

2003 Bobby Jenks second go round in the Tex League was pretty similar but with, of course, more walks.

2003 CH Tsao 22 was similar but BETTER. As dominant but with mush better control.

2003 Clint Nageotte 22 was similar but a little worse in hits, walks and K's.

2006 Ubaldo Jimenez 22 was pretty darned close...more walks.

2008 The last guy who is pretty close to Inman is pitching with him there this season, Daniel Cortes.

Ok, what does this prove? Nothing, I admit. Inman may become as good as Freddy Garcia, or Rick Helling, become a good closer like Gagne or Jenks orrr the likely option ( I prey not) based on the data...get hurt! Of all the guys who were REMOTELY similar to Will the amount of injuries to them is staggering! it's almost a who's who of great pitching prospects who got hurt...

Alan Benes, Scott Karl, John Patterson, Bud Smith, Carlos Hernandez, Jesse Foppert, Rick Harden, Chin Hui Tsao, Travis Blackley, Clint Nageotte, Fernando Nieve, Thomas Diamond. Don't forget that Elarton and Redding were a great prospects too, got hurt, have come back, but have never been the same guys.There are many, many more as well. Those are just the guys I was complaring to Inman.

The Cal League gets mentioned as the toughest for pitchers but it looks like if you just SURVIVE pitching in the Texas League you have accomplished something. Good luck Will. I think he's special. Interesting that most all the players who are close to him statistically had or have great stuff and Inman supposedly doesan't. He may not HAVE power but he gets results like a power pitcher...always has. I thuink its likely he has a fastball like Chris Young or Micah Owings...one that measures at 89-92 but gets swing and misses like it's 94-95.

Last Note: Jeff Francis should get a special award for surviving (and being truly great) the Texas League AND 3 and a half years in Coors. The kid from my hometown (Vancouver, BC) is 27 but in Texas League years it's gotta be 37.

Am I an idiot? Lowrie and Belisle for Rich Hill and Maxwell

casejud — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 04:11:02 -0000

Not in general, in this specific case...lol

I dealt Jed Lowrie and Matt Belisle for Rich Hill and Justin Maxwell

I have never asked for an opinion on a trade before but I'm curious to see what people think.

I'm in a 24 team DMB league and am a contender, needed a Lefty starter. We keep the players from year to year (20 plus 5 aaa players).

I figured I'd get some support onhere since most only talk shit about Lowrie. Personally, I really like him but I look at it like this...

Hill might help us win a playoff series or a championship this year, Lowrei AND Hill wont give me much next, and if Hill turns it around in 2009 he could end up being as good a big leaguer (or better) than Lowrie over the next 6-7-8 years... not high on Belisle at all...Maxwell has shown some glimpses in AA this year and could be the CF in Washiungton next year.

Of course Rich Hill was completely destroyed at Iowa tonight. I made the deal before that start. Any insight into what is wrong with the guy? I know he has complicated mechanics but I still have to figure he isnt washed up at age 28 dont I? Do you think he'll bounce back in 2009?

Poll

Will Rich Hill bounce back in 2009? I consider 2008 a lost cause after tonights start. Who will get the better in this deal in the long-run? We have Christian Guzman at Short in the short-tearm if that makes a difference... the team I delt Lowrie to has D

Team that got Jed Lowrie and Matt Belisle

30 votes

Team that got Rich Hill and Justin Maxwell

20 votes

50 votes | Poll has closed