Inside Pitch

This thread is the best indication of how much things have changed. There is no consensus..... Three years ago everyone and their brother would have said Newcomb.

Mussina is both underrated and overrated -- he was never the best pitcher in the league in part because of the RJ's Pedro's and Clemen's of the era.. but if those guys were Aces, then Mussiina was an Ace lite... It's funny because in his second season he put up an 8 WAR year and finished 4th for the Cy Young behind Eckersley, Blackjack McDowell, and Clemens. He wasn't a Sutton like compiler but he was one of those guys who's peak just wasn't as pronounced as the typical elite pitcher... This is where guys like Verlander and Halladay come across as better. Still, he pitched the entirety of his career in the AL East during the live ball era and in some of the most offensive minded parks of the era... At 83.0 bWAR he ranks 29th all time... He ranks 20th all time in Ks and it wasn't like he just hung around forever, he's only 66th on the all time IP list. Guy had 5 WAR seasons at ages 37 and 39... He was consistently very very good. He was remarkably consistent, and I think over time it's blurred the fact that he was quietly dominant as the K total shows.

Scherzer... 3 Cys -- and still extremely dominant. Crazy part of that era -- you didn't even mention Schilling, Mussina, or Pedro... Now that his career is seemingly over -- you look at John Lackey and dude had one heck of a quality career. Outside of his 2011 season the guy was as rock solid a second tier guy as you could find.

Dude, I love those articles -- I never actually read them after the first one but, whenever I see them pop they remind me of how much I appreciate The Atheltic, and how I've not missed anything by not tuning into ESPN in what feels like a decade. Between MLB Network and The Athletic, I find I have no use for ESPN other than to check their scoreboard/boxscores and unless there is a Sunday night MLB game. Crazy how far they have fallen IMO.

Ditto on Marsh... I know we both specifically pointed at Marsh as the guy we thought might surprise people the most -- lots of physical tools there... And while I shied away from ranking guys for our top 30 that had not played a game, I made an exception for Canning due to his track record at UCLA... The uptick in velocity has IMO made him a lot more interesting. The guy I want to most see play is kid from the Bahamas. Lots of glowing reviews but.. havent seen him.

Dude needs a phantom injury and then a ten day rehab in AAA... If SLC doesn't build his confidence nothing will. Looks absolutely awful.

Sorry -- Strength of Schedule. I should have linked to it -- My bad.

it's still not a bad contract. Really if all he does is repeat his 2.1 WAR the next couple years they end up getting their money's worth, at least from the perspective of WAR and the perceived value (cost) of the a win. At worst it's a contract they should be able to flip due to his defensive value.

When I first read this a couple weeks ago I couldn't help but think of Todd Marinovich and think that Ohtani was what Marv was hoping for.... Goes to show that all the physical tuning and prep in the world won't mean squat if the melon isn't right. That really was a great read, as was the recent Ichiro one detailing his relationship with his father and the impact on him as a person/player.

.289/.340/.489 with men on base .vs .220/.220/.380 with the bases empty.. It's really the only thing keeping him from full blown suckage. Having him lead off an inning after a 3 and out 1st inning has not been ideal so far this year.

That IS a good article. Honestly.. if the old man can just put up a couple 105 OPS seasons this year and next we would have to consider those a win on some level. He's not gonna live up to the contract, he's massively overpaid.. hopefully lessons were learned and the Angels will be better off for it in the future. If he repeats last year's awfulness -- I'd hope they would accept it as a sunk cost and act accordingly.

Yep -- you've always been really good about pointing out game conditions when you've been at the park giving first hand accounts... A lot of the southern parks in the Cal League seem to have pretty big weather induced variances... Well, to be truthful, I don't think he will ever be a legit power guy. But if he can grow into a strong OBP, 15 HR guy that won't embarrass himself with the glove sort of player then there will be some value there. My point moreso is that as a whole our minor league parks have some interesting park effects. The Low A Bees play in a park that tends to be very hitter friendly in a pitcher's league -- I've never been there but seems like anything hit into the air tends to carry -- the HR and FB rates are pretty skewed towards hitters, meanwhile LD rates have played pretty brutally in recent years.. Then we've got IE and it's weather induced factors that tends to play like a pitchers park, in a league that still carries a reputation for being a hitter's league despite it no longer really being the case save for a few parks. Our AA team plays in a park that impacts HRs but tends to slightly play hitter friendly -- runs, 2B/3Bs tend to play up -- ditto the LD rates.... Then you have AAA at altitude where curves don't break and hitter flaws get masked as a result -- it's easily the most consistent albeit skewed park in the system... good thing by the time they reach AAA we can expect them to be mostly MLB ready. Anyway.... this is where I think Eppler and company have been doing a lot of in house number crunching -- they must have something they are looking at that gives them greater insight into how these guys will play in what tend to be pretty diverse hitter/pitcher environments. I have at times wondered if their new aggressive approach to promotions isn't a result of them looking at some of these park conditions and throwing guys into situation that will either help them along or force them to improve area's of needs. Our parks outside of SLC tend aren't as uniform in their play-styles as they used to be. As you probably know from reading my park tendencies rants over the years, it's an area I've always spent a lot of time on... Whether it's by design or happenstance, I don't know. But I do like how the current collection of minor league parks blend together, as whole i think it's likely been beneficial from a development standpoint.

It's actually two walls. There is a taller wall behind it with the scoreboards on it, and a one foot gap between them. The color line is there to make it easier on the umpiring staff. given both walls are the same color. I'm not a fan of it, but there are worse problems to have. First world problems...

So about that SOS .... Angels - .536. 6th best overall. Among teams 5+ games above .500 only the D-Backs have a higher SOS Houston - .432 Seattle - ..461 Oakland - .518 Texas - .529 The running narrative in some places was that the Angels had been beating up on crap teams like Oakland. Oakland is 13-11. They are 11-6 .vs everyone not named the Angels.

Keep in mind his home park has a HR index of 86 for RHBs, so it will mask the power some. Likewise, IE's HR index was 66 for RHBs.... For perspective, the HR index in SF was 75 for RHBs.

You're a one man consensus...

I nearly typed out the same exact thing but.. LOL, was funny.

Unless it's a different Anderson -- this guy was a two time All State selection while at St. Pius HS in Texas... Draft reports from those days claimed he could hit the mid 90s but was inconsistent with his velocity. In college he was a full time starter, his velocity stabilized but was unremarkable. He may just be one of those guys that greatly benefits from being able to let it all fly for shorter stints.

Depends on what guys at the back end of the list got last year I guess. I think we likely see one guy for decent money ... Epp likes to spread money around so, it's anyone's guess.

New signing period getting closer... https://www.mlb.com/news/2018-top-30-international-prospects-list/c-273511500 Top 30 possible international signs... http://m.mlb.com/prospects/2018/?list=int

From virtually no presence to being in every single market... in less than three years...

Thanks for linking to this -- great read.

You mean the same Mike Scioscia that took K-Rod and inserted him into any and every situation in 2002? The same Mike Scioscia that took Jordan Walden and had him Fernando Rodney as the closer after three games in 2011? There are many other examples.. I'm choosing those guys because they are all pretty well evenly spread. But be it Mike Fyhrie, Goggles, Donnelley... Jeppy.. He's never been shy to throw guys into the fire out of the pen. It's the same Mike Scioscia.. It's the narratives that seemingly change.

Buddy Boshers.....

He wasn't going to ever get a Verlander deal because he never put up that sort of a track record. I pointed to Rich Hill's deal as an example of how teams would in fact be willing to give him a decent deal. You scoffed at that too. Teams will pay for upside -- Richards' upside is real, and the Phillies GM knows him well. Barring injury he's likely a good bet to get a deal somewhere between what Arrieta and Darvish got... and that number may go north if Patrick Corbin continues to do what he's been doing. Keshaw, Corbin, and Richards may all be on the market at the same time .. PLUS all the one year guys from this season.