beckdawg
Well-known member
- Joined:
- Oct 31, 2012
- Posts:
- 11,750
- Liked Posts:
- 3,741
I couldn't care less what Maddon thinks to be honest. For one, you know as well as I do that anything he said could just be coach speak. Aside from that, the argument that he knows more is kind of pointless to me because it is essentially the same as saying what he does is unquestionable because he "knows more." If he makes any controversial in game call everyone and their mom will be on him if he's wrong. That's sports. People are entitled to their opinions. If he thinks Baez is ready keeps him then whatever I'll roll with it. But like I said, I think it's entirely fucking stupid from a team standpoint to keep Alcantara up then because you're choosing to waste full time play for one of the two.
As for the spring training thing, I don't think we really need to get into a big debate over the stats and which may matter and not. My only point where is you can't say that Baez has done well. I know you'll argue he's hit the ball hard but to me that's not really a surprise because when he made contact last year in the majors he hit the ball *HARD*. That's just the player he is. Ultimately Alcantara and Olt may be fools gold based on the stats. I've been pretty clear to acknowledge that possibility. My point in talking about DWL/ST stats is that while their bb/k rate might not be the most stellar ever that they have still hit well. There's two ways you can interpret that. One is that it's all an illusion based on sample size. The other is that rather than the average/obp being the illusion the bb/k rate is what is the noise and that will come down. Not only has Baez had bad bb/k rates(3 walks 20 K's in 52 ABs) but he's also got over 2x as many K's as hits(9).
To me it comes down to the fact that you don't keep Baez on the team unless he starts at 2B because he has to get full time play. I don't think you should keep Alcantara if you do that because he too should get full time play be it at MLB or AAA. As a coach, I honestly can't see how you rationalize starting Baez who's been worse than not just Alcantara but also La Stella. As a team, I don't see how you justify to your fans and to the MLBPA starting Baez and sending Bryant down. I say that as someone who thinks Bryant should start in AAA.
And again, I've yet to see an argument as to how him starting in AAA hurts him. For one, we know for a fact he's working on some tweaks to his swing. Additionally from his ST numbers we know that there's a lot of work still to be had. Even if "there's nothing for him in AAA" last season that's prior to him messing with his swing which can take even developed players time(see: Castro). Starting him in the majors just seems to me like throwing a ton of unnecessary pressure on him.
