MLB 2018 regular season thread

I think scouts have a more difficult job than you guys give them credit for. The guy was new to the United States, and they were trying to get some gauge on how his mechanics would translate here. They couldn’t just ignore his spring training at bats. And as Passan later pointed out, he did adjust. That’s something they didn’t account for - he’s apparently a quick study.

 

Then they should have said it was too early to tell, or that he looks like he needs to make some adjustments before the season starts to have success. You seem reluctant to criticize them, or Passan, for basing an opinion on a tiny sample of plate appearances in spring training. That's the bit that doesn't make sense given your constant rambling about the evils of using small sample sizes.

 

Giving his first spring training in America more weight than his five seasons in Japan was dumb.

 

Just stumbled upon this ...

 

But don't forget, it's the 19 plate appearances during the regular season that was too small of a sample size to be valid.

 

There was more nuance there than that, though. I don’t know that they were rendering final judgment - they thought that his swing, at the time, was indicative of someone who needed PAs in the minor leagues to adjust it to the different repertoires he would face in the United Ststes. That doesn’t seem absurd, considering his young age and how miserable he really did look in his spring ABs. And as much as I respect Passan, there is an element here of us being at the mercy of the gatekeeper and the space he had to write. I doubt he emptied the notebook.

 

You just can't stop making excuses for that one, can you?

The scouts were wrong. Passan was wrong. Whoever wrote the headline on that was very wrong. And for all of your crying about small sample sizes after his first 19 plate appearances in the majors, you still can't bring yourself to criticize any of them for using an even smaller one to make an early judgement on Ohtani.

 

I wonder how many clicks the story got.

 

Don't forget Barry Bloom on this.

 

I clicked on it a shitload for reference while arguing with DW for 2 weeks.

 

Sat, May 12

Jonathan Schoop mashed a pair of home runs to spearhead a 6-3 win over the Rays on Saturday.

Advice: Both were solo dongs and both came off Rays' starter Chris Archer. Schoop had just one homer all year prior to today -- quite a surprise considering he went deep 32 times a year ago. Perhaps this is the start of a hot streak. He has a .250 batting average with nine RBI and 12 runs scored. He recently returned from a three-week stint on the disabled list with an oblique strain.

(Rotoworld.com)

 

Robinson Cano just fractured his hand.