This week in baseball blogs…
- The First Out At Third, Chin Music Baseball and Bronx To Bushville (links: 1, 2) each react to the Brewers’ acquisitions of Christian Yelich and Lorenzo Cain.
- Blue Jays Beat ponders the team’s next move after it came up short in the Yelich sweepstakes, while Blue Jay Hunter finds the silver lining in their failure to acquire him.
- The Junkball Daily makes an argument that Nolan Arenado is the game’s most complete slugger.
- The Point of Pittsburgh sees potential for a breakout from reliever Michael Feliz.
- 216Stitches isn’t sure if Joe Musgrove, who came with Feliz in the Gerrit Cole trade, is a good fit for the Pirates.
- The Sports Esquires explores the effects of the ongoing television rights dispute between the Nationals and Orioles.
- Baseball Takes evaluates J.D. Martinez.
- Good Fundies slams the Mets for operating like a small-market franchise.
- Believeland Ball takes a look at how Edwin Encarnacion’s contract has affected the Indians’ strategy this offseason.
- Sports Talk Philly interviews longtime major leaguer Paul Konerko about one of his former teammates, new Hall of Famer Jim Thome.
- The Sports Tank pays tribute to Thome’s career.
- Camden Depot asks if Adam Jones is undervalued.
- Nyrdcast wants more moves from the Cardinals.
- District On Deck lists five potential midseason trade targets for the Nationals.
- Pirates Breakdown is frustrated that the Bucs seem to be lagging well behind some of their division rivals.
- Big Three Sports ranks the game’s 100 best prospects.
- East Village Times contends signing Eric Hosmer may be the Padres’ only chance to land a big-time free agent.
- Jays From the Couch assesses Toronto’s outfield options.
- Rotisserie Duck posits that Joey Votto may be the most underrated star in baseball.
- Pinstriped Prospects chats with Yankees right-handed prospect Taylor Widener.
- The 3rd Man In talks with Clemson slugger Seth Beer, one of the top prospects set to enter this year’s draft.
- The Loop Sports revisits the 2011 trade that saw the Cubs send DJ LeMahieu to the Rockies.
- The Giants Cove looks back at past labor strife and ahead to the next CBA negotations.
- The Runner Sports (links: 1, 2, 3) delves into the Twins’ pursuit of Yu Darvish, evaluates which ex-Yankees could make the Hall of Fame in 2019, and offers info on the Astros’ minor league coaching staffs.
- DiNardo’s Dugout (podcast) discusses the Brewers’ big moves and Hall of Fame snubs.
- Clubhouse Corner’s Bernie Pleskoff discusses the melding and blending of money and metrics in baseball.
- Puckett’s Pond wonders if the Twins would be smart to extend Brian Dozier.
- Around the Foghorn analyzes the Giants’ signing of Austin Jackson.
- The K Zone is bullish on Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo.
- Rox Pile names five statistical areas in which the Rockies must improve in 2018.
- Everything Bluebirds highlights a few free agent relievers Toronto could sign to replace Dominic Leone.
- STL Hat Trick writes about what Leone will bring to the Cardinals.
- Notes from the Sally previews the 2018 Greenville Drive, Boston’s South Atlantic League affiliate.
- Dodgers Way projects the club’s 25-man roster.
- Real McCoy Minor News profiles Twins prospects Nick Gordon and Royce Lewis.
- NY Yankees Digest predicts who will make the Hall of Fame in 2019.
- Call to the Pen (links: 1, 2) focuses on potential starting pitcher targets for the Phillies, and spotlights a couple unheralded records that are likely unbreakable.
- Mets Daddy doesn’t see Trevor Hoffman as a deserving Hall of Famer.
- Motor City Bengals looks at what became of some members of the Tigers’ 2006 pennant-winning team.
Please send submissions to ZachBBWI @gmail.com.
Nimmo showed an elite skill last year, BB%, coupled with respectable power and contact hitting. The rule of thumb for GM’s is to always utilize any elite skill, be it pitch recognition, base stealing ability, elite power, velocity etc. because that is the only thing that sets you apart from the pack.
In essence I would rather have the player with a single elite skill who is slightly below average at everything else over the player who is average at everything.
Even if it is elite outfield defense with an elite arm, that’s better over an average option.
So is Billy Hamilton overvalued or undervalued?
I think he’s overvalued. He shouldn’t be a regular starter. He’d definitely be extraordinarily valuable as a fifth outfielder since you could use his elite speed off the bench for key pinch running.
I would, without a doubt, carry Hamilton as a fifth outfielder solely because of the basestealing over other options.
Even if I had a league average outfielder I would still go with Hamilton as the 5th OF because late/close basestealing and defense is more valuable than average offense in that roster spot.
I was with you through this post… love how you conceptualized the idea of value being greater for a 5th OF with one elite skill over average across the board. It makes very good sense assuming by average it is meant average for a 5th OF.
If average means the average OF than I might not be in total support but I still applaud your thought process!
But another thing about Hamilton is that the CF defense is also elite. In fact it is the best in the game.
So 9 innings each day of elite CF defense I think it is justifiable starting him regularly and the offense basically doesn’t matter, until you find a better CF option.
Teams win championships all the time with players who have elite defense at key positions with no offense.
In essence 9 innings of elite defense > than 4 at bats per game, most of which are in situations that aren’t important.
How many times does Hamilton come to bat in a situation that’s important? Maybe once or twice a game on average. But each inning you are getting top defense.
so 5th OF you say??
How many defensive chances are “important”?. Most chances are relatively routine.
It goes both ways.
I get it, but you over do it. “No offense” would mean a strikeout every time.
Yeah, after you find a CF with above average offense.
They’re finally figuring out the leverage index. Which means you use your closer in the 6th inning for example when the LI is at a peak.
In the same way when it’s a tie game in the late innings and a runner gets on, the LI spikes, and then you pinch run Hamilton.
The only problem giving arenado any kind of title like that is we don’t know what kind of player he is offensively for a whole year with thick air. Once he gets out of Colorado we should have a clearer view, hopefully not too late
But if he resigns with Colorado and can hit even close to what he has for 5-6 more years he could punch his hall of fame ticket. Money talks but give the dude credit, he takes even in relativity to Coors
*rakes
Coors field is not an advantage to ISO and determining one of the best power hitters. Looks around at the size of Coors field, understands a triple is one of the hardest things to do in baseball, looks back at the stats. He nearly triples, no pun intended, his rate at home. I think we found a flaw.
DJ LeMahieu is a nice payer, nothing more.
His stats outside Coors are way down.
He has had a WAR over 2.9 ONE time., even with the Coors influence.
Rockies got the best o the trade, but…meh.
My best analogy for sports analytics is this. A middle linebacker like Mike Singletary would not even be in the NFL today because of combine data. A person’s leadership ability or personality no longer matters because theyre all reducing everything to physical analysis.
As a Padres fan, I 100% agree with Hoffman being in the HOF
But the simplest argument I can make is, they named a baseball award after him. The best NL reliever gets the Trever Hoffman Award. Now I’m not completely positive, but I can’t think of anyone else who has an award named after them and not in the hall or considered one of the greatest at their respected position of all time.
Edgar Martinez outstanding DH award
Wow I can’t believe I missed that one. Relievers and DH are such a huge part of the game we love and both of them were some of the best ever. They both should be in the hall
Another Lee Smith fan in that Mets Daddy article and easy to understand why. just the numbers explain it and seeing him, the longevity, he was one of the greatest closers ever and being denied HOF enshrinement is a shame.