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1. Spivey Posted: July 09, 2010 at 11:41 PM (#3584162)Halladay has the track record and is even more of a horse. But this year, Cliff Lee appears to be on some type of mercenary mission. 6 walks in 103 innings - absolutely incredible.
Jamey's Step Five, without Perez/Holland/Scheppers being included. I'm pumped.
They could. A lot of things *could* happen. But Colby Lewis looks very good, and if you've watched him a lot I think he's really shown that his Japanese results were not a fluke.
CJ Wilson has shaky control, but ultimately is a tough pitcher to hit. But he's a good #3 - he'll have good games and bad, and I don't think he's a true 3.2 ERA pitcher but he's pretty dependable.
I will confidently take the under on this one for Lewis.
Scouts know better.
a) Smoak busts out despite the wrist injury last year;
b) Lueke can build on his video-game numbers this year (1.04 WHIP and 62K in 38.1 IP????);
c) Beavan turns into a rotation horse instead of a #5 guy (FWIW BP had Roy Halladay as one of his comps)
d) Lawson amounts to anything.
We also get to see a huge trade made BETWEEN division rivals. JZ has got to be thinking that Texas can't afford Lee for next season due to the tumultuous sale saga. If he's wrong, Seattle's contention possibilities take a huge hit.
Lastly, we get to ridicule Ruben Amaro for his ridiculously weak haul for Lee. That he traded him in the first place is bad enough. But the haul just received for Lee only magnifies how badly Amaro jobbed himself on last year's deal.
Texas is a park that yields a lot more hits than Seattle, and his batting average has never really been higher than .230 this year. I mean, I'm not ready to just call him a bust - but I don't think he's a clear allstar either - I think he has a long way to go to reach that level, if he ever even gets there. Hell, he has a long way to go just to become a good first basemen. And because of that, I still recognize he's a solid prospect, but I'm not losing sleep over dealing him. You aren't getting a big time pitcher for nothing. Unless you're dealing with Philly, I guess.
Or you could go for broke and get Adam Dunn.
Branyan would have been the obvious guy to ask for as part of this package. The Mariners could have parted with him since they were getting Smoak.
And it's just barely possible that Scott Feldman isn't dead yet, given a strong outing last night. For the first time in maybe 14 years, the Rangers seem to have a surplus of good pitching. I can't believe I'm writing that sentence.
Chris Davis is a good glove man at first, and they'd be well-advised to simply bat him eighth and tell him to concentrate on defense. "Six-man offense" is a legitimate critique of this club, but heck, the '06 Cardinals had a three-man offense to go with their fortuitous starting pitching. Really, I'd be squirming with delight if the '10 Rangers won even one playoff series. Never happened before.
This "Smoak ain't all that" commentary puzzles me. Have we failed to understand that some guys take longer to adjust? And wrist injuries affect a hitter for a good year after being healed. Smoak controls the strike zone and looks to have a clue.
I ain't giving up on LaPorta and am certainly not on Smoak
Now, am I going to get any acknowledgement for suggesting Smoak as a trade piece a while back? I recall a mocking at that point. Hmmph.
Don't we get to ridicule Jack Z just a little bit for "building" a team that couldn't manage to win 40% of its games despite having Lee and Hernandez and getting 425 innings of sub-3 ERA from their four best starters? Team OPS+ is 80; last in the AL by a substantial margin.
I recall a mocking at that point.
I guess I don't pay close enough attention. Are there really posters here who have yet to learn that it is unwise to mock Mr. Wallbangers?
Now, am I going to get any acknowledgement for suggesting Smoak as a trade piece a while back? I recall a mocking at that point. Hmmph.
From whom? Either way, I'm not writing him off. But I've seen him play enough to where he's not a clear all-star in the making and the next half year he's likely to be a hindrance. He's also seemed pretty poor at defense, which is a shame as he had a good defensive rep coming through the minors.
Not you. I don't even think it was a Ranger fan. Just a poster wanting to put someone down.
This is an excellent point. I actually forgot for a moment that the M's had just acquired Branyan, and it looks a little silly now taken as a whole. With Saunders/Gutierrez/Suzuki pretty well set, does Branyan become the full-time DH? Platoon with Bradley? Hilariously for a team who's just had Casey Kotchman start like the last 7 games at 1B, they don't seem to have a whole lot of room for another player at this end of the spectrum. You can't really platoon Smoak with anybody, he's been woeful against LHP so far this season. Seems like any way you look at it, Branyan should have come back to Texas in this deal.
I can't speak for others, but my "Smoak isn't all that" commentary wasn't that Smoak isn't/wasn't a prospect, but that his prospect rank relative to other prospects seemed to be too high, considering his position and skill set.
BA had him at #13
BPro at # 17
why so far higher than Brett Wallace? or Ike Davis?
Why near top 10 and not around 25th or so?
I'm not exactly a prospect wonk, but I think his raw power projects better than Wallace's, and he's thought of as a better overall hitter (especially wrt plate discipline) than Davis.
Close call between Smoak and Ike. Definitely better plate discipline, though Davis has so far shown more power. Smoak is a big guy with a good swing, so everyone thinks he'll develop power. But he has not shown it yet, and the Mariners don't have to look very far to find another 1B prospect, now 27, who never did develop that power.
Jason Giambi was once that kind of prospect, and he developed a lot of power. Same with Rafael Palmeiro. It's an open question how often this plays out:
Big kid + sweet swing + good eye + doubles power = future homerun power
In the abscence of steroids.
As for Wallace, if it weren't for draft position and the fact that baseball people still think decently of him, I would not even consider him a prospect. He's struck more than twice as often as he walks (I thought he was supposed to be a patient hitter) and his hitting is just not impressive enough for playing in the PCL. He's got 800 PCL plate appearances and is hitting 297/357/477. Including a .497 slugging this year in Las Vegas, which is one of the more ridiculous hitters parks in a hitter's league. For point of reference, the team is slugging .492, including .596 from Chris Lubanski, who nobody considers a prospect anymore.
Where be edit?
Smoak showed good power in college, and he showed very good power when he was with team USA this last year. I think comparing his power to Kotchman isn't fair to him, though I am thinking he may be more warning track power than big time HR threat power in the majors - hence why he showed a little more power at lower levels.
But he's young, and a rookie - so I don't think we can't right him off just yet. I've seen him turn on a letters high Wade Davis fastball and put it deep into the RF seats.
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