Farmer1906 said:

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iBrad said:

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If you take the supposed 5 year, $90M offer we made to Keuchel in 2016 and subtract what he earned in 2017 and 2018, you're looking at $22.55M per year for three years. Do you go back and say, "want to consider this again?" Maybe give him an opt out after two years if he wants to test the market again.

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That makes a lot of sense. We offered that when Dallas had all the leverage. Now he doesn't and if we still offered that then I think it would be a sign of respect. We thought you were worth this when you won a Cy and we still do.

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I spent all of last year hating on Keuchel, and yet I find myself hopeful that he will return on a short contract like this. I'm shaking my head at myself...

jja79 said:

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Random thought on Tucker. I thought he looked terrible in his time last year which was a fair assessment I think. It got me thinking though about Mike Schmidt. His first full year, playing regularly he hit .196. He got better though. Obviously.

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He looked terrible....in 64 ABs....

I just thought it was unfair the amount of crap the kid took when he only got 64 ABs. A fair amount of those ABs were not even consecutive.

In reality, I wish they would have left him in AAA and let Tony play the OF the majority of the year.

He obviously had holes in his swing and things to work on. I hope he worked on them and shows enough improvement to tear spring training up. I'd really like for him to get about 2 months worth of consecutive ABs if he's show improvement in those areas. If he can be 80% of what is advertised, you could argue he'd be our 2nd best outfielder.

The problem is HOW he looked so terrible. It was on anything but fastballs and some sliders. If it was a hook or a changeup, he was completely ineffective.

https://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=18345&position=OF

When the hole in your swing is a location, you can adjust, tweak mechanics, approach, etc... but if you can't read major league curveball and adjust, you're in trouble. Hopefully our coaches have been working with him. I hope he worked on that and actually wish Beltran was around to teach him a few of his old tricks on reading pitches. I still remember my first time reading this article and how it was actually the first thing that opened my eyes to analytics and tech in sports.

http://www.mlb.com/content/printer_friendly/mlb/y2005/m02/d26/c951303.jsp

Beat40 said:

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jja79 said:

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Random thought on Tucker. I thought he looked terrible in his time last year which was a fair assessment I think. It got me thinking though about Mike Schmidt. His first full year, playing regularly he hit .196. He got better though. Obviously.

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He looked terrible....in 64 ABs....

I just thought it was unfair the amount of crap the kid took when he only got 64 ABs. A fair amount of those ABs were not even consecutive.

In reality, I wish they would have left him in AAA and let Tony play the OF the majority of the year.

He obviously had holes in his swing and things to work on. I hope he worked on them and shows enough improvement to tear spring training up. I'd really like for him to get about 2 months worth of consecutive ABs if he's show improvement in those areas. If he can be 80% of what is advertised, you could argue he'd be our 2nd best outfielder.

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There wasn't a lot of positive to take away from his first big league experience. At times he did look bad, but he also had some unluckiness to him.

His hard hit % was 33.3. It's around top 100. Very similar to Altuve & Springer. But his Babip was .176. League average is .296.

To put it another way he lead the league in difference between expected outcomes and actual outcomes.

wOBA - .207
xwOBA - .325

What?!?

Why was his BABIP so low? You can't take these metrics in isolation.

While exit velocity / launch angle / etc. were high because of bat speed, stats show he only barreled up 2 pitches out of 51 batted balls last year. His velocity was created by swing speed, but his timing was pretty far off. I'm confident he will fix it, but it's going to take some work.

Buck Compton said:

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Why was his BABIP so low? You can't take these metrics in isolation.

While exit velocity / launch angle / etc. were high because of bat speed, stats show he only barreled up 2 pitches out of 51 batted balls last year. His velocity was created by swing speed, but his timing was pretty far off. I'm confident he will fix it, but it's going to take some work.

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It wasn't in isolation. It was used with his hard contact %. If you look at xwOBA it includes exit velo & launch angle.

But I agree. he hit too many into the ground and in general didn't hit enough of them. The barrels will come when he gets more selective and makes contact more often.

Buck Compton said:

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The problem is HOW he looked so terrible. It was on anything but fastballs and some sliders. If it was a hook or a changeup, he was completely ineffective.

https://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=18345&position=OF

When the hole in your swing is a location, you can adjust, tweak mechanics, approach, etc... but if you can't read major league curveball and adjust, you're in trouble. Hopefully our coaches have been working with him. I hope he worked on that and actually wish Beltran was around to teach him a few of his old tricks on reading pitches. I still remember my first time reading this article and how it was actually the first thing that opened my eyes to analytics and tech in sports.

http://www.mlb.com/content/printer_friendly/mlb/y2005/m02/d26/c951303.jsp

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I get it. I get what you are saying. I don't disagree with any of it.

My point is it's still only 64 ABs that weren't mostly consecutive ABs. That HAS to be tough to make adjustments for a young player dealing with expectation and knowing MLB breaking stuff is much harder to hit than at the minor league level. That's something that I meant when I said things to work on. I absolutely agree he wasn't ready for MLB level play last year. That is not in dispute.

My only point is I think he unfairly took too much heat last year. That's it. My only point.

I'm also saying that if it appears he's shown improvements in the areas management wanted him to improve, he has a spring like he did last year, and management feels he has a shot at success at the MLB level, I would prefer him get the first 2 months of playing time to see what we have instead of playing the 2 or 3 games, taking 2 or 3 off strategy.

That's 100% fair.

Need more airtime for "woke" center. ESPiN has completely **** the bed and lost their roots.

My big beef with Baseball Tonight was turning it on at 6pm west coast time they always spent the first 20 minutes on Red Sox and Yankees then showed the plays of the day and the going, going gone and I am like thinking WTF? The West Coast games haven't started the central games are only half way through. ultimately it was just an East Coast Baseball show.
Thankfully I found MLB Network.......

Some more details...
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/maurybrown/2019/01/30/espn-in-negotiations-to-extend-mlb-media-rights/amp/

HerschelwoodHardhead said:

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You clearly haven't watched ESPN recently. New regime change shifted away from focusing on political/social issues. They've gone back to the basics in a lot of ways.

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You are correct. They lost me permanently a few years ago

Just watched Marwin launch a 3 run dinger with 2 outs in the top of the 9th in SF.

I applied for this

Mr.Bond said:

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MLB Network it is

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agproducer said:

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PhatMack19 said:

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Another reason to hate ESPN

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Baseball Tonight used to be appointment viewing for me in the late 90s. The show would have constant live looks at games in progress along with full highlights. Then, the show evolved into the talking heads talking too much. Just give me the highlights!

MLB Network has got it right. Quick Pitch is good. MLB Tonight is a decent watch. The closest thing I've found to old Baseball Tonight is MLB Whiparound on FS1. The problem with that is you never know when that's on.

Speaking as a former TV news guy, consultants have destroyed ESPN. The network tried to capture the casual fan with flash and big names, but then alienated its core audience. But, I digress....

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but now we have more time for the Johnsonville Brats Cornhole championships!

ESPN has come full circle - when it started they didn't have enough content so they showed basically anything....now we got cornhole and no Baseball Tonight. Interesting choices....I bet they get cornhole for free and Baseball tonight actually costs money.

MAROON said:

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agproducer said:

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PhatMack19 said:

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Another reason to hate ESPN

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Baseball Tonight used to be appointment viewing for me in the late 90s. The show would have constant live looks at games in progress along with full highlights. Then, the show evolved into the talking heads talking too much. Just give me the highlights!

MLB Network has got it right. Quick Pitch is good. MLB Tonight is a decent watch. The closest thing I've found to old Baseball Tonight is MLB Whiparound on FS1. The problem with that is you never know when that's on.

Speaking as a former TV news guy, consultants have destroyed ESPN. The network tried to capture the casual fan with flash and big names, but then alienated its core audience. But, I digress....

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but now we have more time for the Johnsonville Brats Cornhole championships!

ESPN has come full circle - when it started they didn't have enough content so they showed basically anything....now we got cornhole and no Baseball Tonight. Interesting choices....I bet they get cornhole for free and Baseball tonight actually costs money.

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I actually used to work with a guy who was an associate producer/highlight producer at ESPN about 5 years ago. He didn't get paid very much. The executive producers told their highlight guys to "find the story" in each game. It wasn't about the highlights. It was trying to present them in a different way, especially during the regular season. The idea was this -- "Oh, it's just another regular season game. We need to make the viewers care by giving them added value." So, they would drop the less interesting games out of their run downs. You saw that mentality take over BBTN.

And, you are right -- it's funny that ESPN has come full circle. Those Cornhole championships are sometimes fun to watch since any Average Joe can play. It's crazy they have sponsors though. You would think it would be on THE OCHO.

dshedd41 said:

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Mr.Bond said:

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MLB Network it is

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Good luck, Dan. Would be cool to have someone from the thread in that role.

Ag_07 said:

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DVC2010 said:

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dshedd41 said:

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I applied for this

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Make TOFA Great Again

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Astros social media employee fired after just 1 game after racy Instagram post

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If he makes the seventh-inning stretch, he will have underperformed.