Obviously I love Yordan and am in awe of what he’s doing this season, but I’ve always thought that if Ohtani were merely a good 6 hole hitter with pop and could drive in some runs, and a solid middle of the rotation guy, he would clearly be the most valuable baseball player in the league. The fact that he’s arguably in the top 10 in both hitting and starting pitching makes it all the more definite.
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They’re close enough right now that the factor that the Angels suck has to factor in.
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Speaking of WAR, the same column includes the fact that the Reds have a staggering 14 position players with negative WAR.
This cracks me up. Twitter experts and baseball pundits have been bloviating about how weak and depleted the Astros farm system is for 4 or 5 years now. The only response to them that I have is, “scoreboard, chumps”.
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Internet experts generally have played nothing but Candyland…at least not much competitive baseball after LL.
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Jim, get your head out of your ass. You may as well be criticizing your former scouting buddies.
James Click first wrote for Baseball Prospectus. As did Chaim Bloom. Mike Fast and others went on to prominent roles in the industry. Baseball America has its own set of alums currently working for MLB organizations in scouting roles.
Since the post regards the FG list set off your tantrum, I’ll note that Eric Longenhagen, Kiley McDaniel and Kevin Goldstein have been involved in recent years in compiling those lists. All three have held scouting positions with MLB organizations. Goldstein (also a BP alum) has held prominent roles now with two teams.
And if you know anything about these lists, you should know that they are not simply based on the writer’s own opinion. They are essentially a compilation of industry opinion. Besides traveling and getting their own looks at players, the writers solicit input from sources within a player’s organization and from competing organizations. Yes, that’s where the hard part comes in (and where flaws can arise). How much weight to give those competing viewpoints.
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Get my head out of my ass? Alrighty, then. I think most of the work you do here is informative so I will not respond in kind. Interesting for me to see who “liked” your post.
I was not defining my use of “internet experts” to include the folks you mentioned. I was thinking of Twitter experts and of folks who presume to say what GMs should do on fan sites like Astros Daily or, well, this one.
So which “Twitter experts” are you referring to then? I’m really curious to know which fools are out there evaluating all 30 organizations and coming up with their own talent rankings independent of Baseball America, MLB Pipeline, etc.
Nobody on this board is “presuming to say” what Mr. Click should do. He’s doing quite a fine job without input from you or me or anyone else here.
Opinions do get spouted on here about roster decisions, lineup decisions, in-game decisions, etc etc etc etc etc.If people weren’t offering up those opinions this would be a very boring place.
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Not responding to your “head up my ass” comment any more, Expert. If I piss you off too much, you’ll go off in a huff and quit posting like you have done once before. I think most of what you post is informative, and I go not want you to have to change your name again.
I was banned Jim. And if I say anything more about it I’ll get banned again.
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Not what I heard, but if you say so. I was glad you came back because you provide useful info I get only here. I do not want to be your target again for profane derision. Take that stuff somewhere else.
Fangraphs has been used as a respected resource on this site for the time I have been here. Folks don’t always agree but feel they generally do good work. I don’t understand the reason for the attack here.
That said, they has been incongruence between the industry opinion of Astros prospects, especially pitching prospects, and the impact said prospects have had in the majors.
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This is what intrigues me. For several years now we’ve been hearing how the Astros’ farm system has been hollowed out by trades, and yet it keeps popping out one or two genuinely useful players every year. Are we just lucky with late bloomers? Is “late blooming” actually evidence of improved coaching? Are the outsiders just doing lazy research? Do other GMs have the same opinion as outside researchers?
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Was not aware I made an attack on anyone, and certainly I did not refer to whatever FanGraphs is. I was talking in general terms about folks who presume to be GMs on the internet and pontificate about what Click should do.
I guess I should STFU. At least you did not tell me to get my head out of my ass. Grateful for small favors, always.
I think there are a few organizations who’ve made serious advancements in player development in the past few years, Houston among them, and the prospect analyst community is behind the times. I don’t think we’re just lucky that these lower-ranked prospects keep blossoming in the majors. Click’s internal top ten probably looks different from BA’s or BP’s or FG’s.
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This is what I was alluding to (and have said elsewhere in other threads) with my snarky “scoreboard, chumps” post. The Astros seem to have a knack for 1) evaluating talent and seeing potential expertise in prospects that other experts don’t and 2) squeezing out that talent through successful development programs over an extended period such that the current team and other teams (via trade) are littered with MLB-caliber and MLB best-caliber talent from the Astros even though their farm system is consistently rated substandard. This may happen one year. Maybe two if you are really lucky. This is a sustained pattern with the Astros so there I has to be some secret sauce involved that other “experts” regardless of affiliation, are missing.
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Straw, Siri, Chas, Jake to name one OF position.
Straw turned into multiple bullpen arms.
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Pot and kettle Jim. You are the grandmaster of derision. And at least in one case recently it was profane.
And as far as stories told privately man have I heard some stuff about you over the years. And they were not exactly flattering.
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Agreed, I’ll start worrying when they stop bringing up dudes who weren’t highly rated, but range from solid additions to real building pieces. There’s been a slew of these guys in the last years.
Also, Pena with a 55? Early returns seem more favorable than that.
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