Tuesday, June 13, 2023

"You, sir, are no Jogginson Canó!"

 


Ah, bliss! "Forced" to spend a working weekend upstate at the lovely hamlet of Pine Plains, far from the hellish air of NYC. What a wonderful part of the world!

Even better, the airbnb I was at did not have anything resembling news or sports stations, so saw only a few minutes of your New York Yankees, glimpsed on a bar TV near the end of the Saturday night win.

Then it was back home, to watch right off Gleyber Torres waving at a routine throw from the outfield as if he were warming up his swing for a tennis game, thereby allowing the Red Sox to move the eventual tying run into position in what became an(other) exasperating, extra-inning loss.

Folks, from everything I looked at regarding this weekend series—from everything I've seen of the Yankees and that wonderful corporate entity known as MLB of late—this is terrible baseball.

This is Dead Ball era baseball, without the strategy or the speed, all the stealing and hit-and-running. This is 1960s-era baseball without the nightly Dance of the Gods, Bob Gibson decking Henry Aaron with some chin music and Aaron getting back up and hitting the ball out of the park. 

No, this is not that. This is the Worst. Baseball. Ever.

This is baseball presented nightly by men—whether in the front office or on the field—who frankly don't seem to care that much. And at the center of it all is The Original Gangster Next Jeter, the man who was supposed to lead us back to the Series and be the crowning glory of Brian Cashman's career, Gleyber "What Me Worry" Torres.

Remember, it was Torres, NOT Judge who was supposed to be the keystone of the new dynasty that Cashie was so carefully crafting.

There has been a tendency, of late, to compare Gleyber to our own, dearly departed Robinson Canó. We call him things such as "Jogginson Torres." I think it should stop. I don't think Gleyber is even worthy of that insult.

Not to go all Lloyd Bentsen on your asses.  But gentlemen, I watched Jogginson Canó play, don'tcha know. I watched him play in a World Series. I watched him win a World Series. Gleyber Torres, sirs, is no Jogginson Canó.


 —Did Robinson Canó juice? Absolutely, the wonderful cheating bastard. That's what will keep him from getting in the HOF, at least for many years. And I do not approve of any juicing. 

—Was Robinson Canó generally a poor postseason player? Yup. And usually, Torres has been a better one. But not for years. The Gleyber is 6 for his last 38 in October, going back to 2020, with 0 homers and 2 ribbies—yet another indication of his ongoing decline.

—Did Robinson Canó leave us for the wilds of Seattle, under the guidance of that great sports mind, Jay-Z? Yes, he did. But all that meant, in the end, was that we got to miss his worst years and the revelation of the aforementioned cheating.

—Was Robinson Canó known, at times, when not in the heat of battle to, well, JOG a bit toward first base in a less-than-vital game? Yes, he was.

But what I can add is that, for his last 5 years in the Bronx, Robbie Canó played about as brilliant an all-around second base as I've seen this side of Little Joe Morgan. 

In that time, he averaged 76 extra-base hits a year, while batting .314, and probably deserved at least one AL MVP award over his fellow juicers. Winner of 5 Silver Slugger awards and 2 Gold Gloves with us, he would have made the Hall and no doubt replaced Joe "Flash" Gordon as the greatest Yankees second sacker ever (if not, you know, for the cheating).

Give The Gleyber credit for not cheating. That's about all the credit he deserves. 

After Sunday's fateful flub, many of the Knights of the Press Box were willing to praise Torres as a stand-up guy, for owning his egregious miscue. But what he was really doing was constructing a lie, right in front of them, to excuse himself.

"The error is on me. I should've grabbed the ball. It was nothing difficult," Gleyber began.  But then he added that, "I think I looked too fast to [see] the runner and just missed the ball..."

The real problem, he continued—the story growing as he spoke, like some school kid expanding on just how that dog ate his homework—was that he "tried to catch it really fast and maybe throw to first base [behind the runner, Kiké Hernández]."

Right. Because that's the kind of savvy, heads-up play you see Gleyber executing all the time at second base, whirling and throwing to catch an errant runner taking too big a turn.

Look, Torres was no more hoping to catch Hernández—a utility player with 15 stolen bases in 10 years—off base than he was the Dalai Lama. He simply fell asleep out in the field, as we have seen him do time and time again over the last four seasons. Fell asleep in a needed, big game, against our leading rivals with 46,000 fans in the seats and the team desperately needing to steal a win.

Only a Brian Cashman—stuck up once again by Theo Epstein—could've ever assumed this guy would be the Yankees shortstop of the future. He was a dismal defensive failure at the position, and let it ruin his hitting.

But Gleyber is also not an especially good-fielding second baseman, and getting worse. 

His Sunday swing at that ball was his 6th error of the season, most in the league; he had 7 in all of 2022. And that's not because he's getting to so many more balls. His range factor is right along the league average. And unlike Robbie, who repeatedly led AL second basemen in putouts, assists, DPs, range, and old-fashioned fielding percentage, Torres has never come close to leading the Junior Circuit in anything.

The fact is, like so many of the Young Gun Yankees of 2017 who were supposed to lead us back to the glory days, The Gleyber, at just 26, is already a player in long-term decline. 

As many of you know, I'm a skeptic when it comes to fielding stats in general, and especially as to WAR. But those stats, too, tell the story of decline. Gleyber's defensive WAR this year is 0.2. It's never been above last year's 1.4. His overall WAR is 12.5—6.6 of which came in his first two, heady seasons, 2018-2019, when we thought we really had something. 

And stats aside, as we have all seen with our own two eyes, Torres just isn't that much into the game of baseball. The Yankees, stupidly, encourage the worst of these tendencies. Check out Ma Boone's bizarre quote after Sunday's debacle:

"One of the things Gleyber does really well defensively is he plays the game with ease. So you've got to strike that balance, you've got to be careful."

PLAYS THE GAME WITH EASE??? Our manager is now handing out style points??? Does anything better exemplify how ancillary the game of baseball is to the Yankees organization, from HAL on down? Expecting an admonitory benching or reaming out? Sorry, my friends. Those days are past. Welcome to the Age of Gleyber.

Ah, Pine Plains! How I long for ye!




 

 







42 comments:

  1. The summer of 2016 is what killed this team. Ca$hman had the two most sought after relievers in Miller & Chapman. The possibilities were endless as to what young players they could get for these 2 RP, both in their prime.

    Finally at the deadline they were both traded, of course the NY media shouted how Ca$hman had fleeced the Indians & Cubs (especially Theo Espstein).

    Flash ahead 7 years and all that is left from those trades are Gleyber (Day) Torres and interestingly enough Billy McKinney.

    2016 proved that this fool has no idea when it comes to judging talent, sure some of these guys got hurt (Ben Heller) but to come up with nothing was inexcusable. All this guy can do is spend money and even then he can't do that right.

    After all this he's still here and to quote Billy Joel "and probably will be for Life"

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  2. When Torres was the shortstop of the future seems like decades ago.

    And our long galactic nightmare is not over.

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  3. This is stylin baseball (really sports in general) of the New Millennium. Vince Lombardi would have kicked Torres in the ass out of principle and to make him a better person. I'm down to watching one sport, barely. I still watch because of the few players who take pride in their craft. But that is being old-fashioned,I know.

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  4. Don't forget, Torres is third in Yankee WAR. Can't argue against the stats.

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  5. Rizzo, LeMahieu, Stanton, Donaldson on the Yanks last homestand with Aaron Judge on the IL: 6-for-66 (.091)

    ‘nuff said? ‘nuff said.

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  6. Was Robbie Cano juicing while he was a Yankee? I hope not.

    Anyways, Gleyber isn't even qualified to hold Cano's jockstrap. Cano had some great years here. 2009-2013, five years, he was the best hitter here, right? 2008 seems to be his only lousy year with the Yankees. He also was great defensively. Turned many double plays that the current squad could only dream of. Threw out many batters from his office behind second base, almost from the outfield. He had a SS arm and could be counted on in the relay to throw out base runners at the plate who were overdaring. How many guys do our current infielders throw out at the plate these days?

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  7. @ Kevin, Is it a mental thing with Torres? I keep going back and forth on that. Sometimes I think that he could turn it up a few notches. But other times I think that he's just not that good. Lately, it seems that he makes some kind of mistake in almost every game. I guess we'll find out in his walk year. (Because you know Cashman ain't going to trade Torres.) So in 2024, if Torres puts up a great year, we'll know whether he's been dogging it all this time. If he plays again like he has so far this year, then we know that he's just not that good.

    The thing to fear is that if Torres does wake up in 2024, Dumbass Cashman will give him a megacontract. And we'll be stuck with yet another millstone. Don't we have enough millstones here? Goddammit, they should change their name to the New York Millstones.

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  8. I am left to conclude two things;
    1) Torres is just not a smart person. Sometimes that is all the explanation that one needs. Not his fault, just an accident of birth,

    2) Yankee bating coaches are not good. Their philosophy just does not seem to translate to hitting the ball. That should be the first objective. Not launch angles and exit velo. I know hitting is not easy, but they seem to make it harder. Perhaps overthinking everything.
    Maybe we just need Yogi Berra and Charley Lau.
    If Hicks ends up hitting .260 for the Birds, then this is categorically correct.

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  9. I agree, Arch. Torres is just not that bright. Reminds me of Sanchez in that regard.

    And our batting coaches are not that bright, either. They're theorists relying on statistics but have lost sight of the very, very basic part of hitting: hit the ball. Once you can do that with regularity, you can worry about launch angles and velo. Or not. Because if you have some power and are a good hitter, your share of balls will go out.

    That used to be a main tenet of hitting. If you can develop a nice, even swing, the hits will come and the xtra base hits will, too. Including homers. If you swing for homers, you're going to strike out like crazy and be a lousy hitter. It's not very complex. But the guys in charge screw guys up by making it complex.

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  10. Hammer, you’re closest to the marl. In order to maximize Torres value as an asset, he should be traded no later than the deadline, if not sooner. Every day he spends here is one less day of team control, further diminishing his value to other teams. Did I see here that someone said we’d be lucky to get a middle reliever for him? No, no, no…we could get much more than that. But then again, it’s crashman, so if you’re only goals are a winning record of any kind and the last WC in a desiccated playoff system you can pretty much just sit back and pluck a bit off the scrap heap here and there and blame everything else on injuries.

    Yeah, we’re probably fucked…

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  11. Hal said "he wish he knew" when Judge would be back.

    He also said the Yankees are open to adding payroll at the trade deadline.

    He's said that before and we didn't ever add payroll at the deadline. But we did trade prospects.

    Wonder what Brian will do this year?

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  12. WAR rankings of Yankee position players for 2023 (remember that this is a cumulative stat, so the numbers will rise in proportion to performance as the season progresses):

    1. Judge: 2.5
    2. Rizzo: 1.2
    3. Torres 0.9

    In 2022, Torres was in a virtual tie (with LeMahieu, a tenth of a point difference) for third WAR ranking on the team:

    1. Judge: 11.5
    2. Trevino: 3.7
    3. LeMahieu: 2.9
    4. Torres 2.8

    So great idea--trade your third best player of this year and last, a 26-year-old who has speed and power. Genius idea, when you have baseball ciphers and repeat failures and mediocrities like IKF, Bauers, McKinney, Calhoun, etc., cluttering the roster. Sheer genius.

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  13. Put Gleyber on the train to Kansas City, Oakland, wherever. Time for change at the trade deadline.

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  14. If you actually watch Torres day after day, you realize that he is a mediocre player who can get on hot streaks which mask his overall mediocrity, especially fielding and on the bases.
    The fact that he has the 3rd best WAR is a testament to how pitiful the hitting on the team is.
    Trade him while he has value. We will never sign him long term.
    Bring up Peraza.
    BTW Hal stated today that no one is talking about sending Volpe down.
    More Volpe to 2B.
    Wish we still had that Duran kid who is raking for Texas, but the genius front office staff though we needed Gallo.
    And we don't need to beat the Gallo dead horse anymore.

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  15. HC66 is misusing the defensive WAR stat because he evidently does not understand it. WAR is a CUMULATIVE stat, so it will always be lower early in the season than it will be later. For example: last year Judge had a staggering overall WAR of 10.6; this year it's only 2.3, but that's because the Yankees have played only 67 games; a player's WAR increases as the season progresses in proportion to his performance. To that extent, it's different from batting average or ERA, etc., the values of which do not vary with the number of games played. So it's the same with defensive WAR--it will increase as the number of games played increases, assuming similar performance throughout the season. So Gleyber's defensive WAR is about on pace to be about the same this year as it was last year. Moreover, defensive WAR is just a partial stat--it's a component of overall WAR and hence can't be judged on its own on the same scale of numerical valueas overall WAR. So to take another example: in 2022, when Judge had an overall WAR of 10.6, his defensive WAR was 0--meaning his outsize value was made up mostly of his offensive prowess (his offensive WAR was 10.4). It's understandable that HC66 misuses the WAR stat in this manner, because he is not educated in analytics; he has more than once admitted to never having read a book on the subject. If he would take the time at long last to read a book on the subject, he could speak with some authority on these numbers rather than mis-applying them in a misleading manner.

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  16. Archangel writes: "The fact that he has the 3rd best WAR is a testament to how pitiful the hitting on the team is."

    Sorry, but the fact that Torres had a WAR of 2.8 in 2022 means that he was (and remains) one of the best second basemen in baseball. Torres' 2.8 Fangraphs WAR of 2022 places him in a virtual tie for fifth place among 30 American League second basemen (he was one tenth of a point behind LeMahieu's 2.9). Here's a link to the rankings if anyone is interested in verifying these numbers:

    https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=2b&stats=bat&lg=al&qual=40&type=8&season=2022&month=0&season1=2022&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&startdate=2022-01-01&enddate=2022-12-31

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  17. But guys, Gleyber "plays the game with ease," which apparently has become an asset in and of itself, like exit velo.

    I also watched those 2000 World Series games on YES last night. Somehow, none of those Yankees seemed to be playing with "ease." Cool professionalism, maybe, but also a throat-ripping intensity. That's what winners do.

    Again, this guy's game has never come close to what it was in 2018-2019. He is regressing, measure it however we like. Some of it could be put down to the misguided attempt to make him a shortstop, but two years after that was over, he's still in decline, if a little slower.

    Hammer, yes, if he has a great walk year, we'll know that he had a second gear, after "ease." More likely, though, it will indicate that he, too, has managed to find some joy juice somewhere—and likely he will revert to the mean immediately afterwards.

    Yes, Cashman would be crazy to re-sign him. Yes, Cashman IS crazy not to trade him NOW.

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  18. @ The Archangel, He is a very mediocre player, indeed. The worst part of it all is that he's retrogressed. His first two years, he looked like he could be a star. He was a star in his second year. But that was a long time ago. Since then he's been hovering right around a .700 to .750 OPS. So the stats bear it out. And we're left wondering if it's just lack of focus, lack of baseball smarts, or lack of ability. It doesn't matter now. It's time to upgrade the entire infield. And next up would be Peraza. If they can't replace a mediocre player like Torres with something better, then that's their problem. This team, as it's currently constructed, isn't even going to make the wild card. So there's no point in hanging on to Torres.

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  19. HC66 -- Do you see how you are mis-applying the WAR stat--especially the defensive WAR stat in Torres's case? Don't you think it's time you read a book on analytics so that you stop making these ridiculous mistakes?

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  20. Torres is NOT a mediocre player. In 2022 he was in a virtual tie for the fifth best second baseman (one tenth of a point behind LeMahieu) among 30 AL second basemen. That makes him a VERY GOOD player, close to elite. He has speed and power and is only 26 years old. It would be an act of criminal stupidity to trade him, especially in a roster that is cluttered with Cashman's beloved scrap-heap, thrice-failed MLB nonentities like Calhouh, McKinney, and Bauers.

    https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=2b&stats=bat&lg=al&qual=40&type=8&season=2022&month=0&season1=2022&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&startdate=2022-01-01&enddate=2022-12-31

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  21. In retrospect, the weird injury that Torres had in the minors, tearing up his elbow joint sliding home, was sort of a precursor of things to come. Torres has weird mechanical issues in the batter's box, makes strange errors, makes strange base running mistakes. When he gets into one of his terrible slumps, he will be impossible to trade.

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  22. Hammer -- maybe the Yankees should bat him second to prevent Judge from occupying that spot when he returns.

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  23. Hammer -- yeah. all Torres did was hit 38 homeruns in a season in the wake of that injury. And as of 2022 he was tied for fifth among thirty AL second basemen. With that kind of deductive brilliance, you should change your nic from Hammer to Sherlock.

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  24. @ JM, Yeah, I can remember a time when players used to say that home runs wouldn't happen if you purposefully tried to hit them. Now, the freaking coaches actually tell them to swing for the fences! A sign of the apocalypse?

    You know, with all the swinging for the fences, they've forgot how to draw walks. For a few year, it was "draw a walk, then hit a homer". Now, they're all solo homers or strikeouts. No one walks any more on this team. They've gone from three true outcomes to two true outcomes.

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  25. Maybe instead of poring over statistics turn on the TV and watch a game before calling Torres good. He COULD be good if he wasn't boneheadedly dumb.

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  26. Hammer writes: "You know, with all the swinging for the fences, they've forgot how to draw walks."

    Judge walked 111 times last year. In 1961, Maris walked 94 times.

    Torres walked 39 times last year. In 1961, Richardson walked 30 times.

    It's easy to splatter the blog with erroneous generalities when you never feel obliged to anchor your statements in empirical EVIDENCE.

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  27. Mildred -- I have a 65-inch TV in the livingroom and a 55-inch TV in the bedroom. You think just watching a game makes you a baseball genius. Another empirically void generalization down the drain. Remember--for centuries, people watched the sun every day and could have just SWORN that the sun revolves around the earth--you are like one of those people. Maybe you need to THINK about what you're seeing instead of relying on superficial impressions and anecdotes instead of rigorous analysis and THOUGHT.

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  28. Haiku Tuesday:

    Gleyber Waiver NO

    That is not the way to GO

    Trade Him Trade him NOW





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  29. "But what is it that constrains the individual to fear his neighbor, to think and act like a member of a herd, and to have no joy in himself? Modesty, perhaps, in a few rare cases. With the great majority it is indolence, inertia. ... Men are even lazier than they are timid, and fear most of all the inconveniences with which unconditional honesty and nakedness would burden them. . . . ."
    Friedrich Nietzsche, Untimely Meditations, “Schopenhauer as educator,” § 3.1, R. Hollingdale, trans. (1983), p. 127

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  30. "Ultimately, however, it is indifferent whether the herd is commanded to have one opinion or to have five. Whoever deviates from the five public opinions and stands apart will always have the whole herd against him."
    Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science, § 174, Kauffman trans., p. 202

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  31. ED must be on the analytical panel for the Yanks, thus the reason they suck

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  32. Haiku Tuesday:

    "Distrust all in whom

    the impulse to punish is

    powerful" Nietzsche

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  33. Celerino -- Did your sense of humor petrify sometime in the tenth grade? The really good teams don't have analytical panels or departments. The whole front office is steeped in analytics. An analytical "panel"? Do you imagine that it looks like the War Room in Dr. Strangelove? Maybe you should think about getting a clue? I hear there's a special on clues today at amazon.

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  34. Below Average: Yes, I punish idiots with facts. They just can't tolerate them, so for them it's cruel and unusual punishment. You, on the other hand, punish with witticisms that aren't witty. That isn't cruel or unusual--just dull.

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  35. You know EBD, I totally understand how you feel.

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  36. Hammer, after Gleybor 's first couple of years I started having the feeling that he "caught", if you will, an attitude from Sanchez. They started to play as though they had just finished puffing a fatty. Not that they really had, but always "missed it by that much" . Especially on the basepaths. But that IMO has been a hallmark of Boone's teams. And then I started noticing the brain dead type of error that while not called,should have been called. Not the play were a player who just didn't get down enough, but wasn't looking when an extra base would be taken unexpectedly. That kind of play. He's a pretty decent player who feels like he should be better.
    As for Cano, one of the NY papers noted that he was the 'biggest player on the team, had a 52" chest'. That is enormous for anyone, but especially someone in that height range. If true then he almost certainly juiced.

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  37. It should be noted that everyone hit homers when Torres hit 38 which renders the "currency" devalued .

    Since so many of you keep begging me for some stats consider some illuminating Gl Torres facts:

    ISO (isolated power) .200 is regarded as being a very good power hitter

    WAR:2018 3.6 .209
    2019.3.0. .256
    2020 0.0 .125
    2021 .8 .107
    2022 4.1. .194
    2023 1.0 .176

    Earlier Torres was pronounced to be a speed/power player. 42 career stolen bases. What is interesting is that the eye test, so easily dismissed in some circles has Torres as a very average runner if raw speed were the only currency. But when you count cutting corners when running the bases he is below average,when decision making is added in, an inferior runner. This is born out in the wash, his best run total was 96, the year he hit 38 homers, his 2nd and 3rd best were 73 and 54. Considering that he has generally hit in the top half of the order= sucks. Lifetime he has an OPS+114 lifetime achievement, pretty fair numbers for a middle infielder. He has one season in which he garnered MVP votes, 17th.
    So what do we have with Torres?. IMO, he's had a pretty good career to this point. The problem is that he isn't the polished player that he should be at this time. But most damning in terms of value to the team, or in any trade scenarios is that his career stats are an inverted pyramid and he seems to mentally checkout during games. He has one more season before free agency. What would the Rays do? Trade him now, before he gets hurt.

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  38. Thanks for your latest chorus line of ignorance and incompetence, Kevin. You say .200 ISO is considered "very good." That is vague and imprecise. Here are the actual ISO rankings:

    What is a good ISO in baseball?
    DFS Baseball 101: How to Use Isolated Power (ISO)
    Rating ISO
    Excellent 0.25
    Great 0.2
    Above Average 0.17
    Average 0.14

    So in four out of six seasons, his isolated power rating has been "above average," in three seasons "great" (rounding up the .194 of 2022), in one season "excellent." These are stellar numbers for a middle infielder. His WAR of 4.1 in his last complete season (2022) places him among the elite second basemen in baseball.

    So when you do finally post a source, you envelop it in a thick mis-interpretive fog of deception, stupidity, and mendacity that renders the numbers incomprehensible and useless, but well suited to your typically malign and tendentious intent.

    Thanks again for another display of matchless imbecility. Are you a glutton for ridicule?

    Oh--and all that is not a patch on your vile racist mockery of African American dialect. To wit:

    "you jess gots too" June 12, 2023 10:41 .m.

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  39. My fucking autocorrect, I use a Kindle because of neck issues. I used to love my Kindles, but for those of you considering purchasing one, beware! They do more things...poorly.

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  40. @ Kevin, I don't know that it's worth the effort to try to converse with this person at this point. He (or she) comes on a blog with mostly older people and starts hurling personal insults to anyone who doesn't agree with his opinions, becoming increasingly antagonistic. On a baseball blog! The rule I follow is simple. If I wouldn't say it to someone's face, I'm not going to write it on the internet. When people can't follow that one rule, there's nothing more to be said.

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  41. Hammer, I hear you. Any more trash talk and the person goes into my Hole of Oblivion. I can't imagine a better baseball blog than this one. Knowledgeable fans with acid-laced commentary for the deserving. Undying praise for The Deserving. Totally fair, and I can't easily think of anyone who I wouldn't gladly share a beer with (not that the beer couldn't change my mind). And there are a lot of very intelligent, learned people who keep me thinking and laughing. You know?

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