El Duque brings up some important points in todays post but he doesn’t have to worry about Dominguez becoming Clint “Call me Jackson” Frazier. The Martian is 100% about baseball. He wants to be great and will do whatever it takes. This is his whole existence. Pretty much his every waking moment from the time he was twelve. He just needs to trust himself more.
Fraizer was the guy who keeps accidentally kicking over the bong in your dorm room. Not a lot going on in general. Too many questions. Too few answers. And what was with that toe thing?
Dominguez should be fine. Look, He's never going to be a great or even good outfielder because he doesn't seem to have natural ability or even good instincts in that area.
That said, there are no small number of really good to great outfielders with the same trait. Manny Ramirez comes to mind, and this year aside, Juan Soto seemed to be a player a lot of teams wanted to sign, albeit for about half of what he was paid. Then there's the other Jackson. Reggie.
Paul
O'Neil was once asked how you become a great outfielder and he replied,
"Hit."
The
Martian from the left side of the plate
is already very, very, good. He’s batting .310 has a .402 on base pct. .506
slugging a 160 wRC+ and a .908 OPS.
Maybe
he figures it out from the right side. Maybe he gives up on switch hitting and becomes
a full time left handed hitter with lesser stats against left-handed pitching
as opposed to poor ones.
So,
at a minimum he could be one half of a really good platoon.
Dominguez
also has elite speed. Like top ten in baseball speed.
He
just needs to learn to trust his initial read on batted balls when he’s on base
and not wait for them to land. That way he can score more from first on a ball hit
into the gap.
Several times this year he’s hesitated and the Yankees ended up with runners on second
and third with less than two outs with Volpe and Wells due up, and we all know
how that ended up.
--
As
to the roster issue…
So
far the Yankees have been very lucky in that Brian Cashman’s inability to build
a balanced team is paying off. Jazz goes. LeMahieu arrives. Rice is ready to
assume the DH just as Stanton Stantonizes.
Some
of it will work out naturally…
As
El Duque pointed out Trent Grisham (The Observer) is already starting to, in
the words of David Cone, “Revert to the mean.” He was supposed to be a fourth
outfielder and defensive replacement but his hot start made it seem like he was
way more than that. He’s not.
The
best lineup has Bellinger in Center and cheating over to Left to help Dominguez
and Judge in Right cheating over to Center to help Bellinger cover.
If
the Yankees get a big enough lead Bellinger slides to Left and Grisham takes
over in Center.
The
real log jam is at DH. Stanton, despite
being right handed, doesn’t hit lefties well. Probably because he can’t lay off the low and
away pitch. Ben Rice hits righties to
the tune of a .946 OPS.
Too
bad because, if Stanton could hit lefties better they would have been a perfect
platoon. That said, Rice should get the
at bats even if their stats are similar because Rice can…
What
do they call it when a person goes from base to base quickly? I forget. Oh yeah… run.
--
The
last issue is what happens when Jazz returns? Is it just me or are we kind of
done with his potential? If DJ can stay
on the field… ah, who am I kidding? He can’t. This one will work out as well.
Posts
3 comments:
Everything is possible as long as the IL exists. And we're not done with it by a long shot.
Quite right guys, in July we’ll be signing Jose de la Whodafuck to play OF.
Gotta give props to Will Warren. He’s really turning it around
So if Gil comes back healthy, do you think a team with a Big 4 rotation of Fried, Rodan, Gil, & Warren and dual closers of Weaver/Williams could actually…nah can’t happen, right?
Doug, completely with you on this. Not sure why the comparison with Clint Frazier. There is zero comparison.
Sure, until a player proves it for at least a year or two, nobody really knows for sure. He could look great for a half year, like Kevin Maas. Or even for a year and half, like Gary Sanchez. Even after two years, a player can turn out to be Gleyber Torres and retrogress.
So far, The Martian appears to be making excellent progress. He only needs to start hitting from the right side. That also appeared to be making progress, before getting benched again yesterday. His defense has improved a lot since the first game of the year. Already, he has a better ops than Volpe or Wells. Those guys have played a couple of years. The Martian has played all of a quarter season so far. The cream rises to the top. We just have to wait and see, but I think the results so far are very encouraging.
I don't know that anyone really thought that Clint Frazier was a big time talent. I thought he had some potential, but I did not project him to be an All-Star caliber player. I thought he deserved more playing time than he got. It was up to him to prove it, but he retrogressed after the head injury at the left field wall in spring training. It's too bad that he's out of baseball.
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