2024 Game Thread

[lou]

completely agree. It's absurd to take the half seasons of him, snelling, and pauley at levels that they were clearly being rushed to and act like this is what they are forever. Mazur has a 50 FV grade from BA and they grade him as having 4 + pitches and elite control. Their report has him at a 55 FB, 50 curveball, 60 slider, 50 changeup, and 70 control. Let the fucking kid develop as a starter in the minors. Makes 0 sense to bring him up here as we are 30 games under .500 and waste his service time. especially dumb to do it as a reliever.

I like what they did with pauley too sending him back to AA. the padres, shocker, rushed them both. it seems to be what they do with prospects. See ryan weathers development pattern. All 3 of those guys are young. let them develop and see what you have

Weathers is a good point if we think SDP are just a bunch of idiots in development. I also note we all loved that trade day 1 without argument.

I have a extremely hard time seeing two big time SP here for Scott and would love to be wrong. This seems like a almost Garret level value SP (which is very good) and potentially the best right handed RP this team has had him quite some time.

I am not down on them, I am just expecting a good Garrett (Or weathers?) value SP with Snelling and Mazur to be closer to a "Puk" then "Okert." I don't think calling folks relievers is disparaging. Also, look how the Rays use folks. What if Mazur is a 2+ inning reliever and throwing 100 innings a year over 45 appearances? I think thats a very Rays thing to do with a guy who has skeptical third level pitches by every account so hes 1 time through and yank which is totally fine and this organization needs to do more of that like yank Garrett and Cabrera 2 times through the lineup.

[lou]

I mean, he hit .230 with a .291 OBP for the White Sox in 500 AB.
Much more in line with how he played this year up until the last few weeks or the 2nd half of last year when his BABIP was over .350.
Burger is also 28, 29 in early April next year and horrid defensively at both corners.
Enjoy the second half of 2023 and the rare hot streak because he objectively isn't very good.

I think he's better than that, but big picture, they have room for 2, maybe 3, of these guys on the roster for years - Burger, DDLS, Berry, Martorella (and Johnston, and Ramirez if he catcher fails).

This is just going to work itself out IMO. I think they have the bodies here and get the players. This doesn't look like Brinson, Harrison, Scott, Sierra, and Misner to me. These are some real dudes.

[Todd]

Why though? Burger has been pretty bad for most of his career outside of the second half of last season.

[Nick]

Why though? Burger has been pretty bad for most of his career outside of the second half of last season.

Most of his career? This is his 2nd full year.

[Todd]

Disagree flawed logic.

1 - Do we really think San Diego traded two longterm SP for 2 months of Scott and Hoeing, who is also a FB/SL RP. Like, they aren't doing that on a practical level. SD knows what they have in these guys. It's probably a backend SP and a RP. The idea they traded Peter a # 3 and # 4 SP is insane. Would love to be wrong.

2 - https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savan...r-pitching-mlb - Eury's slider, curve, and change are *ELITE* pitches. Mazur doesn't have this arsenal. He has no 3rd pitch and maybe not even a plus second one. It's comparing apples to oranges which yes I know you know. The reason all he is throwing is FB/SL as the other stuff will be crushed. Eury is throwing it to dominate as no one can hit the secondaries.

3 - Post the full quote also - It's fair to have some long-term questions about the viability of Mazur's repertoire at the big league level. His fastball is his only chase pitch because both of his breaking balls tend to finish in the strike zone. His arm slot makes it tough for him to create two-plane break on his slider, so while his best ones are still pretty nasty, they tend not to turn the corner and finish off the plate. Mazur will probably need to pitch backwards a lot of the time in order to survive. His fastball is getting tagged in the strike zone and he's surrendering a 94% z-contact rate against the pitch as of publication. His arm strength and breaking ball quality ensure he's going to be a useful big leaguer, but the Mazur we've seen in the majors looks more like a future reliever.

The same publication said this about Weathers in 2021:

Weathers was once again living in the mid-90s, and he held that velo for a whole year before he had to leave that aforementioned start against the D-backs with soreness; his fastball was down in the 87-88 mph range. This has happened with Weathers enough that it impacts how I line him up as a prospect despite how quickly he’s reached the bigs. There are exceptions, but it’s also not typical for a pitcher with a body and delivery like this to stick in a rotation, and while Weathers has surgical slider command, he makes more grip-and-rip use of his fastball and has barely thrown a third pitch as a starter. I’m very confident he’ll find a way to make an impact on a pitching staff, but I think he’s more likely to end up as a set-up man than a long-term mid-rotation piece.

[Namaste]

Why though? Burger has been pretty bad for most of his career outside of the second half of last season.

Lololol.

He had a .828 OPS for the entire 2023 season.

[Todd]

Lololol.

He had a .828 OPS for the entire 2023 season.

Mostly because he had a BABIP over .350 and an OBP 76 points higher once he moved to Miami.

[fish16]

Mostly because he had a BABIP over .350 and an OBP 76 points higher once he moved to Miami.

He is a .773 OPS for his career even with the rough start so far this year. Defensively he doesnt really have a position but if he becomes a full time DH or can play a passable 1b he's a damn good player and the best power bat we have probably by far at this point. Not sure what you're talking about. The only gripe you could have with him is his play at 3b, which obviously wont be his long term position.

[nny]

I mean, he hit .230 with a .291 OBP for the White Sox in 500 AB..

...which, combined with his power, amounted to a 114 OPS+

I don't know why every single one of your comments is ignoring his power. And no one's claiming he's some beast. But his career OPS is .773 and DH this year is averaging .766. If he's an average+ DH, that's a good thing with the control we have over him

[nny]

Do you guys remember back in the early days of this forum when we would have "Signatures" at the bottom of our posts?

Don't let your dreams be dreams.

But also remember the early days of forums when people actually used them instead of social media? :'(

---

rogers has a track record of success

[Todd]

...which, combined with his power, amounted to a 114 OPS+

I don't know why every single one of your comments is ignoring his power. And no one's claiming he's some beast. But his career OPS is .773 and DH this year is averaging .766. If he's an average+ DH, that's a good thing with the control we have over him

I guess I just value a guy whose only tool is power and is beyond awful at every other aspect of the game differently, especially when he is almost 30 and with his injury history.

[lou]

The same publication said this about Weathers in 2021:

Guys get better. Look at Garrett who we all thought was dead. Strider was a 2 pitch guy and no one saw that coming including his Mom.

Hope is eternal. But for every Weathers there are more Volstads.

[Todd]

Exactly. So no need to write Maruz off that quickly then, eh?

Also I don't hate Burger. But he isn't some young guy. He's a guy who hits home runs sometimes but is completely unplayable when he isn't doing that. He should be one of the first you look to upgrade on.

[lou]

He is a .773 OPS for his career even with the rough start so far this year. Defensively he doesnt really have a position but if he becomes a full time DH or can play a passable 1b he's a damn good player and the best power bat we have probably by far at this point. Not sure what you're talking about. The only gripe you could have with him is his play at 3b, which obviously wont be his long term position.

Agree. A .773 career OPS is valuable if a guy is good enough at 1B or DH.

It is genuinely an upper half DH OPS these days for all offensive players. Only 49 qualified hitters out of almost triple that have that OPS.

Im not lying when I say .761 OPS is the new black. Scale it up to .775 if we think that’s low as I can’t find the article. Thats the new bar for a good hitter. It’s not .800 anymore. It’s at minimum .775 per OPS

[lou]

Exactly. So no need to write Maruz off that quickly then, eh?

Also I don't hate Burger. But he isn't some young guy. He's a guy who hits home runs sometimes but is completely unplayable when he isn't doing that. He should be one of the first you look to upgrade on.

Who is writing off Mazur as it’s not me.

I think he’s going to be a reliever, and on top of that, a multi inning reliever. It’s not an insult.