The Awesomeness of Choo
FanGraphs has an article about Shin-Soo Choo tearing the cover of the ball the past month. He leads all AL hitters in WPA over the last 30 days at 2.21. He's hitting .376/.459/.706 over the past 85 at-bats. We here all know how great he's been but it's nice for him to get some national recognition. He certainly looks like he's locked up a starting spot in the OF next year, at least against right-handed pitchers.
over 3 years ago
Buckeye Brad
58 comments
0 recs |
Email
PrintComments
That would just be silly.
(We ALL know Grady needs to be batting third (or cleanup).)
"It's hard to win when you don't score." Cliff Lee, 9/28/05.
I’d say 5th. I don’t think his average is high enough to be an ideal 3 or 4. He’s more of a speedy Adam Dunn.
Yeah, me neither. Kevin — please tell me you were joking.
The best thing probably is to hit [Grady] 2nd -- Jay
by Buckeye Brad on Sep 5, 2008 12:55 PM EDT up reply actions
I should really make a FanPost about that . . .
The best thing probably is to hit [Grady] 2nd -- Jay
by Buckeye Brad on Sep 5, 2008 12:56 PM EDT up reply actions
You could make a FanShot linking to your old FanPost.
Or never.
by Jay on Sep 6, 2008 7:55 AM EDT up reply actions
Yeah I think Choo is a lock at RF for next season. I still don’t know how the rest is going to shake out. Could be a half year of Francisco in LF then Laporta. Its looking more and more like 1B or 3B could be improved on in the offseason. Although I still think they can upgrade over Francisco/Gutz in the outfield particularly if they don’t think Laporta will stick in LF/RF, or simply if it is easier to pick up a OF than a corner infielder (although without really checking I bet there is going to be a few first base options available.)
Before we anoint Choo as the right fielder of the future, is there any update on his military service obligation? I’d much rather have him patrolling the outfield in Cleveland as opposed to some parcel of land just south of the Korean DMZ, but his countrymen may feel differently.
"It's hard to win when you don't score." Cliff Lee, 9/28/05.
3B pickings via FA are slimmer than a teenage celebutante. Among 1B, Cot’s reports these fellas (I haven’t vetted this list, other than to move Helms from Philly to Miami):
Rich Aurilia SF
Ben Broussard NYY
Carlos Delgado * NYM
Nomar Garciaparra LAD
Jason Giambi * NYY
Wes Helms FLA
Kevin Millar BAL
Richie Sexson NYY
Mark Teixeira LAA
Frank Thomas OAK
Jim Thome CWS
Daryle Ward CHC
Other than Teixeira, most of those guys aren’t a substantial improvement over Garko.
yikes. he’s the quintessential old player skills kind of guy, isn’t he? not the kind of player i’d like to have under contract in his thirties. . .
a three year deal might be acceptable though, especially since it seems like there’s a total lack of interest in dunn and you could get him on the cheap.
by Cap'n Snegiryov on Sep 5, 2008 4:02 PM EDT up reply actions
When we say “old player skills” we seem to usually mean walks a lot, strikes out a lot, and hits the ball hard. Um, aren’t two of those things exactly what we want offensively? And isn’t the third (strikeouts) pretty closely linked to seeing many pitches (that is, the very selectivity that leads to walks)? And don’t these skills last later in life than speed-based skills?
Mostly yes, but here’s a good summary of the whole “old player skills” problem re: Dunn.
Basically, for whatever reason, players who exhibit that kind of skill set as a young ’uns tend to decline big time as they age into their thirties. I suppose it has something to do with their game being too reliant on HR/walks and thus, if they lose anything off of their bat speed or vision they have nowhere to compensate. I dunno—someone could probably explain this whole thing better than I have.
by Cap'n Snegiryov on Sep 5, 2008 7:42 PM EDT up reply actions
Thanks for the link. It was an interesting read, though what I got mostly out of it is that Dunn will probably be a fat DH within a few years, who is still mashing and walking unless he gets so fat that fat-induced injuries end his career. So really, the deal with players with Old Player Skills (OPS—it works on two levels!) is just like pitchers—sign them for just a few years unless they’re really young. Seems simple enough.
That said, if we could get Dunn on a 3-year deal, at any position, I’d be delighted. (Heck, we gave Dellucci 3 years, and he has Platoon Player Skills.) It comes down to a matter of whether other GMs are smart enough to want him but stupid enough to give him too many years on the deal.
I think it shows real recklessness for you to have announced that list without vetting it more thoroughly.
by Jay on Sep 6, 2008 7:56 AM EDT up reply actions
the problem with not being able to talk politics on LGT is that when someone makes what I think to be a political joke I want to follow up with another one but then my partisan bias would show and probably at least a third of the people would be like hey who is this jackoff
by Gradyforpresident on Sep 6, 2008 11:30 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
I’d also say at most, but not with as much confidence.
by Jay on Sep 6, 2008 4:13 PM EDT up reply actions
Still an uphill climb for Tex. He ain’t THAT awesome.
by Jay on Sep 8, 2008 2:36 PM EDT up reply actions
Thomas will definately get in. Thome should get in, but he’s alwasy been underappreciated and I could see writers not voting for him as a backlash against the “steroids era” offensive numbers (not that Thome has ever been accused of steroids). Most writers see Thome as a guy who hit a lot of homers but struck out a lot, and don’t appreciate his value because of OBP. There were years in Cleveland where he was putting up fantastic numbers and didn’t even make the friggin’ All-Star team. I know the All-Star selection is stupid, but people do look back on that stat when assessing HoF value.
The best thing probably is to hit [Grady] 2nd -- Jay
For what it’s worth, Choo is hitting .300/.395/.532 for the season. Since the All-Star break, he’s hitting .343/.431/.615.
Steel Nick
I was going to suggest it was downright Pujols-ian, if it weren’t for the fact that Pujols is having a better total year in all three stat categories than what Choo has managed since the ASB.
Steel Nick
Since August 5, he’s raised his OPS from .745 to .927. The only thing holding his season stats down are two mini-slumps in which he was 0-for-10 and 0-for-14. Take those away and he’s got an OPS of 1.018.
this is my favorite stat move. why not take away a hot streak and re-work the numbers? how about replace all his strikeouts with homeruns? then his numbers would be even better? this is where we should also re-project his numbers acroos the whole year as though he were injured to see how many doubles and rbi he’d have if he didn’t have surgery and miss the start of the season.
Yes, it’s blatant stat manipulation, and wasn’t intended to prove much of anything, other than that Choo has not gone through extended cold spells like the rest of the team. What happened during those tow relatively short stretches? If he can figure it out and address it, he could be really scary.
I don’t find an 0-for-14 and an 0-for-10 scattered across three months to be even slightly strange.
by Jay on Sep 8, 2008 2:39 PM EDT up reply actions
If he had enough at-bats to qualify, his .932 OPS would rank 6th in the AL.
Despite all of my best intentions, I have not, in fact, grown up to be a debaser.
If you need me, I'll be senselessly rooting for Sizemore 40/40 for the remainder of 2008.
by gte619n on Sep 8, 2008 1:59 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recent FanPosts
Featured Stories
FanShots
Quick hits of video, photos, quotes, chats, links and lists that you find around the web.
Recent FanShots
In Association With
Big League Stew - MLB - Yahoo! Sports
- Five tips for Showtime’s second season of ‘The Franchise,’ featuring the Miami Marlins
- The 10 best things about being a Detroit Tigers fan
- Surprise! A’s finally end the Yoenis Cespedes derby with $36 million deal for Cuban star
- The time Whitney Houston sang to Jim Bowden
- Pitchers and catchers! Mariners get early start in Arizona
Certain photos copyright © 2012 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
