Red Sox sign Masataka Yoshida
- Thread starter RedOctober3829
- Start date
I have a couple of slots open if your friend ends up needing criminal defense.
Also, if the fact-pattern involves a bucket of fried chicken, a cardboard box, and a stick with a string tied to it, I can't promise I'd do it for free. But I'd seriously consider it.
Had 4 straight seasons with over 100 walks and 5 additional seasons with over 85 walks.
Makes Ted Williams even more impressive. He walked even more than Boggs and had all those multi-hit games in a row.
I don't read too much of the popular prognosticators. Do they ever go back and say "missed that one. Here's where we went wrong," just as a way to give a window to their thinking?
Its also not like he was the only one. Maybe its as simple as "they don't throw that hard in Japan so we had no idea he could hit those and just assumed he'd have trouble."
I'm sure if you showed up with some chicken and a case of beer he'd be up for almost anything.
Err, I mean your friend.
Keith Law has an annual "here is who I was wrong on" article. 2022 is here on the Athletic
https://www.google.com/amp/s/theathletic.com/3612326/2022/09/21/keith-law-prospects-wrong-scouting/?amp=1
Yeah, he's literally one of the best at mea culpas. I'm sure it gets annoying for him when folks continue to chirp at him for wrong projections that he's already owned: I bet some asshole is still tweeting "you didn't believe in pedroyah" as we speak.
Yeah, I'm willing to give Keith Law a pass on this one. On the other hand, I'm gonna spike the football on the unnamed executive quoted here from page 4 of the thread:
Beyond the Monster
@BeyondtheMnstr
ESPN's Kiley McDaniel on new Red Sox outfielder Masataka Yoshida:
According to "10 sources" he spoke to they all "thought the Red Sox overpaid by a hefty margin." One executive went as far as to say, "We thought he was worth less than half of what they paid."
I mean, if that's their internal evaluation, fine. But there was no reason to put that out there other than to take a cheap shot at Bloom and the Sox. And I feel sorry for the fans of the team that executive works for, since that person is really bad at evaluating talent.
https://twitter.com/BeyondtheMnstr
Beyond the Monster
@BeyondtheMnstr
ESPN's Kiley McDaniel on new Red Sox outfielder Masataka Yoshida:
According to "10 sources" he spoke to they all "thought the Red Sox overpaid by a hefty margin." One executive went as far as to say, "We thought he was worth less than half of what they paid."
I mean, if that's their internal evaluation, fine. But there was no reason to put that out there other than to take a cheap shot at Bloom and the Sox. And I feel sorry for the fans of the team that executive works for, since that person is really bad at evaluating talent.
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Maybe it's more of a comment resulting from frustration that the bidding went way above what this exec's ownership was willing to allow.
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Yoshida has tied _______ for most multi-hit games (36) by a Red Sox in the first 81 games of an MLB career.
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Lots of good data points with Williams. Still unfathomable that the guy ended up with a career OBP of .482, especially since he lost prime career years to the military.
Yoshida might be as good an example as any at valuing the skill of making contact. He's almost a throwback player in that regard, after years of seeing three true outcomes become the norm in MLB.
Could, but hasn't. His Twitter seems suspiciously light of anyone giving him flak about it.
This weekend couldn't help but invoke the comparison.
MLB careers as of 7/16/23
Seiya Suzuki: 757 PA, 109 wRC+, .159 ISO | -3 OAA in 1507 innings | 5/$85M
Masataka Yoshida: 349 PA, 140 wRC+, .184 ISO | -4 OAA in 432 innings* | 5/$90M
*Defensive metrics tend to punish those in Fenway's left field
As someone who was mildly disappointed we didn't sign Suzuki, this is delightful.
MLB careers as of 7/16/23
Seiya Suzuki: 757 PA, 109 wRC+, .159 ISO | -3 OAA in 1507 innings | 5/$85M
Masataka Yoshida: 349 PA, 140 wRC+, .184 ISO | -4 OAA in 432 innings* | 5/$90M
*Defensive metrics tend to punish those in Fenway's left field
As someone who was mildly disappointed we didn't sign Suzuki, this is delightful.
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Thank you for that. I too was mildly disappointed. But we would have wasted the first year of Suzuki (unless he could have pulled a Ohtani and pitched in July/Aug of 2022). We're still in the playoff picture with Masa, and hopefully so for the entire contract.
I wonder if it is less of him being a "throwback player" and more of him being a person who could be more successful with the rule changes. This is all speculation as I am not a deep data type baseball fan, but perhaps contact has become more valuable again with the defenses being less able to enact perfect positioning. Having watched nearly every game this season, that isn't apparent to me as he seems pretty good at poking the ball OVER the infielders, but again, just anecdote.
Did the increase in shifting correlate to the increase in three true outcome players? Or was it just more that baseball Ops teams around the league realized that being able to remove the defense from the equation altogether was an advantage (and more easily tracked, data-wise)?
As an aside, I am as excited about major league baseball as I have ever been with the rule changes. I was fine with the pace of play in the past, but the reduced shifting and larger bases (and fewer disengagements) has led to more exciting baseball. Would Jarren Duran have so many hustle doubles without the larger bases and three infielders on the right side? The increase in stolen bases is also very fun.
I hate to break this to you, but Cory Seager is lurking in the shadows with a .348 batting average and will cross the threshold for minimum plate appearances if he plays approximately 55 of Texas' remaining 66 games and gets 4 PAs per game. I think it's his to lose unless Masa keeps on his multi-hit game bender for another 20 games or so.
"Good" news I guess (at least for Masa's pursuit of a batting title), Seager is out at least 10 days with an injured thumb. He might not get enough PAs to qualify, though the believe the rule was changed a few years ago that a player can "add" outs to his PA total to qualify, and if he still leads, he wins.
That rule has been around since at least 1996 when it allowed Tony Gwynn to win the batting title (he was 4 PAs short of qualifying).
According to this article the rule has been around since the 50s.
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WTF is that rule? You can say you came up and got out more times than you actually did?!?
I believe the idea is that if a player is short of the minimum PA to qualify, they can still be declared the league leader in batting average if every AB they need to make the minimum is counted as an out and the resulting BA is still the highest in the league.
Let's say Seager is hitting .348 in 480 at bats and he needs 502 to qualify. Same number of hits (167) in 502 AB = .332. If that's still good enough to lead the league, he's considered the league leader.
If you're short the number of plate appearances to qualify for the batting title, but you're so far ahead that adding in enough outs to get you there still leaves you with a higher average, it's yours.
I think that entirely makes sense.
Yes.
Looking into this just now, Melky Cabrera wound up with 501 plate appearances in 2012 and would have won the NL batting title, but he declined doing so because he admitted to substance use that gave him an advantage that season.
I was going to say, based on the previous two responses, that I guess that made sense. But then your post added in that it's at the player's discretion which, outside of the somewhat unique situation you just described, seems a completely odd thing to include.
If the 0-for rule had been in place in 1955 then Ted Williams would have won the AL OBP title despite finishing 60(!!) plate appearances short of qualifying. He finished with a .496 OBP in 417 PAs and you needed 477 PAs to qualify since the season was still only 154 games. If you added 60 hitless ABs to his season line his OBP would've been .434 which is still higher than Mickey Mantle's .431 which led the league that year.
I think the difference is that there's no official OBP title, as there is for BA. Baseball Reference (and the Encyclopedia before that) has their "black ink" entries for league leaders, but they may not follow the same conventions as MLB for that stuff.
It applies to batting average, slugging and on base percentage according to the MLB rulebook.
9.22 Minimum Standards for Individual Championships
To assure uniformity in establishing the batting, pitching and
fielding championships of professional leagues, such champions
shall meet the following minimum performance standards:
(a) The individual batting, slugging or on-base percentage
champion shall be the player with the highest batting average,
slugging percentage or on-base percentage, as the case may
be, provided the player is credited with as many or more total
appearances at the plate in league championship games as the
number of games scheduled for each Club in his Club’s league
that season, multiplied by 3.1 in the case of a Major League
player and by 2.7 in the case of a Minor League player. Total
appearances at the plate shall include official times at bat, plus
bases on balls, times hit by pitcher, sacrifice hits, sacrifice
flies and times awarded first base because of interference or
obstruction. Notwithstanding the foregoing requirement of
minimum appearances at the plate, any player with fewer than
the required number of plate appearances whose average would
be the highest, if he were charged with the required number of
plate appearances shall be awarded the batting, slugging or on-
base percentage championship, as the case may be.
I was not aware of that. However, the internet says that the rule did not have that form in 1955. (I havent done the math.....)
Baseball-Reference FAQs | Sports-Reference.com
Very fun, but if I'm the Sox brass, keeping in mind what happened to David Hamilton, that video scares me to death. At least wear some batting gloves!
Wright had 282 PA and 263 AB while Foxx had 685 PA and 565 AB inn 1938 regular season.
