Given your assessment of Dubon, I’d swap him and Webb. And what is your sense of Mike Yazstremski’s hitting renaissance - is this something he figured out on his own, or should we primarily give credit to the new SF hitting coaches?
I suppose that's a ceiling/floor sort of issue. I'm more confident that Dubon can be a useful player over the long-term -- though not by a lot for sure. I think Webb maybe could be a better player, but I'm less certain of him getting to that spot. As for Yaz -- I always credit the player first but the coaching staff certainly have been a big help to players.
Slater is better in the OF than you give him credit. He's +2 DRS in 998.1 innings, all of which comes from the Right Field position (532.2 innings). He's also +2 Outs-Above-Average over the 2019/2020 seasons though his 2018 (if I remember right his wheels were dinged up a bit) was pretty bad.
He also crushes LH pitching which is always important making him an excellent platoon split. In fact, he comes in as the 10th best OFer (all positions) against LHers we've had in the past 20 years.
I think Slater's biggest problem is a combination of getting dinged-up and that he just wears out by the end of the year. All his monthly splits are adequate to outstanding. Then comes September and he's hitting .179.
So I'd be putting Slater on the stick-list. After all, we've signed worse players (Michael Morse for example) to big contracts or traded for faded has-beens like Andrew McCutcheon who have been worse in the field AND against LH pitching.
I agree with you in general -- he's on my stick list. But your comments I think just reaffirm my notion that it's for the best if he's a long term DH solution -- it's what he does best and he does tend to get injured and/or worn down playing the field
Given your assessment of Dubon, I’d swap him and Webb. And what is your sense of Mike Yazstremski’s hitting renaissance - is this something he figured out on his own, or should we primarily give credit to the new SF hitting coaches?
I suppose that's a ceiling/floor sort of issue. I'm more confident that Dubon can be a useful player over the long-term -- though not by a lot for sure. I think Webb maybe could be a better player, but I'm less certain of him getting to that spot. As for Yaz -- I always credit the player first but the coaching staff certainly have been a big help to players.
Slater is better in the OF than you give him credit. He's +2 DRS in 998.1 innings, all of which comes from the Right Field position (532.2 innings). He's also +2 Outs-Above-Average over the 2019/2020 seasons though his 2018 (if I remember right his wheels were dinged up a bit) was pretty bad.
He also crushes LH pitching which is always important making him an excellent platoon split. In fact, he comes in as the 10th best OFer (all positions) against LHers we've had in the past 20 years.
I think Slater's biggest problem is a combination of getting dinged-up and that he just wears out by the end of the year. All his monthly splits are adequate to outstanding. Then comes September and he's hitting .179.
So I'd be putting Slater on the stick-list. After all, we've signed worse players (Michael Morse for example) to big contracts or traded for faded has-beens like Andrew McCutcheon who have been worse in the field AND against LH pitching.
I agree with you in general -- he's on my stick list. But your comments I think just reaffirm my notion that it's for the best if he's a long term DH solution -- it's what he does best and he does tend to get injured and/or worn down playing the field