Thanks for the analysis. I'm feeling a little gloomy about the Royals right now. I know we've got guys coming up that should improve said offense, but we've got deadwood around as well, especially two players with big contracts. These guys don't have much trade value and to put them in the opening day lineup seems, I don't know, counterproductive. I wonder of Mr. Sherman has the courage to cut bait and give these guys away or cut them, because we can't have the chilling effect of two wealthy below-average players on this roster. I guess we'll see.
I assume you're talking about Santana and Dozier. Santana has one year left and if he doesn't hit, I'd bet he's gone within a couple months. Dozier gets a lot of flack, but he hit .267/.347/.492 in 2019/2020. I know most of that was carried in 2019, but he was an average offensive player in 2020. Then he blows up his thumb on Opening Day and was a disaster, but as I've written so often before, he was perfectly fine from about mid-June on - .765 OPS from June 20th on, .780 OPS after the break and .922 OPS in September.
I think there are excuses made sometimes, but when a guy's thumb looks the way his did and then he starts hitting about the time he says he's feeling more comfortable and really doesn't stop hitting, I think you can take that excuse and call it an explanation. Just my opinion on him.
Maybe one solution with Dozier is to DH him. He's not a good defender. We'll have options defensively in 2022 that we didn't have in 2021. So let's see if he's the hitter the last month of the season showed him to be.
I agree with that. I also think he's athletic enough that if they stop jerking him around, he could at least be fine in right field, but I don't think they will, so yeah, DH works for me.
I enjoy your work. Part of my morning routine now, so when there's snow on the ground I'll look forward to maybe a discussion of Benintindi's lousy baserunning skills and baserunning in general, an underestimated offensive tool.
Strangely enough, Benintendi's baserunning rated just a touch below average. I would have guessed more. The caught stealings hurt and it did seem like he was running into outs, but I'd definitely have to explore more. As a team, the Royals rated really well, but that's largely due to Merrifield and Lopez. But the biggest culprits were Soler and O'Hearn, so those are getting wiped out for next year least.
Thanks for the analysis. I'm feeling a little gloomy about the Royals right now. I know we've got guys coming up that should improve said offense, but we've got deadwood around as well, especially two players with big contracts. These guys don't have much trade value and to put them in the opening day lineup seems, I don't know, counterproductive. I wonder of Mr. Sherman has the courage to cut bait and give these guys away or cut them, because we can't have the chilling effect of two wealthy below-average players on this roster. I guess we'll see.
I assume you're talking about Santana and Dozier. Santana has one year left and if he doesn't hit, I'd bet he's gone within a couple months. Dozier gets a lot of flack, but he hit .267/.347/.492 in 2019/2020. I know most of that was carried in 2019, but he was an average offensive player in 2020. Then he blows up his thumb on Opening Day and was a disaster, but as I've written so often before, he was perfectly fine from about mid-June on - .765 OPS from June 20th on, .780 OPS after the break and .922 OPS in September.
I think there are excuses made sometimes, but when a guy's thumb looks the way his did and then he starts hitting about the time he says he's feeling more comfortable and really doesn't stop hitting, I think you can take that excuse and call it an explanation. Just my opinion on him.
Maybe one solution with Dozier is to DH him. He's not a good defender. We'll have options defensively in 2022 that we didn't have in 2021. So let's see if he's the hitter the last month of the season showed him to be.
I agree with that. I also think he's athletic enough that if they stop jerking him around, he could at least be fine in right field, but I don't think they will, so yeah, DH works for me.
I enjoy your work. Part of my morning routine now, so when there's snow on the ground I'll look forward to maybe a discussion of Benintindi's lousy baserunning skills and baserunning in general, an underestimated offensive tool.
Strangely enough, Benintendi's baserunning rated just a touch below average. I would have guessed more. The caught stealings hurt and it did seem like he was running into outs, but I'd definitely have to explore more. As a team, the Royals rated really well, but that's largely due to Merrifield and Lopez. But the biggest culprits were Soler and O'Hearn, so those are getting wiped out for next year least.