el Mago...

[Cruzer1]

 

[casimir]

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen such a bipolar player before.  It’s not to say he only plays on the extreme ends.  But he can look so darn impressive at times and completely horrible at others with plenty of in the middle.  His effortless transition to CF just impresses me.  We’ve seen a few guys do that before.

Brandon Inge is one that comes to mind, leaving from behind the plate to land at 3B with some short time in OF.  Yes, the bat was meh.  But the glove work deserves mention.

Craig Biggio from behind the plate to 2B to OF to HOF.  I knew of it, but baseball wasn’t on as much as it is today.

And HOF Robin Yount.  MVPs at SS and CF?  Even less TV exposure during his playing days, so tough to follow outside of print media.

i don’t think anyone is happy with the Baez contract.  But his defense and versatility have ready come into benefit last season and now.

[chasfh]

I think Javy's problem at the plate is similar to what Jeter's problem was in the field: he has poor reaction reflexes. Jeter had poor range not because he was slow or nonathletic, but because he took a few milliseconds longer to recognize where the ball was going, and then reacting to it, than the average big league shortstop, which was enough to result in a whole lot of pasta diving. Similarly, Javy is a good-enough hitter when he gets to the ball, with decent line drive ability and above average EV, but I believe Javy can't let the pitch travel much before committing to a swing because he can't react to where it's going when it gets too close to him. In this respect I would bet he is in at least the bottom quartile of established hitters.

If this is true, I don't believe it's the kind of thing that can be fixed—reaction time is baked into his physical tools. The goal then becomes get enough out of the positives (hard hits, good base running, good defense, with the occasional eye-popping catch or slide) to more than offset the negatives that can't be helped.

Edited 5 hours ago by chasfh

[Jason_R]

If I recall correctly, Ted Williams had 20/10 vision. He claimed he could see the seams on the baseball as it left the pitcher's hand. There are certainly many skills that go into being a capable hitter at the MLB level, but one that you cannot train is vision. One study says the average MLB player has 20/13 vision. https://www.aao.org/museum/exhibition-detail/sports-vision. 4% of players have 20/8 vision, and it doesn't seem like you can get vision better than that. https://www.advancedvisiontherapycenter.com/about/Baseballs-Visual-Demands.html

Maybe Javy has ordinary eyesight like the rest of us. 

[gehringer_2]

Hitting takes place at the extreme edge of a bunch of the body's capability. Vision, reaction time, strength to swing the bat, plus ability once you do see the ball to accurately extrapolate where the ball is going based on a the short preview before the swing decision is made. You have be an outlier in almost all of those to be a great hitter.

Edited 2 hours ago by gehringer_2

[Sports_Freak]

3 hours ago, chasfh said:

I think Javy's problem at the plate is similar to what Jeter's problem was in the field: he has poor reaction reflexes. Jeter had poor range not because he was slow or nonathletic, but because he took a few milliseconds longer to recognize where the ball was going, and then reacting to it, than the average big league shortstop, which was enough to result in a whole lot of pasta diving. Similarly, Javy is a good-enough hitter when he gets to the ball, with decent line drive ability and above average EV, but I believe Javy can't let the pitch travel much before committing to a swing because he can't react to where it's going when it gets too close to him. In this respect I would bet he is in at least the bottom quartile of established hitters.

If this is true, I don't believe it's the kind of thing that can be fixed—reaction time is baked into his physical tools. The goal then becomes get enough out of the positives (hard hits, good base running, good defense, with the occasional eye-popping catch or slide) to more than offset the negatives that can't be helped.

Like he has poor pitch recognition? He just can't seem to lay off a breaking pitch, it's like he doesn't see it coming out of hand.

Edited 2 hours ago by Sports_Freak

[gehringer_2]

3 hours ago, chasfh said:

reaction time is baked into his physical tools.

It's true you can't change a guy's reaction time. What you can try is to shorten his approach so the same reaction time still gives him more time to get the bat to where it needs to be on time. Not a high probability endeavor either and if player is left with zero power you still might not like the result, but it is one thing you can try. And doubly hard to try and re-arrange a guy ten+ yrs into a career.

Edited 2 hours ago by gehringer_2