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Front Office Chat: 6/9/23
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Dr Dave
4:33
What 4 or 5 current minor league players do you see getting a call up in June/July?
Anthony Franco
4:35
Most of the top prospects aren't already up or nowhere close. Mentioned Westburg and Malloy already, Christian Encarnacion-Strand feels like the next Red up. Could see the Mets going with Ronny Mauricio pretty soon
John B
4:35
Hi Anthony. The Giants MLB site put out a list of players for AS consideration: Wade, Estrada, Davis, Webb, Cobb and Doval. As I see it the guys with the best shot are Doval and one of Webb/Cobb. Wade has no shot, Estrada has a chance, and Davis feels more like an injury replacement maybe. Caveat that none are going to get voted in. How do you see it? Do you think they will get more than one player picked? Thanks
Anthony Franco
4:37
Doval should be a lock. I'd guess Webb gets in as one of the starters who doesn't start, maybe after a few others pull out because they pitched the prior Sunday
4:38
I don't know about any of the position players. Estrada getting a bench spot would be fine but not sure if he's got the name value for that. Luis Arraez should have second base sewn up. Wade and Davis have been good but not in a conspicuous enough way to get All-Star attention, I'd guess
Jake bauers
4:38
How good is he really?
Anthony Franco
4:40
It’s a good question. I’m cautiously optimistic, I guess. We have a long MLB track record of Bauers not being good. But it never made a ton of sense as to why. He’s mostly performed well in the minors and was viewed by most scouts as a really promising hitter coming up. There’s a decent amount of swing and miss but it’s good strike zone awareness with some power. I like him more than the rest of the Yankees’ currently healthy outfielders (not including Stanton obviously), though that’s not saying a whole lot.
Tork
4:40
Hi Thanks for the chat! Any thoughts about me — was I rushed to the majors and still have upside, or am I a pedestrian 1b even at my young age?
Anthony Franco
4:41
Yeah, I'm worried at this point. Thought we'd get a rebound after the mediocre rookie season and he's basically just repeating it
4:43
He's destroying lefties but the production against right-handed pitching (.207/.280/.313) is bad and he's striking out a decent amount against them. I do still think he has upside -- there's clearly huge power and an understanding of the strike zone there -- but I'm less confident of him getting to it than I have been previously
Dano
4:43
What is with Carlos Correa's bat?  Is it injuries?  Or is it something in his hitting profile?
Anthony Franco
4:47
Highest whiff rate of his career. He's getting beat by fastballs this season more than he has in years past. He's playing through some foot discomfort; maybe that's messing with his timing?
Cubs backstop
4:47
Looks like Miguel Amaya and Yan Gomes are IN, and Tucker Barnhart is OUT, right?  Or at trade deadline is there still a chance cem
or is there still a chance that Yan could be gone?
Anthony Franco
4:48
I think they’ll probably just keep Gomes and Amaya. Gomes wouldn’t have huge deadline appeal. He’s fine but teams aren’t giving up a ton for a 36-year-old catcher to take a semi-backup role midseason.
Cards Fan
4:48
You mentioned Montgomery as a likely trade candidate.  I know it might seem unlikely right now, but if the Cards get back in it, doesn't it seem like they would hang on to him as they are less likely to give up what would be needed in a short supply of starting pitchers available?
Anthony Franco
4:49
I agree they'd hold him if they're in it at the deadline. Running out of time to figure it out if they want to make it happen, though
Will in Westport
4:49
Is Masataka Yoshida (OF - BOS) the MVP of the BoSox, YTD?  Lock for AL ROY?
Anthony Franco
4:50
Hmm, I'd say yes to the first one
4:51
Definitely not a lock for ROY yet. Not sure I'd even call him the favorite over Josh Jung or Hunter Brown
Crystal ball
4:51
Is there any difference between Griffin Canning and Dane Dunning in terms of outcomes? Would I want one over the other?
Anthony Franco
4:52
I think they’re pretty comparable on talent, yeah. I’d lean towards Dunning overall given Canning’s health track record though. Could lead to some innings limits without a 2022 to build off of and probably just makes it less likely Canning stays healthy overall.
Buffy the Umpire Slayer
4:52
how likely will Larnach to be sent to the minors? He needs somewhere to get his hitting back to early season skills
Anthony Franco
4:53
Once Gallo comes back, I imagine Larnach heads back to St. Paul. Just not hitting enough for a corner outfielder
Rob
4:53
What does an Alonso extension look like?
Anthony Franco
4:55
I looked at this in Spring Training and thought Olson+ money ($180MM-ish over eight) felt reasonable. I’m in the same spot now – Alonso’s playing as well as he has for years, subject to the injury – but I know Steve thought I was light on him at the time.
Sandy G.
4:55
Does anyone else regret the absence of the LOB column in MLB's 2023 box scores? I found it an easy-to-understand indicator of how was hitting with men on base and who was not. Thanks!
Anthony Franco
4:57
Hadn't noticed they were scrapped. Baseball Reference has them at a team level but not on a player for player basis
It has a player's win probability added, which gets at the same idea but is less intuitive to contextualize
4:58
You can see season production with RISP here:
Lars Nootbaar's been great at it, apparently
Tony
4:58
Thanks for doing these. Cardinals fan...as of this morning we are 8 games back. Deconstructing the offseason, not sure where I would blame the front office. The big 3 free agent pitchers are ineffective or hurt. Perhaps a bullpen arm but I am not sure that would have really moved the needle. Murphy would have probably been the only move but that would have cost Gorman (if rumors are true). The bigger issue is poor baseball and that is really on the players. Is Yadi the missing piece?
Anthony Franco
5:00
Tough to quantify how much the Yadi leadership factor mattered. I wouldn’t dismiss it entirely but it’s not enough to explain going from a top five NL team to bottom three on its own.
The rotation is the big fault for the front office, in my opinion. They went into the year without a true top-end starter. Maybe there’s nothing they could’ve done – no aces got traded, and signing deGrom, Rodón or Verlander wouldn’t look great if they’d followed the same path they have for their teams – but I don’t think it was unforeseeable that the rotation wouldn’t be good.
Keith
5:00
Should MLB be concerned about the number of 100 loss teams in recent years?
Anthony Franco
5:01
They've put in a few anti-tanking measures, mostly with the draft (lottery, limitations on how many consecutive top picks a team can have) but I think the concern is a little overblown.
5:03
The league goes .500 every year. In order to have some good teams, you have to have some bad ones. And this year we've got a cluster of viable Wild Card contenders with only like three or four teams that went into the season with no plan on competing.
5:04
The A's are an issue, but the rest of the teams this year feel pretty cyclical. The Royals and Rockies haven't been good at team-building, but that's not the league's responsibility. Washington hit a rebuild after an extended stretch of competitiveness that resulted in a World Series, totally fair
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