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Klawchat 4/28/22
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Keith Law
3:24
I can't imagine that ... I feel like it's a big defensive hit to take. I also was looking at Edman's batted ball data the other day, and, jeez, I missed on that guy completely.
Michael
3:24
I made an insensitive comment to you on your CODA review and want to apologize for that
Keith Law
3:24
Oh, thank you, but that's truly not necessary.
Book
3:24
Sorry if I missed it, but have you recently made any good reading recommendations fiction/non
Keith Law
3:26
I've been reading more the last few weeks with more travel. Jason Mott's Hell of a Book was amazing. Black Swan Green was excellent too. Emily Fridlund's History of Wolves was very good. Non-fiction ... I interviewed Dr. Ellen Hendriksen (How to Be Yourself) and Kathryn Schulz (Lost & Found) for my podcast after reading and enjoying both of their books.
3:27
Currently reading Eating to Extinction by Dan Saladino, about rare foods we're at risk of losing due to globalization, climate change, or other stupid human tricks.
BD DC
3:27
Luis Garcia is killing the ball at AAA.  Has the light gone on?
Keith Law
3:28
I don't believe in any hitter who has that much big-league time going back down to beat up inferior AAA pitching until he does it again in the majors. Not saying he hasn't changed, but any varsity player should be able to hit JV pitching.
Elon Musk
3:28
Gonna stick around, Keith? Free speech for everyone!
Keith Law
3:28
I'm not going anywhere. I did set up an account on counter.social, @keithlaw, for folks who fled there from Twitter, but I am not deactivating my Twitter account.
Joe
3:28
I assume Gore is getting some help from bad teams but he looks pretty damn good considering where he was a year ago?
Keith Law
3:29
Both of these things can be true at the same time. I'm very pleased with where he is. I still see work to do.
Bob
3:29
You mentioned passivity in your report on Evan Carter. Have you found that to be somewhat innate and hard to change or the kind of thing a good development team should be able to help improve?
Keith Law
3:29
Depends on the person. No hard & fast rule there. Jeremy Hermida just watched this question go right by him.
Kevin
3:29
What’s up Klaw. Hope all is well. Long term for A’s…Murphy or Langeliers? Who would you prefer?
Keith Law
3:30
I would trade Murphy and promote Langeliers. Nothing against Murphy, but Langeliers provides a similar skill set, and Murphy should return a big haul. Of course, when you're playing Christian Bethancourt at first base...
John Standing
3:30
Hey Keith, are you a believer in Taylor Ward’s start? Thanks
Keith Law
3:30
He has a .531 OBP. I am going to boldly predict that that will come down.
zuke
3:31
Does the international draft help players. They already gave away any real benefit when they capped it. But does the draft at least help with the "agent" issues?
Keith Law
3:31
If that's coming to pass, I will write about it at length on the Athletic. I don't think I could do it justice in a chat answer.
David
3:31
Does Jacob Berry have the type of elite bat where he could be a top 5-10 pick even if he ends up at 1B/DH?
Keith Law
3:31
I don't think so. Maybe someone takes him there. He's a DH.
addoeh
3:31
Any resto recs in Virginia Beach/Hampton Roads?  Couldn’t find any articles on The Dish.
Keith Law
3:31
I actually have not been down there since high school, other than a day trip to Norfolk to see Neil Ramirez about 15 years ago.
Adam
3:32
When Manny Machado says to the media that he’ll be “a very mad, mad, man” if Hosmer gets traded off the Padres, should that affect the FO’s actions at all?
Keith Law
3:32
No.
J
3:32
Another make up question-how does a parents make up issues (thinking of Jay Groome in the past, Justin Crawford this year with Carl’s record label fighting with an artist) affect the player’s standing
Keith Law
3:32
The Groome stuff was bullshit. Groome's father ended up in jail for a whole host of crimes. Jay has had no makeup trouble I've heard of in pro ball - just trouble staying healthy.
Pepe
3:32
Thanks for your coverage of mental health topics over the years Keith. I suffered from social phobia my whole life but only later learned there is a strong comorbidity with ADHD, which i was recently diagnosed with. One aspect of ADHD is the ability to hyperfocus on things that a person is interested in or when a deadline is looming. This is sometimes framed as a superpower, but most acknowledge ADHD overall is burden to live with.

I saw a recent high draft pick mention he had ADHD on twitter and immediately wondered if teams factor conditions like this into evaluations? I feel like statistically an ADHD person may or may not be more likely to succeed in the bigs (not sure which). To me it seems like being able to focus in the moment or hyperfocus in preparation/training/theory would be a superpower, but also if baseball becomes unfun it would be much easier for these players to "check out". Have you heard anything about this line of thinking when selecting amateurs?
Keith Law
3:34
Teams have different philosophies on such players - some view it as a negative, some don't care, most I think would just want to know beforehand. A player with a real ADHD diagnosis can get an exemption to take medications, most of which are amphetamine derivatives, while playing, and those medications can confer real advantages to players - which is why some players try to use them without the exemptions.
I don't know if I can answer any more concretely than that. How specific teams view these diagnoses I do not know.
J
3:34
With the NFL draft today, who is the biggest loss that you think baseball as a sport has lost to another sport
Keith Law
3:36
As a player? We've lost a few two-sport guys out of high school - Brandon McIlwain comes to mind - who could have been really good if they'd stuck with baseball, and then didn't pan out in football either. (He's with the Mets now and struggling.) Pat Mahomes was a prospect but everyone knew in HS he'd end up playing football, which I think was the right choice for him.
It's often hard to say because even the best baseball prospects need a lot more time and reps before they get to the big leagues, and if they quit, it's at age 17 or 18, before they're finished products.
Adam
3:37
Have you noticed any specific changes that has allowed Nestor Cortes to become this effective? Granted between last year and this year we are still only looking at about a 1/2 year of innings, so it's still small sample size territory? Is this likely just a great stretch, or do you see a potential mid-rotation guy going forward?
Keith Law
3:38
The cutter is the new thing, right? I don't think he had that before he was waived and traded and sent to Scriberia or wherever. It might be a 70, though.
He might have the most interesting zero-to-hero story of anyone, though. The Yankees had him, lost him in the rule 5, got him back, got rid of him, got him back again, and now he's (waves hands) this.
3:39
Lindsey Adler wrote about some of the Yankees' pitch design stuff earlier this month, including the slider they call the "whirly" (there's got to be a better way to say that).
addoeh
3:39
Can Keegan Thompson be a back of the rotation starter or is he more of a multi inning reliever?
Keith Law
3:39
5th starter maybe?
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