Tag / Age 22

by Charles Haas

Witt Jr, Bobby – MLB HOF Tracker

AGE 22 Tracked Career 0.8 WAR – 3.8 WAR
Floor Level Hall of Famer Year 1.9 WAR
Average Hall of Famer Year 2.3 WAR

Witt Jr, Bobby
2022: 2.3 WAR Career: 2.3 WAR

It’s really hard for me to write about Witt because I feel like I’m going to come across as overly negative about a player who I am absolutely not overly negative about.

So let me give you a quick rundown. Bobby Witt Jr finished his age 22 season with 2.3 WAR. The average Hall of Famer accumulates 2.3 WAR in their age 22 season. Witt hit 20 homers. He stole 30 bases. He plays a premium position. If Witt develops, no one will look at his rookie year and think it’s out of place. The numbers he put up are perfectly acceptable numbers for a 22-year-old to keep an eye on.

So, yeah, save those Bobby Witt Jr. rookie cards, because a normal development curve and proper health means he’s going to have a very solid to great career.

But…but…but there’s just so much uninspiring about this last season.

First of all, let’s talk about development. Witt posted a .558 OPS in his first month. Well, duh. 22 year old is a big leaguer having to make big league adjustments. That ain’t easy. Lots of people come up rattled.

He recovered in a big way in May with an .829 OPS. That’s the Witt everyone wants to see. That’s the Witt you dream on for 2 decades.

And then…his OPS declined every month of the year.

.558
.829
.803
.761
.697
.663

I mean, if you reverse that, then I’m singing his praises here. Talking about how much better he got as he went along. But what am I supposed to make of this now? What can we expect of a 23-year-old Witt?

Witt finished the year with a .254/.294/.428/.722 line. His wRC of 99 is just a hair below average. I don’t have an issue with the batting average. It’s actually not half bad for modern baseball, and Witt was never going to be a high-average aficionado. But a .294 OBP thanks to a 4.7 BB%? Woof. And I mean woof.

Let me just give you a full list of Hall of Famers with a .294 OBP or below:

OK. That’s the full list.

To be fair there is ONE player who has made the Hall with a walk % lower than 4.7%. That’s Deacon White with 4.4%. Of course, he debuted in 1871, when it took at LEAST 9 balls to draw a walk.

So Witt’s pathetic plate discipline is a historical hindrance. It’s also one that doesn’t make a lot of sense. His walk rate in the minors last year was 9%. And there’s also basically no reason to pitch to Witt, who is basically the closest thing to a threat KC has in their lineup. So what gives?

Interestingly, Witt’s K% also dropped slightly. I don’t have the minor league data to back this up, but that’s very unusual, and would usually tell you that the already aggressive Witt was…being even more aggressive? Whether by player or by coaching this methodology of having everyone hit like Salvador Perez clones is not a good idea. Mike Matheny and Terry Bradshaw, a manager and hitting coach who I both hold in extremely low esteem, are both gone next year. And I sure hope that’s a good thing. I don’t see how a young player getting away from Mike Matheny could possibly be a bad thing, frankly.

The Royals batting average ranked 7th in the league last year. Not bad! Their OBP was quite a bit lower at 10th, and their slugging was 12th. So basically the team accomplished being an average team at hitting empty singles.

By the way, that’s the Royals. This is the most insane stat I’ve ever seen. The last time the Royals had a league ranking where their On Base Percentage OR their Slugging Percentage was higher than the league ranking for their batting average was NINETEEN NINETY-EIGHT. Their average was 12th in the league, but their slugging was 11th. That’s just stupendous. I’m in shock. The Royals decided 25 years ago their organizational philosophy was to ground singles through holes, or die. And they won a World Series doing this.

ANYWAY, what’s worse for Witt is that he was a guy that was supposed to stick at SS, and instead spent 1/3 of his time at 3B. And he was an abject disaster at both. Now look, he’s 22. He’s on a 90+ loss team. He should improve, which means you stick him at SS every M-Fing day so that he develops. You don’t stick him at 3rd and start his descent down the position ladder already.

Except I’m not sure I blame them. Witt, in just 98 games at SS, had a DRS of -19. My God in heaven. It’s like the answer to “what would happen if you stuck David Ortiz at SS?” It really looks like perhaps the Royals just couldn’t stand to have him out there. Maybe they thought he was losing it mentally. He wasn’t good at 3rd either, for the record.

So you see? You see how I sound down on him? And I’m not. I’m definitely down on his situation. But what I’m scared of is that I see multiple signs of mishandling – either at the behest of the Royals, or that the Royals simply ignored. Perhaps with so much turnover around the franchise it will be different. Dear lord Royals, you have a possibly huge talent here. You aren’t winning the 2023 World Series. Stick him at SS and COACH him there. And stick him at #2 or so in your order and make him TAKE A PITCH. He’s in the 1st percentile for outs made in the league. That’s an issue.

But let me tell you – quickly – something else about him. When he calms down and gets a pitch to hit, he MASHES. His exit velocities are great. He barrels balls all the time. He has speed on the bases for days. He has actual metrics that tell you how much talent is bubbling inside of him and maybe had the worst possible people to get it out of him. But he’s going to be 23 next year, not 33. And he’ll have different voices in his head, and it’s possible we’re going to see an emergence of talent next season that stuns our current baseline for him.

But if he’s starting at 3B next April, and walking once every two series, I’m going to lose faith really fast.

First career hit
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sport…b-26846233233c
Beautiful triple
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sport…5-3b8fd4275543
First Career HR
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sport…4-7c2e856e56a5
Huge Game against the Angels
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sport…9-4f9d434d1d73
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sport…6-0aa5e6e5383f
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sport…d-4499ba98cd6a
112.7
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sport…5-11a5bed50f72
441 ft
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sport…3-5d8672321b74
20-20
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sport…0-c9d425453142

by Charles Haas

Detmers, Reid – MLB HOF Tracker

AGE 22 Tracked Career 0.8 WAR – 3.8 WAR
Floor Level Hall of Famer Year 1.9 WAR
Average Hall of Famer Year 2.3 WAR

Detmers, Reid
2022: 2.3 WAR Career: 2.1 WAR

OK, so I have to admit. When it comes to pitchers, I am a big curve ball, strike thrower kind of guy. So Reid Detmers is my kind of guy. His curve is nasty. His command isn’t spectacular, but it is good, and we’re talking about a 22-year-old here, so there’s a great chance that it gets better.

Detmers was a good prospect – came into the year ranked #21 on MLBs list – but he has been considered more of a high-floor guy than a high-ceiling guy. I’m not sure if that would still be considered the case now. Detmers just went through his rookie year with 25 starts, a 3.77 ERA, and a 3.79 WHIP. So it looks like he’s already on that high floor.

And, just what you’re looking for in a 22-year-old, he’s getting better.

If you weren’t paying attention, it may not seem that way. Because Detmers made his name and his mark on the history books early in the year, when on May 10th he threw a no-hitter over the Rays. It was nearly a perfect game, having only one walk given up. His ERA dropped that day to 3.77. His season ended at 3.77. So…where’s the progress?

Well first, he went into that game with a 5.32 ERA. And his 3.77 post-no-hitter ERA ballooned to 4.66 by the end of June. And June through the end of the year he went 5-3 with a 3.04 ERA that was half a run above his WHIP.

More than that, you can see where it was coming from. Through June he had 44Ks in 58 innings. After June he had 77K in 71 IP.

Before June he had 1 quality start. It happened to be his no-hitter. After June he had 6.

And it wasn’t an easy path. Starting out in July he threw a 6 inning, 2 hit, 0 ER game against a strong Baltimore team. Followed it with 6IP 2ER over the Houston Astros. They turned out pretty good. His next start was 5 shutout innings against the Braves. Finally getting an easier assignment, he threw 7 IP of 1 run ball against Texas where he got his season high 12Ks (His 2nd highest K total was 9, which he did twice – and one of those teams was ALSO Texas. Guess they can’t hit the curve).

It goes on. He mirrored the 7IP 1ER in his next start against very good Seattle. and later threw 6IP 1ER against Seattle.

He did falter a bit at the end of the season. No big shock. In his last 7 starts, he had a 4.63 ERA. But let me tell you something else about those last 7 starts. 0 HR given up. In his last 27 innings in June, he gave up 8.

So, to me, there’s a lot to like here. I’m not saying that Reid Detmers can start writing his Hall speech. He’s a 22-year-old pitcher. That means he’ll probably get hit by a bus tomorrow, or tear his shoulder picking up a spoon, or something. But his possibility mirrors his teammate Patrick Sandoval quite a bit. Sandoval, a 45FV starter a few years older that relies on good breaking pitches, took a big leap forward this year after having a season to take notice of the year before. Detmers’ ceiling may not be through the roof, but it’s higher than Sandoval’s for sure. If he replicates that kind of success – dare I say the Angels have a pretty good top 3 starters?

This seems like something to watch to me. I like tracking Detmers. It’s easy to bet against any pitcher this young against the Hall – ok. But he just may be the pitcher that puts the Angels over the top and gives them the playoff run that Trout’s hall case has so roundly been criticized for.

But I’m totally open to it being more than that. The Angels up and down, after a decade of miserable pitching, really put something together this year. Matt Wise – great name for a pitching coach – was an outside-the-box hire, but I’ll tell you one thing about the staff. In the 2 years he’s been the pitching coach, their ERA+ went up 6 points, and then 11 points.

And there’s more. Wanna know who they hired for their assistant pitching coach this year? Bill Hezel, who was the Director of Pitching at Driveline.

Yes, that Driveline.

There’s an ember here worth watching. Maybe 2 or 3 embers, because if Detmers really is part of a successful organizational philosophy, then he’s the sort of pitcher that can stick around for a LONG time. Breaking ball pitchers that don’t have to worry about losing a few mph on their fastball, but know how to pitch, can Rich Hill their way through a career forever.

Who doesn’t love a 72MPH Curve?
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sport…4-68091323c1e0
Look at the sweep. Off the plate outside to off the plate inside
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sport…f-d379eae0ed9c
Silly changeup in the No-No
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sport…5-1f1a66ea45f4
Only other K on the curve
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sport…6-d7b9ae990ebe
Fitting a curve to seal the deal
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sport…7-5ff504b4846b
Only 4 of his 12K performance ended with fastballs. The slider was nasty
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sport…2-2b269ad660fa
Oh, and in that game he had an immaculate inning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgfadPlR0t8
And he did it in the minors last year, too. These highlights, man. He’s got something.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhrQt-9rVwI

by Charles Haas

Greene, Hunter – MLB HOF Tracker

AGE 22 Tracked Career 0.8 WAR – 3.8 WAR
Floor Level Hall of Famer Year 1.9 WAR
Average Hall of Famer Year 2.3 WAR

Greene, Hunter
2022: 1.6 WAR Career: 1.6 WAR

MLB had Hunter Greene as the #22 prospect coming into this year – and the #21 prospect back in 2018. So he’s been around forever, but has done so without taking the great leap forward you’d expect with 4 years of development. Well, kind of. Greene’s initial prospect ranking was simple. He has an 80-grade fastball – it’s nuts. He can touch 103. So he got a high ranking because that’s a damn good place to start. While the Ks remained high in the minors – Greene remained hittable. If the fastball was straight, or if an off-speed pitch rolled, hung, or couldn’t be located, Greene was in trouble. Which is why Greene nearly had a 4:1 k:b ratio, essentially gave up no home runs, and still ended up with a .353 BABIP and an ERA well above 4.00 in a league where hitting Greene’s fastball should be damn near impossible.

And then, in 2019, came Tommy John of course.

And so Greene fell in the prospect rankings. Not far. But he wasn’t as far along as people had hoped. Come 2021 when Greene suddenly absolutely dominated AA for a handful of starts, and, well he had similar troubles to his A-ball days in AAA – but, we’re talking about AAA players here. So the 21-year-old was forgiven. And he shot right back up the prospect charts, only to make the Reds rotation for opening day.

On the whole, he was terrible most of the season. You probably didn’t see a lot of people clamoring over Hunter Greene.

Like any frustrating youngster, he had games where he put it all together. He no-hit the Pirates over 7.1 innings on May 15, in a classic Nolan Ryan game. Greene walked 5. Basically, a Pirates hitter had to face a wild, 100mph flamethrower. It’s awfully hard to step in against that.

But later, against Arizona, he threw 7 innings of 1 hit ball and Kd 8. That’s not wild. That’s just unhittable. And yes, our examples here are the Pirates and Arizona, who couldn’t make murderer’s row unless they laced the rosin bag with fentanyl, but these are still big leaguers, and it still showed what Greene had the capability of doing if he could ever harness it.

Thing is, the season had a lot more than those two starts. Those were 2 of the 4 quality starts recorded all the way through July. There was a 5 HR game in there by Milwaukee. There were 3 other 5 ER+ starts in there, which is hard to do when 10 of your first 16 starts didn’t go past 5 innings. I mean, Greene was bad. On July 4h his ERA stood at 6.01. No one was talking about Hunter Greene for NL ROY.

Then something clicked. I don’t know what. But if you weren’t paying attention, you missed it.

Here are Greene’s last 8 starts of the season, which includes missing a month to injury:

IP – ER
6.0 – 1
5.0 – 4
6.1 – 2
6.0 – 0
6.0 – 0
5.0 – 2
6.0 – 0
6.0 – 0

For those scoring at home, that’s a 1.75 ERA (and a 2.12 FIP) – It flew under the radar, because it only brought his season totals to a 5-13 W-L record with a 4.44 ERA, but dare I say something clicked for Hunter Greene. It was the something people were dreaming of when he had an 80-grade fastball at 18.

What for the future? He’s a kid pitcher, who knows? I watched the most worthless interview ever where what he attributed his late-season success to was ‘hard work’ – so I have no idea if that was truly a page-turning moment for him. But he’s likely to be the Reds’ opening-day starter soon, and I think his first few starts are going to tell us volumes about how rocky his road is going to be from here. He’s still going to be a Red for now – so wins and national attention aren’t likely to go his way – but it’s entirely possible we’re going to see a 23-year-old ace next year, and that’s pretty darn rare.

Most importantly, no matter what happens, somehow, someway, someone has to find a way to get ‘Hunter Greene’ in an A’s uniform at some point.

1st K
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sport…c-37973365ddcc
7 no hit innings, and the Pirates are pissed about a clear strike
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sport…d-335f2ebb50a0
The 1 hitter against the DBacks? This is the one hit.
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sport…0-dc2277544a37
…and then later he gave up only 1 hit in 6 innings against the Marlins
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sport…c-8c6e7cd591d7
…and later struck out 5 straight Cardinals, all on 4 seamers, all 101+
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sport…f-6c47aba485c0
Another from the same game. 102.4 MPH to K Nolan Gorman, and just make him look silly
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sport…f-6c47aba485c0

by Charles Haas

Contreras, Roansy – MLB HOF Tracker

AGE 22 Tracked Career 0.8 WAR – 3.8 WAR
Floor Level Hall of Famer Year 1.9 WAR
Average Hall of Famer Year 2.3 WAR

Contreras, Roansy
2022: 0.9 WAR Career: 1.1 WAR

You might as well know at the outset that I’m a big believer in Roansy Contreras, and I think if not for him playing for the Pirates – and also how the Pirates have chosen to handle him, he’d be a lot more hyped as a pitcher than he is today. Roansy signed with the Yankees a long time ago – 2017. And by 2019 his rise was surprising enough that he became a midlevel prospect, one that was envisioned as a back-of-the-rotation starter, a jump from the previous expectations as a reliever.

The Yankees traded him to the Pirates as part of the package to get Jameson Taillon. I have to emphasize here how little was thought of Roansy. He was one of 4 players traded to get Taillon. And this was the Yankees doing the deal. The Yankees, whose farm system never has amazing depth thanks to their low draft positions, sent 4 players for Taillon. Taillon was coming off of 2 Tommy John surgeries. He had missed over a year and a half of baseball. He got full playing time credit for it and was becoming more expensive. The Pirates did not want to spend millions of dollars on a guy coming off of a multi-year injury, with no idea how he would turn out. And so whatever value that had – divide it into 4 sections. Looking back, Roansy was probably the top prospect in the deal – but Miguel Yajure actually had MLB experience, and if you look up anything about that trade, he’s listed first. That may be name recognition, more than anything. But the point was, if anyone was to hear about this deal, then it was the Tallison for parts trade – headlined by Yajure.

Tallison has ended up being an average MLB starter, which is worth quite a bit. In Roansy alone, the Pirates looked to have won the deal.

We’re talking about no MiLB season – so who knows what the Yankees saw, but it’s extremely interesting that Roansy came out in 2021 absolutely lights out in AA, shooting up prospect lists. Did the Yankees not see this in their camps in 2020? Was this something that happened over the off-season only? No matter, Roansy came out in AA and – in a season shortened by injury – suddenly became a strikeout pitcher with fantastic control. And now the guy who was projected as a 4-5 starter has looked more like a 2-3. He ended the season making his MLB debut. 3 innings of 0 runs over the Cubs with 4Ks.

Maybe it’s just me, but shouldn’t he have had more hype going into 2022? I mean, we’re talking about the 44th ranked prospect and one who sort of shot up out of nowhere TWICE.

2022 was a mixed bag, which is a success for a 22-year-old pitcher.

The season stat line held at 5-5 with a 3.79 ERA (110 ERA+) in 18 starts, and 86K in 95 innings. The stats are a little rosier than the peripherals. 4.38 FIP suggests he was lucky. 3.7 BB/9 isn’t exactly Greg Maddux. 11 Wild Pitches was actually 2nd in the league – in less than 100 innings.

But, as always, we must look deeper. Roansy has been considered to have good control before this year. This year, that became a kind of jerking around for him between the bullpen and the rotation, and the minor leagues over and over and over again, where the Pirates really wanted him to only throw 3 or 4 innings a start. He was babied to the extreme. I’m not criticizing that. But it does make it hard to know exactly what to expect in the future.

What you really need to know about Roansy’s 2022, is that there was a game where the Brewers beat the Pirates 19-2. And Roansy was the starter. And after 1.2 innings he’d given up 7 earned runs including 3 home runs.

Going into that game, his ERA was 2.76. After that game, it was 3.53. Because of that game, his ERA and FIP got smashed. It was the only game on the season he gave up more than 1 homer. In his 9 minor league starts, he continued to dominate (though the same reappearance of league-average wildness happened there too.) But in his 9 good starts in the minors, he pitched fewer than 36 innings. We’re talking about a starter here who averaged less than 4 and did well.

He did have high pitch counts for his amount of innings, but based on his bouncing up and down through the season it became very clear that the Pirates were doing whatever they could to keep his arm from being taxed too much. This tells me the Pirates know they have something special. And in the era of Ke’Bryan Hayes and O’Neill Cruz on the infield, that defense may make him appear to be extra special. My guess is that a dream version of the next Pirate revival involves Contreras and Quinn Priester forming a solid 1-2 in-house punch at the top of the rotation. And between the two, yeah, I bet a healthy Roansy is the 2024 opening-day starter for the Pirates. And I bet he’s much closer to being a real two than a three if he develops correctly.

It’s a long shot, for sure. The Pirates “don’t pitch the pitcher” gambit may not pay off. Contreras overall was hit pretty hard. His stuff had tremendous spin, which means he’s likely struggling with tunneling, tipping some pitches, or it just was easy to anticipate what he’d do next. He is still a pretty major work in progress and is doing so on a team that isn’t exactly famed for churning out talent year in and year out.

But Contreras is very young for a pitcher. Their development curve is usually behind hitters – especially successful ones that gain stuff with their velocity. Conteras, like everyone, throws in the high 90s. What makes him potentially special is that he’s shown control and secondary pitches beyond his age range. That’s why he’s worth looking at. if he does reasonably put it together, you’re looking at the Pirates version of Jose Berrios, and yes that’s a good.

98 MPH rising heat
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sport…e-5b6e5601fd98
78 curve that acts as a tremendous changeup (no Ks on changeup all year – used to be his key pitch coming up)
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sport…3-ee3950b2b941
Slider that looks like it’s heading toward the zone, and never comes close
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sport…6-eac46700b129
More typical curve
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sport…videoType=AWAY
Good Highlight Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHj9Jmz6iCA
Might be the closest Roansy comes to HOF immortality
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sport…0-d6af9473c39b

by Charles Haas

Perdomo, Geraldo – MLB HOF Tracker

AGE 22 Tracked Career 0.8 WAR – 3.8 WAR
Floor Level Hall of Famer Year 1.9 WAR
Average Hall of Famer Year 2.3 WAR

Perdomo, Geraldo
2022: 0.6 WAR Career: 0.8 WAR

It was at the end of last year, with Geraldo Perdomo sitting on the list with 0.2 WAR, that I wrote Perdomo could have a lengthy stay on the list for very simple reasons. He’s young. He’s a SS. And he’s on a rebuilding team and would get every opportunity to succeed. 0.2 WAR is the minimum to be tracked as a 21-year-old. As a 22-year-old, he’d only have to make it to 0.8.

And unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened.

Perdomo was awful. Just plain awful.

He got 500 Plate Appearances and managed a 58 wRC+ – and that’s with a solid walk rate of 10%. It’s because Perdomo simply couldn’t hit, finishing below the Mendoza line with a .195 average, and his poor on-base percentage (.285) was well above his slugging percentage (.262). What’s even sadder is that Perdomo is pretty darn fast. Only 3 GIDP all year (partially because he led the league in sacrifices with 12, as the Diamondbacks couldn’t stand to let him hit) and he was 9 for 11 in steal attempts, which is very good. This means Perdomo should have been able to beat out a few infield grounders along the way.

And here’s what’s scary, he did. His bunt hit average, and his infield grounders average were both ABOVE league average. And 46% of his contact ended up being ground balls, a pretty darn high percentage. So he had all of that going for him – and hit .195! Even sadder, is that he wasn’t unlucky. His wOBA of…gag….253 was only 16 points below his xwOBA of .269, which is pretty typical for 2022’s low offensive year.

So he has to field like Ozzie Smith and Brooks Robinson put together, right?

mmm…nah.

His defensive reputation in the minors was sterling. So far in the majors, his metrics at SS couldn’t be more boring. Most are right at average, or on the underside of average.

He’s on the list for a simple reason. When you’re as young as Perdomo, and you get as much playing time as Perdomo, and you play a premium position like Perdomo, it’s REALLY HARD to not scratch out the 0.6 WAR he needed to stay on the list for the season. And yet, he almost didn’t do it. I wish I was joking, but it took a 7 game stretch in September where he went 9-22 with a home run to boost his numbers enough to get him on the list.

So how was that enough?
Perdomo was worth 0.6 WAR
Perdomo got 0.61 WAR for simply standing at SS all year.

Now I want to be fair here. Perdomo gained 0.54 WAR from good baserunning, and 0.18 WAR from how well he actually did at SS. The baserunning mark is pretty good. The fielding mark is pretty blah. Most of his value came from being a warm body you could technically stick at any position. And his hitting – at -2.41 WAR absolutely destroyed any good feelings that caused.

So what about going forward?

Well, he has to be worth 1.2 WAR to stay on this list. Again, that’s pretty easy to do. If he’s getting better – and I mean DEAR LORD how could he get worse? – and continues to not embarrass himself at SS, then he could easily make that mark while still being otherwise terrible.

And it’s not like there’s no hope for optimism. The scouting says he should develop into a decent-hitting, average to below-average power SS with good speed and a good glove. There’s a lot of value in that package. Turning into a 1.2 WAR player next year would be no great shock at all. But one must wonder what the Diamondbacks were doing with him this year. His best batting average month was May – .232. August he was all the way down to .137. ONE THIRTY-SEVEN. Folks, in 2015 a 42-year-old Bartolo Colon hit .138.

So if these were development pains Arizona was willing to pay…ok…but he didn’t seem to develop. If they hope he’s the answer in the future, why let him suffer and not demote him for his confidence? Were they protecting another minor leaguer they didn’t want to come up too early? That seems unlikely. Blaze Alexander is older – not much of a prospect – and in theory, it’s Jordan Lawler’s position soon. So why not Blaze (who isn’t scouted well, but did perform well)? Why not an AAAA player like Wilmer Difo (He was hurt some…but the DBacks have a bunch of those guys)? Hell, I’d have been calling Stephen Drew to see what he was up to instead of riding this train into the ground.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not following the DBacks SS quandary day in and day out. Maybe this was all logical and rational, and I just have trouble seeing it for a team that plays when this east coast fan is in bed. Maybe, I agree that she should have been in the majors playing SS every day. Maybe his contract has a clause that says if he gets benched, Dave Stewart comes back as GM.

That said, my guess on Perdomo is quite simple. I bet he’s going to be challenged in spring, and I bet he’ll have a short leash next year. But they won’t endure another year of Perdomo playing like this. He’ll either have had to magically improve in the off-season, or he’s going to be cast off to the minors or another team. It gives me angst because in some ways I think the Diamondbacks may have hurt a good promising player with their handling of him. On the other side of things, I really don’t want to spend another year monitoring a .195 hitting shortstop. So if you’re going to ruin him, absolutely destroy his soul, dammit.

Perdomo’s 1st HR – a Grand Slam – and roughly 32 people got to see it.
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sport…videoType=AWAY
His SECOND career HR was a go ahead shot, and also against the Reds. I just like the idea that Reds fans might have nightmares about this slugger.
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sport…videoType=AWAY
THE TERROR OF OHIO
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sport…videoType=HOME
YOU CANNOT STOP HIM (this was ruled a double)
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sport…videoType=HOME