Box Score Recap – 5/24/2013

Box Score Recap

Zach Collier is absolutely raking right now – 1.103 OPS in his last 10 games, OPSing .754 in May. Logan Moore with homeruns in 2 straight. He’s hit safely in 8 of his last 10 and he’s OPSing .703 now in May, which is a marked improvement over his April. And Roman Quinn is OPSing .868 in May after a horrid April, (a rash of errors not withstanding, that’s a .330 jump over his first month at Lakewood).

If we learn anything from May every year, it’s that April is just another month – it just happens to come at the beginning of the year. Also the top level of split level homes are hard to keep cool in summery weather. Maybe it’s just me, but it barely cracked 90 outside last week and I was ready to move into the basement. Although that would be perfect for a blogger, right?

Here’s the affiliate Scoreboard from MiLB.

http://www.milb.com/scoreboard/index.jsp?sid=milb&org=143&ymd=20130524

5-24-13 boxscores

51 thoughts on “Box Score Recap – 5/24/2013”

  1. Gotta give Lakewood credit for finding different ways to make you shake your head at them every night. Previous game was like 24 strikeouts for their entire team, this game was 7 errors.

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  2. Hate to see Wright get lit up again. It doesn’t seem to be wildness that has hurt him, which is at least a positive. Has anyone seen his games? Could it just be that his velocity is down and/or he is just throwing fastballs as he attempts to rebuild his arm strength?

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  3. Raul Valdes started. That’s interesting. I guess they are trying to stretch him out to play the emergency spot starter role now that both Pettibone and Cloyd are in the majors?

    Really heartening to see Collier starting to put it together. It’s increasingly clear that the Revere trade (which I hated at the time) has not, in fact, solved the big club’s long term problem at that position.

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    1. I’m not ready to throw the towel in on Revere, who just turned 25. He’s in a brand new city with a team that expects to contend unlike the last team he played for. He had 270 hits and stole 74 bases the past two seasons so he has a successful track record. Some of the defensive struggles concern me a bit, especially his routes to balls over his head, but he’s also adjusting to playing in ballparks he may have never played in or played in a few times at most. Sure, he’s not off to the greatest start, but I’m not calling the trade a total failure after seven weeks.

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      2. I think Revere is just trying to hard – he’s never going to be a true star, but if he just does what he did for Minnesota the past two year, he’d be fine. He’s not the problem. The team needs another productive corner outfielder (assuming Brown continues to develop, which I think it is a reasonable assumption).

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    2. I was fine with the Ben Revere trade when it occurred, because I didn’t believe what we gave up was anything that would hurt in the future. I have to admit though, that Ben Revere isn’t any good. I don’t ever remember giving up on a player this fast.

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      1. We didn’t give up a lot in the trade, but what the hell where they scouting? did this guy all of a sudden forget how to go back on balls. my god he is a major league outfielder. being in a new park is a bad reason to excuse him. All you have to do is shag fly balls in batting practice, and you will learn the corners and how the grass plays.. these guys are suppose to be the best.

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        1. Hard for me to believe Revere could have gone this bad this fast…at the plate and in the field. I still think once he gets on a roll he will produce like he has in the past few years. All he needs to get is that first dinger!

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          1. I agree, it is still early, I am willing to give him time to see if he turns it around.

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      2. Put me in the group who is incredibly frustrated with Revere and is very close to giving up on him. Last year Ben hit into 8 double plays in 553 plate appearances, he has already hit into 7 in 151! Maybe he is pressing at the plate, trying to do more than he did in Minnesota but I still don’t get it. Granted he wasn’t a very good player when we traded for him. He’s not know really to get on base at a high clip or get many extra base hits but I just didn’t expect him to be this bad. Maybe the expectations were set too high for him, but at the least I thought we would end up with a 2-3 WAR center fielder, I doubt we get that with him. So where do we turn if he doesn’t turn out to be the starting center fielder of the future? Is another trade made next year? Does Colorado look to move Fowler again this winter? Or do we give Revere another shot? We could hope that Collier continues to hit well and he is given a chance in spring training. All in all, the future of having Ben Revere as a top of the order, every day starting center fielder looks very bleak and we don’t have many internal options that look much better.

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        1. Everyone knew Revere had zero power, but the 7 DP in 151 PA is remarkable (in a bad way) for a guy as fast as Revere.

          In other news, Ryan Howard with 4 SO in 4 AB tonight. In most of his non-contact swings, the bat isn’t within 8 inches of the baseball.

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          1. The misleading thing with double plays is who is on in front of you. The only player in the lineup with plus speed or better is Rollins, a lot easier to turn two when the runner is nowhere near breaking it up (Utley, Brown, and Mayberry all around average speed right now). Revere puts it on the ground a lot, but others aren’t helping him (or Young)

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      3. It’s not so much giving up on him. It’s that they need him to perform at a high level. He is not performing at the level needed. This means he has failed to produce as expected. We say this about our own players adjusting to the majors because they need to produce to stay on the team. This guy has been in the majors. There is no excuse for his performance.

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    3. Revere’s hitting .340/.389/.400 this month. He had a terrible game last night but this would still be an odd point to give up on him, imo. The defense is concerning but at least he’s been coming on at the plate.

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      1. Look, I’m not reacting to any one game, though it was a pretty bad game. I disliked the trade at the time for the reasons that were evident at the time: he had zero power, not great plate discipline, and basically had one way of getting on base, by beating ground balls into the dirt and legging out hits. In that regard, Reverse has been as advertised. And yes, he’s hitting a little better this month, but you’re always going to have some BABIP-driven lucky stretches when you have his game and basically put every ball (weakly) in play. I think I said at the time, when your absolute best case scenario is that he turns into Juan Pierre, that’s a really not someone you want to hand a starting job to.

        The thing that really has surprised me is how bad his arm is. I mean, other teams basically have no fear of him whatsoever.

        And yes, it true that the package we gave up isn’t making the trade look lopsided for now. But that’s a very small consolation. Also a very small consolation: Denard Span and BJ Upton aren’t exactly lighting the league on fire either.

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        1. Weird, I seem to have autocorrected Revere into “Reverse.” How apt.

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        2. I don’t think it’s quite fair to call his improved hitting luck. His K rate is back down close to his career average for May. It was quite high in April. His BABIP was also .237 through April so you could just as easily say he was suffering from bad luck. His improvement is probably a combination of hitting better and some luck.

          That said, if his defense doesn’t come around, it doesn’t mean much since he’ll never be a valuable offensive player.

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          1. Averaging 5 walks per 9 and a 1.50 WHIP, while repeating AA, in your 6th minor league season, is doing fine?

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        4. Can you imagine how badly BJ Upton would be getting it from the fans if the Phillies signed him. He strikes out more than anyone. What a waste of money.

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        5. Denard Span is doing fine, especially compared to Revere and Upton. Doesn’t even belong in the same sentence.

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          1. Player 1: .262/.306/.393/.698
            Player 2: .273/.335/.333/.668

            Player 1 is Jimmy Rollins, who got off to a terrible start and is having what most fans consider to be a very subpar season. Player 2 is Span, who got off to a hot start and has cooled off considerably. He’s quite far below his numbers for last year as well as his career numbers. He has been far from a huge success–so far. Of course, those numbers may normalize, but I was speaking in the present tense. He hasn’t lit the league on fire.

            Also, the prospect the Nats gave up Span, Alex Meyer, is by all accounts better than Trevor May. So, as I said, not a lot of great moves to be made for a CF this offseason.

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    4. Demoting Valdes while keeping Durbin was just idiotic. Raul shouldn’t be in the minors at all, as his AAA numbers the past 3 years indicate.

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      1. You are acting like his major league performance this year wasn’t as terrible as Durbin’s. They both stink. However, why not send Valdes down to stretch him out.

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      2. Disagree with your argument but agree with your premise. Valdes wasn’t doing well but he was outpitching Durbin.

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  4. Way back in the minor league predictions thread, If I would have predicted Maikel Franco would have a chance to have 20 doubles and 10 HRs BEFORE June, people would have thought I was joking around.

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    1. VOR …you and bradindc can be a baseball stand-up comedy team, once you get him out of the basement!

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      1. Can Asche play second base? I don’t think he has enough power to play a corner outfield position

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          1. I do not know if he was miserable in the field. The combination of new to pro ball and position change was terrible for his hitting but I think he could possibly revisit 2B (if necessary) but no reason to move him off 3B at this point. Probably not a bad idea to give him a couple games in RF/LF just to give him the flexibility to be a ‘corner’ player.

            Due to reports of his work ethic and attitude I doubt he’d consider learning other positions to be a lack of confidence but an enabler to help the team in the future.

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  5. Collier’s OPS went up about .050 points after last night. Some of his hot streak seems to be BABIP aided but he is hitting a lot more line drives also. Good to see.

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  8. Maybe someone can explain to me why Musser. gets moved a level each year. without pitching well. just wondering. and Josh fields since 2010 has hit well. do you think he still will get a chance . even though he is almost 29.Does fields play good defense? never have seen him play.

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    1. I have always been an Asche fan. He can hit 300 with 20 HR. That is fine as a thirdbasemen. Check last years MLB stats and there were only a handful of thirdbasement that did that. I’m not sure he will ever be a star, but he will be solid. I know Franco has bigger upside all around. Was the secondbase experiment bad defensively, offensively or both? Might have to be revisited in the ALF league or winterball.

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  10. The other day, off the top of my head, I thought that a reasonable upside comp for Asche was Mike Lowell or Scott Brosius and, having looked at their stats (see below), I think the comp is pretty close, at least as far as hitting is concerned. Take a look at their stats – wouldn’t you like to have a guy like that a third? I know I would. We haven’t had a player this good at third since Rolen (obviously, Rolen was much better). In a best case scenario, Asche might be slightly better than these guys – an occasional all-star and valuable contributor – a guy who could play for a championship team. I’d take it.

    http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/brosisc01.shtml

    http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/l/lowelmi01.shtml

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    1. I don’t get the Mike Lowell comp. Lowell OPS’ed almost 150 points higher in AAA, at the same age as Asche and was a superior defensive player. Where did that name come from?

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      1. Agreed. Brosius seems like a better comp though I know little on the scouting between the two.
        Asche to me seems like a league average 3B. That is certainly valuable but I do not see a .300 hitter, he has avg (12-17 HR) power, K’s too much, walks okay, and runs fine. He is possibly a average or worse fielder at this point.
        What I think is valuable though is that his floor now appears to be an above replacement level 3B which is nice to have control over. He could likely start at 3B and not be a boat anchor on either offense or defense but does not appear to me to be a middle of the order bat. On a bad team he could be a #2 hitter and on a good team likely #7 hitter.

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        1. I’d say, based on the numbers, Asche could be a Daniel Murphy type hitter. Hopefully he can catch the ball.

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