Austin Tatious

We have kicked around Rowdy's name in the transactions forum for at least three years. I am not going to go berserk either way on this one. I will say that Stearns isn't going to overpay, just like he isn't going to give away major league talent if he isn't getting value back. He hung onto Hader instead of getting less of a return than he wanted. And now, he hasn't given away a Turang, Small, or Gray for a veteran first baseman who he felt was worth a haul back. I am a huge Stearns fan. Why? Because I have been here since the 1970s. a Harry Dalton was really good, but Stearns is very sharp and keeps us competitive without giving up our future, unless we get control back. He is 100% next level compared to Doug. I don't agree with him on everything. His overemphasis on drafting up the middle infielders has left us barren at the corners. I see his concept, but he has gone overboard. But, at the end of the day, i have never felt as comfortable as I do with Stearns that we will be competitive short, intermediate, and long term. His depth in terms of strategy is something we have never had before. Bud focused on small market to prove his point on economics and sold a lazy bill of goods that we couldn't compete. We were a horrible organization which honestly wasn't even pretending to try to win. Everything was about Bud proving his points.

I have always felt that Rosenthal talks to Stearns himself. He has broken info before, and I think he has a direct line. When he says anything about possibilities, I bet he is getting it straight from the horse's mouth.

I know this is the Garrett Mitchell thread but the power that Warren is showing is such a pleasant surprise. To see Warren and Mitchell's college OBP skills translate to the lower minors is a good start. I wonder how he is doing receiving? I haven't heard one way or another.

I wonder how many 2020 draft picks are in Double A? Mitchell is on track to be a top ten prospect in all of baseball. Premium position, premium athlete, performing. He's a no-touch from a trade standpoint in the rental market and probably not at all, short of a major talent with considerable control coming back.

How about Tucker?

What more needs to be said about Joe Gray? He’s been lights out. He’s got to be a top ten prospect in the system now. High draft pick who is maturing and putting it together. Good example of letting all prospects marinate for awhile before you even think about trading one. He’s got a ways to go, but he’s showing excellent signs.

Haha, true. And he is a left handed hitter. Good for management for sticking with him when he looked pathetic. They’ve got their metrics and reasons for liking guys. Maybe it’s a mirage what he’s doing, but he’s helping the ball club.

Wicks seems like he doesn’t have a particularly high ceiling. Some of his numbers in college aren’t elite. Hoglund doesn’t have a rocket arm but he is well regarded for control and his pitch mix. Of course he has the Tommy John issue. Bachman has that power arm but may be a back end reliever. With Hoglund, if there is not anything extraordinary about his injury, he could be a steal if you wait out the injury. The Dodgers did that with Buehler. I do not recall the year but it might have been when we took Medeiros. You could see that was wrong from the second they announced that. I would probably rank them 1 Hogund, 2. Bachman, 3. Wicks. I just haven’t heard enough on Wicks that would get me excited. I’d rather have a good hitting outfielder if that was a choice. At 33, I’d love Colsen Montgomery but there’s buzz that he won’t get past the White Sox first round pick. High risk/reward but he could be a high end 3b prospect. If he ends up being a Corey Seager type, that would be tough if we passed on that..

One of the most underrated players in the league in terms of being talked about. People know he’s good, just he’s barely mentioned. I’m reading and watching quite a bit national media during the playoffs and there is nary a word about him but he’s a true pro. Not afraid of pressure either. I wouldn’t say that about the full roster….at all.

Bingo and so true. And in the aughts, it used to be that we had developed home grown position players and we signed overpaid pitchers constantly. It’d be nice if we could get development going that is well rounded. We do have some prospects that might be better as a group than people believe, but that is literally years away from playing out and it’s just not proven yet. Mitchell should be rated very highly soon as he’s a true stud. Turang has a very good hit tool. Needs to improve his pop quite a bit, but he can get hits and he’s got a swagger to him. Joe Gray, Korry Howell, and Je’von Ward have erupted but they are very far away. We’ve heard the organization likes Hedbert Perez and Jesus Parra but there’s not a lot for fans to grab onto there yet. There are several catchers with promise and hopefully 1-2 of them ending up good major leaguers in the end. I would love to see them pound on corner infield in future drafts and in the international market. That’s not to say you don’t need more and more pitchers.

The trade looks like hot garbage all around. And even if there were a kernel of reality in it, Kelly is a guy you don’t make available. It would have to be someone else.

Agree completely. Trading him when his value has bottomed out would be like selling a stock low. That’s when you buy because the asset has become a bargain. To take that analogy further, he has had a double bottom and he will go up from here. He has talent. The approach is all wrong. From a big picture standpoint, he is worth hanging on to because the upside outweighs whatever nonsensical return you could get for him now by selling at the bottom. The NL will probably have a DH in the next agreement and he can have a role. He can have an electric bat if he can figure some things out. I think everyone understands the concept of buying low and selling high. He still has trade value. Those who advocate trading him now DO believe they're selling high, because if his current trajectory continues he'll be worth what Lewis Brinson is worth in a year or two. Fair enough. But I’d rather take the risk with him that the upside re-materializes rather than take an Arcia type return where you get a couple of relievers who are AAAA arms or 4.00 or higher ERA type guys. I’d rather be the organization that acquired him for pennies on the dollar in that scenario. If he never pans out, well I take that risk because of the potential (compact swing that can be an electric bat). Stay the course even if he spends the rest of 2021 at Nashville.

Agree completely. Trading him when his value has bottomed out would be like selling a stock low. That’s when you buy because the asset has become a bargain. To take that analogy further, he has had a double bottom and he will go up from here. He has talent. The approach is all wrong. From a big picture standpoint, he is worth hanging on to because the upside outweighs whatever nonsensical return you could get for him now by selling at the bottom. The NL will probably have a DH in the next agreement and he can have a role. He can have an electric bat if he can figure some things out.

Keep Hiura down at the farm until his strikeouts are way down. He needs to stop chasing breaking pitches outside the zone and stop missing in the zone (must be mechanical). He needs to lay off high heat. All of those things are related and the fundamental issues with him. If he starts pounding substandard pitching at AAA it would just be masking the fundamental flaws. This shouldn’t be a two,or three week thing.

Korry Howell and Joe Gray are probably the two prospects who have really caught my attention and who’ve been pleasant surprises. They should be climbing our top 30 lists.

Doesn't help his case when Taylor returns from a handful of days raking at AAA and immediately breaks out of his pre-demotion funk with two bombs off pitchers that baffled Hiura. Good point and I think it underscores the approach/mental side of Hiura having fallen off a cliff.

I don’t know what his exit velocity numbers say, but I see an extremely twitchy, athletic guy. His bat speed looks outstanding to me. Agree on the late bloomer thing being a possibility. People (myself included) often label a guy in their mind as a particular type, but that belies the fact that guys can and do improve and aren’t just static. It’s especially true in baseball where you can find a change that leads to success regardless of overall physical talent. In Taylor’s case, the jury is out on whether he can develop a consistent enough hit tool.

Hiura’s slump has been one of the saddest displays I can recall. He’s a mess at the plate. Nothing good is happening. He misses strikes, seems to have no pitch recognition, chases bad balls, etc. The hitting coach seems to have zero plan for him because you see nothing in his approach improving. The K numbers are astronomical. Mentally, he’s confused. He needs something positive to cling to so he can relax and get his confidence back. If his approach can improve, there’s a lot of talent in his bat. He just looks like he has no plan and no idea what to expect up there. If he can just string together some hits, it might do wonders. I’d take a bloop, a swinging bunt that dribbles to the right spot, a check swing down the line, anything. Like a shooter in basketball, get him a couple of layups and he can build back up from here. Obviously his strikeouts are a problem and nothing is getting better. Maybe get his double A and triple a coaches involved to develop a plan. If he could get his strikeout ratio down, it would do wonders. Honestly if he could get his rate to just bad instead of insane, that would help, poor guy. Does anyone know, is he missing strikes because the pitcher is changing speeds on him and he’s early or late with the swing? No way would I give up on him, though, this entire year.

Adames is such a physical specimen. He’s a good 25-30 pounds bigger than Arcia. He’s a different type and it’s plain as day. Hopefully he’s still ascending as a player. He’s only 25 and quite talented.

Hiura just successfully sacrificed and the crowd went nuts. Everyone is spring loaded in anticipation on Hiura.

Hiura is lost, no doubt about it. Send him down and try to figure things out. The only thing I've directly read from players regarding Haines was an article where Garcia and Narvaez said he came to their houses and worked with them this summer. They listened to what he said, and both are having great years after they admittedly were swinging for the fences last year... not because Haines or the Brewers told them to do it, they did that on their own. A coach can only do so much. We're in a period where a lot of players want to change their swings to get better "launch angle" and hit more home runs. This has helped some players and hurt others. Narvaez and Garcia pretty much admitted it hurt them, and Haines helped them get back on track. Hiura was probably hurt by this as well, and we'll see if he changes things or if he fades off into obscurity. But, you're right, I don't get the games on TV at home, so I listen to the radio broadcast on MLB.tv (I'm in a blackout zone, so I can't watch). I'd guess that no matter what I saw, I wouldn't be privy to the conversations Haines has with the players, nor would I know if they're listening to what he's saying. I'm pretty sure Garcia and Narvaez are listening to him, so we'll see if they continue to have success. There’s no question it is more on the batter than the coach. I was more trying to say that the coach is also culpable. It’s a bottom line business they are in. We’ve got guys so confused and twisted up. I think last night Hiura somehow swung at three sliders well off the plate and struck out as if he were one of us up there. Bradley is another one who is a mess in terms of approach. I see that most posters are down on Hiura. And for good reason. I’m not claiming to be a scout but I still see a guy with vast potential. He has an extremely quick bat and good pop. He’s got a nice, compact swing. If he can get his vision and possibly mechanics figured out, the upside is way too high to give up.

He’s not seeing the ball well at all out of the pitcher’s hand. He might be starting his swing a tick too early but he’s swinging at complete nonsense and the pitchers can throw it way off the plate since he will invariably chase it in a panicked way. Haines is a failure in an extremely straightforward way. Nothing proves it more than the number of hitters we have that simply have no idea how pitchers are working them. One thing is poor mechanics but there’s simply no excuse to allow your hitters to show no progress in learning how you’re being pitched to. It’s laughable to even defend Haines but anyone who does is surely not watching the games. He’s in over his head. And not a little. Way over his head.

Article on him. He looks good. I kind of think he’s gone before 15 but you never know. https://www.prospectslive.com/mlb-draft/2021/4/20/colton-cowser-standing-out-from-the-crowd

Good post, Monty. Shaw should be the backup 1b/3b. He looks like a slug out there. Urias should be playing well over half the time at third, so long as his defense is adequate over there. His lack of range is less of a problem at third. Start him against all lefties and many righties too, except where the metrics maybe show something useful about Shaw against a particular righty, or if Shaw gets on a brief roll. What a signing JBJ was. Consider putting him in the ninth spot and bat the pitcher eighth. He’s been more comfortable in his career in that ninth spot. After the first time through the order, he becomes potentially an extra base runner as you get into early part of the order.

An athletic guy who can play quality defense at short and has a solid bat will always have considerable value. Hence, Adames required two significant reliever prospects to get it done. Candelaria has some pluses, and I’d be happy to have him because we are desperate out of wanton neglect at that position, but he’s not bringing Adames’ value. I’d ship Ethan Small and a secondary prospect out to get him if the Tigers even have interest in liquidating him. They’ve got some big time rising prospects at the corner infield spots. A future back end of the rotation piece could be useful for them in their rotation. If they want Ashby instead, I’d insist on Small, though, and play around with who the second piece is.