Time to bring up Moonraker
by canadiancolts on Aug 1, 2009 11:53 AM EDT
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PrintI think we can all agree that after the Rolen trade most of us are looking at next year. In doing so we need to get some of these AAA and AA prospects a taste of the bigs, I am talking about Snider and Dopirak and to a lesser extent Cooper.
Last nights game(s) proved it, with Millar in the bigs doing exactly what I thought. In fact earlier on the trade deadline thread I made mention that I should be traded for Millar because I can't field the first base position and I strikeout but I am great in the clubhouse. He proved me right last night, and wow did it suck!!! The second game is the one played in AAA, two days after Dopirak's monster 2 Hr and 7 RBI game Moonraker decides he doesn't want to be shown up and blasts 4 count em 4 Doubles and 5 RBI. If we are waiting for him to find his swing I think he just found it, over the last 10 games he is hitting .390/.456/.733 for a ridiculous 1.189 OPS. TIME TO BRING HIM UP!!!
And dump Millar (not Inglett as he provides greater flexibility in the positions that he can play) for Snider, when the September call ups start I had better see Dopirak and Cooper on the list. If not I fear that johnnyg's jeopardy game will become all to real and not stay make belief.
Dopirak last 10 .310/.333/.500
Cooper last 5 .263/.263/.736 (his previous 4 games he went 0 for 15) plus it's only his second full season in the minors.
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it's
actually Cooper’s first full season
"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman
Yes
You are right, that makes racing thru 3 levels last year all the more impressive.
by canadiancolts on Aug 1, 2009 12:12 PM EDT up reply actions
Meant to add
That Cooper seems to come thru in the clutch as well look at the two highlighted lines being significantly higher than the norms.
Splits: (Current team only)
Entire Season AVG G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS OBP SLG OPS
vs Left .247 89 7 22 4 0 0 15 4 27 0 0 .284 .292 .576
vs Right .252 250 35 63 18 0 5 31 33 38 0 0 .337 .384 .721
Home Games .289 47 173 20 50 10 0 4 26 18 34 0 0 .352 .416 .769
Away Games .211 44 166 22 35 12 0 1 20 19 31 0 0 .294 .301 .595
Day Games .219 28 105 14 23 8 0 0 11 11 19 0 0 .291 .295 .586
Night Games .265 63 234 28 62 14 0 5 35 26 46 0 0 .338 .389 .727
On Grass .251 91 339 42 85 22 0 5 46 37 65 0 0 .324 .360 .684
April .237 21 76 10 18 4 0 1 7 9 20 0 0 .314 .329 .643
May .256 30 117 15 30 10 0 1 11 10 22 0 0 .318 .368 .685
June .250 12 40 6 10 1 0 2 5 8 8 0 0 .375 .425 .800
July .255 28 106 11 27 7 0 1 23 10 15 0 0 .316 .349 .665
Pre All-Star .256 76 281 38 72 18 0 4 32 35 55 0 0 .339 .363 .702
Post All-Star .224 15 58 4 13 4 0 1 14 2 10 0 0 .246 .345 .591
Bases Empty .217 175 3 38 7 0 3 3 20 42 0 0 .301 .309 .610
Runners On .287 164 39 47 15 0 2 43 17 23 0 0 .348 .415 .762
Scoring Position .314 86 37 27 9 0 1 37 14 9 0 0 .398 .453 .852
Season Totals .251 91 339 42 85 22 0 5 46 37 65 0 0 .324 .360 .684
You got me all fired up!
Bring em up! Boo yea!
Vernon's nickname = Boo
I don't want to play golf. When I hit a ball, I want someone else to go chase it. ~Rogers Hornsby
aug 3 -- more reasons to call up
Snider and Dopirak (pronounced Doo – Pear – Rick) both had taters tonight
these guys are smoking hot
after 7 innings Snider is 1 for 3 + BB (w/ 1 tater and 3 RBI)
Doparik is 3 for 4, 1 tater and 1 RBI
oops, Moonraker just picked up another BB and Dopirak hit another tater
sooooooooooooooooooooooo, need to be called up
Would be
Interesting to see if anyone could translate their numbers to the bigs. If they could even come close next year with Snider full time and Dope spliting with Overbay it would help confirm this whole compete in 2010 talk.
by canadiancolts on Aug 3, 2009 1:28 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
when the season is over
various projection systems will take a stab at them, so that should be interesting to see.
In other AAA news, Casey Janssen pitched another perfect inning, striking out 2 along the way.
"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman
Based on his cumulative stats
minorleaguesplits.com thinks Dopirak would be OPSing .740 in the majors right now. Interestingly, he’s 0 for 11 with a walk against lefties since getting promoted to AAA, despite crushing them in AA.
They're not just hitting home runs. They're doing the little things, like hitting doubles.
For Snider, I guess he might not qualify as a rookie next season if they call him up too soon
Not sure if the team cares if he wins RotY. Service time shouldn’t be a problem at this point. For Dopirak, because he’s been in the minors so long, they might not be able to send him back down without putting him on waivers once he’s been called up.
They're not just hitting home runs. They're doing the little things, like hitting doubles.
I agree, but...
I’m trying to figure out why this hasn’t happened yet. And my guess is that Millar won’t be released in favor of Moonraker, because the Jays are out of the race, and we’re less than a month from September call ups anyway, where he’ll surely be called up. Millar performed similarly to what did last year with the Orioles. It would probably be a pretty uncomfortable thing for the GM to do, to release him at this point in the season. It might even considerably Millar’s chances of finding another team to sign him next year, although his performance hasn’t helped that cause either.
What I think should happen though is Voodoo Joe be sent back down, and Dopirak be called up for an extended look, taking over the full time DH job until September, and then splitting time with Overbay at 1B in September, with Snider/Lind taking the DH/LF job in September. This would give Cito and JP a chance to evaluate whether splitting playing time at 1B between Dopirak and Overbay would be possible as early as next year (or even moving Overbay). I think Cooper hasn’t proved enough this year to warrant a callup, nor would he get enough playing time for it to be worth it. Inglett could get called up again in September, as an extra bench player.
Millar is pretty significatly below his numbers from last year.
They're not just hitting home runs. They're doing the little things, like hitting doubles.
well, OPS is .047 difference yes, but Avg is only .007 difference. It’s not a striking difference.
Inglett on the other hand, hasn’t had an extra base hit yet this year in 40 AB!! I love what he did last year filling in for Hill, but as JP once said, he’s the type of player that will never get the benefit of the doubt. And perhaps rightly so.
So Millar's walking less and his hits are going for fewer bases
That seems significant.
They're not just hitting home runs. They're doing the little things, like hitting doubles.
crazy
top of 5th … Dopirak (dew – pair – rick) is 2 for 2 including a tater
I always thought it was just doh-per-ack
But keep in mind he is hitting in the PCL…
Onions Baby Onions
so did i
but i was listening to the radio broadcast of the 51s game the other night on the Internet and they pronounced it Dew-pair-rick - unless they have it wrong
the best thing about Sniders RBI was that it was with 2 outs
oh how badly we needed that in june and july
So I see
Why was the first game done after 7? Is that how it usually is?
Gotcha, wonder if they would've done more if they had one more AB
Snider hit a HR, the game winner as it turned out. Hope he comes out for the rest of the season. That would suck though if he ruined his chance to get ROY, but gives him more time in the bigs.
I think they are just making sure
that snider is not just on a fluke hot streak, and hes actually hitting well (not getting lucky etc)
well he has certainly learned some patience at the plate
he just doesnt swing at anything anymore…. everytime he’d swing at ball 4, it would make me cringe… swining on god awful pitches and bailing out the pitcher
one thing to keep in mind is
that most players have to “relearn” plate discipline at each level AA and above. That’s because a lot of what we think of as plate “discipline” is actually pitch recognition. You can’t lay off a bad pitch if you don’t recognize it as a bad pitch. So as the quality of pitching increases, often players have to take a little time to relearn plate discipline. Lind had to do it and now Travis does.
"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman
if you doubt there is any diff between AAA and MLB pitching
look at Inglett
the guy was just tearing it up in AAA hitting over .360, but he comes up to MLB and he is struggles a little (although he did hit near 300 over a large number of games last year)
so, I would expect Snider and Dopirak to incur some, at least initial, slippage at MLB vs. AAA stats
however, based on late 2008 and early 2009, Snider has proven he can hit quite well at MLB
i think they are just a matter of time … but am hopeful the can both be impact players in 2010
oh yea, they are making sure alright
Game 1
Snider – 1 for 4, no Ks
Dopirak – 2 for 4 (including 1 HR), 1K
Game 2
Snider – 3 for 3, (incl. 1 HR and 1 2B), no K, now batting .310
Dopirak – 1 for 3, no K, now batting .373
I don't see...
What is keeping Dopirak in the minors. He’s been there long enough he should be given a shot in the majors. I don’t think he’d do any worse then Overbay and would certainly be an upgrade over whoever the current DH is.
As for Snider, I see leaving him in AAA as a good thing. Let him sustain the hot streak for a while and build some confidence before a September call up plus it keeps his arbitration clock on the good side (I think!)…
Sorry
Thought he was still in LF…but either way he could go back to LF and it would eliminate Delucci/Bautista/Inglett from playing everyday
yea, he flops back and forth between LF and DH (I wonder if they could teach Lind to play 3rd)
- I know there was some chatter about Lind learning 1st base but assuming Dopirak comes up to play 1st, there could be a log jam
Delucci is gone – my guess he is out of baseball, now permanently, but alas he has a new life to build with his Price is Right heartthrob
i spoke too soon
apparently there is still love for David Dellucci as noted in this excerpt clipped from a letter of resignation by an Indians fan:
“It’s called putting the right people in the right places. It’s called not signing David Dellucci. Or Jason Michaels. Or giving Travis Hafner superstar money. Or TRADING AWAY THE ONLY PLAYER IN THE CLUBHOUSE THAT ACTUALLY WANTED TO PLAY FOR YOUR JOKE OF A TEAM.”
http://tribalpursuit.northcoastnow.com/2009/08/03/my-open-letter-to-indians-ownership/
Lind throws lefty
so third would be tricky—he’s no Mattingly out there.
They're not just hitting home runs. They're doing the little things, like hitting doubles.
Would be interesting
To find out the fielding stats for Dopirak, all we ever talk about is his bat (which is sweet) but if we expect him to play first base then he needs to field it. All I can find is the that it says he had 6 errors in AA and has 4 already in AAA however I can’t find a sortable for fielding percentage. Maybe someone knows of a site???
errors are a nigh useless stat to
gauge a fielder’s defense, and fielding percentage (essentially just errors per chance) is about as useless. Errors ignore range, the most important skill for competent defenders, and thus overvalue hands.
While there’s no doubt that good hands are essential for a quality mlb first baseman, the problem is that first baseman are very rarely charged errors on subpar throws from other infielders – but we all know that quality first baseman turn errant throws into outs and bad ones don’t.
Scouts don’t like Dopirak’s defense at all, by the way – it’s said if he makes the majors long-term it’ll be as a DH. Couple that with the fact that he’s a natural righty, and it would seem that the optimal alignment would be Lind at first, Dopirak at DH, and Snider in the outfield.
"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman
Considering the difference between the best and worst ML first basemen this year is 11 runs
or about half a win, I don’t think it would be a catastrophe to have him at first if there’s a 36 year old outfielder we can get cheap and stick in the DH spot instead.
They're not just hitting home runs. They're doing the little things, like hitting doubles.
Sorry, that's a little over a win, and that number is just for defense.
They're not just hitting home runs. They're doing the little things, like hitting doubles.
I wouldn't mind him at first
in that scenario you posited either, was just relaying what scouts have said. The truth is that first baseman’s defense isn’t all that important. But between Dopirak and Lind, if one is going to DH and the other play first, Lind would seem to be the better choice to play first.
"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman
If he can...
never has played 1st before has he? Just saying :)
he played first base in college
"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman
I dont think we need Lind at 1B...
Snider in left
Lind DH
Dopirak at 1B
Overbay needs to GTFO and then everyone will be happy.
Onions Baby Onions
the reason snider hasnt returned
if snider racks up 86 days of service this year, he would be eligible for arbitration after 2 full years(end of 2011) instead of 3. He is sitting on 32 games played this year meaning 54 days to reach that eligibility. The Jays have 56 games remaining, factor in off days and i predict we should see Snider with the club in the next week or two.
Ultimately I am not sure it would matter that much. I can see the Jays Brass trying to lock up Snider long term ala Hill and Rios. They may just be waiting for the new president to come in and (presumably) his new GM to do the deal.
Although it would be nice to have that extra year of flexibility to get it done.
'But I don't want to go among mad people' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that' said the Cat 'we're all mad here'.
Yup
I just dont think theres any reason to call him up earlier, you never know what could happen and its always nice to have that extra year.
Onions Baby Onions
extra year is good
but id certainly like to see him in september to at least see some pitches from the AL East
I am sure we will see him in September, I think the only issue was whether to bring him up earlier,
Since we are out of the race I see no reason to do so, of course in the end as I mentioned I don’t think it will ultimately matter one way or the other.
'But I don't want to go among mad people' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that' said the Cat 'we're all mad here'.
yikes (bad night at the park 8-6-9) for minor leaguers
Snider (1 for 5 + 1 BB), including 2 Ks
Dopirak (0 for 6), 3Ks
Arencibia (1 for 5)
Day to day stats hardly do a good job of showing how a guy is playing
Its like looking at an inning of a Hallday game and seeing he allowed 2 hits and a run and then extrapolating that to make his WHIP 2.00 and ERA 9.00.
Onions Baby Onions
Its actually important
When it shows all 3 of them struggling it could mean like someone mentioned, they have been facing easy pitchers (why they all seem to be performing at once)…maybe they finally met a decent pitcher and they all collasped
by bowling_kid25 on Aug 7, 2009 10:25 AM EDT up reply actions
Granted, but...
You could show Ichiro going 0-5 against Halladay or something but it wouldnt necessarily mean he’s been struggling or just been lucky etc.
Onions Baby Onions
Big Day for Snider (Aug-9-09)
Snider had a great day today. He went 2 for 4 with 2 HRs and no Ks. This was no softy. Snider was up against a tough pitcher (ranked no. 6 in PCL by ERA, 7 by WHIP and 2 by wins).
Dopirak went 1 for 4, no Ks.
Arencibia went 1 for 4 (double), 2Ks.
played at Wrigely Field too
so legit “big league” homeruns
even though he went 2 for 4… he did get on base 3 times… they charged an error on the infielder for his 3rd at bat and got on first base
cant wait till they call him up next month
a lot of our minor leaguers are starting to hit a little bit lately, great to see
"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman
funny they hit better when rosters about to expand..like MLB players when in final year of contracts
Hmmm
by bowling_kid25 on Aug 13, 2009 10:35 AM EDT up reply actions
no, not really
it takes time to adjust to a new level of pitching
"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman
the point is moot
they can always give back their salary if they underperform
LOL
by aagoodfella on Aug 13, 2009 10:52 AM EDT up reply actions
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