Click the link, schroll down to Advanced. At the bottom is Steamers 2019 projection of an .805 OPS.Originally Posted by FredLynn
https://www.fangraphs.com/statss.asp...50&position=3B
Click the link, schroll down to Advanced. At the bottom is Steamers 2019 projection of an .805 OPS.
https://www.fangraphs.com/statss.asp...50&position=3B
Exactly!
"Shown little?" The guy has been a Yankee killer.
He has 31 HRs and 96 RBIs in his very first 730 PAs in MLB at a super young age playing against pitchers many years older than him.
Not many good to great players started out worse than this. BR lists players with similar batting numbers at age 21- here are a few of them:
Ron Santo
Juan Gonzalez
Cal Ripken
Willie Mays
Jose Canseco
Larry Parish
Of course, Devers could underachieve or flame out, but I see more signs he busts out and becomes a great hitter.
Marcel projects Rafael Devers with a 2019 OPS of .769 while ZiPS projects an OPS of .800:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/p...everra01.shtml
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/2019-zip...oston-red-sox/
All significantly higher than 2018's OPS.
I would love to see him get an OPS like that, obviously. But at this point that kind of projection doesn't pass the sniff test. All of us watch him at the plate swlnging at too many high strikes. Until he fixes that he isn't going to make that grade.
Many great hitters had high K rates. He walks enough for it to not be a major issue.
Sox K% last year
27.5% Swihart
26.0% Leon
25.6% JBJ
24.7% Devers
22.5% JD
22.2% Moreland
19.9% Holt
How about hard hit%?
44.9% JD
44.5% Betts
41.1% JBJ
37.9% Bogey
34.9% Moreland
34.4% Devers
33.3% Pearce
29.6% Swihart
29.2% Holt
28.0% Beni
27.5% Vaz
27.2% Nunez
26.4% Leon
He's so damn young, I'm not sure why only the K rate should matter.
He's a free swinger. He reminds me of Vlad Guerrero or Adrian Beltre at the plate.
Devers hasn’t shown the ability to drive bad pitches like Guerrero or Beltre. I’ve never seen a better bad ball hitter than Guerrero. The guy could take a ball off his shoe tops, in the other batters box or over his head and hit it out. Beltre is a far second. I’ve yet to see Devers consistently rake bad balls like that, so I wouldn’t put them in anywhere near the same category. Devers can mash a fastball. He can go the other way. He’s got a discipline issue that will improve with experience. I don’t think an .800 OPS is unreasonable for him. I also don’t think a .720 OPS is unreasonable for him. He’s so young and has so much talent that either direction is feasible
Also Devers doesn’t freak out if you touch his head....
there was that time he turned around that 102MPH FB that was above the letters........
other names i have posted under: none
My best Vlad Guerrero joke was when he got in trouble after a fight with a police officer.
Friend: Hey did you hear about that baseball player who threw a punch at a cop?
Me: Yeah. That was Vlad Guerrero. He’ll swing at anything...
Rimshot
Devers hits a lot of HRs on traditionally not HR-type pitches.
Here's one (go to the 1:30 time line...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjLExsPliik
Devers was once like the #4 rated prospect in all of baseball at age 20, so obviously the talent is there. If he was a Yankee I would be expecting him to continually improve with age. But since he's a Red Sux, I'm expecting him to become Sandoval Jr. Keep eating young man!
I think Devers has the potential to be a really good hitter. It's a learning process, but the ability is there .
I predict another year with Jacko being dragged to the ground by season end AGAIN....sniffle....sniffle.....sniffle. Heck based on history that is a better bet than any of the WS opening odds.
Last edited by jung; 02-21-2019 at 11:50 AM.
All the tough talk is meaningless. Red Sox vs Yankee trash talk that we have heard a million times. All point of view stuff . The season will start soon . In the words of noted boxing referee , Mills Lane ; " Let's get it on ."
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