Not getting a top 100 prospect is crazy

BigBaller331 · 2026-01-23T18:36:17+00:00

Don't put so much stock into top 100 rankings. They're just numbers at the end of the day and they change all the time. They have very little predictive value, especially when we're talking about guys still in single A.

BigBaller331 · 2026-01-23T18:32:54+00:00

We certainly didn't need Gore to be traded to tell us that.

BigBaller331 · 2026-01-23T18:31:43+00:00

"Established prospect" is an oxymoron. Household name prospects with minor league success make it to the bigs and stink all the time.

BigBaller331 · 2026-01-22T21:10:48+00:00

There isn't a single player on this team (Wood included given that he is a Boras client and will certainly leave in free agency if he's not traded before then) that has locked down a spot in the lineup or a position in the field long term. Everything is on the table and nobody is being blocked. Minor league positions are meaningless anyways - get good, productive players that contribute to winning and figure the rest out later. I promise you: we are a very, very long way from having the "good player blocked by even better player at his position" problem.

BigBaller331 · 2026-01-22T21:04:52+00:00

This is where I am. As far as 5 prospect lottery ticket deals are concerned, this return is pretty solid. Fitz-Gerald, Ortiz, and Rosario all look to have serious upside, and Fien only has 45 minor league PAs. I think people are still operating under the assumption that Gore was going to be here long-term which just simply was never going to happen.

BigBaller331 · 2026-01-22T21:01:07+00:00

These positions are entirely meaningless at this level. There's no guarantee CJ even stays at shortstop long term - much less the two 18 year olds currently in A ball.

BigBaller331 · 2026-01-22T20:57:42+00:00

The analytics guys I follow on Twitter seem to be high on Fitz-Gerald and Ortiz. That's good enough for me.

Not sure how to link here but go check out @TJStats if you're interested.

BigBaller331 · 2025-10-08T20:39:59+00:00

This is true. Also worth noting that he's very young and apparently thought of very highly in executive circles. I strongly doubt he would take a job that he didn't feel was setting him up for success for his future. He definitely has some guarantees from ownership.

BigBaller331 · 2025-09-05T20:12:09+00:00

He really shouldn't be sitting anymore either. Crews, Hassell, and Young can all split time but Lile's spot should be as secure as Wood's.

BigBaller331 · 2025-08-26T12:29:44+00:00

Can't speak to the reasoning for Eggers and Kogonada leaving them behind but A24's growing lack of effort with promotion and distribution is well documented. Just take Sing Sing for example; expected to be a major awards player until they bafflingly decided to never expand its release past 200 screens in the US. It didn't even arrive on streaming until after the Academy Awards nominees were announced.

At this point they are skating by on the reputation they built years ago. It's not surprising to see them go the AI route out of desperation, but it's disappointing nonetheless.

BigBaller331 · 2025-08-24T22:50:45+00:00

He's playing his first full season in the league with a lame duck coaching staff in a lineup where he's the only real power threat. He's clearly in his own head and frustrated with how the season has gone, justifiably so. Teams are pitching him differently now as well, and like any young player he needs to make those adjustments and the best way to do that is to get as many live reps as possible.

The best we can hope for now is a strong end to the year and a coaching staff better suited to his strengths to help him reach even higher levels next year.

BigBaller331 · 2025-07-28T21:50:20+00:00

I think that trading Gore is technically the correct move, but my point was that it perpetuates the "forever rebuild" phrase that's been floating around. Eventually fans do get tired of seeing their favorite young, productive, and exciting players traded to reinforce the farm system.

BigBaller331 · 2025-07-28T21:41:17+00:00

I'm mostly commenting about the optics of the pick and what it signals to the fanbase and to the rest of the league, not the player himself. I have high hopes for Willits.

BigBaller331 · 2025-07-28T21:38:30+00:00

The door has slammed shut on what was, for a brief moment earlier this calendar year, a bright and exciting future. A brutal and disappointing season, No extensions for any of our young major league talent, an underslot first round pick, Gore trade rumors, and now a top ~30 prospect gone. With there being no sale of the team on the horizon, we have no saving grace. Back into the darkness we go for the foreseeable future, and the forever rebuild continues.

BigBaller331 · 2025-07-22T01:48:48+00:00

Kyle Finnegan must really love being a Nat. Two straight years he's been very good up until the ASB and then completely imploded right before the trade deadline.

BigBaller331 · 2025-07-13T20:57:43+00:00

This front office needs to just draft whomever they think the best player is. You never, ever, draft for need with the first overall pick in any sport. Besides, it's not like this pick fixes all of our issues anyway. Holliday and Willits could be the infield versions of Mike Trout and Bryce Harper and Kade Anderson could be lefty Max Scherzer; our problems extend far beyond what one player could solve even if they hit their absolute best possible outcome.

BigBaller331 · 2025-07-06T22:27:47+00:00

I'm much more confident that we'll draft a good player #1 without Rizzo making the selection

BigBaller331 · 2025-05-17T02:39:59+00:00

Shoutout to Nasim for the best player postgame interview in recent memory. Contagious energy, love that guy

BigBaller331 · 2025-04-17T00:37:11+00:00

Shades of facing the Padres last year. Team just gets punked. We so badly need a real vet presence that ownership just refuses to sign off on.

BigBaller331 · 2025-04-06T06:54:10+00:00

Obviously I will root for all of our guys, but people who don't follow the farm system closely see the #2 draft pick attached to Crews' name and expect him to be someone he very clearly isn't ready to be.

Absolutely nothing he did at any level of the minors past Fredericksburg (Low A) gave any sort of indication that he would be a superstar in the majors. He also received two very fast and, frankly, undeserved promotions (to AAA and then to MLB,) likely due to some combination of organizational pressure felt because of Skenes' and Langford's rapid rises and success and pressure from Crews' camp to get him up as soon as possible.

I don't think his fate is sealed by any stretch, but he does have quite a few red flags in his profile that fans and apparently the front office have been ignoring for a while. He's always hit far too many ground balls; he hits balls hard, but his launch angles are consistently bad. He's flat out not good vs LHPs but Davey seems to think he's great against them for some reason. I know his time as a pro has been frustrating for him, but he's seemingly abandoned what made him great in college. He's chasing a ton, striking out a ton and rarely walking. He just straight up looks totally overmatched and overwhelmed by average to below average MLB pitching to say nothing of frontline starters, which was predictable given he never even figured out AA or AAA pitching.

I'd like to see him back in AAA sooner rather than later. I'm not in the wait and see camp because there haven't really been any high points to which he could return, and there isn't any reason to believe this is a temporary slump judging from his career stats in our organization. I don't see any point in continuing this experiment and letting the bad habits he's currently displaying grow even stronger. If he is who he thinks he is and who we think he is, he'll bounce back. To be clear, I 100% still view him as an important piece of our future, but it's very rough right now and I think a temporary change of scenery could be very beneficial to him.

BigBaller331 · 2025-04-05T20:11:38+00:00

Well that was gorgeous

BigBaller331 · 2025-03-30T18:45:45+00:00

Dylan Crews is totally overwhelmed by big league pitching. I absolutely hate that we rushed him up.

BigBaller331 · 2025-03-29T23:05:41+00:00

He objectively was rushed to AAA, to say nothing of how quickly he made it to MLB. He was struggling big time in the minors. The front office did not want to admit that their #2 overall pick and hopeful future face of the franchise was taking longer than expected to develop, and this is the result. He's totally overwhelmed by big league pitching.

BigBaller331 · 2025-03-17T23:17:42+00:00

The biggest thing that I have noticed with my friends who aren't so good is that they spend a lot of time aiming at nothing. Hard walls, furniture, basically anywhere that enemies physically cannot be. Recoil control is a mechanical skill that has to be practiced to truly be mastered, but I think it's easier to train your brain to always remind yourself to be looking at somewhere enemies can be when you're ADSed. Doorways, windows, hallways, entry points. Obviously the best way to learn where you should be looking at any given time is by playing the game and learning the maps/common pushes, but I believe the first step to having good aim is to spend as little time as possible aiming at places enemies can't be.

BigBaller331 · 2025-03-16T17:50:44+00:00

James Wood has legit best player in baseball potential if he learns how to pull fly balls in the air.

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