to be sure, the Astros said Straw could bring a trash can with himHeard the Indians have been trying to acquire Myles Straw for a few years now.
And Phil fucking Maton and Yainer Diaz is what got it done?
LOL
While losing Clevinger, Carrasco, Ollie Perez, and Hand. Out with the old, in with the new. Hand has five wins and 21 saves for the Nationals this year. The others have combined to pitch four innings (by Carrasco last night).Crazy to think the amount of pitching the Indians have acquired in (about) the past calendar year....
- Cal Quantrill
- Gavin Williams
- Joey Cantillo
- Tanner Burns
- Logan Allen
- Tommy Mace
- Josh Wolf
- Doug Nikhazy
- Trevor Stephen
- Damon Casetta-Stubbs
- Peyton Battenfield
- Konnor Pilkington
I can't see the Indians possibly taking the best defensive centerfielder at a key defensive position and putting him in the infield. Not unless they have an ungodly spate of injuries at SS and 2B. Especially since starting next year they will have middle infield prospects bubbling up every year; Freeman, Clement, Miller, Arias, Gimenez, etc. Heck, seven of their top 15 prospects in the BA list are shortstops.I also like the fact, with Francona still supposed to be the coach in 22, that Straw has played 2B and SS in games as well. He gives us a plus defensive CF, plus someone who can fill in in other positions as welll
I was going to check out Straw on Fangraphs but Pluto beat me to it, pointing out that Fangraphs has Straw as the best defensive centerfielder in baseball.
In fact, it's not even close. They give him a grade of 8.1 for this season. The second highest is Kevin Kiermaier, who has three Gold Gloves to his credit, with a grade of 6.6. Byron Buxton is 5th with a grade of 5.1.
For the current Indians who have played center, Fangraphs ranks them this way:
46 Amed Rosario -0.3
51 Bradley Zimmer -0.7
56 Jordan Luplow -1.0
I was surprised to see Zimmer ranked that low. I was wondering why they traded for Straw since Zimmer is basically the same player, but I was assuming they were pretty equal defensively. Fangraphs says it's not even close and that Zimmer is slightly below average while Straw is elite and far and away the best in the game.
As for the offense, Zimmer is hitting .250 but his BABIP this season is .410 which is unsustainable. His career average BABIP is .340 and that includes this season. I don't think Zimmer will be able to maintain that .410 BABIP which means his batting average and on-base percentage should decline.
Zimmer swings and misses 14.3% of the time compared to 4.8% for Straw. Straw's K rate is 19.2% against 34.8% for Zimmer.
For the Indians it seems they view centerfield much like they view catcher; the key is defense and the opportunity to get the best defensive centerfielder in baseball who is only 26 and making $600K per year was an attractive proposition. I'm guessing their internal stats were in agreement with Fangraphs and that Zimmer is not as good a defensive centerfielder as most fans, including myself, thought. Going back to 2018 before his injuries Zimmer was ranked 27th by Fangraphs.
Phil Maton is having a good season so they took advantage and sold high. Yainer Diaz is an interesting prospect but they have Bo Naylor and Brian Lavastida in the system so it seems they were OK with losing Diaz if it got them a player they've been after for over a year. Fortunately the Astros are loaded in the outfield and need help in the bullpen so the stars lined up for the Tribe.
More evidence the Indians were not thrilled with Zimmer's defense in center, or Mercado's either:
Antonetti made it clear that Straw will be the starting centerfielder. He said Zimmer, Mercado, Johnson and Ramirez will get most of their playing time in left and right field.
The Indians have been pursuing Straw, 26, over the last year.
“He’s a premium defender in center fielder and elite base runner,” said Antonetti. “We’re looking forward to him coming over and playing center field for us.” - Terry Pluto
Unfortunately, I cannot get the Bill James link to work but as The Godfather of baseball sabremetrics, I think his earlier views may have since been replaced by more updated, advanced metrics. Does the SB metric factor in pressure on the pitcher and occasional throwaway errors to first base? Not sure how this can be captured but it does add value.For the rest of the season, I really don't care what they do in CF as it won't matter. But this strategy strikes me as a bit desperate and an admission that every guy they intended to play the position is awful. Straw has no power. While he has very good speed, the accepted standard on SB value is 70%.
Essentially the break even point where the extra base run value exceeds the loss of a runner with a caught stealing requires a 70% success rate. Straw is 17 of 22, slightly above the break even mark. So his value is entirely defense.
I can't see them committing to this for long. Kiermaier and Pillar would probably be the best comparisons if he is a truly elite defender but both had decent power though Straw has shown a better OBA to date. He is also remarkably bad against LHP too which also eliminates his SB value.
Unfortunately, I cannot get the Bill James link to work but as The Godfather of baseball sabremetrics, I think his earlier views may have since been replaced by more updated, advanced metrics. Does the SB metric factor in pressure on the pitcher and occasional throwaway errors to first base? Not sure how this can be captured but it does add value.
I'd tread down FG's, or any other defensive metric path cautiously. Especially one that has Zimmer as "slightly below average". They just aren't accurate or consistent. Straw may be the best defensive CF in the game, as I really don't know, but I'm confident in saying that he's not that much better than Zimmer or Mercado for that matter.I can't see the Indians possibly taking the best defensive centerfielder at a key defensive position and putting him in the infield. Not unless they have an ungodly spate of injuries at SS and 2B. Especially since starting next year they will have middle infield prospects bubbling up every year; Freeman, Clement, Miller, Arias, Gimenez, etc. Heck, seven of their top 15 prospects in the BA list are shortstops.
Fangraphs has Zimmer with a WAR of 0.6 in 49 games and Straw with a WAR of 2.0 in 98 games. So doubling Zimmer's numbers gives him a WAR of 1.2 in 98 games although he would still be about 50 plate appearances short, so let's make it 1.3. So according to Fangraphs Straw is about 50% better than Zimmer in terms of WAR if you equalize the playing time.
I'm starting to get why the Indians have been after him. I'm not crazy about his bat, but if he can maintain the .339 OBP combined with his ability to steal bases and take extra bases then he's not a bad offensive player, just somewhat limited. His wRC+ is 93, so he's not far below average.