Ya, I never got why some other sites have way more integration and features available through tapatalk and some are plain jane basic??

Great win tonight, and another positive from the next Latin America signing I expect to burst onto the MLB scene and be an instant star for the Royals: RA Mondesi

It's only about 20 games, but he's got an .820 OPS at Wilmington. Wilmington/the Carolina League are the toughest places to put up offensive numbers in the Royals system, for sure, and one of the toughest in the minors, period.

That he is doing this at age 18 makes it even more special.

You usually can't tell much from stat watching guys in Wilmington, but when a guy is crushing the ball, that's a huge positive.

Keep it up, RA. Keep it up.

(Bold prediction: At the end of this season, Mondesi will be just as highly regarded as Lindor and maybe even broach Profar territory. Top 10-15 prospect in baseball)

Wow! that is absolutely brilliant to read.

Seems Latin America is the GMDM's greatest achievement as a GM, thus far.

Ok, I lied... Maybe ESPN will notice Ventura...

Already on the front page of the MLB tab.

I'm sure this has been asked but why was Ventura out for the 8th? I don't think his pitch count should ever go above 100 given his (1) age and (2) power style, but he went 112 pitches or something and I don't get it. We were up 4-0. We should be nervous extending a young power arm that long into the game esp watching all the young pitchers who are getting hurt all over baseball right nwo.

I agree. Even though I don't believe on putting limits on pitchers all the time. When the game is 4-0 and if you already know you're not going to get him into the 9th for a CG shutout, then take him out.

I'd love to do the game thread again today but I'll be out due to prom so good luck tonight dudes ;)

What do you do with Escobar?

I haven't done a game thread this year. Want me to give it a shot today?

A) The bullpen has been inconsistent this year, especially in the 8th inning.
B) Ventura is a badass.

I was puzzled by this at first, too. But, he was still gassing it in the mid- to high-90s in the 8th. He didn't look too fatigued, either.

We are all accustomed to the 100 pitch rule of thumb. But, that is just an arbitrary number. Paying attention to body language/mechanics/velocity is more important in the end.

He wasn't really laboring in the 8th, so I didn't mind.

You're in. I'll be at Dbacks game tonight so I won't be watching.

Take it.

Fangraphs has 1 WAR=$5.5m of value. Ventura is already up to 0.8 WAR and it's not even May. Let's assume he ends up at 2.0 WAR and an implied value of $11.0m. He's being paid league miniumum of $0.5m so his "surplus value" is well north of $10.0m. Guys like this are valuable even to the Yankees or Dodgers, but to small markets their value is amplified greatly.


If we look at other small market successes we see them generating massive surplus with young pitchers (Tampa, Oakland, even Florida). Teams like St Louis and Atlanta continually hit on young pitchers so even bigger spenders gain huge advantages with it.


We know that young pitchers are getting hurt repeatedly and research tends to show the younger the pitcher, the more prone they are to injury. Chris Sale just went on the DL with elbow soreness after his idiot manager let him go 127 pitches last week. If I were Kenny Williams, I'd have one helluva closed door tongue lashing for that. Prospectus has a "Pitcher Abuse Points" ranking and Sale is #2 on this list and #5 last year:
http://www.baseballprospectus.com/so...hp?cid=1657933

It's not. Research shows it's a legit number. While it was a cool evening that may have helped him with fatigue, the stress on the elbow and shoulder is still the same. It's all about "incremental stress" anyway. Pitches 101-110 are more dangerous than pitches 21-30.