Link Report for Wednesday 7/13

[fondybrewfan]

Woodruff has not really been on my radar; I guess I didn't realize he was that hard of a thrower. Just another guy that has some potential to be a solid middle of the rotation starter hopefully.

[CheezWizHed]

As I mentioned earlier this season it's fair to say he's below average defensively, so unless he makes vast improvement behind the plate most of his value is going to come from his bat.

 

How would he compare to Lucroy? He wasn't considered much defensively either at AA ball either. And he was 2 years older when he was in Huntsville.

[TheCrew07]

As I mentioned earlier this season it's fair to say he's below average defensively, so unless he makes vast improvement behind the plate most of his value is going to come from his bat.

 

How would he compare to Lucroy? He wasn't considered much defensively either at AA ball either. And he was 2 years older when he was in Huntsville.

 

In a full AA season as 23 year old Lucroy had 7 errors, 12 passed balls. and 40% CS.

 

In 68 games Nottingham has 12 errors, 17 passed balls, and just a 30% CS.

[Jose Cardenal1]

I think both Nottingham and Phillips will benefit from repeating AA in '17.

[CheezWizHed]

As I mentioned earlier this season it's fair to say he's below average defensively, so unless he makes vast improvement behind the plate most of his value is going to come from his bat.

 

How would he compare to Lucroy? He wasn't considered much defensively either at AA ball either. And he was 2 years older when he was in Huntsville.

 

In a full AA season as 23 year old Lucroy had 7 errors, 12 passed balls. and 40% CS.

 

In 68 games Nottingham has 12 errors, 17 passed balls, and just a 30% CS.

 

And just to qualify those stats, Lucroy had almost twice the games in the full season (125 games). Yeah, that is pretty bad.

 

But I guess I was expecting a more subjective (scouted) thought on him since you normally don't go by numbers alone. Or were you only going by the numbers? (Just curious on how you formed the opinion).

 

I think both Nottingham and Phillips will benefit from repeating AA in '17.

Agree on Nottingham since his defense needs work and he is quite young for the league. But I'd wait and see on how Phillip's second half goes offensively. Sounds like he is ready defensively. He has a lot of AA at bats and while his K rate is poor right now and average is low, everything else is pretty good. If he can made even modest strides on K rate and AVE in the second half, I'd bump him up. Maybe even if he doesn't...

[FVBrewerFan]

But like you said, Nottingham is more than two younger younger than Lucroy at this stage. Nottingham just turned 21, pretty aggressive assignment to start the season in AA. Hopefully it will pay off both offensively and defensively next season.

[TheCrew07]

But I guess I was expecting a more subjective (scouted) thought on him since you normally don't go by numbers alone. Or were you only going by the numbers? (Just curious on how you formed the opinion).

 

I'm with you now.

 

I never got to see Lucroy play for any extended amount of time prior to his call up so I don't have a basis for comparison. Without of the benefit of getting extended looks at a player then the statistics are sometimes all we have to fall back on, as imperfect as it is.

 

It's pretty easy to quickly spot bad catching, all it takes is about 1 series to get a feel for the player's habits, which is why I like Mitch Ghelfi much more as a 1B than I do as a C.

 

For what it's worth here is BA's scouting summary on his defense from this off season and prior to the trade, which seems to jive with what we are seeing statistically:

His defense is further behind, although the A's were encouraged by his progress in the instructional league. He has good hands and a solid arm, and threw out 38 percent of basestealers in 2015, but he'll have lapses in concentration and needs to improve his agility; he committed 19 passed balls in 89 games. The Astros dabbled with playing him at first base but the A's are intent on developing him as a catcher, seeing him in the Mike Napoli mold. He'll go to Double-A as a 21-year-old in 2016.