Articles on Wise, Jenkins, and Crabbe -- Latest: Crabbe reacquired; assigned to Nashville (reply #20)

[kramnoj]

ok, but what you are missing is that weeks commits a lot of errors while SIMULTANEOUSLY not getting to a lot of balls, relative to other players at his position. There is no justification that weeks is even an average fielder, he is not.

 

Why do you think I'm missing this? I have never said that Weeks is an average defender. By ZR, Weeks is inferior, but not the worst 2B in the big leagues. There are currently about 5 regulars with worse ratings.

[lcbj68c]

But Dr. Wood, he hits for power when pitchers are forced to throw meatballs down the middle of the plate with runners on, doesn't that count for something?

[lcbj68c]

Why do you think I'm missing this? I have never said that Weeks is an average defender. By ZR, Weeks is inferior, but not the worst 2B in the big leagues. There are currently about 5 regulars with worse ratings.

So wouldn't the fact that he is in the bottom 17% percentile on his defense alone stand for justification of making a move? And that is just his defense we are talking about. Sure, he may start to hit for a better average at some point, every squirrel finds a nut here and there, but is his BB:K ratio and K:AB ratio going to change anytime soon? Callix Crabbe would be an upgrade over Weeks in just about every department with the exception of power and a few stolen bases. Power is not this team's problem, it's hitting with RISP, seeing some pitches, and not striking out. Callix does all of those things well and is a better defender. Callix has better range and can seemingly make the routine play without error on balls that he does get to.

[kramnoj]

Just because someone is rated low defensively doesn't mean they should be moved. Someone is always going to be ranked low on a list.

 

In the preseason Crabbe was projected by ZiPS to hit for .239, have an OBP of .326 and slug .330. Weeks was projected to have rates of .254/.363/.422. To put some perspective on that, Weeks was projected to have above average performance offensively at every position except for 1B. Crabbe's performance this year hasn't given any indication that he should be expected to perform better than his projection.

 

The real question is who would be expected to provide more total value to the Brewers? In my opinion, it's still Rickie, but if he goes another couple of weeks without improvement, things should change in some fashion.

[PeaveyFury]

Callix Crabbe would be an upgrade over Weeks in just about every department with the exception of power and a few stolen bases.

 

San Diego returned Crabbe to the Brewers rather than keeping him on the bench for the rest of the year because they didn't feel he was ready to play in the majors at this point. I don't see how that has changed a few days later to suggest that he should now be starting in the majors.

[endaround]

To emphasize, San Diego, a team on the verge of having a meaningless 4 months to close out the season, couldn't find room on their bench for Crabbe.

[lcbj68c]

Kram, I get your points, I really do. I'm just tired of hearing about projections this and projections that. Projections are all nice and well and it's certainly a good barometer for evaluating future performance if we are talking about if, come, maybe, coulda, shoulda. Who can go wrong with a standout from Southern University, drafted second overall, was a Golden Spikes winner and seemingly had all five-tools. The problem becomes that was 5 years ago. 4 levels of baseball later, several hitting and fielding instructors later, and the guy is still underperforming at the major league level. Sometimes this happens, actually it happens quite often. However, then you have those Callix Crabbe type players, originally drafted in the 30th round, went to a small community college in Bradenton, Fl and IMPROVED his draft stock to the 7th round. Never projected as much, but just keeps IMPROVING and overachieving. At what point do we stop looking at projections and value the ACTUAL performance? 5 years? 5 years two weeks? 6 years? 10 years? And that isn't even taking into account salary. Don't you think that Callix Crabbe could provide atleast the same stats that Rickie Weeks does? I do know this, he'd strikeout less, get on base more via the hit and help the team in the field...oh yeah, at a lower cost than Rickie Weeks, making him more valuable per dollar. Let some other GM believe in Rickie Weeks and get something in return. Irribarren and Crabbe can't do any worse, in fact they'll probably do better. Not better than Weeks projections, but again that's just projections. They've been proving people wrong their whole baseball lives, why not give it a go?

[DrWood]

To emphasize, San Diego, a team on the verge of having a meaningless 4 months to close out the season, couldn't find room on their bench for Crabbe.

 

does that suggest they are making a lot of great decisions either?

[PeaveyFury]

does that suggest they are making a lot of great decisions either?

 

It suggests that their opinion of Crabbe is that he's not even worth a bench spot on a team that has plenty of opportunity to stash a guy to keep him in their organization, and instead preferred to give him back to the Brewers, a team that also didn't feel Crabbe was good enough to protect in the Rule V a few months ago in the first place. I'd say that's a pretty reasonable commentary as to where they feel Crabbe is in his development and usefulness.

[kramnoj]

Sometimes I can argue so much in one side that I feel I'm disparaging the other side too much. Clearly the Brewers feel Crabbe has some future value to team, or they wouldn't have spent 25k to get him back. Whether that value is insurance against a Weeks injury, or as utility infielder next year to take over for Counsell, etc. ZiPS rates Weeks as a fair defender, (I think thats 2 out of 5) and Crabbe has average. I don't know if that's just because a player is rated average as a default, and then changes with more evidence, or because Crabbe has shown enough to just be rated as average.

 

Edit: Apparently consecutive posts are frowned upon here, and I wrote this post while the preceding ones were being posted. So here's my response.

 

I understand questioning projections, but I need a reason to question them. I questioned that Suppan was projected to be worse than Bush, and so far I have been right to doubt them. Right now, I don't have any reason to question the projections for Crabbe, and baseball history suggests that Weeks will get better than he is now. I don't know why Weeks is struggling. I don't know if it's a flaw in the swing, in the approach, etc. Hopefully the coaching staff is working on that. If Rickie continues to struggle, sure, make a change. I just don't think that time has come yet.

[dadofandrew]

I think it's safe to say every team has a speedy little 2B in their system that can do a few things, but not have the bat for the big leagues. I like Crabbe for what he is, AAA depth for 2B and CF, but he's nowhere near Hernan, and I'm not sure Iribarren projects as an everyday guy.

 

The idea that he's the answer, for anything, tells me that folks did not hear the question.

[lcbj68c]

I dont think Crabbe is the long term answer, but I think he could atleast, at a minimum, provide the same results that Rickie produces, and better on defense. Higher ceiling, of course not. I'm just saying that Weeks could be moved at the deadline and Crabbe be a fill-in until the position can be addressed in the off-season, whether that be moving JJ to second or whatever.