Spinning The Gose

Sorry for the lack of updates. Just trying to get things going and unfortunately there has been a lot on my plate!

As everyone knows, "First Baseman of the Future" Brett "My Neck is Thicker than Snider's" Wallace has been traded for Anthony "Grey" Gose. For those who are unaware, Anthony Gose is an almost-20 year old Center Fielder from the Philadelphia Phillies organization. He was someone we asked for in the Halladay deal and were denied.

Over on MLBTR, all I've read is people calling for AA's head. Luckily the blogosphere seems to have much more reasonable responses, but there's been a myriad of knee jerk reactions over this trade.

On the outset, it looks like this:

Wallace, in AAA: .301/.359/.509/.868, 18 HR, 0 NSB, 27 BB:83 K.
Gose, in A+: .263/.325/.385/.710, 4 HR, 9 NSB, 32 BB:103 K.

Ew! I mean, look at those numbers. Clearly, Wallace is the better player. Right? Well, maybe. Unfortunately, we can't prove that Wallace is the better player. What we do know is, Wallace has been posting average numbers for someone in Las Vegas. He has an .809 OPS away split, which is well below average for anyone, especially a first baseman.

And that's the big issue when it comes to Wallace. His numbers are not BAD, they're just below average for a 1st baseman. Even worse, he plays a terrible defensive game.

That being said, I never trust anyone who tells me how I should think about a player without providing evidence. When Alex Anthopoulos tells me "Gose is a gold glove-caliber all-star center fielder in the future", I take that with a grain of salt. On the outset, as we've seen, Gose's numbers look terrible.

Let's do some comparison.

I decided to take a look at the Florida State League. The first investigation was to check all players in 1990 who were doing better than Gose.

There was one.

1: Junior Lake (Chc): .258/.338/.409/.747, 8 HR, 0 NSB, 28 BB:69 K
2. Anthony Gose: .263/.325/.385/.710, 4 HR, 9 NSB, 32 BB: 103 K

Now, Lake has 150 or so less PAs, so the strikeouts work out around the same level but with Lake taking a few more walks and obviously showing more power. But otherwise, Gose is 2nd among players in the FSL born 1990 or later.

I figured, posting one year isn't enough. I thought I should compare with those born in 1989. Players born in 89 ahead of Gose in OPS: Michael McDade (.783), Quincy Latimore (.727), Travis D'Arnaud (.713).


I respect everyone's opinion on Gose and I don't see this as a "woohoo! We won big time!" trade. In fact, it's possible other teams might have offered us someone better for Wallace. But this trade is about ceiling. It's about finding potential all-stars in premium positions, not guys who can be stop gaps and fill holes. It's about becoming an Atlanta or a Philadelphia when it comes to producing stars, not an Oakland Athletics.

Let's review the trade in a few years, when it actually matters.

July 16 Round-Up

An overall win for the farm tonight, going 3-2.

AAA:

Brett Wallace - 2/4, HR(15), BB

AA:

Darin Mastroianni - 2/4, 3B, BB
Adeiny Hechavarria - 2/4, 2B, 2 RBI
David Cooper - 2/3, 1 BB
Jo-Jo Reyes - 8 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 6 K: Blue Jays Debut

A+:

Chris Hopkins - 2/4, 2B, HR, 4 RBI, 1 BB: High-A Debut
Jonathan Del Campo - 2/4, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 1 BB, 1 SB
Jon Talley - 2/3, 1 HR, 1 BB
Joel Carreno - 6 IP, 8 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 8 K

A:

Eric Eiland - 1/2, 2 BB, SB
Kevin Ahrens - 2/3, 2B

SS:

Marcus Knecht - 1/3, 2B, 2 BB
Carlos Perez - 3/3, 3B, 3 RBI, BB, SB
Lance Durham - 2/3, 2B, 2 RBI, 2 BB
Drew Permison - 3 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K

R:

Matt Abraham - 3/3, 1 BB

July 15 Round-Up

I'm going to be doing my prospect round-ups a bit differently from most sites. I'm not going to sit here and link you to every box score but simply give you a round-up of the best performances of the night similar to how BaseballAmerica does their round-ups.

AAA:

Brad Mills - 6.0 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K (4.00 ERA): Hasn't allowed a run in 12 IP since coming off the DL.
J.P. Arencibia - 1/5, HR (26): 8 HR in 11 Games in July.

AA:

Danny Farquhar - 2.2 IP, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K (4.67 ERA): 1.47 ERA in last 10 apparances.
Eric Thames - 4/4, 2B: .500 OBP this month.

A (Game 1):

Kevin Nolan - 2/4, 2 2B
Chris Hopkins - 1/2, 2 BB
Matt Wright - 2.2 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K (2.92 ERA)

A (Game 2):

Kenny Wilson - 1/2, 2B, 2 BB
Steve Turnbull - 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K (3.05 ERA, SV 20)

SS:

Yudelmis Hernandez - 3/4, 2B, 2 HR(3), 3 RBI
Andrew Hutchison - 5.0 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K (2.28 ERA)

R:

K.C. Hobson - 3/4, 2B, 2 RBI, 1 BB

Introduction

It's safe to say that there's no lack of bloggers out there. It's why I've been so resistant to being one of 'those guys'. Everyone wants to write and have people check out their blog and whoopy-fucking-do. To me, it just makes sense. I've been watching and following the Blue Jays since birth. That's right, you heard me. Even placenta couldn't prevent me from watching my baseball.

If you're wondering what you're going to get reading this, it's going to be a lot of prospect porn. Woo, original right? But I haven't missed checking a minor league box score in seven years. What you won't get from me is cliches and statistical bonerisms. I won't be the type of guy to tell you "Yes, Fred Lewis -is- a good leadoff hitter" because he isn't. .330 OBP players are not leadoff hitters. What I want is to start good, intelligent discussion. So if your only input is going to be "Free Wallace!!" then you can lick Carlos Tosca's asshole.