Tony Blengino on Danny Valencia
whoa, I think we drove the green on that one, lads

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Blengino's paradigm is to cut up the batted-ball pie into fifteen great-gramma sized slices.  From there, he filters out "noise" to photograph a phantom-like image of who a batter 'really' was.  

It's a worthy paradigm, keeping in mind that --- > (1) the paradigm BEGINS, AFTER we have left the strike zone in the rear view mirror, and (2) what a player does next year (or the year before) is not captured.  Ron Shandler's trendline focus need not apply.

But still.  The ghost picture resolves on camera, and it likes the look of Danny Valencia's bat.  CLICK THIS FANGRAPHS LINK

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Points of order:

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(1) Valencia is 0.0 to 1.0 'standard deviations" above the league average at EVERYTHING.  

Good exit velocity (90.7 MPH).  Very nice exit velo on line drives, better than ML average.  Gets on top of the ball, sends sizzling ground balls everywhere (the anti- Guillermo Heredia).  Weak at absolutely nothing.  The lad is practically MELKY.

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(2) Valencia's OPS+ was 118 and his "phantom BIP image" is 117.   That's what we were hoping Adam Lind would be.  117 is not in the 135-140 echelon of corner infield T-Rexes, but it is solidly "plus."  117 will drive in tough runs against Chris Sale.

Adam Lind is probably not a visual that leaves you pepped up.  The visual you need is "The Good Adam Lind."  Either he or the 2015 Danny Valencia would deliver a .500 SLG for pennies on the dollar.

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ROY is positive, G, while BIV is negative
ROY is positive, G, while BIV is negative

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Blengino's radiology report on the above PET images:

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Danny Valencia certainly isn’t a third baseman, but that’s where he qualified in 2016. He’s a bat, and a pretty decent one at that. Once more of a platoon specialist, he’s made great strides against same-handed pitching.

His overall authority has been “orange” and “yellow” the past two years, so it appears real. His BIP type-specific Adjusted Contact Scores (141, 108 and 117 for flies, liners and grounders) were all strong in 2016. That very high liner rate is coming down, however; it’s way out of whack with career norms. He’ll remain a quality multi-positional bat for the Mariners moving forward despite some regression from his 2016 heights.

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Dipoto has said that he's very happy with Danny Valencia A and Dan Vogelbach B at first base.  Considering they'll bat #6 and that this is a support position for the 4 stars ... so are we.

Rock on,

Dr D

Comments

1

He's essentially Kyle with fewer fly balls?

Holy-moly.

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