Aaron Barbosa - a Classic McNamara Win
Q. Is a Willie Wilson type an impact player, or just sort of a joke -- 80 SB's but no real value?
A. Did you know that Willie Wilson used to get 6-7 WAR per season? I didn't.
Bill James, a Royals fan, tells a tremendous story about how Wilson was ruined by a hitting coach, precisely in the 1983 season, suddenly and permanently ruined by a simple change in hitting approach. Barbosa takes the approach used by the pre-1983 Wilson.
Yes, a superfast player can be an MVP candidate with 2 homers. Denard Span is not the ceiling here.
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Q. The template seems obvious enough. Why wasn't Barbosa drafted?
A. As Spec pointed out, you've got a 157-lb. player coming from an area that --- > scouts do not take seriously. The label is quickly and thunderously applied to the forehead. "Nice little college player."
Hey, let's suppose you knew that Barbosa could hit .290 in the bigs. That would still leave him as --- > a nice 4th outfielder for a real major league team, right? ...... ::ulp::
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Q. Why did the Mariners grab him?
A. As Spec also pointed out, Tom McNamara is only too glad to help himself to these players. By "these players" we mean players with labels, players from scorned areas, players with "turnoffs" to them. Taijuan and Nick Franklin, among many others, had "turnoffs" attached. You hate to spend a 1st-rounder on somebody whose problems bug you. You don't go home giddy that night.
He shovels these players into his ditty bag with two hands. If the draft were held AFTER Barbosa's performance in pro baseball, you can be sure that he'd be drafted, and at a respectable hour. If anybody had dreamed that leeeetle Aaron Barbosa could post a .455 OBP in the Appalachian League, right out of the gate, wooden bats and all, he'd have gone in the first 10 rounds.
A lot of those college little guys just drag the metal bats through the zone, make contact and run ... Barbosa has already made his statement about that situation.
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After Barbosa's performance in the Cape Cod, and in the Appalachian League, this is already a huge win for McNamara. Whatever happens next.
This is EXACTLY the kind of non-drafted player that SSI would grab, in piles, if it had the 31st MLB team. A player whose template made him such a high-percentage bet, a player whose obvious limitation (size), and what he can't do, unduly deflected pro scouts from what he can do.
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Q. Does this make SSI feel any better about the city they watch baseball in?
A. For all of Howard Lincoln's droll-ery, there is value (for the discerning SSI reader) in a lot of what he said the other day.
The fact is, Oakland is winning with less money than the Mariners spend - quite a bit less. Billy Beane was asked on an Arsenal podcast the other day, "Do you ever get tempted to go someplace where you had money?"
His response was interesting. He said that he really doesn't feel bad about not being able to bring in big names. He said that what he does wish, is that he could hold on to his own players -- he's got to systematically trade off his home-grown stars, and trade them early, when he can get value back.
He said, if he didn't have to do that, there's no telling how good the A's would be.
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The Mariners are able and willing to keep their own players; you could say that, financially, the Mariners are where Billy Beane dreams of being.
Lincoln wants to keep Zduriencik because Zduriencik does legimately shine at --- > bringing talent into the organization. After you get over the frustration about Lincoln's and Armstrong's priorities, what's left?
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Q. Leaving the SSI reader where, on Barbosa?
A. Leaving the SSI reader --- > keeping tabs on Barbosa's K% and SB totals, as he effortlessly heliums through each level.
Spec will be only too glad to keep us posted, we're guessing. :- )
::golfclap::,
Dr D