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Post by johnw- ATL on Mar 6, 2018 22:41:04 GMT -8
Now that the season is over, i want everyone to pick ONE hero from their team, and ONE zero. Give us your reasoning, whatever it is, in a quick little summery. Remember though, only pick ONE person for each!! I'll go first...
Hero
Justin Williams- We had a great season, and alot of guys came through, but i can only pick one. Justin Williams gets the nod due to the fact he wasn't expected to do much. A waiver pickup from the Reds in the offseason, Williams was a 24 year old with a combined -0.7 War over 2 part seasons in the bigs. Despite having 2 options left, I like his skillset and decided i could use him as a backup in RF, a spot i had open. I knew i wanted to get him some at bats, cuz at his age he could still grow. April was bad. May was much better and i kept him in his backup role, which saw him play 2-3 times a week. All of a sudden, in late August, he took off, and i couldn't take him out of the lineup. He won a player of the week, and became this team's best hitter in our most important games!
Williams finished the season hitting .340/.379/.540 with a .919 OPS, 15 home runs and 65 RBI's. He will be starting game one of the playoffs for us. Waiver claim!!
Zero
Ian Anderson- So much was expected from Ian Anderson. He was a top 10 prospect in baseball. He just had a fantastic 7 start audition in 2019. He was our ace in waiting, ready to take the steps to the top of our rotation. Game one, we get him a 3-0 lead before he throws a pitch. In Anderson's half of the first, St. Louis gets 3 hits, a HBP and a wild pitch, which led to three runs. Thats the kind of year Anderson had. A few minor injuries, a few gems thrown, but mostly, disasters caused by poor control.
A 5.88 ERA in just 17 starts, plus a stint in AAA was not what i envisioned from my "future ACE"
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Post by tieranangels on Mar 7, 2018 5:21:18 GMT -8
Hero: Without a doubt Estevan Florial. Acquired at the deadline in 2019 in a one for one swap with the Braves for Luis Vargas, Florial was almost immediately called up to the majors. To put it bluntly was horrible in his rookie season. He hit a mere .162/.253/.290 with 8 HR and went 11/18 in Stolen Bases in 87 games. His defense however was spectacular enough to post a .995 Fielding Percentage, 2.48 Range Factor, a 10.8 Range Factor, and a 1.071 Defensive Efficiency, his defense alone had enough value to carry him to a 0.2 WAR.
This year was a new year however and Estevan Florial improved to be an All-Star. Estevan Florial in 2020 had a .246/.324/.432 slash line with 23 HR and went 40/53 in Stolen Bases. He cut down on the strikeouts ever so slightly from 30.5% to 28.8% as well as raised his walks from 9.5% to 9.8%. On the defensive side of things Florial posted a .997 Fielding Percentage, 2.39 Range Factor, a 15.4 Range Factor, and a 1.057 Defensive Efficiency. Overall his blend of Offensive and Defensive skill gave him 4.3 WAR and his defense should make him a shoe in for the CF Gold Glove.
Zero: There are a lot of candidates for this one; I probably could have used any player outside of Chris Flexen and of course Estevan Florial for this one. Ultimately I decided on Jefry Marte for this one. Jefry Marte was a 2 WAR Player in both 2018 and 2019 and had never put up an OPS below .763 since his Rookie Year in 2015. So it wouldn't be unreasonable for me to expect a similar performance from him in 2020. Marte completely flopped this year he hit a measly .197/.267/.315 with 11 HR. His defense wasn't any better as he put up a -3.6 ZR. All in All he was worth -1.3 WAR and completely played his way off the team in September. He was claimed by the Rockies and will likely be an MVP candidate in Coors next season.
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Post by jyd98 on Mar 7, 2018 5:45:36 GMT -8
Hero: Definitely Udubal Herrera. I didn't have huge expectations for him after an off season in 2019. He did not disappoint in 2020 hitting .333/.430/.552 with .982 OPS. He also almost doubled his previous high in homeruns with 29. He did apparently forget how to steal bases but that's no big deal. It was also a career high in WAR with 6.0. In the end, he was a shining light in the dark abyss of disappointment that was the 2020 Phillies.
Zero: Oh god there are so many. There were a whole bunch of guys that had negative WAR seasons but I'm going to pick someone who had a Positive WAR season. As much as it pains me to say this, Mitch Haniger was sadly pretty bad this year. After last season, I expected him to hit around 250. and hit around 20 homers. Not too bad while also playing Gold Glove worthy defense. Although his defense was as good as ever, his batting average was 2017 Bautista levels of bad. I'm hoping for a bounceback season in 2021 but at this point it seems unlikely at 29 years old. Shoutout to Tim Tebow, racking up 4 RBIs on the season!
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Post by JF_Expos on Mar 7, 2018 7:01:28 GMT -8
Hero: Big surprise season by 3B Nicholas Castellanos. He was a solid player to replace Donaldson but he hit VERY well this season: 34 HRs, 103 RBIS, 103 Runs and WAR of 5.1.
Zero: Corey Kluber went from 2.00 ERA to 4.29. Danny Salazar had a 6.00 ERA going into the month of August (no injuries) but the worst was "big time" acquisition Aaron Nola who gaves up 17 hrs in 109 innings and 5.58 ERA for the Tribe.
Big down season for the Indians 117 wins to 99 but very good.
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Post by samtigers on Mar 7, 2018 8:23:13 GMT -8
Hero: I had several players take some steps forward this year, but I'm going to go ahead and give this to Jordan Zimmermann. 9-13 with a 4.18 ERA may not seem too impressive, but he was a solid innings eater and pitched his best year as a Tiger. He was a huge part of us in play for a .500 record much of the year.
Zero: He didn't pitch much due to being awful and injured, but I had higher hopes for Duane Underwood Jr. In 25 innings he managed to give up 26 earned runs for a 9.36 ERA. On the plus side, he didn't give up any homeruns. Runner up - Chaz Roe went up ERA's of 4.31 and 3.43 the last 2 years to 5.65 this year with almost as many losses as the last 2 years combined.
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Post by pcaccia on Mar 7, 2018 15:03:31 GMT -8
Hero
Anthony Rizzo- When I traded Kris Bryant I knew I needed someone to step up and fill the HR and RBI void. That guy was Anthony Rizzo. For the 2nd straight season, Riz has 120 or more RBI and 30+ homers. Rizzo has heated up in September (7HRs and 20 RBI) and October (.438 BA). Very glad to have a reliable, durable, power hitter like Rizzo in my lineup every day.
Zero
Yu Darvish- Big time expectations for Darvish this season. He won 15 games last season with an ERA of a respectable 3.05 and a WAR of 4.1. But in 2019 he missed about 3 months with various ailments including a 2 month season-ending injury. In 2020, he has continued to miss time, missing 7 weeks for a couple of elbow issues. The injuries seem to have taken their toll on the 34 y/o starting pitcher. His ERA ballooned from 3.05 in 2019 to 4.53 in 2020. His wins dropped from 15 in 2019 to just 8 in 2020. He has two more seasons of $47+ million so...needless to say Cubs fans and mgmt alike expected much better things from Darvish.
Anyone want a tired, 34 y/o injury riddled SP who will cost you $47 and $48 million over the next 2 seasons? If so, let me know. I'm sure we can work something out.
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Post by dylanOakland on Mar 7, 2018 15:37:34 GMT -8
Hero: Hard to chose just one so I will go with a pitcher and Hitter. Sean Manaea was expected to be my ace this year, but only because the rest of my rotation was relatively weak. Instead of simply being an innings eater he became a cy young favorite with 5.2 WAR in less than 200 innings. Locked him up for the next few years and it feels good to have another ace in Oakland. As for the hitter side, Matt Chapman finally lived up to expectations. His defense was always superb but this year he finally became a slightly above average hitter and produced 3.2 WAR. I was told I overvalued him in trade talks last offseason and thankfully he proved me right, he's a stud. Honorable mention to closer Nick Goody who became a monster in the pen and even earned an all star nod over my big offseason acquisition Brad Hand.
Zero: Tough again considering not many of my players were really terrible. Bobby Wahl and Ryan Dull both took steps back when I considered them closer material before. My biggest disappointments had to be Sean Newcomb and Robert Gsellman. Before the season started I expected both to be valuable end of the rotation candidates and now neither looks capable of being in a successful major league rotation. Hopefully one or both can bounce back and i can reclaim the West.
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Post by aaron_commissioner on Mar 7, 2018 16:29:44 GMT -8
Hero: overall, my team produced. That's what makes choosing a hero and a zero so difficult. However, I did not expect Martin Perez to post ace-like numbers, which helped cushion the loss of Bumgarner. He is a Cy Young candidate after posting nearly 5 WAR in his first full season in Seattle.
Zero: zero is such a difficult term to use for someone who provided over 3.5 WAR, but I honestly did expect more from JP Crawford. Fresh off a 5 WAR season at age 24, JP regressed and spent most of the year batting at the bottom of the lineup. He had an extremely hot September though, so he might be heating up for a strong postseason and 2021.
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Post by brewerstom on Mar 8, 2018 14:33:07 GMT -8
Hero: My pitchers dont always have it easy in Miller Park. Still Phil Bickford, 25 year old RHP managed a 15-7 record with a 3.33 ERA in his rookie season. After only 7 innings of major league experience before the season started.
Zero: Jimmy Nelson. He was my veteran presence in the starting rotation. after two respectable seasons with 4.5 and 4.3 ERA, he failed to lead this year. After 22 starts and a 5.26 ERA his season came to an abrupt end due to a torn flexor tendon. With his contract running out, i`m sorry to say but he wont get an extension.
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