2021-2022 Winter Ball - AFL, Instructional, Latin America

[andyb]

He could and that would be great. But if he were not a catcher we would not be talking about his offense as special. He just had a .789 OPS. Nice, but nothing special for an outfielder or a first baseman which are really the other positions he could play. Just because his offense is little ahead of Realmuto at the same age (right before JT took major step forwards offensively) is really not that important. But the main point is that preparing O'Hoppe to play any other position now would not be wise. He needs to learn how to play catcher and with the DH his bat will be in the lineup plenty. Maybe he gets occasional 1B starts, but that is something all minor leaguers do. Any serious instruction time still needs to be at catcher.

[andyb]

From the Dominican last night:

Rosso 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 4 K
C. Sanchez, 0.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 K

Jhailyn Ortiz and Rodolfo Duran are on the opening day rosters that I saw though those rosters change daily. Imagine Ortiz just got back from instructionals last week. I do think we will also see players like Medina and maybe even Rojas and Luis Garcia eventually. The Dominican scores are accessible from the MLB offseason page even if the calendars are all still defaulting to 2 years ago and the organizational stat links do not work.

[mdougherty12]

Apparently, MLB.TV subscribers can watch Dominican Winter League games:

Watch every LIDOM game on MLB.TV

[andyb]

That article is a little confusing as it says available to all MLB.TV subscribers but then says all who add the $24.95 postseason package later on. I guess I will give it a try tonight. I wonder if any of the other leagues will make a deal with MLB.TV or something like ESPN+.

In other news in the Dominican, Albert Pujols is going to play for the first time. He had to technically be traded for this to happen. He will be playing for Escogido which happens to also be Jhailyn Ortiz' team. Hopefully something rubs off on Jhailyn because he might be protecting Albert in the lineup.

Pujols suits up in Dominican Winter League

[bkox]

Wonder if this means Albert plans to play next year or if this is his way of saying goodbye by playing in his home country

[andyb]

Ortiz unfortunately not playing every day in the Dominican (though note it is rare for prospects to do so as it is an older league generally than Venezuela and some others). 0-4 with a SF in his one start and then one pinch hit at bat in the other 3 games. 0-5 so far.

If he is not going to start 50% of the time they should have figured out how to get a waiver for him to be in Arizona like Muzziotti.

[andyb]

Rafael Marchan hits his first professional home run outside of the major leagues for Tiburones de La Guaira in the Venezuelan league. Only 1-7 with a BB and HBP in 9 plate appearances, but this should be a good test for him.

[bkox]

Phillies believe prospect Bryson Stott can stay at shortstop in the majors

[Austinfan]

Well, until Garcia is ready.

Stott is probably one of those athletes who can stay at SS until his late 20s, but as soon as he loses a step or two, it's 3B (if he has the arm, it's easier to find 2B b/c you can move guys with good hands but weaker arms).

So you plug him in for 2-3 years while grooming a "true" SS.

[zambonir]

In that very story:

Stott played some second base in the minors this season and has played two games at third within the last week in Arizona.

[andyb]

You don't really know any of that though do you. Scouts are divided on whether he can be a major league shortstop or has to move to 2B or 3B. You have no advanced analytics to make a case from. You have a vague sense that as a first round shortstop and from heresay that he is a decent athlete, but we don't really know what that means. Kingery is a very good athlete (better than Stott probably) but did not have the arm for shortstop. Quinn was a great athlete with the range and arm but not the hands.

I have no idea how this plays out. I hope he can stay at SS. I think Garcia is 50-50 as to making it as more than a utility player. I want to give Stott a chance, but I also want to see the results before "plugging him in for 2-3 years". We kind of "plugged Bohm in" and it was a disaster.

[Austinfan]

Bohm was always a question mark as a fielder at 3B.

Stott has been a decent SS in college and the minors, the question probably isn't whether he can be an adequate defensive SS but for how long, bigger guys have problem with range earlier as they age. Given the competition is Didi and Kingery (who wasn't a bad SS), Stott has a shot in the short-term. He's not going to win any golden gloves, but the expectations at SS generally are also based on below average hitting, in Stott's case, he should be a plus hitter at SS, so average fielding is more than good enough.

MILB:

"A solid runner, Stott is a natural shortstop who got some experience playing second and third at the alternate site to add versatility to his resume. But he has the range, arm and instincts to stick at shortstop long-term and the upside to be a big league regular at the premium position."

Logenhagen at Fansgraph also has him projected to stay at SS.

Winkelman: "In the field, he can play shortstop, but his range is more ok than good and his throwing actions continue to not be clean. Altogether he profiles more as average defensively at shortstop and it is a position where plus is more the expectation."

[andyb]

MLB.com draft preview:
"While Stott does show off a plus arm at times, the one area there's a split camp might be his ability to play shortstop in the big leagues. Most give him a chance to stick there, given his makeup and instincts, unless the team he's on has a better defender on the roster. At the very least, he'll be given the opportunity to do so after hearing his name called in the first round."

Fangraphs:
"There are teams that think, despite his size and atypical throwing stroke, that he'll stay at shortstop and hit for some power. Those teams are highest on him. Then there are teams that think he'll just do one of those and, finally, those who think he'll do neither."

And Fangraphs in their last Philles ranking:
"I had him projected to stay at short last year and there’s basically no new info on this end, but not all the four corners scouts, who saw him play defense most of all, thought he could"

To come to any conclusion other than that scouts are divided on whether Stott can play SS would be wrong. It is not dissimilar to the Bohm discussion even if Bohm is worse defensively.

We simply do not know if Stott can play an average major league SS.

[Austinfan]

We know Didi can't.

[andyb]

We actually don't know if Stott is better than Didi defensively if that is your point.

[fish]

I'm a fan of Stott, but when you watch him it become apparent that he has some unorthodox actions at short. It doesn't bode well for when the he gets to the faster mlb game, but some guys can still make it work. We'll see.

[EDmuch]

Seems to me they should be filling 2 of 3 positions thru FA, LF, CF, and SS, plus a closer. If they do not make at least those upgrades, they will not be genuine competitors for NL East unless, as happened this past year, the whole division collapses. Now, assuming they want to bring in another big bat behind Harper, one would think it should be a righty like Bryant. But that is rather redundant since we have Hoskins to bat 4th. So it seems like we really need another LH to bat behind Hoskins. Two years ago, that was Didi but I think most would agree that he is not a reliable option at this time. So perhaps that tilts toward Schwarber which would help the order from being almost all RH. I still think Canha is a reasonable choice as a CF who can bat lead off. But I guess he would not offset the RH tilt of the lineup.

[bkox]

Minor league prospects brawl in Arizona Fall League

[andyb]

The Athletic (actually the Arizona beat writer since ours is on paternity leave) does a piece on Stott that goes over the discussion we had. No answers of course Positive quotes from the Phillies as expected. Sounds as if they are wrestling with the cost-benefit equation of having a shortstop with a good bat but is a bit below average defensively.

With Bryson Stott, can the Phillies finally fill their Jimmy Rollins-shaped hole...

[Squire]

Stott has cooled off a bit but O'Hoppe is en fuego.