4 dodgers 1 former The 10 most intriguing players in the NL West by David Schoenfield | ESPN — 4 hours ago Let's move on to my most intriguing players to watch in 2016 in the NL West ... 1. Zack Greinke, RHP, Arizona Diamondbacks Mark your calendars: Diamondbacks at Dodgers, April 14. That could be Greinke's first start against his former team, whom he bolted to sign a six-year, $206 million contract. If Greinke starts the season opener and then starts again five days later, that would line him up for the series finale at Dodger Stadium. So, Chip Hale, don't give Greinke an extra day of rest that week. Given the contract, there will be pressure for Greinke to match or come close to last year's 1.66 ERA. That's unrealistic, of course; you can't predict a pitcher to have that kind of season, and his Fielding Independent Pitching number was 2.76, a full run higher. Greinke had the highest left-on-base percentage in the majors at 86.5 percent, the highest percentage for a qualified starter since Pedro Martinez in 2000. How much of that was skill and how much was just one of those seasons where everything went his way? 2. Johnny Cueto, RHP, San Francisco Giants Another big-ticket free agent, Cueto and Jeff Samardzija were signed by the Giants to bolster a rotation that needed help. Our final images of Cueto were his struggles down the stretch with the Royals, including an up-and-down postseason that alternated a couple of good starts with a couple of poor ones. But he returns to the National League, where he was one of the best pitchers in the majors over the previous five years. He goes to a pitcher-friendly park with a team that plays solid defense. There will be concerns about a tender elbow that forced him to miss a couple starts last season, but it wouldn't surprise me if ends up having a better season than Greinke. 3. Corey Seager, SS, Los Angeles Dodgers The performances of rookie shortstops Carlos Correa and Francisco Lindor in 2015 have increased the expectations for Seager. His September call-up created even more hype, as he hit .337/.425/.561 in 113 plate appearances. Keep in mind, however, that Seager's Triple-A numbers -- .278/.332/.451 -- were nothing like his major league results. One thing I love about him: He hit .344 against lefties across the three levels he played, so there aren't any obvious holes in his swing. There's going to be a lot of pressure on the 22-year-old trying to be a key cog on a team with the highest payroll in the game, but like his older brother Kyle of the Mariners, he's a baseball rat who should thrive in the spotlight. Yasiel Puig, RF, Los Angeles Dodgers The fan club is a lot smaller than it was a year ago after an injury-marred campaign in which he hit .255/.322/.436 and played just 79 games. Was it a good year for him? No. But such are the weight of expectations: He still had a better wRC+ than Ian Kinsler, Daniel Murphy, Evan Longoria, Matt Kemp, Adam Jones, Howie Kendrick or Adrian Beltre. My point: The talent is still there. 5. A.J. Pollock, CF, Arizona Diamondbacks Pollock had the most under-the-radar great season in 2015, hitting .315/.367/.498 and winning a Gold Glove. He ranked sixth among position players in Baseball-Reference WAR and eighth in FanGraphs -- meaning the Diamondbacks had two of the top 10 position players in the league in Pollock and Paul Goldschmidt. So the question: Can he do it again? I think he can. He actually played at the same level in 2014, although he missed time with a broken hand and played 75 games, so nobody noticed. 6. Matt Duffy, 3B, San Francisco Giants Duffy may have had the most surprising season of any player last year. Remember, after losing Pablo Sandoval to free agency, the Giants traded for Casey McGehee to play third base, with Duffy penciled in as a utility guy. Well, by the end of the season, the rookie who never homered in college and hit three homers in the minors in 2014, was hitting third for the Giants. But with added strength and some mechanical tweaks -- including advice from Barry Bonds -- he finished with a .295/.334/.428 line and 12 home runs, not bad for AT&T. The offensive improvement of Duffy, Brandon Crawford and Joe Panik gave the Giants perhaps the best infield in the majors in 2015. 7. Clayton Kershaw, LHP, Los Angeles Dodgers Listing him seventh isn't meant to be an insult. He's the best pitcher in the game and he'll be wonderful, must-watch TV again in 2016. He didn't win the ERA title for the first time in five years. Indeed, all he did was post a 2.13 ERA while leading the league in innings and strikeouts. In two years, he's increased his strikeout rate from 25.6 percent to 33.8 percent. Yes, he's apparently becoming even more dominant. I'd certainly pick him to win the Cy Young Award. 8. Wil Myers, 1B, San Diego Padres What is he? I have no idea. After his promising Rookie of the Year season with the Rays in 2013, he's played just 147 games the past two years and hit .235 with 14 home runs. GM A.J. Preller staked his reputation on the trade for Myers last offseason, giving up premium talent in Trea Turner and Joe Ross to get him. If Myers flops again, Preller's job may be in jeopardy as well. 9. Carlos Gonzalez, OF, Colorado Rockies Will he start the season with the Rockies? Will he end it with the Rockies? 10. Joc Pederson, CF, Los Angeles Dodgers Through June 4, after a four-game road trip to Coors Field in which he homered in each game: .267/.393/.606. That carried him to the All-Star Game, where he actually started in place of the injured Matt Holliday. From June 5 on: .176/.319/.301, 105 strikeouts in 97 games. He still drew a lot of walks but the all-out swing produced just nine home runs. He'll have to make adjustments and that will be intriguing to watch.
Tryin to figure out why so many overlook the fact that Corey was stricken with an illness in July and struggled to find it in AAA thereafter, but they have to keep mentioning those damn numbers. And even with that spell his OPS was .783 in AAA, Carlos Correa's OPS in AAA was .794 If they put Corey in AAA to start this year he'll be back up in a week, that's his MO, the 2nd time through he adjusts and mashes. No real holes in his swing, but what I did see what a lot of pulling off, tryin hard as to yank balls on the outside of the plate and then that's all they started giving him was outside heat. He had 1 hit in the post series where he didn't pull off, sending the ball to LF with pretty good velo, so he can adjust, even at the highest level in October no less. 2 spot in the order from the start this year.
You dare awaken the ghost of Cal " Triple OG " Ripken Jr.? Everyone to your bathroom mirrors right now, chant the name " Billy Ripken " 3 times to put ghost Cal back to rest.
Hah! I was about to complain about the same thing. Dude got sick and lost 15 lbs, but whatever, lets keep talking about how it took him a bit to recover from that.
The funny thing is after really looking at the numbers is, Puig had a "bad year" and people think his goose is cooked because of one bad year out of 3. His bad year overall was not terrible, mostly marred by nagging hamstring injuries and now that the franchise has apparently ridden him about lack of effort, he's begun off season training much sooner than usual. He probably should have been higher than #4 as if he is pissed off and trying to prove the world wrong, or whatever, he could be in for a hell of a season. The talent is there, if he puts it together it'll be huge for this team.
I don't think anyone denies his talent...but his monster legs may always be prone to those hammy problems. I d k if his committment to training and stretching is enough to avoid this for long. I sure hope so, but from what I read, if it's to be believed, the guy simply doesn't want to put the time in. With guys like John Smoltz, who you have to respect ( and who was highly complimented here when the announcement came of him replacing Reynolds), touting the "Giants as the best team in the NL now, maybe in baseball", we sure need Yasiel to come through. Big time.
Just heard, from the aforementioned Harold Reynolds, that" Joe Blanton may be the best move the Dodgers have made this off season". There you go.
Puig's issues go back a little further than 1 season, but I get what you're saying because the 2014 headline is gonna read .296/.382/.480 Going inside that 2014 tho, it was a doozy too even though he made the AS game ( we keep having these guys fizzle out after making AS games ) He came down to earth in the second half of that all star season, got benched and left us all with a bad taste in our mouths in the post season with those 8 or 9 strikeouts in like 12 or 13 ABs. His 2nd half numbers from that year were .274/.366/.414, which you can do a lot worse than that, but of course we expect better and then, again, he looked over-matched in the post to end 2014 which didn't help. Still in the infant stages of his career so to speak, I continue to sort of observe him from month to month/game to game approach-wise, still see big peaks/low valleys, must find some consistency not only in performance, but in his in-game approach and work ethic. Last season wasn't just a " bad year " for him, the staff began to tear him down and started tinkering with his technique/stance at the plate and what not, so that just lets us all know that even though he's hit these high peaks, they're still developing this player. But when a guy that's not a finished product, begins to slide, and he isn't putting the work in to both perform more consistently and keep himself healthy it's just tough to have confidence in him. However, at the end of the day, if he settles into being a semi-Cespedes-like .275/.360/.480 guy I'll take it. If he ends up being labeled " Cespedes with better OBP ", that's still an impact player especially considering the arm's presence in RF. But I also hope he stops short of smoking cigs in between innings like Cespedes reportedly does. Haha That's some Vlade Divac shit, maybe that's why the market is luke-warm on Cespedes...chain smoking, wheelie poppin, nap taking in the OF, hardworking in the weight room, gold glove having slugger...who is this guy Cespedes??
And it was like the worst timing ever for him because all the talk was that he was pretty much ready by the end of June, so his time was coming and maybe before September. He might have sparked them during that 100 game stretch where they pretty much put me to sleep every night. Just a tough break all around for him, but cool to think that he battled back from that and still kicked ass in his debut. Everything points to him being the truth. One of the topics where you can point to our lack of luck there and just say yeah we got screwed
