I remember last year when he was a Kris Bryant type "can't miss". They were jizzing all over him in Boston. It's easy to be great when you've never played. When you bat against big league pitchers you get revealed. Pay no attention to that 88 OPS+ shortstop behind the curtain.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Not like Kris Bryant. More like Castro. Every report on him inculded "the power will come eventually"


And Bogearts is fine. He's 21 and holding his own at the MLB level.

goldendomer vibe

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JORR is onto something. The Cubs should release all their prospects because Booger isn't playing well. Then they should go onto spend $250M per year to build a winner of 30+ year old veterans who have proved they can hit major league pitching. Give them all 10 year contracts to make sure we corner the market on major league hitters.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

He's 21 and already hits like Alexei Ramirez, give him a break.

his .304 weighted OBA is pretty much in line with his preseason projections.

http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?pl ... tion=3B/SS

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Furthermore, Bogearts was never close to Bryant's level in the minors. The excitement around him was built more off his contributions to the World Series winning playoff run (totally understandable)

The point is, right now he's a disappointment. Most of you don't seem to expect Bryant's first season to look something like: .258/.320/.480, which I think is a reasonable expectation. Even for a guy you think is going to have multiple All-Star games in his future.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Lars Anderson and Jed Lowrie got some Northian facials from the Nation as well.

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I cant even tell what youre saying here because you're so deep in what you (wrongly) perceive Cub fans to be.


Id be fine with an 800 OPS. So would most Cub fans. And I still hope he hits 50 homers with a 1.5 OPS and that's....ok

And if some Cub fans expect him to be great right away, that's also....ok


Seriously, what is the endgame here? Id never figure you for a guy that would actively try to make following baseball less fun but that's kinda the road you're on.

Why do you think Cub prospects are so much better than any other prospects? Because Epstein selected them and is real smart? Because I guarantee you if Epstein had selected Davidson he would be more highly rated by "experts" than he is.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Is this a bit?

I DONT think that. No one does except the Cub fans in your head.

When the Cubs system was terrible, I thought the guys ranked near the top of BA and BP were going to be good. Now there are some Cubs ranked high, I think they have a good chance.

He will be in 10 AS games and win a few MVP's before all is said and done.

You put a lot of faith in BP and BA. Are they consistently correct?

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Oh no, Cubs prospects could be overrated. How will I sleep at night?

My excitement over Bryant is as follows:

1) He is not a high school prospect, meaning we have more high level statistics to judge him by,
2) Three great years of college ball ending his junior season by leading the nation with 31 HR's,
3) MVP of Arizona Fall league after being drafted by Cubs,
4) Then dominated Boise, Daytona, Tennessee, and now Iowa.

You're absolutely correct that he could be decidedly average when he comes up. But I'd much rather have this history and experience of a prospect before coming to the majors. Great players have to come from somewhere, and he sure looks like a great player.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

In a pool of your own tears and disappointment.

They are pretty good with the top guys. Ive not done any studies though.

Its not that big of a deal. If they're wrong, they're wrong. Life goes on.


I thought Angel Guzman was going to be great. He didnt work out. Its ok.

He got hurt. That's just one of many things that can get a player off track.

But BP and BA are really just table talk like what we're doing right now. Sure, they should be more educated on the subject. It's what they do. But they definitely have built-in biases.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

that last sentence seems more bias/opinion than fact.

_________________
Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

Of course they are more educated and of course they have some bias

They're still pretty good and worth following if you have interest in prospects.

I get that you dont. That's cool. I do.

Just like a lot of the subjective stuff at BA and BP!

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

so you DO admit your bias/opinion.

The major difference is that they get paid better the more accuracy they project. You are on a sports message board, and are compensated zilch for your opinions. They had better not let their bias interfere with their projections, or they will go out of business.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

No.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

well, I think we're done here.

_________________
Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

Xander Bogaerts is 21. This thread is pointless.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

Really? We shouldnt expect performance from 21 year old big leaguers? This isnt the Cubs we're talking about.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

It should be hoped for, but not expected.

Whether you come out of the great strong or not, the end result is what is important. We both know this.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

Right, but we're back to a normal era of baseball. I don't think PEDs were particularly responsible for the huge numbers as much as other factors (the ball), but I definitely think they allowed guys to keep playing and compiling those numbers well past the time that they should normally have been able to do so. A normal big league career looks kind of like Frank Thomas or Albert Pujols. They hit about 30 and the numbers start dropping off. Mickey Mantle was all done at about 32 or 33. In that context, performance at an early age is much more important. The future Hall of Famers are likely to be guys that are All-Star caliber at 21 or 22. I'm not saying guys can't develop and Bogaerts probably will to some degree. But your career is going to be from 21 to 30 now. That's one thing I definitely think Epstein recognizes from stuff I've heard him say.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Damnit. Gate**

I think you're on to something. But PED era or not, I'd never judge future performance based off of performance as a 21 year old. Sure, that slow start and adjustment period will hurt his Hall of Fame shot, but I hope, as a 21 year old kid, he isn't thinking about his Hall of Fame chances right now.

Do your best, help your team win, and improve as you go.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

Oh yeah. And there were always freaks, guys like Hank Aaron that didn't decline until about 40.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don