Building a Team

[Misfit]

Re: Building a Team

I wanna say someone other than Pujols to be different, but I just can't. He's young, a good baserunner, good defender, and an incomparable hitter.

Others: David Wright, Miguel Cabrera, Carl Crawford (still very young, and I think he's got incredible potential at the plate and could easily be a gold glove centerfielder, a position more valuable than first or third, I don't know why the Drays keep him in left)

For pitchers: Harden, Peavy, Johan Santana, and Felix Hernandez

Manager: Bobby Cox.

[keRplunK]

Re: Building a Team

If I knew he was going to stay healthy:

Pujols, but I'd like to see a birth certificate because if he's a couple years older I would than I would probably go with A-Rod because he can play SS.

Felix Hernandez. He is 19 about to turn 20 and has the best stuff in the game, and he's not allowed to throw his best pitch.

Manager, probably Cox.

[bkrich83]

Re: Building a Team

If I knew he was going to stay healthy:

Pujols, but I'd like to see a birth certificate because if he's a couple years older I would than I would probably go with A-Rod because he can play SS.

Felix Hernandez. He is 19 about to turn 20 and has the best stuff in the game, and he's not allowed to throw his best pitch.

Manager, probably Cox.

Best stuff in the game is a pretty big statement.

[Misfit]

Re: Building a Team

Best stuff in the game is a pretty big statement.

I was thinking the same thing. No one would argue his stuff isn't good, but he still has A LOT to prove. His fastball is good, but is it better than Harden's? Peavy's? He's got a great change but is it better than Santana's? Pedro's? He hasn't proven much. A lot of guys get a cup of coffee late in a season and have success but never turn it into anything. I don't think Hernandez is one of those types but a lot can happen.

[Scottdau]

Re: Building a Team

Pujols easily.

I'm not sure about the manager.

Yep!

[keRplunK]

Re: Building a Team

His fastball is good, but is it better than Harden's? Peavy's? He's got a great change but is it better than Santana's? Pedro's? He hasn't proven much. A lot of guys get a cup of coffee late in a season and have success but never turn it into anything. I don't think Hernandez is one of those types but a lot can happen.

His fastball is thrown regularly at 98 and it moves.

He has two different kinds of curveball's...one is unhittable, the other breaks over the plate for a strike and regularly causes hitters to bail.

He already has confidence in his change up and he can throw it at anytime..this pitch also has alot of movement.

His slider (which the Mariners won't allow him to throw) I've heard is comparable to what Kerry Wood throws.

He will occasionally get wild with his fastball, and overthrow. He almost always has command of his offspeed pitches.

I like Peavy, Santana, Martinez....(especially Peavy) but I don't think any pitcher in the game can match his pure stuff......

He's basically the perfect pitcher and he's only 19...the biggest problem he will face in the future is injury or his weight (and those could potentially be two huge obstacles).

So of course he's not a for sure hall of famer....the odds of him staying healthy are tiny....but it seems every pitcher has a surgery and eventually they come back. But hopefully that never happens.

[bkrich83]

Re: Building a Team

His fastball is thrown regularly at 98 and it moves.

He has two different kinds of curveball's...one is unhittable, the other breaks over the plate for a strike and regularly causes hitters to bail.

He already has confidence in his change up and he can throw it at anytime..this pitch also has alot of movement.

His slider (which the Mariners won't allow him to throw) I've heard is comparable to what Kerry Wood throws.

He will occasionally get wild with his fastball, and overthrow. He almost always has command of his offspeed pitches.

I like Peavy, Santana, Martinez....(especially Peavy) but I don't any pitcher in the game can match his pure stuff......

He's basically the perfect pitcher and he's only 19...the biggest problem he will face in the future is injury or his weight (and those could potentially be two huge obstacles).

So of course he's not a for sure hall of famer....the odds of him staying healthy are tiny....but it seems every pitcher has a surgery and eventually they come back. But that's all too far down the road to project.

I've heard from some people he's ceiling is unbelievable, but I have yet to hear a report that's quite as glowing.

I think best stuff in the game is a stretch at this point, but there's no doubt he's legit.

[keRplunK]

Re: Building a Team

I've heard from some people he's ceiling is unbelievable, but I have yet to hear a report that's quite as glowing.

I think best stuff in the game is a stretch at this point, but there's no doubt he's legit.

He's pretty unbelievable. If he stays healthy everyone will know how good he actually is soon enough.

The one thing that makes Felix very unique is his unreal ground ball rate.

For example, three pitchers who are known to induce a large percentage of ground balls are Derek Lowe, Brandon Webb, and Kevin Brown.

Last year Lowe's GB% was 64%. Webb's 66% and in 2003, Brown's was 66%.

Felix was at 68%. However, he still struck out 8 batters per 9 innings.

Basically, a ground-ball strike-out pitcher who doesn't walk alot of hitters (his rate was 2 per 9)......has to dominate.

[bkrich83]

Re: Building a Team

He's pretty unbelievable. If he stays healthy everyone will know how good he actually is soon enough.

The one thing that makes Felix very unique is his unreal ground ball rate.

For example, three pitchers who are known to induce a large percentage of ground balls are Derek Lowe, Brandon Webb, and Kevin Brown.

Last year Lowe's GB% was 64%. Webb's 66% and in 2003, Brown's was 66%.

Felix was at 68%. However, he still struck out 8 batters per 9 innings.

Basically, a ground-ball strike-out pitcher who doesn't walk alot of hitters (his rate was 2 per 9)......has to dominate.

I don't think anyone doubting his potential to be a great pitcher. But best stuff in the game is a huge statement for a pitcher with 12 major league games under his belt, and with the recent influx of supremely talented young pitchers.

[SPTO]

Re: Building a Team

Just curious, but for those that have chosen a pitcher as the 1 player they'd build a team around, why?

There are some great young arms out there, but a starting pitcher only pitches once out of every 5 games. So that means that pitcher only plays in approximately 35 games a year out of 162 possible for a position player.

Anyhow, just wondering.

Why?

Because I have the philosophy of building a team from the mound on out. An expansion team is not going to be a very explosive offensive club so the best thing to do is stockpile on young pitchers, get a few veteran bats and some up and comers.

The team would struggle for the first few years but with a good scouting system and shrewd moves on minor league personel the team will improve by leaps and bounds by the 5th or 6th year. The franchise will have a strong and heavily stockpiled minor league system to cherry pick players from.

[keRplunK]

Re: Building a Team

I don't think anyone doubting his potential to be a great pitcher. But best stuff in the game is a huge statement for a pitcher with 12 major league games under his belt, and with the recent influx of supremely talented young pitchers.

There really aren't many that can even be argued for if Felix pitches like he did last year over a full 162 game season.

Peavy is incredible (k's, walks, homerun rate... all great) and he's right there.

Oswalt, Santana, Willis, Harden, and Prior are the only other guys I can think of. They are all great when healthy. But what were they all doing when they were 19?

He has the rest of the year to prove what I'm saying, everyone will see how he does. He obviously hasn't proven much yet.

[mjb2124]

Re: Building a Team

I don't think anyone doubting his potential to be a great pitcher. But best stuff in the game is a huge statement for a pitcher with 12 major league games under his belt, and with the recent influx of supremely talented young pitchers.

That's exactly what I'm thinking.

He's definately nasty, but let's give it sometime. Most people thought a 21 yeard old Kerry Wood was the nastiest pitcher they've ever seen. A guy throwing 98MPH on every fastball and throwing the sickest knee buckling curveballs and sliders they'd ever seen. One arm injury took that all away.

With a young guy like Felix, you always have to worry about arm injuries. Throwing a baseball is such an unnatural motion and Felix is still young and growing/filling out. Not always a good combination, but time will tell.

[bkrich83]

Re: Building a Team

There really aren't many that can even be argued for if Felix pitches like he did last year over a full 162 game season.

Peavy is incredible (k's, walks, homerun rate... all great) and he's right there.

Oswalt, Santana, Willis, Harden, and Prior are the only other guys I can think of. They are all great when healthy. But what were they all doing when they were 19?

He has the rest of the year to prove what I'm saying, everyone will see how he does. He obviously hasn't proven much yet.

Don't know about 19. But at 22 Peavy was winning a NL ERA title, and at 23 he was winning the NL Strikeout Crown.

[Porschebenz2001]

Re: Building a Team

One player I'd take is Peavy, and the manager I'd take is Bobby Cox. Every year you don't think the braves are going to win the division but they make the right moves, and keep winning. Bobby Cox just knows what he's doing, and doesn't need an all-star team out there to win a divsion. He proved that last year, with his lineup filled with rookies.

Peavy, like everyone has said, is one of the top pitchers in the game and he's not even 25. I don't see how you can pass on that. Felix has tons of potential, there's no doubt, but Peavy has already proven himself. The reason I'd take a pitcher is that I'd want to build my team around young talent, and there are more young talented hitters than there are pitchers.

[Beantown]

Re: Building a Team

Didn't realize we could give an answer for each:

Pujols...***nners up: Wright, Cabrera, Crawford, Vlad, Tiex, T

Peavy...***nners up: Halladay, Santana, Felix, Harden, Zito

Cox......***nners up: Torre, Francona.

Minor Leagues:

Hitter: Dustin Pedrioa

Pitcher: Mr. lester or Craig Hansen.

(can you guess, with the minors, that I'm a Red Sox fan? haha)