Quote:
Originally Posted by Zeke
Butler is definitely worth talking about, because he is the epitome of the problem. It's the entire team... At what point does Pedro Grifol's philosophy and teachings begin to take criticism? Because these aren't just slumps for a couple of players... These are multi-season production voids from players that have had historical success. Half a season of productivity with Hosmer does not offset the sweeping failure from the rest.
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It's worth examining what the future really holds for these 2. If we look at their comps on Baseball Reference, we see they all fell off the cliff after age 30. Alex' best comp is Jeffrey Hammonds (4th overall out of Stanford vs. Alex 2nd OVerall, , 3rd rated prospect in BB America vs. Alex at 2), good but not great career). Ray Lankford, Eric Byrnes, Ivan Calderon etc all fell off the map shortly after turning 30. Alex is 30 now making $10m. He makes $12.5m in 2014 with the same $ option for 2016. Like his comparables his physical play in LF is taking a toll on him. His 2016 option will not be picked up.
Butler is tougher. Olerud, Kruk, Loney, Hrbek, Baines. Very disparate comps so nothing to glean there. I think you can just look at him last year and so far this year and realize he's not ever getting back to 2012 form. He may be finished. He will not turn out to be our Edgar Martinez.