Page 53 - Eric Longenhagen News Today

For the first time, the third prospect behind Davis and Marquez is not Amaya or Howard or Alzolay.

I’ve always struggled to understand the “ceiling” projections that accompany prospects. It’s not that I don’t get the concept — 95th- or 99th-percentile outcomes aren’t the same for everyone, and that’s interesting. And it’s not that I don’t think some prospects have higher ceilings than others. It’s merely that I have a hard time discerning which types of prospects have the greatest chance of being superstars. For every Bryce Harper where the talent smacks you in the face...

February 15, 2021 Last Friday, the Dodgers traded reliever Adam Kolarek and right-fielder Cody Thomas to Oakland in exchange for third baseman Sheldon Neuse and right-hander Gus Varland. While it’s unusual to see a division favorite flip a major leaguer for prospects with another contender, the move makes sense for both parties. The A’s get a little better in the here and now, while the Dodgers can dream on Neuse as another breakout candidate for the club’s stellar player development staf...

Daily baseball statistical analysis and commentary.

Episode 908 On this edition of FanGraphs Audio, we welcome our newest writer to the program before bringing on a true baseball lifer to talk Philly sports. At the top of the show, Eric Longenhagen sits down with Kevin Goldstein. Kevin recently joined the FanGraphs staff after many years working with the Houston Astros, and he has plenty of insight to share after his time in the front office. Kevin and Eric discuss what Kevin’s experience was like, what he will be doing at FanGraphs, and how h...

February 4, 2021 Jeter Downs can swing it. As Eric Longenhgan wrote last month, the top prospect in the Boston Red Sox organization “has been a polished, advanced-for-his-age hitter dating back to high school.” That attribute led to Downs being drafted 32nd overall by the Cincinnati Reds in 2017, and subsequently included in a pair of major trades. In December 2018, he went to the Los Angeles Dodgers as part of a seven-player swap that included Matt Kemp, Yasiel Puig and Alex Wood, and 12 m...

Trades don’t need to have winners and losers Share this story David Eulitt/Kansas City Star/Tribune News Service via Getty Images As the clock turned from January to February, the St. Louis Cardinals zigged when the rest of the National League Central was zagging: they went out and acquired a superstar by the name of Nolan Arenado from the Colorado Rockies. There aren’t many players like Arenado out there. Since 2015, he has been worth about 5 Wins Above Replacement, per Fangraphs, every ye...

You always have to be careful about big league comps for prospects. For the most part, you should just avoid doing them at all. However, sometimes – when treated carefully and appropriately contextualized – they can give you some particular insight into a prospects that you might grasp more easily than if someone tried to simply describe the thing to you. I have to say all that before I share the comp Cubs farm director Matt Dorey dropped on new shortstop prospect Reggie Preciado, acquired ...

The question we face every time the Cubs sign someone now to a big league deal: is that all the scratch left available? Would the Cubs commit almost $3 million of their scant remaining dollars to a reliever? Did the reported opening up of the baseball budget mean that Jed Hoyer now had enough to sign a lot of these one-year guys to address a variety of holes, and he simply had the money set aside for a good reliever? We’ll see, depending on what comes next (or doesn’t). Payroll, you’ll no...

February 2, 2021 Quinn Priester has gained a lot of helium since ranking seventh on our 2020 Pittsburgh Pirates Top Prospects list. Thanks to stellar showings at the alternate camp and instructs, the 6-foot-3, 215 pound right-hander has climbed into the middle of Baseball America’s and MLB Pipeline’s Top 100s. (Our 2021 Pirates offseason list hasn’t run yet, but according to Eric Longenhagen, Priester will feature prominently and will grace this year’s Top 100.) Just yesterday, Jim Ca...