He’s far from trash. He’s an elite defender, with some power and speed coming off a disappointing season. There are 29 other teams who’d be interested if the Jays put him on the market.
Definitely not trash.
Blue Jays Discussion: Spring Training Discussion: Countdown to the Season (Thursday at 3pm ET/noon PT)
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Definitely not trash.
This lineup needs to learn how to manufacture runs like they did in the old days.
Ernie Clement hit .348 in in 72 games games in AAA last year. He hit .380 in 30 games for Toronto. He's hitting .381 this spring training.
Suntouchable13
Registered User
Spring training results don’t matter usually, but it’s concerning when your regulars get absolutely lit up. I was a little disturbed when I saw Kikuchi and Chad Green got knocked around a bit. Both have inflated ERAs. Hope it doesn’t mean anything for the regular season. Were they as bad as the box score suggests?
Kikuchi couldn't find his release point. He struggled the whole time, so they were really working on making sure he went through his motions and got warmed up for 3 innings. Something else to keep in mind is that while the slider that Santander hit was a mistake (and literally the worst shape wise as well as location wise he threw), the fastball to Holliday was a spring training pitch to a minor leaguer (against a big leaguer, it's 2 or 3 inches higher and unhittable).
Green missed his spot to Santander which made his outing look worse than it was.
Also, and I can't state this enough. The Holliday and Santander (2nd one) homers are routine fly balls in the regular season. This was a case of an extremely windy day with short walls to help fly balls to right (Kirk's also was a routine fly ball).
Double edit: I don't mean short walls as in outfield walls. I mean that Dunedin has short back walls, so the wind blows through the stadium, causing bigger gusts than a MLB park would normally see.
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On the plus side, all the key offensive guys that we need to see bounceback seasons from (Vlad, Kirk, Varsho, Springer) are having really strong springs so far.
I've mentioned a few times that I'm worried they'll lose Clement in order to keep Espinal on the team, but at this point I think Schneider would be the odd man out and both Clement and Espinal would make it. It's not ideal since they need Schneider's power, but he has options and has had a rough spring so far.
landy92mack29
Registered User
Just sell Espinal for some international bonus money, Jays have quite a few middle infielders for depth
The strikeouts are very worrying. They need him to go down and work on cutting them back again.
tmlfan98
No More Excuses #MarnerOut
Then who is the RH hitting 4th OF who plays LF against lefty starters? Currently that role is presumed to be Schneider's.
I feel like you're going to say IKF, but realistically the guy should not be seeing any OF time on this team, he's garbage there. Also Clement doesn't play in the OF and neither does Espinal.
IKF isn't garbage in the outfield as a spare piece. Espinal plays LF and Biggio plays RF.
None of these are optimal, but Schneider is not playing like a big leaguer right now.
Espinal played a little OF in the minors, so you could try that to get him into the lineup against LHP since he hits them well. Biggio could do it too, since he doesn't really have platoon splits over his career (102 wRC+ vs LHP, 106 vs. RHP).
No situation is going to be ideal (and this only highlights how big a mistake it was to not add a bat), but neither is Schneider while he's striking out at a 40% rate. If that's the case, they're better off plugging the 4th OF spot however they can and letting him figure it out in Buffalo.
Gerrit Cole undergoing a MRI on his pitching elbow could potentially be huge (and devastating) news for the Yankees, league, baseball fans and fantasy owners. Damn.
Kurtz
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All a ruse he and Boras cooked up to get the Yankees to pony up for Snell.
Seath The Scaleless
Paledrake
I'm not nearly as high on the Yankees as some people because I think they're offense is still mediocre despite adding Soto and they still rely extremely heavily on guys with extensive injury histories.
Last year, the only guys they had who were both good and healthy were Cole and Torres. Now they've added Soto and Stroman to that group, but they're still loaded with frequently-injured players. If Cole ends up being out for any length of time... oof.
I’ll be pissed if they lose Clement for nothing. Espinal is older and worse. He’s been on the decline as well.
tmlfan98
No More Excuses #MarnerOut
IKF is garbage in the outfield, and should only be playing 3B or backup SS on this team. Also Espinal does not play LF? He has only started a total of 12 games in the outfield his entire minor league career, and the Jays aren't going to give him 4th OF time on this team based on that. Clement has more OF reps than Espinal and he too will not see time in the outfield.
Also Schneider projects for no lower than 1.4 fWAR this season (Steamer has him at this, in 308 PAs). On the higher end, ZiPS has him at 3.1 fWAR in 502 PAs. Schneider will be a very effective big leaguer this season and beyond.
I wouldn't even classify 12 total OF starts in his minor league career as "a little", I would call that "barely any".
In terms of Biggio, while you may be right about him not being a splits guy in his career, clearly the organization doesn't agree with us. The team has really avoided using him against LH starters more and more in recent seasons. Last season he barely saw any starts with a lefty on the mound.
Also Biggio moved away from LF permanently some time ago because he can't make reads there. With Springer I think it's similar but they just want to limit the amount of tough reads/plays he has to make in the OF while still playing him everyday in the field. Him being an RF only now is aimed at this load management wise.
You don't believe in Schneider's projections I'm guessing?
I'm not even really sure Clement will be particularly good considering his long track record of being next to useless with the bat, but if you join a team and promptly dominate at AAA, dominate in the majors, and then dominate in Spring Training, you absolutely deserve a shot, and if that's not enough to make the team I would question why they even brought him in in the first place since he couldn't possible do any more to earn a chance.
I almost feel the same way about Lukes, who was also great in Buffalo last year and has been amazing this spring, except he has a more complicated path to playing time on the Jays as a LHH OF.
dredeye
BJ Elitist/Hipster
- Mar 3, 2008
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They’ll send Schneider down before loosing a good piece. Not sure if Clemente has options. I’d prefer they move Espinal for outfield depth or a lottery ticket but we’ll see how it all plays out
tmlfan98
No More Excuses #MarnerOut
They could/should just option Espinal, but for some reason the team tends to try avoiding optioning arb players even if they are still optionable.
Like Adam Cimber last season, he was optionable still having less than 5 years of MLB service time, but they just phantom 60-day ILed him instead.
IKF played the outfield last year and was decent.
No, people here aren't buying Schneider's projection because it ignores his creeping K rate which will cripple his projections if he can't keep it in check.
Again, no one is suggesting that another OF wouldn't be nice, they are just arguing that Schneider doesn't currently project as a MLB piece with the way he's played.
A JD Davis and an actual outfielder with Espinal being moved would be a sneaky way to improve in a hurry.
I do. But I also don't think they should be throwing playing time at a relatively inexperienced player while ignoring his performance. Schneider ended last year in a significant slump (.424 OPS in his last 14 games with a 38.2 K%) and has struggled with contact issues so far this spring.
The team has to make sure they help him develop into the kind of player he projects to be, and the way he's played so far this spring suggests that path is in Buffalo figuring out his swing.
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