Kaepernick may be discovering no one player is bigger than the game. However I'm surprised taking a knee for the anthem is worse than women beating, child beating, animal abuse and drug and alcohol abuse from a PR perspective. He hasn't been suspended. Other players took a knee or raised their fists and weren't affected. I don't care for what Kaepernick did. But I care more about the first amendment.
Jim T. posted:hsbaseball101 posted:I wouldn't be surprised if Colin Kapernick moves to baseball. He was drafted in college as a pitcher without even playing college baseball.
Not in a million years. No way MLB wants this guy playing baseball. I sure hope not.
Given that he's also 29 and hasn't played in a decade, he'd be extraordinarily unlikely to be worth investing time in as well, though if you had to pick up the sport after a decade off, pitcher would seem like the spot you'd be most likely to have a shot at (see Jim Morris).
And, given that Matt Bush and Josh Hamilton both play(ed) MLB, I'm not convinced that Kapernick's political views should really be an impediment, though I admit I don't know enough about the NFL to know if they're really costing him an NFL job relative to the opportunities he'd get without them.
Tebow is good publicity. Kaepernick is negative publicity. Given he's a long shot (already 29) he's not worth it PR wise.
RJM posted:Kaepernick may be discovering no one player is bigger than the game. However I'm surprised taking a knee for the anthem is worse than women beating, child beating, animal abuse and drug and alcohol abuse from a PR perspective. He hasn't been suspended. Other players took a knee or raised their fists and weren't affected. I don't care for what Kaepernick did. But I care more about the first amendment.
I don't think it has anything do with one being worse than the other. I think the issue is that there was video of him taking a knee and then speaking out on camera in support of his actions. And, he was the first to do it, and was a QB. No one remembers the guys after him. The same can be said of Ray Rice, there was video of him hitting his wife. Conclusive video makes everything worse in the court of public opinion.
Kaepernick was a low 90's guy from what I've read, and threw out a first pitch at at Giants game in 2013 clocked at 87 mph. I like his chances as a 29 year old prospect better than Tebow's. Also believe that Kaepernick will never be given the chance to play baseball.
Viva, Tebow thread! Viva! Viva!
I would never have believed that he would OPS above .700 through his first 300 plate appearances in A and A+ ball. Kudos to him.
While I still l think this thread should really DIE, I will say it's nice to see grown men having fun playing baseball.
This link is Rey Ordonez' best (or close to it, anyway) 21 consecutive games in the majors, 297/342/473 (picked 21 so I could get 2 HR into the data).
Here's a semi-randomly picked 21 consecutive games from one of Albert Pujols' best seasons, 410/484/769.
Tebow has Francouered his way into a hot start at A+, but his last 21 games are still way more Ordonez than Pujols, 273/355/470 (sorry, no link, they apparently aren't auto-generated for MiLB players, but you can look it up yourself at the same site as the others if you want).
That article is massive hyperbole. When your hot streaks look like the line for a full regular solid season, you're not a star. It would be stunning if Tebow put up a full season at A+ with an OPS north of 800, and even then he wouldn't really be a prospect.
See also Voros' Law - Any major league hitter can hit just about anything in 60 at bats.
Obviously tebow had massive babip and hr/fb luck the last weeks that won't continue.
He seems to have a good eye and draws walks at a surprising rate and his strikeouts while not low aren't off the charts high but his contact quality is just not good enough.
Too many grounders (60%) and pop ups. If he hits the ball at good angles he has pop but he just doesn't do it enough not surprising after so many years without baseball at age 30.
RJM posted:Kaepernick may be discovering no one player is bigger than the game. However I'm surprised taking a knee for the anthem is worse than women beating, child beating, animal abuse and drug and alcohol abuse from a PR perspective. He hasn't been suspended. Other players took a knee or raised their fists and weren't affected. I don't care for what Kaepernick did. But I care more about the first amendment.
I agree, I can see why kaepernicks actions rub people the wrong way but football hires so many wife beaters, assaulters and substance abusers and that guy doesn't get a job, seems hypocritical.
However I think it is also a question of talent. Kaepernick is probably not the worst backup QB but he is a distraction and you can find that kind of talent without the baggage.
If tom brady did that or lebron on basketball it wouldn't affect their job situation at all. People would still be outraged but no way they would lose their job.
Same is true with aroldis chapman. He did bad things but theo epstein traded his best prospect for him in a heartbeat despite blathering all day long in the media about character and makeup. And half a year later the yanks gave him 100m.
Mental guru steve springer said in his cd "if you are an idiot you better be raking". Makeup and behaviour matters a lot but at a certain talent level it matters a lot less.
Everything equal teams prefer the nicer guy and the lower your talent level the more nice guys with the same talent wait to take your job.
Citi Field this September
Sorry guys... gotta revive. I saw a few in-game swings today and he looks remarkably improved with the bat. Sounds like he has been working his tail off to refine it and it shows. The only throw I saw during warm ups still looked a bit like he is throwing a football but if he can make half the gains defensively as he seems to have with his bat, this could get interesting.
Ok, I want to see this thread at page 25 by the end of spring training.
RJM posted:Ok, I want to see this thread at page 25 by the end of spring training.
I’ll take the over. :-)
cabbagedad posted:Sorry guys... gotta revive. I saw a few in-game swings today and he looks remarkably improved with the bat. Sounds like he has been working his tail off to refine it and it shows. The only throw I saw during warm ups still looked a bit like he is throwing a football but if he can make half the gains defensively as he seems to have with his bat, this could get interesting.
He's 1-7 with a couple Ks, and a GIDP facing a mix of opponents who are primarily A/AA quality. He struck out vs Scherzer today (MLB), 1B off Fedde (MLB if a 9.39 ERA counts), ROE by Jose Marmolejos (AA) off Roman Mendez (JPN, but he was in MLB a couple years ago). Neither of the balls he put in play were exactly crushed, they might have traveled 300 ft total. He's 26th (out of 28) among the Mets players with at least 5 ST ABs (small sample sizes notwithstanding).
I'm sure the Mets will play him in MLB at some point if he can manage to hit MLB pitching for a .600ish OPS, though I've got to think taking the under on that is a good bet. He'd need to put up something more like an .800 to carry the glove and actually be productive, and the odds he can do that at even AA still seem awfully thin to me.
If Tebow ends up out of baseball in a few years, I could see him trying something else.... maybe the US Bobsled team, ala Herschel Walker and Willie Gault.
Stafford posted:If Tebow ends up out of baseball in a few years, I could see him trying something else.... maybe the US Bobsled team, ala Herschel Walker and Willie Gault.
Lol....don't think Tebow has quite the speed of those guys...both of those guys were sub 4.3 guys in the 40 at some point. Tebow's 4.7+ doesn't translate to the bobsled
Yet another promising young player’s career cut short by the pandemic.
@JCG posted:Yet another promising young player’s career cut short by the pandemic.
Thank God !!