Lots of good stuff in the above.
Making the jump to the big leagues
The gap between Triple-A and Major League Baseball has never been wider. Can you explain how much different the skill level is between the two levels?
"I was in a meeting a few years ago. We were talking about that gap, and a really experienced scout who’s a really good scout and has been doing it for a really long time, he said, ‘The gap has always been big, and now it is a million miles apart.’ I think it’s two things. I’ve honestly spent some time on this. I think shrinking down to four affiliates and losing the short-season affiliates, it’s forced teams, us included, even if we don’t want to, like we are moving players faster than we had in the past. We lost the New York Penn League and that ability to throttle players a little bit and give them more at-bats and more innings to get to the higher levels. I think players are racing to Double-A really fast, faster than they ever have. You sort of stop at Double-A as a young player, and then you kind of have to prove that you can do it, but then eventually, a lot of those younger players are getting to Triple-A still with a ton of development left.
I hate to say back when I played, but back when I played, I got to a Triple-A team with 20 veterans that probably had service time and five young kids. It was like Grady Sizemore, Brandon Phillips and Jhonny Peralta, but then the guys on our team were Ernie Young and Dusty Wathan, guys that had major-league service time that were four-A type of players. That was the majority of the team and the pitching staff. Now, it’s probably flipped where you have five or six four-A depth-type players and 19 kids that it’s their first time in Triple-A. I don’t have a comment, but that’s just where the game has gone. I think that’s every team. That sort of mid-class upper-level player, those guys either stick in the big leagues or we’re going with young players. I think that’s a really big part of it.
I think the other part of it is that the pitching is so, so good. We’re all so good at developing pitching. One thing that Colt (Keith) said, he’s like, ‘There’s no easy at-bats anymore.’ There is not one at-bat you’re going to get off a pitcher. Even the quote-unquote bad relievers, especially in the big leagues, are probably throwing 95 with mega ride or mega sink. We can create a lot of really interesting shapes, and guys do throw really hard. You can go to the Atlantic League (an independent baseball league) and find some guys that probably are throwing really, really hard and bring them in. The pitching is just beating up the hitters now, and there’s no way to simulate it in Triple-A. We’ve tried a million things. We talk about this a lot. How can we simulate? But how do you simulate Garrett Crochet’s release and fastball and that stuff and that slider. It’s hard to do. You’re not going to see a fastball below 95, with incredible offspeed, and then the bullpen is just as nasty. It’s hard. The only way to do it is to go do it. I think Colt will hit, too. I think the underlying stuff has been great. The underlying metrics are good. I like his swing. But whether it’s (Jackson) Holliday or Colt or any of these young players, until you see it, the pitching jump is bigger than it’s ever been."