June 11, 200818 yr Cantu at 1B, and Helms at 3B tonight...lets see how this works. Jake WILL get playing time, but if this works out tonight, we might see it, at times, as well.
June 12, 200818 yr Right now Cantu is fine. When he has an 800+ OPS, it doesn't make up for his defense, but its still dandy like candy. I'd still rather have Dallas but oh well. The problem is when he has a low .700 OPS. Then you have one of the worst fielders with also one of the worst bats. Cantu has been a Seesaw. He has a couple of hot streak amazing games followed by long slumps. I'll give him credit over the fact he's still been able to have those hot streaks, but he'll need to keep having them, or just end up being consistant which I;d much rather have, to make him a valueable player for us. Really? He has an 8 game hit streak right now with 4 of them being multi hit games. I believe he has hits in 17 of his last 19 games. This season he is 2nd on the team in hits and doubles, tied for 2nd in RBIs, 3rd in runs, and 4th in dingers. If your statement is true then what the heck is wrong with the rest of the team?? Bob, I think Nny must have been looking at the wrong stat line (I'm not being facetious, I actually think he might have looked in the "runs" column by mistake or elsewhere) because his gamelog shows he's never gone more than three games without a hit (only once in 2008), back to back games without a hit four times (2x in April and 1x in May, 1x on the cusp of Apr/May). He hasn't had two hitless days in a row since May 10-11th. So there haven't been "long slumps". Since today is June 11th that makes it a month since he's had back to back days without a hit. Cantu is a contact hitter. Sometimes that contact will result in hits, sometimes outs, but he's the kind of guy this team needs when a sac fly is called for or a runner needs to be moved along. As you pointed out he's 2nd to Hanley in hits, 2nd to Uggla in doubles, 4th in homeruns and 2nd in RBIs. Third in total bases. He has ten more hits than games played. His line is .289/.340/.504/.844. I'd like to see McPherson too, I still think we may see him vs TB, but I'm not holding out hope. He certainly "appears" to have found his game in Albuquerque and Dean Treanor isn't the kind of guy to hold someone back so either he's isn't 100% or the FO doesn't know what to do with him. You aren't going to trade arguably your third most productive hitter this far into the season to make room for him and Jacobs keeps giving just enough (see last night) to keep his hand in the game. So something has to give either make room or to trade him. That's why I thought TB might be a good showcase. Cantu looks good at 1B so far. And I do think it is a telling story on Jake. But I would still hate to trade anyone away for basically a 1/2 season rental just to make some fans happier with this season. Not saying you are either, I'm just rambling a bit. If we could pull off a trade for someone that will be here for at least a couple more years one way or the other, fine. If not... This season was always about development. Just because we are having a great time so far dosen't change that fact. We still commit far too many brain farts in the field and on the mound to make a serious run at the grand prize.
June 12, 200818 yr can someone please explain to me why jake receives so much hate? this guys main attribute is power and he is currently 4th in homers of all 1B with 15 currently on pace for 37 homers and 93 rbi in 465 at-bats i understand his average is a bit low at .245 but considering his career average is .265 it isnt as dramatic as at first glance consider a guy like adam dunn, his career average is a measly .245 yet he has hit 40+ homers the past 4 seasons, i bet he doesnt receive as much abuse and calls to be traded/benched from his fans
June 12, 200818 yr Author Actually yeah, Cinci is seriously considering getting rid of Dunn. Last night's game just further proved we don't need Jacobs. And the reason Jacobs has these high home run number is because he was hot earlier in the season, and now he barely hits anything.
June 12, 200818 yr Actually yeah, Cinci is seriously considering getting rid of Dunn. Last night's game just further proved we don't need Jacobs. And the reason Jacobs has these high home run number is because he was hot earlier in the season, and now he barely hits anything. There's about ($) 13,000,000 reasons why the comparison doesn't work, not to mention Dunn is a free agent at the end of the season. I'm not advocating for or against, just pointing the two really can't be compared at this stage of their respective careers.
June 12, 200818 yr Can we shut up about this now? No matter what he's doing at the plate, his defense still blows. So no.
June 12, 200818 yr What all of a sudden makes Jake incapable of playing 1st base? Was there any play in particular that made everyone bring up his defense as of late? Because even rich and tommy have said he's struggling with the glove. I haven't been able to catch many of the games until the late innings lately so I might have missed something.
June 12, 200818 yr Can we shut up about this now? No matter what he's doing at the plate, his defense still blows. So no. Hanleys defense also blows....................... But then again, who plays good defense on this team anyhow?
June 12, 200818 yr What all of a sudden makes Jake incapable of playing 1st base? Was there any play in particular that made everyone bring up his defense as of late? Because even rich and tommy have said he's struggling with the glove. I haven't been able to catch many of the games until the late innings lately so I might have missed something. Maybe it was Monday or Tuesday, I honestly forget, but there was a recent game where not only did he make errors he made errors in judgement. At the time I chalked it up to a bad day because generally his D has improved and every player has days like that, but I'm not sure and I don't think anyone knows whether he was left out of last night's game because of his recent defensive faux paux' or because of Cole Hamels (or I suppose some combination of the two). He is hitting lefties so far this season the way he did in 2006 (as opposed to 2007 when, if I remember, he hit lefties better than righties believe it or not) which is not good. But we're only a third into the season so I'm not sure what conclusion to draw. Having Cantu play first may have been a matter of convenience or was a was an experiment with a reason.
June 12, 200818 yr can someone please explain to me why jake receives so much hate? this guys main attribute is power and he is currently 4th in homers of all 1B with 15 currently on pace for 37 homers and 93 rbi in 465 at-bats i understand his average is a bit low at .245 but considering his career average is .265 it isnt as dramatic as at first glance consider a guy like adam dunn, his career average is a measly .245 yet he has hit 40+ homers the past 4 seasons, i bet he doesnt receive as much abuse and calls to be traded/benched from his fans Well Dunn is getting on base at a .403 clip while Jake is getting on base at a .282 clip.
June 12, 200818 yr can someone please explain to me why jake receives so much hate? this guys main attribute is power and he is currently 4th in homers of all 1B with 15 currently on pace for 37 homers and 93 rbi in 465 at-bats i understand his average is a bit low at .245 but considering his career average is .265 it isnt as dramatic as at first glance consider a guy like adam dunn, his career average is a measly .245 yet he has hit 40+ homers the past 4 seasons, i bet he doesnt receive as much abuse and calls to be traded/benched from his fans he cant play defence and hes a very streaky hitter and a dead pull ball hitter he either bats like amazing or dead sh*t most people are negative and only look at how he doesnt hit everyday so they just asume he sucks.
July 1, 200818 yr Slump might have been the wrong word, but his power numbers come in bursts, and that's what I'm more refering to. For instance, right now he has 10 XBH in his last 8 games He had 9 XBH in his previous 35 games. He's went 10 games without one. He's gone 19 games without a double, 14 without a HR. Prior to that 35 game streak, he had 4 games and 6 XBH in those games. He had 4 in the previous 15. This has caused his OPS to flunctuate dramatically throughout the season. Yes he only had 6 games in May without a hit, but all he did was hit singles, he finished the month with a .700 OPS and even with all the games with hits he still finished with a .241 AVG. And he's on a 14 game non walking streak. But I gotta say he's been light years better than I thought he would with the bat. And the truth is when the man is hot he can hit anyone. Even though he can't take a walk when he's hot. he's back on the XBH slump, except this time he's not even walking. back to a sub .800 OPS (.790) as he's only had 3 XBH in his last 17 games, .518 OPS in that time. but, this isn't actually a "hate" post as people like to refer to them as rather, he really really needs to move to first. Jacobs has just continually and continaully deteriated. his walk % has dropped every year, his K% has increased every year, and consiquently, his BB/K has dropped. in 2006 it was an ok-enough .43. this year it's now a putrid .17. Every year has has continued to just swing the bat more and more, including swining the at more outside pitches, and his contact rate overall is bad. By now pitches just know don't give him something to hit. For as much as he had a hot start, he's been just as bad since. And this just isn't like a Hermida situation earlier in the year, where his strike zone judgement was likely temporary. This isn't just a recent slump thing, Jacobs has continued to drop off year after year. And the thing is, he's the WORST fielding first baseman in the league. If he was an average fielding firstbaseman? Fine, you can deal with the offense. But a player is only as good as the amount of runs he contributes to the team, both with the glove and with the bat. And Jake is just so bad with the glove, and has been not only bad with the bat but has gotten worse as time goes on. And I really just don't think he has any value. Yeah, he has 18 HRs. Chris Shelton is proof that getting a lot of HRs in a hot start doesn't mean sh*t. And this is why Cantu should be at first. The reason I have problems with Cantu is actually his defense, not his offense. With how badly his defense is, he would need to be a severe offense threat to be productive. This is exactly why Cabrera's defense can be sufferable. How good a player is is how many runs he contributes to the team, both offensively and defensively. Cabrera was good enough offensively that, it didn't change the fact he was a bad defensive third baseman, but that he was still an outstanding player because the amount of runs he created with his bat far outweighed his defense. In Cantu's case, his bat does not count how badly his defense is, which has been worse than Cabrera's. I'll certainly give Cantu credit in that his offense has been a lot better than I thought it'd be based off the past couple years, but it doesn't change the fact his defense is just that bad. I mean, it's one thing for Ryan Zimmerman to have a upper-.700 OPS when he's saving his team ~+10-15 runs with his glove over the coarse of a season. It's another thing, in Cantu's case, when it's costing the team ~-10-15 runs However, this completely changes when Cantu is at first. There, in his severe limited sample size, he's been an average first baseman (and I would think that is what he would be there). At that point, we'd have an average offensive and defensive first baseman. At which point he'd be a very welcome addition to the team. Calling up Dallas to play third would drastically improve out defense at first, best case scenerio drastically improve our defense at third (although I know better than to bank on a best case scenerio, and with his back surgery/out of baseball for a year/blah blah you have to expect the drop off), and at worst our offense doesn't change.
July 1, 200818 yr Obvious Note::: Out of all the Marlins I do think Jacobs is the one that will have a different uniform on come next year. Good Note::: That being said I closely watched him tonight during his at-bats and I was surprised to see alot of patience, patience which paid off, he worked his first 3-2 count of the year (sarcasm) and promptly hammered the ball into right field on a hit and run. Then later in the game he hit a sharp grounder to the left that just got through the infield. Possibility::: Jacobs figured something out and he has an awesome July. Negative::: If he goes 0-4 tomorrow night with 2 strikeouts and a GIDP.
July 1, 200818 yr Slump might have been the wrong word, but his power numbers come in bursts, and that's what I'm more refering to. For instance, right now he has 10 XBH in his last 8 games He had 9 XBH in his previous 35 games. He's went 10 games without one. He's gone 19 games without a double, 14 without a HR. Prior to that 35 game streak, he had 4 games and 6 XBH in those games. He had 4 in the previous 15. This has caused his OPS to flunctuate dramatically throughout the season. Yes he only had 6 games in May without a hit, but all he did was hit singles, he finished the month with a .700 OPS and even with all the games with hits he still finished with a .241 AVG. And he's on a 14 game non walking streak. But I gotta say he's been light years better than I thought he would with the bat. And the truth is when the man is hot he can hit anyone. Even though he can't take a walk when he's hot. he's back on the XBH slump, except this time he's not even walking. back to a sub .800 OPS (.790) as he's only had 3 XBH in his last 17 games, .518 OPS in that time. but, this isn't actually a "hate" post as people like to refer to them as rather, he really really needs to move to first. Jacobs has just continually and continaully deteriated. his walk % has dropped every year, his K% has increased every year, and consiquently, his BB/K has dropped. in 2006 it was an ok-enough .43. this year it's now a putrid .17. Every year has has continued to just swing the bat more and more, including swining the at more outside pitches, and his contact rate overall is bad. By now pitches just know don't give him something to hit. For as much as he had a hot start, he's been just as bad since. And this just isn't like a Hermida situation earlier in the year, where his strike zone judgement was likely temporary. This isn't just a recent slump thing, Jacobs has continued to drop off year after year. And the thing is, he's the WORST fielding first baseman in the league. If he was an average fielding firstbaseman? Fine, you can deal with the offense. But a player is only as good as the amount of runs he contributes to the team, both with the glove and with the bat. And Jake is just so bad with the glove, and has been not only bad with the bat but has gotten worse as time goes on. And I really just don't think he has any value. Yeah, he has 18 HRs. Chris Shelton is proof that getting a lot of HRs in a hot start doesn't mean sh*t. And this is why Cantu should be at first. The reason I have problems with Cantu is actually his defense, not his offense. With how badly his defense is, he would need to be a severe offense threat to be productive. This is exactly why Cabrera's defense can be sufferable. How good a player is is how many runs he contributes to the team, both offensively and defensively. Cabrera was good enough offensively that, it didn't change the fact he was a bad defensive third baseman, but that he was still an outstanding player because the amount of runs he created with his bat far outweighed his defense. In Cantu's case, his bat does not count how badly his defense is, which has been worse than Cabrera's. I'll certainly give Cantu credit in that his offense has been a lot better than I thought it'd be based off the past couple years, but it doesn't change the fact his defense is just that bad. I mean, it's one thing for Ryan Zimmerman to have a upper-.700 OPS when he's saving his team ~+10-15 runs with his glove over the coarse of a season. It's another thing, in Cantu's case, when it's costing the team ~-10-15 runs However, this completely changes when Cantu is at first. There, in his severe limited sample size, he's been an average first baseman (and I would think that is what he would be there). At that point, we'd have an average offensive and defensive first baseman. At which point he'd be a very welcome addition to the team. Calling up Dallas to play third would drastically improve out defense at first, best case scenerio drastically improve our defense at third (although I know better than to bank on a best case scenerio, and with his back surgery/out of baseball for a year/blah blah you have to expect the drop off), and at worst our offense doesn't change. If Jacobs even somewhat thought about taking the ball the other way, or even shortening his swing a little he'd get is OBP at least over .320. It seems like he either strikes out swinging, rolls over on outside pitched to the right side, or fouls back pitches high in the strike zone. His long swing gives him no time to adjust and makes him commit too early on the balls flight, usually chasing breaking balls or sharp changups in the dirt. His long swing also makes him get the bat around too slow for him to get on the mid to upper side of the ball on high pitches. He's really only capable of hitting hangers or fastballs on the low inside part of the strikezone. But i'm sure everyone has figured that out. There's your disintegrating numbers since 06 for you.
July 1, 200818 yr I think his hot start actually did more bad than good for him, as now it has him in such an even more HR swining mindset than normal, so he's still display that long, pull swing. if he didn't get off to such a hot start, maybe he'd be more prone to change. maybe, and hopefully, he changes his approach. He could certainly be a good hitter, given his power, with the proper approach. Danny was able to make a change for the better, hopefully Jake can too.
July 1, 200818 yr Notice how much better Jacobs could be if he was more patient though. I agree with you Nny he does have that long swing which is an upper cut style and is more for HR's but tonight I only saw that once and he was fooled on a pitch in the dirt that he should have let go, better patience is a good sign, then again it was one game we will see what he does in July.
July 1, 200818 yr I think his hot start actually did more bad than good for him, as now it has him in such an even more HR swining mindset than normal, so he's still display that long, pull swing. if he didn't get off to such a hot start, maybe he'd be more prone to change. maybe, and hopefully, he changes his approach. He could certainly be a good hitter, given his power, with the proper approach. Danny was able to make a change for the better, hopefully Jake can too. The only hole i can think of in my theory about Jacobs problem being his swing is... Its obviously to big of a coincidence for him whens hes hot to just be getting a diet of lower inside stuff. IT has to be his apoach. Next time he's hot pay attention to see if hes just letting the outside pitch go, because even when he is hot hes not taking that pitch the other way particularly well. Letting the outside stuff go gives him a better chance of seeing another pitch maybe middle in, because he'll roll over to the right side on the outside stuff all day.
July 1, 200818 yr earlier in this thread there was some Cantu trade talk.... really? Having said that, its not that I hate Jake or anything, but if we are going to move anybody.... its probably going to be him... and it makes the most sense to move him, in a sense he is expendable.
July 1, 200818 yr earlier in this thread there was some Cantu trade talk.... really? Having said that, its not that I hate Jake or anything, but if we are going to move anybody.... its probably going to be him... and it makes the most sense to move him, in a sense he is expendable. It will be Jacobs, no doubt in my mind, there would be no reason to move anyone else right now.
July 1, 200818 yr And... for the first time in a long time we might just be making a trade that we actually are able to agree with!!!! (ok, so I loved the Helms trade too)
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