nycphils wrote:Whether you agree or disagree, this is actually one of the more coherent arguments that Amaro has made in a while:

The general manager later talked extensively about how Domonic Brown, the man who started 117 games in left field for the Phillies last season, needs a longer look.

"We know he has the ability to do it," Amaro said. "It's just a matter of him being able to make the adjustments. Sometimes you have to be patient with guys. Some guys don't get there all the time, but he has a chance to be very good. He has proven it. He has done it at the major-league level. Has he done it for a sustained period of time? No. And is it a slam dunk that he will? Absolutely not. But I think when you have a guy with that kind of talent you have to be somewhat patient with him."

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/phi ... DIXMoiR.99

JFLNYC wrote:

smitty wrote:

Grotewold wrote:

JFLNYC wrote:If you, Grote or anyone else wants to hope or believe Asche will be better than league average and is a better alternative than Ruf over the next 3 seasons, you're entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts. "Hope" and "belief" aren't facts.

That's a silly reduction of my point

Man. Your not kidding. If someone has all the "facts" regarding how all big leaguers will perform over the next three years, please let me know. We could make some serious dough.

Stop responding to an argument I didn't make, please. The only projection I made is that Ruf's next 3 seasons will start at ages 27, 28 and 29 and I'm pretty sure that projection is going to turn out to be correct. There are no "facts" in projections. The facts I referred to are their respective career numbers, every one of which favors Ruf as a hitter (and defensively for Ruf as a 1B only).

The "the majority of statistical evidence" does not suppurt Ruf over Asche. ALL of it does when you compare their respective complete bodies of work. Ruf has 447 career plate appearances, Asche 613. Ruf leads in BB%, ISO, AVG, OBP, SLG wOBA, wRC+ and oWAR -- even though Ruf has 27% fewer career PA than Asche (as I'm sure everyone knows, WAR is a counting stat). Even Ruf's minor league stats were better than Asche's.

phorever, I'll give you credit when it's due. But parsing the stats to include only 2014 when Asche had 434 PA and Ruf only 117 injury-filled PA is, once again, creating your own facts and not worthy of respect.

For all I know Asche will end up having a better career than Ruf. But, I will say again that, based on their career numbers (and not some artificially smaller sample size) there is no fact-based argument that supports Asche's career performance thus far over Ruf's. Any attempt to argue otherwise is disingenuous.

JFLNYC wrote:If Franco looks ready in ST, I give him the job, even expecting that he'll likely struggle for awhile. At the very least, by all accounts he's better defensively than Asche. If Franco's not ready and someone like Asche has to fill in for a couple of months, so be it. I'm looking to the future and, if I'm the Phillies, the future has Franco at the 3B and does not include Asche at 1B.

I've said before and will say it again: I haven't "given up" on Asche. He has a role, but it's not as a regular 3B or 1B. It's as a supersub.

Doll Is Mine wrote:I can't remember where I read it (probably here) but it was stated that everyone on the Phillies is available to be traded including Ken Giles.

Umm, why?

JFLNYC wrote:Cubs playing Rube like a fiddle.

Grotewold wrote:In my mind, Hamels and Zim are completely different situations anyway

JFLNYC wrote:Anything which suggests SP alternatives for the Cubs other than Hamels reduces the Phils' (and other sellers' ) leverage by increasing supply.

Monkeyboy wrote:Yeh, both the Nats and the Cubs would benefit from that rumor.

Rube is out of his league when he doesn't have prospects and piles of cash to burn.