I hope we sign Tolleson to a minor league deal. He might be poised for a bounce back year. I remember at one time folks were glad to be rid of guys like Strop, Grimm, and O'Day because of temporary struggles that they were having. I was ready to be rid of Uehara before he bounced back.
He had 68 walks this year in AAA in 359 at bats. The Rangers leader at the big league level, Adrian Beltre, had 48 in more than 200 more at bats than Joey had.
Hopefully whatever made him struggle so much after August rolled around is something he can learn from.
I am not sure that I have heard or read what it compares to. I do remember a couple of years ago Odubel Herrera hit well there and then proceeded to put together a very good year in the big leagues after we lost him in the Rule 5 draft.
The question is can he hit major league pitching. So far he has failed to do that.
That may be because he put the barrel on the ball.
Beltre has never and will never be a guy that gets on a ton via walks. It's sad that he was the leader as his BB rate was only 7.5%. Bennie is making a good point that Joey supplements his stuggles with his good eye. Batting average is mostly overrated if you still get on other ways. For example if Roogie could get his walk rate up to just 5% he would have his OBP over .300.
So far he hasn't succeeded at that. I think there is a journey ahead of him that the Rangers have laid out for him to get to the point of being given a long term chance to prove that he can hit big league pitching. This Winter League stop is the first part of that journey. I think that journey includes at least one more leg and that is ST. That will probably be followed by a stint in AAA. As a local head coach likes to say it is a process. We might as well enjoy his progress at each step of the process. We don't have much else to do for awhile.
Buck will never let us forget.
