Why does this board love new threads? TEX @ NYM 7/1-3

[BULLPEN FAILURE]

(posting early because I will be traveling tomorrow)

Rangers go to the Big Apple to face a stout Mets team, skippered by their old friend Buck Showalter. Otto, Perez, and Gray are your throwers. 6, 3, and 12:30 are your times. Rangers will be very lucky to come away with 1 win here. Rangers are 36-38, still hanging on to 2nd place. Mets are 47-29 and leading the NLE without their two best pitchers.

I won't be able to start a thread Monday so whoever wants to take the reins on that, be my guest.

 

[DT LUNA]

(posting early because I will be traveling tomorrow)

Rangers go to the Big Apple to face a stout Mets team, skippered by their old friend Buck Showalter. Otto, Perez, and Gray are your throwers. 6, 3, and 12:30 are your times. Rangers will be very lucky to come away with 1 win here. Rangers are 36-38, still hanging on to 2nd place. Mets are 47-29 and leading the NLE without their two best pitchers.

I won't be able to start a thread Monday so whoever wants to take the reins on that, be my guest.

Travel safe !

 

[BULLPEN FAILURE]

Travel safe !

Hoping everyone has a safe holiday weekend.

 

[BULLPEN FAILURE]

Ian Kinsler to Manage Team Israel at 2023 World Baseball Classic - Sports Illustrated

Would not have pegged managing in Kinsler's post-playing career.

 

[BULLPEN FAILURE]

Rangers went 12-14 in June.

 

[saddles]

A breakdown of who the "experts" have us taking with the third overall pick in 17 days.


Elijah Green -- Keith Law, Mike Axisa from CBS Sports, Baseball America, Through the Fence Baseball, Perfect Game -- (4)


Jackson Holliday -- Joel Reuter of the Bleacher Report, Jim Callis of MLB.com, Prospects Live, Baseball Prospect Journal -- (4)


Kevin Parada -- Kiley McDaniel of ESPN, Jason Radowitz of OddsChecker -- (2)


Termarr Johnson -- Ryan Miller of Just Baseball -- (1)

 

[saddles]

I have previously posted an extensive look at some of the guys ranked fairly high. I have covered Druw Jones, Brock Jones, Termarr Johnson, and Brooks Lee. I will try to get Parada, Green, and Holliday done soon.

 

[saddles]

Extensive Look at 2022 MLB Draft Prospects


Today, I continue with another group of writeups about one of the guys suspected to go early in the draft. Today's post is about Kevin Parada, a catcher from Georgia Tech.


https://www.mlb.com/prospects/draft/kevin-parada-691006

Scouting grades: Hit: 60 | Power: 60 | Run: 40 | Arm: 45 | Field: 50 | Overall: 60

One of the best high school catchers in the 2020 Draft, Parada could have gone in the second or third round if he hadn't been set on attending Georgia Tech. After a strong freshman season and summer with the U.S. collegiate national team, he's expected to be the first backstop selected in 2022. His defense drew some mixed reviews during his college debut but his bat earned praise throughout and he set a school record with 26 homers this spring.

Parada doesn't try to do too much at the plate, keeping his right-handed swing under control and lashing line drives all over the park. He has good feel for the barrel, makes repeated hard contact against all types of pitching and he's showing increased power to all fields this year. He projects as a potential .280-.300 hitter with 20-25 homers per season who could fit into the middle of a big league batting order.

Parada runs well for a catcher but isn't the most agile or physical behind the plate, and he wore down over the course of last spring and summer with Georgia Tech and Team USA. He has looked better as a sophomore and scouts credit him for working diligently on his defense. He earns average to solid grades for his receiving and needs to improve his fringy arm strength and his throwing accuracy after erasing just 12 percent of basestealers as a freshman.


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2022 MLB Draft Profile: Kevin Parada

Kevin Parada is a 6’1”, 210-pound catching prospect who plays for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Parada is the #1 catching prospect in this draft class after just two excellent seasons at Georgia Tech.

During his two years at GT, Parada has been considered one of the best catchers in college baseball. He’s not an elite defensive catcher but his offensive profile and numbers are through the roof.

n today’s game, it’s very difficult to find a major league catcher that can hit around the league average. For Parada, his offensive is his strength. During his sophomore season, Parada has put together an excellent season for the Yellow Jackets. Parada is slashing .361/.453/.709 with 87 hits, nine doubles, 26 home runs, 88 RBIs, 11 stolen bases, 30 walks, and a 1.162 OPS

Strengths

• 60-grade power
• Advanced plate approach
• Doesn’t try to do too much at the plate
• Drives the ball well to all fields
• Runs well for a catcher
• Line drive hitter
• Projects to be middle-of-the-order bat
• Great work ethic

Weaknesses

• Throwing strength and accuracy
• Receiving skills

Pro Comparison: Joey Bart

Projection: Early first round

Kevin Parada is expected to go early in the first round as his offensive prowess is rare for catchers in today’s game. While his defense is a work in progress, his offensive tools and production are outstanding.

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2022 MLB MOCK DRAFT 5.0; Brooks Lee, Druw Jones - Through The Fence Baseball

This year’s draft is stacked with catchers. Right now, Parada, Arizona’s Susac and Mississippi State’s Logan Tanner are the very best this class has to offer. From the get, his plus raw power stands out. His swing is pretty and should be the model for any young ball player trying to improve his hitting. Behind the plate, he calls a solid game and his mental mindset is the best we’ve seen in the past two drafts.

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Top 30 players in 2022 MLB Draft: Druw Jones, Jackson Holliday have strong bloodlines; Kumar Rocker makes list

The Yellow Jackets have produced three first-round catchers since 1993: Jason Varitek, Matt Wieters, and Joey Bart. Parada is certain to become the fourth. He's always hit despite an unusual pre-swing stance that sees him lift his front elbow to his nose and drape the bat the length of his spine, his barrel dangling down around belt-level until he begins his operation. That remained true this season, as he homered 26 times and nearly posted a 1-to-1 walk-to-strikeout ratio in 60 games. Parada's ball-tracking data, predictably, supports the notion that he could develop into a middle-of-the-order hitter with the potential for more pop than country radio. He's not as promising behind the dish, but he's improved enough there for scouts to see him as a tolerable option to begin his career. (Sidenote: expect his value to skyrocket when the automated ball-strike system is introduced to the majors.) He's likely to come off the board early, perhaps even within the top five.

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Top 100 MLB Draft prospects: Keith Law's latest big board

Parada has been one of the best hitters in college baseball this year, tying for sixth in Division 1 with 26 home runs while walking nearly as often as he struck out on the season (32:30 K:BB), and does so despite one of the more bizarre setups you’ll see in a hitter and while handling the most difficult position on the diamond. Parada sets up at the plate with the bat slung over his shoulder like a bag of golf clubs, but gets the bat to the zone on time, even against better velocity. His plate discipline and pitch recognition are both advanced for an amateur and he’s shown some ability to make adjustments in-season already. Behind the plate, he’s adequate as a receiver with fringy arm strength, good enough to stay there because he hits so well. With 20-25 homer power and a potential 60 hit tool at a position of permanent scarcity, he offers some of the best pure value in the draft class.

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Georgia Tech's Kevin Parada Wins 2022 Johnny Bench Award - Sports Illustrated Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets News, Analysis and More

There is a reason that folks around college baseball call Georgia Tech "Catcher U".

Kevin Parada was the catalyst for one of the best offenses in the country in college baseball this past season and has earned tons of recognition for it. On Tuesday night, he added to his awards with the 2022 Johnny Bench Award, which is given to the best catchers in college baseball, college softball, as well as high school baseball and softball catchers from Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and West Virginia.

This is the second time that a catcher from Georgia Tech has taken home the award. Joey Bart won the award in 2018 and Georgia Tech also had Matt Wieters in 2007 and Zane Evans in 2013 earn nominations.

Parada was not only an All-American for his fantastic 2022 season but set program records. He had 26 home runs in 2022, with 85 RBIs and 85 hits.

The 2022 MLB Draft is coming up towards the end of July and Parada is widely expected to be among the first players drafted. He had a tremendous season and one that will be hard for any catcher that is coming up next for the program to top.

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There is one more writeup below

 

[Duane1952]

I hope they take Lee or Johnson.

 

[saddles]

Georgia Tech’s Kevin Parada has improved his catching defense ahead of MLB draft

Parada's bat is first-round caliber on its own, but now he's pairing it with improved defensive skills behind the plate.

theathletic.com

At this stage of his amateur career, the most pressing question some have had about Parada is whether he can stick long-term behind the plate. He has done a lot in the last 2 1/2 months to settle any lingering doubts, and his coaches would implore anyone looking at some raw numbers (21 percent caught-stealing rate and eight passed balls) to look deeper.

“Our pitching staff challenges him immensely because we’re not exact all the time,” head coach Danny Hall said of a Georgia Tech staff with a 6.41 ERA, .282 opponents’ batting average, 60 hit batsmen and 28 wild pitches between its members.

Parada’s defensive strides can be credited to two things — the preseason work he did to improve his arm strength and the changes he made in his catching stance leading into his sophomore season.

The latter took time to accomplish. Zeke Pinkham, a former University of Louisville catcher who started as a volunteer coach at Georgia Tech during Parada’s freshman year, had urged Parada to adopt the one-knee catching style major leaguer J.T. Realmuto re-popularized in recent years. Parada tested the stance on occasion as a freshman last season but he didn’t feel comfortable enough to take it into games.

It wasn’t until after Georgia Tech’s season was over that Parada started becoming more proficient in the knee-down stance, which he can now use as needed. He spent a significant part of his collegiate Team USA tenure refining it under the guidance of catching guru Jerry Weinstein, a special assistant in the Rockies organization who Pinkham called “a catching baseball legend.” There weren’t always clean results during the adjustment period. Parada had to work around some mistakes in games, in front of vigilant scouts who were looking for improvements in his blocking and receiving. Pinkham figures some of them jumped to conclusions on missed blocks, leading to reports that Parada may not profile as a catcher in the long term.

Pinkham struggled to reconcile those external descriptions with what he saw from Parada in-season. “It got under my skin,” he said, when he read someone’s note calling Parada an average blocker. Pinkham remembered watching Parada, an athletic defender who practices yoga to improve his flexibility behind the plate, get to balls he shouldn’t have attempted plays on in multiple situations. Against Georgia last year, Parada scooped a pitch that hit the dirt outside the right-handed batter’s box, quickly set his feet and threw to second base to start a successful rundown of a player who would have made it into scoring position if Parada hadn’t stopped the pitch from skipping toward the backstop.

Pinkham said Parada has made plays like that one this season, too.

“He does things that you just scratch your head at, like how did he do that?” Pinkham said. “In my opinion, it resorts back to his athleticism. He’s not your typical catcher.”

Blocking wasn’t a focal point for Parada and his coaches, but receiving was. Parada worked above the ball as a freshman, causing the momentum of pitches to push his glove down and sometimes out of the strike zone. Pinkham drilled the importance of working low to high with the mitt so Parada could better present low strikes to the umpire. He made enough progress that Weinstein, who was in Atlanta for the Georgia Tech-Miami series, declared, “he’s accomplished that,” when the work was brought to his attention.

Parada’s progress since the summer shined through to Weinstein in another notable area — arm strength. The raw power at the plate that Parada boosted through his offseason training regimen, adding more than 10 pounds to his 6-foot-1 frame, also benefited his throwing. Weinstein said Parada’s usual velocity on home to second throws is around 80 mph, just a tick below the 81 mph average in the major leagues. His throws to the bases on steal attempts have distinctly more carry than last season. …

Weinstein believes Parada’s arm strength will continue to improve once he is in an environment where he can learn how to refine the nuances of his craft. Part of the reason Parada is well-positioned to make such a leap is his keen understanding of what he needs to do to prepare for the future. He showed it in the gym, where he worked to elevate his offense and avoid the exhaustion he felt after making 48 starts behind the plate last season. And he showed it when he took the initiative to better his throwing.

A few weeks before he returned to Georgia Tech for his sophomore year, Parada was introduced to well-established trainer Alan Jaeger by advisor Michael Nickeas. Jaeger, the founder of Jaeger Sports, walked Parada through his approach to injury prevention and encouraged him to start an arm care routine followed by a throwing program similar to the ones many pitchers do in the offseason. Jaeger set Parada up with J-Bands and over six weeks guided Parada through his build-up leading into the fall baseball season.

 

[saddles]

Duran is at SS today and Josh Sale is at 1B.

 

[saddles]

Wow!

 

[saddles]

Glad to see this kid continue to do well. I take it, he is still in a limited pitch count.

 

[saddles]

I am impressed.

 

[saddles]

Spencer Howard had only made it past the 6th inning once in his professional career. That was a 7 inning performance on July 12, 2018. He has matched that tonight.

I have been his biggest critic, but hats off to the young man this evening. I am happy for him.

 

[saddles]

 

[saddles]

 

[saddles]

 

[DTC]

“I think [the] bigger picture, though, [we want to] address longer-term, middle-to-upper rotation starting pitching needs. We absolutely would like to ideally find somebody to help this year and in the future," Daniels said

Jon Daniels doesn't see Rangers trading veterans this season

The MLB Trade deadline is a little over a month away, and the philosophy of the Rangers’ front office over the past few seasons is continuing to change.

www.audacy.com

 

[Nightcrawler]

why do you guys dog me so much?