Author Topic: Nats Acquire C Kurt Suzuki from A's  (Read 8155 times)

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Offline Clever

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Re: Nats Acquire C Kurt Suzuki from A's
« Reply #175: August 05, 2012, 07:53:33 PM »
The gentleman is hitting .256 away from the beautiful O.co Coliseum. Not to mention he mention he laid down a pretty solid bunt last night.
 :minigunz:

Re: Nats Acquire C Kurt Suzuki from A's
« Reply #176: August 05, 2012, 07:59:04 PM »
The gentleman is hitting .256 away from the beautiful O.co Coliseum. Not to mention he mention he laid down a pretty solid bunt last night.
 :minigunz:
Exactly thank you :cheers:

Online welch

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Re: Nats Acquire C Kurt Suzuki from A's
« Reply #177: August 05, 2012, 08:04:20 PM »
Suzuki catches and has hit. Gives an alternative to Flores. Prices was cheap...

Online welch

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Re: Nats Acquire C Kurt Suzuki from A's
« Reply #178: August 05, 2012, 08:06:17 PM »
...and: why does Oakland need another Nats minor league catcher if they got Norris in the Gio trade? 

Re: Nats Acquire C Kurt Suzuki from A's
« Reply #179: August 05, 2012, 08:07:08 PM »
...and: why does Oakland need another Nats minor league catcher if they got Norris in the Gio trade?
Turn Frietas into a 1b I guess

Offline PANatsFan

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Re: Nats Acquire C Kurt Suzuki from A's
« Reply #180: August 05, 2012, 08:08:01 PM »
...and: why does Oakland need another Nats minor league catcher if they got Norris in the Gio trade? 

Turn Frietas into a 1b I guess

They also kicked in cash to pay Suzuki's salary, Beane must see something . . .

Offline Lintyfresh85

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Re: Nats Acquire C Kurt Suzuki from A's
« Reply #181: August 05, 2012, 08:09:24 PM »
...and: why does Oakland need another Nats minor league catcher if they got Norris in the Gio trade? 

There's a lot of minor league teams the GM's have to fill each year.

Must of felt they needed some catching depth/liked what Freitas brought with the bat.

Offline Smithian

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Re: Nats Acquire C Kurt Suzuki from A's
« Reply #182: August 05, 2012, 08:34:16 PM »
It was a salary dump by the A's. The Nats benefited.

Offline PANatsFan

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Re: Nats Acquire C Kurt Suzuki from A's
« Reply #183: August 05, 2012, 08:36:15 PM »
They also kicked in cash to pay Suzuki's salary, Beane must see something . . .


Offline UMDNats

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Re: Nats Acquire C Kurt Suzuki from A's
« Reply #184: August 05, 2012, 09:07:46 PM »


Yep, he saw a chance to move an expensive player who clearly needed a change in scenery and get a decent prospect back.

Offline mimontero88

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Re: Nats Acquire C Kurt Suzuki from A's
« Reply #185: August 06, 2012, 10:12:15 AM »
It was a salary dump by the A's. The Nats benefited.

This.  That should be obvious.  Beane knew if Suzuki was going to have success as a major league catcher again it wouldn't be in Oakland and he had Derek Norris sitting in AAA hitting .271/.329/.477 so it made sense to get rid of Suzuki's salary.  Incidentally what happened to Norris's walk rate?  Anyone remember that he was consistently a .400 OBP guy even when he wasn't hitting for average?

Offline wpa2629

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Re: Nats Acquire C Kurt Suzuki from A's
« Reply #186: August 06, 2012, 10:23:27 AM »
This.  That should be obvious.  Beane knew if Suzuki was going to have success as a major league catcher again it wouldn't be in Oakland and he had Derek Norris sitting in AAA hitting .271/.329/.477 so it made sense to get rid of Suzuki's salary.  Incidentally what happened to Norris's walk rate?  Anyone remember that he was consistently a .400 OBP guy even when he wasn't hitting for average?

Pitchers throw more strikes in the major leagues :shrug:

Offline mimontero88

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Re: Nats Acquire C Kurt Suzuki from A's
« Reply #187: August 06, 2012, 10:40:38 AM »
Pitchers throw more strikes in the major leagues :shrug:

Yes they do but the whole deal with Norris according to scouts was that he could maintain that OBP even when struggling to hit because his knowledge of the strike zone was so advanced.  But compare his slash line this year to those the last two years.

2010:  .235/.419/.419 (A+)
2011:  .210/.367/.446 (AA)
2012:  .271/.329/.477 (AAA)

In AAA his average has suddenly spiked likely due to him finally being healthy.  But with that spike in average has come a massive drop in OBP.  In fact despite his batting average being 61 points better this year in AAA his OPS was actually roughly the same as it was in AA and a bit worse than it was in A+.

A+ - .838 OPS
AA - .813 OPS
AAA - .806 OPS

Not sure what conclusion you draw from that but it's certainly odd considering he was supposed to be such a master of the strike zone.  I wonder if he has been being coached to swing more out of the zone because he has all that power potential.  If this is the case though, it's a mistake as his wOBA (the best metric for offensive performance value in my humble opinion) has dropped significantly from .371 in 2011 to .349 in 2012.

Offline Obed_Marsh

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Re: Nats Acquire C Kurt Suzuki from A's
« Reply #188: August 06, 2012, 10:42:33 AM »
I wonder if he has been being coached to swing more out of the zone because he has all that power potential.

I thought someone posted an article that said this but I cannot find it now.


Offline LostYudite

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Re: Nats Acquire C Kurt Suzuki from A's
« Reply #189: August 06, 2012, 11:02:39 AM »
Not sure what conclusion you draw from that but it's certainly odd considering he was supposed to be such a master of the strike zone.

Haven't looked closely (or at all - who cares, since he's not a Nats prospect anymore), but a couple theories/wild-ass guesses: 

1. He's not as great around the strike zone as you think - A and AA pitchers have less control and so miss the strike zone by a lot.  AAA guys miss closer, so he swings more, resulting in better BA and less walks. 

2. He's getting fooled into swinging at better breaking stuff - typically AAA pitchers have pretty decent breaking stuff, but have some flaw that keeps them from being MLB - not enough MPH separation between fastball and breaking stuff, fastball too straight, breaking stuff too inconsistent, etc.  But anyway, they typically also have some fairly wicked breaking stuff.  Could be he's mis-reading that and getting fooled into swinging at stuff that would be balls.

3.  He's close to MLB and knows it so is trying to force the issue by hitting his way in - harder to be patient if you think one hot month will get you called up - maybe he's trying to show off power or is being coached to swing more.

Online blue911

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Re: Nats Acquire C Kurt Suzuki from A's
« Reply #190: August 06, 2012, 11:05:00 AM »
The knock on Norris was he got pull happy. From what I've heard, Oakland stressed using the whole field and homers be damned.

Offline tomterp

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Re: Nats Acquire C Kurt Suzuki from A's
« Reply #191: August 06, 2012, 12:25:44 PM »
From Kevin Goldstein, BP on April 23:

Quote
Norris walked in 18.2% of his plate appearances in 2011, and then he got traded to Oakland. Perfect, right? And no, I won't use the M-word here. But a funny thing happened between 2011 and Norris heading to the Pacific Coast League: Norris didn't draw a single walk until his 12th game of the season. However, with five hits over the weekend, and walks two and three on Sunday, he's now hitting .333/.348/.583 in 15 games. This might be a good thing in the long run. If anything, Norris was too passive a hitter in the past, looking more for a walk than a pitch to drive. If he can find that delicate balance between disciplined and aggressive, he could take off.

Offline Lintyfresh85

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Re: Nats Acquire C Kurt Suzuki from A's
« Reply #192: August 06, 2012, 01:06:17 PM »
Yes they do but the whole deal with Norris according to scouts was that he could maintain that OBP even when struggling to hit because his knowledge of the strike zone was so advanced.  But compare his slash line this year to those the last two years.

2010:  .235/.419/.419 (A+)
2011:  .210/.367/.446 (AA)
2012:  .271/.329/.477 (AAA)

In AAA his average has suddenly spiked likely due to him finally being healthy.  But with that spike in average has come a massive drop in OBP.  In fact despite his batting average being 61 points better this year in AAA his OPS was actually roughly the same as it was in AA and a bit worse than it was in A+.

A+ - .838 OPS
AA - .813 OPS
AAA - .806 OPS

Not sure what conclusion you draw from that but it's certainly odd considering he was supposed to be such a master of the strike zone.  I wonder if he has been being coached to swing more out of the zone because he has all that power potential.  If this is the case though, it's a mistake as his wOBA (the best metric for offensive performance value in my humble opinion) has dropped significantly from .371 in 2011 to .349 in 2012.

They likely told him to swing earlier in the count.

His strikeout rate also dropped in AAA. Something that shouldn't be happening. He went from a career 23% K rate to 16% in AAA. Obviously he sacrificed some of the at-bats he'd work the count and decided to start jumping on pitches earlier in the count that he thought he could drive.

Offline Tribe Time

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Re: Nats Acquire C Kurt Suzuki from A's
« Reply #193: August 06, 2012, 11:00:20 PM »
Suzuki = 1 for 7 with a strikeout and a batting average under .165.

You were saying?

Offline Lintyfresh85

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Re: Nats Acquire C Kurt Suzuki from A's
« Reply #194: August 06, 2012, 11:02:38 PM »
What do ultimately hope to gain from your time here?

Offline Clever

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Re: Nats Acquire C Kurt Suzuki from A's
« Reply #195: August 06, 2012, 11:02:44 PM »
Suzuki = 1 for 7 with a strikeout and a batting average under .165.

You were saying?
When did we start determining the results of trades after two games?

Offline UMDNats

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Re: Nats Acquire C Kurt Suzuki from A's
« Reply #196: August 07, 2012, 12:34:38 AM »
Suzuki = 1 for 7 with a strikeout and a batting average under .165.

You were saying?


Offline Obed_Marsh

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Re: Nats Acquire C Kurt Suzuki from A's
« Reply #197: August 07, 2012, 12:37:12 AM »
We found the Scooby Dumb to Linty's Scooby Do. ;)

Offline Count Walewski

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Re: Nats Acquire C Kurt Suzuki from A's
« Reply #198: August 07, 2012, 12:37:57 AM »
Suzuki just saved our season.

Offline wpa2629

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Re: Nats Acquire C Kurt Suzuki from A's
« Reply #199: August 07, 2012, 12:43:58 AM »
That was the single greatest play in the history of baseball