So should we sell high? Legimately, what do you think his ceiling is? I joke about him being the Black Mike Trout, but was this past season his ceiling?
Absolutely yes imo. The only thing that is different about him this year is his BABIP, and he's hitting fly balls 35% vs his usual 30%. All of the other peripherals about his swing are the same. It kind of surprised me, because my eyes told me his plate discipline had improved a bit and that he was squaring balls up a bit better. He does seem to be doing more damage on balls in the zone, but that's probably BABIP. He's not hitting any more line drives than he has before, and I don't think his fly ball change is due to any sort of conscious effort.
I think there's a >90% chance he regresses. Remember that in the minors he had one 98 game stretch at AA that hinted that he might be able to be an average or better MLB hitter, and this was the first time he was able to do it in the majors.
If we can get a decent reliever under control for 3 years or a prospect for him, I'd do it in a heartbeat.
Unless, you can get him to calm his swing down and stop trying to hit home runs. He's so athletic and has all the ability to actually hit near enough to how he's hitting now, and strike out less if he wouldn't swing so goddam hard. It's the same thing Ian Desmond did toward the end. When he had a short, simple swing he was great, when he fell in love with power, it got long and K-ish. But Taylor has never tried to shorten his swing. Maybe I'm totally wrong, but when I see him swing, I just wonder what would happen if he started his hands where Murphy does and nearly abandon his leg kick.
