Hot start or legit?

Topnotchsy · May 15, 2014

A month and a half into the season I thought it would be fun to look at some of the players who have played well and consider if it's indicative of their quality as a player, or just a hot start:

Johnny Cueto - While the 1.25 ERA is not going to last, he's actually had a sub-3 ERA each of the last 3 seasons (albeit with some injuries sprinkled in). I think he's a legit ace.

Masahiro Tanaka - My gut feeling (and that's all it is) is that he's not as good as he's been playing. I would not be surprised to see him get hit around as the season progresses and teams have more tape, and have already faced him once or twice.

Troy Tulowitzki - Similar to Cueto in being affected by injuries and in the fact he has to come back to Earth a bit, but I think he's legitimately one of the best hitters in baseball.

Dee Gordon - He's running wild but I'm not confident that he will be able to maintain his batting average. I think he levels off.

Which hot starts do you think are legit and which are an aberration?

SINFULONE · May 15, 2014

Agree with everything you said.

bradical · May 15, 2014

Nolan Arenado - real deal!

DeliciousBacon · May 15, 2014

I'm going to have to say Chris Colabello is having a super fluky hot start. With a 49:9 K:BB ratio, he's going to struggle to maintain that .238 BA which somehow has resulted in 30 RBI.

AmishDave · May 15, 2014

Jose Abreu ?

smapdi · May 16, 2014

Abreu could be a guy who hits 40 homers at .275 for the next decade. Or he could not be. Literally no way to tell.

Bill Menard · May 16, 2014

Giancarlo Stanton - and it's legit!
Charlie Blackmon - I say hot start.

corockies · May 16, 2014

Gotta put Corey Dickerson up. In limited play he's put up some impressive stats: 60 AB, 21 hits, 5 2b, 1 3b, 4 hr, 11 runs, 11 rbi, 2 sb, .350 ba

Kid can flat out hit and is totally legit in a deep Rockies lineup. Would be starting every day on any other team.

tpeichel · May 16, 2014

Gordon was a .300 hitter in the minors with a .360 OBP, so I wouldn't be terribly surprised if he settled in as a .280 hitter with a .340 OBP. With his ability to steal 50+ bases, he's going to score a lot of runs and be a legit leadoff hitter.

tpeichel · May 16, 2014

DeliciousBacon said:
I'm going to have to say Chris Colabello is having a super fluky hot start. With a 49:9 K:BB ratio, he's going to struggle to maintain that .238 BA which somehow has resulted in 30 RBI.

Agreed, isn't he like 28 or 29 years old, too?

tpeichel · May 16, 2014

Plenty of people are waiting for Carlos Gomez to revert back to his .300 OBP days, but I think he has really figured things out and will be a star in the league for years to come.

RedSoxSoul · May 16, 2014

Agree that Dee Gordon is legit, mostly. His OBP is going to drop for sure, but contact and speed are there and it looks like he's embraced hitting on the ground so I think he's finally figured it out.

Cueto and Tulo are what they are. If they're healthy the whole year they're the real deal. The problem is health. Players don't generally get healthier as they age, but you never know about another Biogenesis right?

Tanaka I can't speak rationally on, I'm a Red Sox fan who's been burned by Matsuzaka. But the success of Yu Darvish in the Texas heat makes me think Tanaka might have something here, although I hope not.

Stanton is an absolute stud, but I have to think his RBI will come down as the guys hitting in front of him are not great shakes. But where else are you finding 50 HR potential? Jose Batista perhaps, another of the MASH unit, much more skeptical but he's certainly looking vintage.

hive17 · May 16, 2014

Martin Maldonado (Milwaukee's back-up catcher); that 1.084 OPS isn't going to last. In the meantime, I have to listen to idiots calling in to local talk shows saying how they think Milwaukee ought to start MM at catcher and move Lucroy to 1B. Yeah brainiacs, lets move the 3rd or 4th best catcher in baseball to 1B for a guy on a hot streak.

joey12508 · May 16, 2014

Yangervis Solarte hot start. Masahiro Tanaka legit.

NY Tony · May 16, 2014

Solarte def hot start - albeit it's mid May but his track record doesn't support this type of performance

Tanaka - wayyyyy too early to tell - 7 year contract is a long time - true test will be after All Star break and next year

Tulo - def legite

Stanton - Machine-gun legite, absolute shame he's stuck in a market like Miami.

gt2590 · May 17, 2014

joey12508 said:
Yangervis Solarte hot start. Masahiro Tanaka legit.

Yep.

And I'm in the Dee Gordon is Legit camp. And Cueto, Gray and Teheran.

Hot Start non-believer camp: Kurt Suzuki (although a fan), Tyson Ross and Cowgill.

Austin · May 17, 2014

I don't think Dee Gordon is legit. He just had a hot first month.
He hit .234 last season and .228 the year before.
And his average has already dropped from .357 to .315 in the past 13 games.
He'll be a .270 hitter by the end of the year.

u2me57 · May 17, 2014

I think Solarte is legit. Dee Gordon not. I wish Cody Asche was legit!

gt2590 · May 17, 2014

u2me57 said:
I wish Cody Asche was legit!

More like l-EEEEE-git...

u2me57 · May 17, 2014

Yeah, those 3 E's the other night were not cool. But someday he can tell his grand kids he got a hit off Chapman the 1st time he faced him, on a 101 MPH fastball.

Welcome to our community

Be apart of something great, join today!

Hot start or legit?

Featured Contributor, The best players in history?

Active member

Active member

Well-known member

Featured Contributor, Collector Showcase, Senior M

Well-known member

New member

New member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

New member

Active member

Well-known member

New member

Super Moderator

Well-known member

Well-known member

Super Moderator

Well-known member

Similar threads

Log in