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I bet that ex Orcs play up so that there is no chance that they have to go back to the Orcs. This inflates their stats for a year or two.
This is good morning shtick.
Where Are They Now, dept.
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Yoenis Cespedes - hitting .285 with a .485 SLG for the Tigers, with a plus defensive rating in LF . Fangraphs has him at 1.5 WAR so far, in a bit less than a third of a season.
Josh Donaldson - slugging .596 for the Jays, leaving his OPS+ at 167. Another eight homers and he'd be in Nelson Cruz territory. b-ref.com has him on pace for anywhere from 9 to 10 Wins Above Replacement.
Derek Norris - slugging .450 in San Diego as a catcher. His OPS+ the last three years, as he ages from 24 to 26: 110, 118, 115.
Brandon Moss - slugging a relatively pedestrian .442 in Cleveland.
Jeff Samardzija - somewhere else, still running Fisterly control ratios.
Addison Russell - hitting well in AAA (.318/.326/.477) at age 21.
Billy Beane - sitting on a 19-33 record, with absolutely nowhere to hide from last year's implosion out of a 72-44 record.
In all fairness, though, we notice that Oakland's offensive OPS+ is a tick higher in 2015 than in 2014. The crash looked spectacular, but Beane knew that he never had a 100-win quality team.
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Carter Capps - Has 14 strikeouts and 0 walks in 8.1 innings for the Marlins. That brings his rolling total to 39 whiffs, 5 strikeouts and 1 homer since joining Miami.
Brandon Maurer - Running 6.4 strikeouts and 2.2 walks with 0.4 homers in San Diego. His fastball is averaging 94.6 MPH and he's gone bananas with his 87-MPH slider, throwing it 43% of the time. Perhaps they're using him as a ROOGY.
Officer Nick - dropped the motorcycle helmet in favor of dual single-earflap helmets. They haven't helped; his OPS+ is minus 16. -16? Worse than zero? However you write that. Interestingly, Tampa seems to be viewing him as a backup middle infielder, playing him at SS as sparingly as they play him at 2B.
Chris Tillman - has been essentially the worst starting pitcher in baseball. Not that we Taijuan fans have a lot of room to gloat.
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Prince Fielder - after a sorry 2014, he's back to hitting .361/.412/.569 and a 171 OPS+ ... wait, how many Rangers are hitting well here, exactly? Mitch Moreland ripping it up, their catcher playing really well, Choo is okay.
Hm. Beltre having an off year so far, but Delino DeShields with an OBP of .383. Rosales, second hitter off the bench, is mediocre/average. ... amazing how much it boosts your offense when the two bench bats give you a 100.
Mookie Wilson - batting a paltry .241/.277/.349 in Toronto.
Seth Smith - in Seattle, thank you very much.
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Michael Pineda - sitting on a 67/5 control ratio. Does he physically look to you like a guy with Maddux or Moyer command? :- )
It's kind of a good thing for the Yankees, too, since C.J. Sabathia is 2-7 with a 5.67 ERA and an 89 MPH fastball. True, that's the velo he had last year. Also true that last year he had a 5.28 ERA and threw only 40 innings.
Jesus Montero - leading the M's system in "total bases" (didn't that used to be a stat?). I bet you the M's are just waiting for the Yankee$ to blow out of town before unleashing Montero on the league.
Masahiro Tanaka is going to try to pitch on Wednesday, despite a diagnosis of a torn Tommy John ligament. Did I ever tell you that Cindy and I were at the Kingdome for Nolan Ryan's last game, the one he tore his elbow?
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BABVA,
Dr D