Taylor WARd

[gurn67]

There's not a ton of guys in recent years who became stars after 27. Some of them played in an era where there were definite questions about how they suddenly became superstars after being just below average to average at best. Some of them we found out later they were using PED's. Hopefully, with all of the testing that's done today, we won't have anymore of them.

Here's some guys in recent years that I can think of.

Jose Bautista

Phil Nevin

David Ortiz

Jayson Werth (He was in his age 30 year when he finally broke out)

Nelson Cruz

[Inside Pitch]

7 hours ago, Taylor said:

I can't take credit for the nickname; I saw someone call him that on Reddit.

But I'm officially a believer. @Second Base you were right. I'm sorry I doubted you.

@Inside Pitch @Angelsjunky @Dochalo Could one of you smart dudes explain what's going on with Ward from a technical standpoint? At this point, it can't be a total fluke, right?

Meh, I dunno that I'm anymore qualified than others on this site to opine but, if I had to put it on anything it was his cutting his swing down and improving his already really good pitch recognition.  I'm guessing he wasn't very good at making pitchers better but all that time behind the plate must have taught him how to pick up spin because his pitch recognition is ridiculous...

Beyond that, he seemingly refused to give up or be passed over.  You can't teach competitive fire.  Taylor Ward made himself into something.

[Inside Pitch]

6 hours ago, Dochalo said:

Just cuz I write a lot of stuff doesn't make me smart but I'm certainly not afraid to offer my opinion if that helps.  

To me it goes beyond just garden variety plate discipline.  His pitch recognition is otherworldly right now.  He spits on pitches about half a ball outside the zone with consistency.  And the one thing that I'd have to check the numbers on but just from the eye test, his plate coverage is ridiculous.  He can turn on something inside.  He'll whack a double to the opposite field.  Early on, I was always a bit concerned that his swing was a bit long but there are very few holes right now.   

LOL....  yet another time where I should have read to the end before responding.  Guess I'm Amy Schumer/Carlos Mencia now....

[Inside Pitch]

5 hours ago, tdawg87 said:

Well, they (Dipoto) drafted him as a catcher. He completely failed in that regard and there is absolutely zero chance Dipoto and his team thought Ward would ever hit like this in a million years.

It was warranted.

Reworked swing too.  

[Warfarin]

 

Wow.  That's some nice company.

[ten ocho recon scout]

2 hours ago, Inside Pitch said:

Guess I'm Amy Schumer/Carlos Mencia now....

You have two choices here. You can change your name to Inside Bitch, or Ensenada Pitch.

[Jason]

10 hours ago, wopphil said:

He has made Jo Adell totally expendable. 

Very true but Adell helped by not being good at baseball 

[Inside Pitch]

22 minutes ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

You have two choices here. You can change your name to Inside Bitch, or Ensenada Pitch.

Lifetime called me Inside Bitch.  I loled.

[Jason]

9 hours ago, HeavenlyHalos said:

 

I heard she ripped a few jokes off but that’s really bad. Her issues is she doesn’t write her own material so this is bound to happen 

[Jason]

I’m not sure if I’m more shocked at Ward’s performance or how well the pitching staff is doing. Regardless, they are both nice surprises for this season and i hope Ward and Trout are competing for that MVP! Now imagine if Ohtani and Rendon were hitting well too. This team would be unstoppable 

[eligrba]

Michelle Tafoya will get sick of everyone talking about Ward, so pipe down.

[Stradling]

14 minutes ago, Jason said:

I’m not sure if I’m more shocked at Ward’s performance or how well the pitching staff is doing. Regardless, they are both nice surprises for this season and i hope Ward and Trout are competing for that MVP! Now imagine if Ohtani and Rendon were hitting well too. This team would be unstoppable 

That’s a good question. I felt with health the rotation would be better than league average.  I felt with health Ward would put up a full season like last year where he’d be a solid mlb starter that wouldn’t hurt you but certainly a player that would be relegated to 4th outfielder with the emergence of Marsh and Adell. 

[Chuck]

 

[Chuck]

BTW, who coined Taylor WARd? I want to send royalties to this smart person. 

[failos]

Just now, Chuckster70 said:

BTW, who coined Taylor WARd? I want to send royalties to this smart person. 

I can confirm it was @Taylor!

[tdawg87]

2 minutes ago, Chuckster70 said:

BTW, who coined Taylor WARd? I want to send royalties to this smart person. 

Some random dude on reddit.

[Warfarin]

1 hour ago, Jason said:

I’m not sure if I’m more shocked at Ward’s performance or how well the pitching staff is doing. Regardless, they are both nice surprises for this season and i hope Ward and Trout are competing for that MVP! Now imagine if Ohtani and Rendon were hitting well too. This team would be unstoppable 

I think the pitching is doing well in part due to smart defensive positioning and strong overall defense.  The pitchers have largely kept the ball in the park and trusted the defense behind them, which has panned out well so far.

[Hubs]

1 hour ago, eligrba said:

Michelle Tafoya will get sick of everyone talking about Ward, so pipe down.

No, she won’t. She dislikes Ohtani because he’s Asian… most of her recent takes since she left NBC have been tinged with racism or other trollish bs as she “transitions to politics”

She’s free to be a right wing voice, nothing wrong with conservatives, but this kind of racist garbage needs to be called out when we see it. 

[tdawg87]

[Jason]

9 minutes ago, Hubs said:

No, she won’t. She dislikes Ohtani because he’s Asian… most of her recent takes since she left NBC have been tinged with racism or other trollish bs as she “transitions to politics”

She’s free to be a right wing voice, nothing wrong with conservatives, but this kind of racist garbage needs to be called out when we see it. 

 

She’s probably a stupid Yankee or Red Sox fan who’s just butt hurt that the other west coast team in the LA area is getting attention that she thinks they don’t deserve. 

[Taylor]

1 hour ago, Chuckster70 said:

BTW, who coined Taylor WARd? I want to send royalties to this smart person. 

 

1 hour ago, tdawg87 said:

Some random dude on reddit.

 

1 hour ago, failos said:

I can confirm it was @Taylor!

 

I thought it was a random dude on Reddit but then failos dug up a post from 2019 in which I coined the term.

[Taylor]

51 minutes ago, tdawg87 said:

Nice GIF! From RuPaul's Drag Race. That's Latrice Royale, one of my all time favorite queens.

[Chuck]

30 minutes ago, Taylor said:

 

 

 

I thought it was a random dude on Reddit but then failos dug up a post from 2019 in which I coined the term.

Good. I would rather it come from our own! 

Well done, @Taylor!!

[AngelsLakersFan]

12 hours ago, Dochalo said:

Just cuz I write a lot of stuff doesn't make me smart but I'm certainly not afraid to offer my opinion if that helps.  

To me it goes beyond just garden variety plate discipline.  His pitch recognition is otherworldly right now.  He spits on pitches about half a ball outside the zone with consistency.  And the one thing that I'd have to check the numbers on but just from the eye test, his plate coverage is ridiculous.  He can turn on something inside.  He'll whack a double to the opposite field.  Early on, I was always a bit concerned that his swing was a bit long but there are very few holes right now.   I would watch him in AAA where he hit .330 with a .435 obp and think that it had to be a decent chunk of smoke and mirrors and that it couldn't possibly translate even though I was a big believer that he'd be a solid major leaguer.  But you watch him and he's just in complete control of almost every at bat.  Every pitch.  It's very very impressive.  

I think he's really refined the heck out of his swing. I've always liked his swing. It looked a little long but most of that was through the zone. I think what I've seen this year is he's a little shorter at the start of his swing, and most significantly he's eliminated just about all of the movement in his body. He's incredibly still. In many ways he is the exact opposite of Ohtani. He's generating his power by keeping the barrel in the zone longer rather than by timing a powerful whip motion like Shohei. The stillness in his swing and the confidence he shows taking pitches is also buying him a lot of calls. 

How much of this is sustainable? I'm not sure. He's clearly reached a higher level, but the league will make some adjustments, probably start pitching him up in the zone more. He's at around 100 PAs at this level, and I normally like to reevaluate players every 200 PA's. He'd have to really crater to not look great at the 200 PA mark though.

[Taylor]