Biggest Surprise of 2024?

[Vlad27Trout27]

• Soriano – For me, Soriano was the biggest surprise. While many believe Detmers has the best stuff in the system, I disagree. I think Soriano's stuff is better.

• Koch – After his first two starts, Koch was on fire. There's still plenty of development needed, especially with his command, but the potential upside is huge if he can refine it.

• Neto – While I wouldn’t say I was completely surprised, since he was projected to be a 3-4 WAR player, his combination of power and speed was great to see.

Biggest Disappointments:

1. Detmers
2. Canning

 

Neither Surprised Nor Disappointed:

1. O'Hoppe – It was a tale of two seasons. In the first half, he looked like one of the best catchers in the game. In the second half, his performance fell off dramatically, though this seems common for many good catchers, like Will Smith and Adley Rutschman.

2. Schanuel – I wasn’t overly impressed or disappointed. He had a decent year, but given his position, you expect more production. Either he needs to find a way to drive the ball for more power, or he has to consistently hit over .290.

 

[Angelsjunky]

Neto performed pretty exactly as should have been expected. He's veering into borderline star territory and, with room for improvement, could be a 5 WAR guy.

Kochanowicz was a bit surprising, but I'm not getting excited over 11 starts. 

Truly, Detmers sucking as bad as he did was the biggest "surprise." But in terms of positive surprises, for me it is Soriano. I've always liked him, but as IP said, his transition from RP to SP is what stood out. Hope he can build on it.

[Inside Pitch]

1 hour ago, Stradling said:

 

It was a dig at me because a few days ago I mentioned that this years team had less errors than last years then we went on to have 7 errors the last 5 games. 

Sure, it was pretty obvious but at the same time if youre gonna troll a guy make sure you're not talking out your ass.

[Inside Pitch]

31 minutes ago, Angelsjunky said:

 

Kochanowicz was a bit surprising, but I'm not getting excited over 11 starts. 

 

The thing about him is that pretty much all his good starts and the two awful ones are pretty much exactly what you'd expect.. 

@jsnpritchett has said this a few times as well, but he's going to have games where he will just get lit up because the BaBip gods show up and are looking to make themselves giggle.  But those 11 games are who he is and the reality that the longer he pitched the more his BaBip normalized is an indication he wasn't lucky.  

I think the big test for him is what happens when people stop swinging.. IF they stop swinging. He throws so hard guys can't really wait to decide whether to swing or not and while his control isn't great, he's almost always in the zone somewhere so, not swinging might result in called strikes.   Koch is an oddity today, but he's exactly the sort of guy that would have been called up and told to throw sinkers all day in the 80s -- think Ron Romanick with a 98 MPH FB..  

While being nothing alike, he reminds me a lot of Richards in the sense that both guys were simply blessed with movement that most guys don't possess.  With G-Rich it was spin, Kochanowicz it's that heavy FB.

[Tank]

soriano. he wasn't expected to be a starter, and he ended up becoming a very good one. 

[Mark68]

Koch

 

I low-key expected Neto to be the Neto that he became this year.

 

Koch came out of nowhere and should be anchoring the middle of a major league rotation for years to come. In this rotation, however, he may be the one or two. 

[tdawg87]

On 9/30/2024 at 12:35 PM, Inside Pitch said:

The thing about him is that pretty much all his good starts and the two awful ones are pretty much exactly what you'd expect.. 

@jsnpritchett has said this a few times as well, but he's going to have games where he will just get lit up because the BaBip gods show up and are looking to make themselves giggle.  But those 11 games are who he is and the reality that the longer he pitched the more his BaBip normalized is an indication he wasn't lucky.  

I think the big test for him is what happens when people stop swinging.. IF they stop swinging. He throws so hard guys can't really wait to decide whether to swing or not and while his control isn't great, he's almost always in the zone somewhere so, not swinging might result in called strikes.   Koch is an oddity today, but he's exactly the sort of guy that would have been called up and told to throw sinkers all day in the 80s -- think Ron Romanick with a 98 MPH FB..  

While being nothing alike, he reminds me a lot of Richards in the sense that both guys were simply blessed with movement that most guys don't possess.  With G-Rich it was spin, Kochanowicz it's that heavy FB.

Alright. I'm in. 

Let's get weird. 

[Trojan84]

On 9/29/2024 at 6:35 PM, Chuck said:

Who was the most pleasant surprise of 2024? 

Jackie K. He was so buried in the minor leagues I was afraid they would never let him come up for air. He works efficiently, he keeps the ball on the ground and the game stays super crisp.

[Deek]

On 9/30/2024 at 1:53 AM, Chuck said:

I hear you, I voted for Neto. But some would argue that Neto was going to come close to those numbers this season. 

Someone like Koch really surprised me. 

For me it was also Neto...

 

I was surprised by Koch, but the tipping point in the vote IMHO was the fact that Neto did it during his sophomore season...

 

Neto took a big step forward while already on the league's radar at a time when many others typically struggle because the league makes the adjustments with more footage to review...

 

Koch was awesome - and seemingly came from out of nowhere, but I think it's a bit easier for a pitcher to put together a hot start... And that's to take nothing away from Koch - I hope he can continue the success next season... but to my point: I think it will be much more difficult for him to do so given that the league now has more footage on him...

[Stradling]

21 hours ago, Deek said:

For me it was also Neto...

 

I was surprised by Koch, but the tipping point in the vote IMHO was the fact that Neto did it during his sophomore season...

 

Neto took a big step forward while already on the league's radar at a time when many others typically struggle because the league makes the adjustments with more footage to review...

 

Koch was awesome - and seemingly came from out of nowhere, but I think it's a bit easier for a pitcher to put together a hot start... And that's to take nothing away from Koch - I hope he can continue the success next season... but to my point: I think it will be much more difficult for him to do so given that the league now has more footage on him...

I don’t think swinging at a bowling ball gets easier with more footage. If Koch can work his 98 MPH fastball up in the zone consistently to work off of his 96 MPH sinker he could be very good. I don’t think he should try to strike guys out but I want him to be able to. 

[aznhockeyguy]

All good options for the poll.  I'm going Soriano. I'm also pleasantly surprised about Neto's bat.  Hopefully he keeps it up.  If he improves his bat a bit more, he'll be a legit MVP level player.  He had a 5 WAR season for 2024 and he was gold glove caliber with the glove.  

[Blarg]

Let's just get him to an All Star game before you start talking MVP.