Old Man Acuña

this is tough. i think i'd have to go with tatis if it weren't for his shoulder, simply because he's a SS. though he might not stick there for long at this rate. acuna is sort of the opposite in that he plays a low value position really well, but how long is that gonna last? plenty of 23 year olds can play a good right field

i'd go with vlad if he could play a passable 3B - i'd like to see them try him there again now that he's spry. he might still be the answer if he's stuck at 1B, but so far we're projecting a lot based on a really good 62 games

soto seems like the one who doesn't fit in at this point. he's a corner outfielder with less of a track record there than acuna, he's already racked up some injuries, and we might all be overrating his hitting based on 47 games from 2020

i honestly don't know. tatis if he promises to get that surgery in the offseason.

I will take them all thank you very much

Soto has been excellent for more than 62 games. He hit .282/.406/.548 over a full season + a championship run. In 2018, he batted basically the same over 110 games.

47 games, I mean.

But voting Guerrero, purely for sentimental reasons, a part of me is certain than he'll go the Ryan Howard route, another part sees Miggy, but who cares? That home run at the Olympic Stadium was one of my great live sport memories, he was born in my city and certainly will be the hitting coach of the Nouveau Expos.

imo if you remove 2020 from soto's career he isn't in the same conversation as tatis and acuna. if he'd had the same .390ish wOBA that he had in 2018/2019 he wouldn't have anything on them. still one of the best hitters in the league but a step below everywhere else, no way would he be my first choice.

we might all be overrating his hitting based on 47 games from 2020

True, but couldn't you same the same of Guerrero (even more so) if you removed his 62 games from this year? But you don't--the assumption is that this year is closer to his real ability, just like I'd say Soto's first three years combined (.295/.415/.557) are closer to his. Even this year, he's still getting on base 40% of the time.

I'll probably vote for Tatis. He and Acuna haven't had a misstep yet, and Tatis has a year on him. It's all guesswork right now.

"say the same"

tatis. soto and vlad are incredible hitters, but they can’t play short

Yup. That’s what put me over. If either Soto or Acuna could play CF well, I’d reconsider.
With Vlad, you take away this season and he’s certainly not in the same (figurative) league as the other guys - but you can at least say this is a natural trend. With Soto, otoh, his struggles this year make his 2020 numbers look like it could be a fluky ceiling for him (who knows).

Also 100% leave Vlad at first. It’s a waste of his cannon arm, but he seems to really enjoy himself there. I think it’s kid of like Edwin where freeing himself of the stress of handling the hot corner seemed to free him up to focus on hitting. Considering how rough he was at 3rd, I’m amazing at how he’s excelled at first. I wouldn’t want to mess with what’s working. (Also we have a couple guys coming up that could potentially be solid 3b options)

I don't think you guys (not VHS) are giving Soto enough credit. He hasn't had an OPS+ under 140; even this year, because of his OBP, he's at 142. He got off to a great start--.378/.465/.568 through 10 games--then the strained shoulder (he may have tried to play through it for a few games).

Positionally, though, it's hard to make a case for anyone other than Tatis.

For the record I think very highly of Soto.

True, but couldn't you same the same of Guerrero (even more so) if you removed his 62 games from this year? But you don't--the assumption is that this year is closer to his real ability, just like I'd say Soto's first three years combined (.295/.415/.557) are closer to his. Even this year, he's still getting on base 40% of the time.

well i did make sure to caveat that ("so far we're projecting a lot based on a really good 62 games") but like thermo said vlad has the benefit of doing it right now instead of last year. his progression looks like ..' and soto's looks like ..'. so it's easier for us to say "vlad has taken a legitimate step forward" like everyone was saying about soto last year. but vlad also has the benefit of his prospect pedigree making him one of the best hitting prospects ever, whereas soto didn't really have a chance to reach that level in the minors. and vlad also benefits from the narrative (he lost weight and now he's the true vlad) which could work against him too

though i fully admit i'm probably just down on soto because he's had a disappointing year and i'm a short attention spanned fantasy player

with tatis - he's been one of the worst defensive players in the league this year by UZR/DRS/OAA. he leads the league in errors despite missing a bunch of games. don't know if it's the yips, a crappy shoulder, or if he's actually just outgrown the position (scouts and analysts had him making the move to 3B in his prospect years). he was a negative there in 2019 as well. his "defense" rating on fangraphs has been negative 2/3 years, and that factors in positional adjustment. this really complicates the defense argument for me. obviously the padres can't try him at 3B but that might be his best position. still better than 1B/RF but not by as much

Yeah, I don't know why I said that. Mookieproof called him incredible too...just ✖ is the skeptic, and he's explained that now.

Is Acuna the only one of the four who hasn't had any kind of physical issues thus far (I'm including Vlad's weight, which may now be in the past)?

tbf Acuna could play CF it’s just the Braves have/had better supposed defensive options ahead of him that haven’t hit well so far (Pache, Inciarte, etc.). He has spelled in CF a decent amount in his career.

The only substantial time missed for Acuna was when he got drilled by Urena iirc

Not watching a lot of NL games - I actually had no idea Tatis was *that* bad at SS

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

With Wander Franco up tomorrow, all four guys are yesterday's news now.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

uh oh

out for 9-10 months

Absolutely awful but finally hope this gets the team to realize they aren’t going anywhere this season and just start cutting deals.

A bunch of stuff on Acuña's season:

https://www.mlb.com/news/ronald-acuna-jr-leading-league-in-ops-steals

Mays, Henderson, you--that's a good place to be.