VLOG: Corbin Carroll: Fastest Phenom

Hello Viewers! I’m back again with another video on Corbin Carroll. If you haven’t heard about this kid then you have living under a rock for the season. Although he’s cooled off in recent months, this kid’s ability to play baseball is down right impressive. Watch the video and enjoy!

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Thanks to Baseball Reference and Baseball Savant for the charts and statistics! 

Trea Turner and Taijuan Walker join the NL Champions

After the Phillies made a run to the world series, they got a taste and obviously wanted more. As a Mets fan I hate to see it. But if you are a Phillies fan you should be very excited because they added two players who are very good. Trea Turner formerly of the Dodgers and Taijuan Walker formerly of the Mets have joined the Phillies. Let’s talk about the impact of these guys on an already good Phillies team.

Let’s start with Trea Turner who isn’t really bad at anything. For that reason, the Phillies gave him an 11 year, 300 million dollar contract. It’s easy to say this because Trea Turner’s reputation speaks for itself. Turner is a right handed, primarily shortstop but also utility infielder who has 8 years of MLB experience. Turner is known for his speed and base running skills. He is also known for his bat to ball skills. When you see his stats, you’ll be seeing a lot of bold which means he’s been a league leader in many categories. Let’s check out his career statistics:

You’ll notice immediately that he has led the league in hits, steals, batting average and total bases. It’s also notable that he bats at the top of the order and makes the most out of his opportunities. The Phillies are getting a player who can hit, evidenced by his career slash .302 BA/ .355 OBP/ .487 SLG/ .842 OPS. He’s also not bad at defense because of his speed and his base running skills have netted him 230 stolen bases. I believe that the Phillies got Turner a decent price around 27 million dollars per year. When you think about other shortstops, like Correa (not finalized with Mets yet) and Bogaerts (11 yrs 280 mil Padres) his value is somewhere in between. This signing is a definite upgrade. Also worth mentioning Turner is 29 years old so Phillies will have him through his peak.

Taijuan Walker has had an interesting career. Before signing with the Phillies, he spent time with four different teams. He dealt with a serious injury three seasons ago and came back. Walker played for the division rival New York Mets and honestly as a Mets fan I thought he pitched the best in 2022. He was great in the first half of 2021 but fell off significantly after the all star break. Walker is 30 years old, with 10 years of MLB experience. He’s a right hander and has an up and down career. But when Walker is good, he is very good. Let’s look at his stats: 

When you look at his stats, you see a lot of bad and good seasons. But I strongly believe you can ignore most of his career because last season was just a different version of Walker. I think his elbow injury affected him especially in 2020 and 2021. But in 2022, Walker really figured it out with only an elite 0.9 HR/9 and 2.6 BB/9. Walker has always been a strikeout guy but figured out to get outs with ground balls as well. If you dig deeper on baseball savant, you’ll see that Walker has changed up his pitch mix as well. As for the price and impact on the Phillies, Walker signed a 4 year 72 million dollar deal. Walker is a mid-level starter, so for 18 million per year, the Phillies got a starter pitcher with 111 ERA+. In fairness, the Phillies did lose Zach Eflin and Kyle Gibson so Walker should fill in very nicely.

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Thank you to Baseball Reference and Baseball Savant for the statistics.