The Myth Of Truly Blocked Prospects
Every off-season, the arrival of the winter meetings, top prospect lists and general baseball boredom leads to rampant speculation about baseball trades involving prospects who are presently “blocked” in their current organizations and need to be freed like Brandon Allen (Hasn’t he been freed twice in the last year already)? Maybe the Fangraphs crowd can come together and compile a list of prospects who wound up being truly “blocked” for an extended period of time, but I struggle to find even a few scenarios where a productive young player did not force his way into the picture or be traded to fill other holes.
Having previously scouted Braves Mike Minor, his name popped into my head as a pitcher who I have little doubt would have compiled 185 innings pitched as a mid-rotation workhorse and an improvement over the now exiled Derek Lowe. The extra half win or more I’m confident Minor would have provided came back to haunt Atlanta as the Braves missed the playoffs on the season’s final day.
And while it did take about a season and a half for a permanent rotation spot to be opened up for Minor, few scenarios actually exist where a legitimate big leaguer waited in the wings for two seasons or more marinating in the minor leagues. I use two seasons as a criteria for “blocked” status because an organization like Tampa will develop talent more slowly than other organizations. For me, “blocked” does not really exist when player development is still occurring at the minor league level and one has to provide leeway for that.
Additionally, I’ll also concede another season for a prospect to force his way into the picture, overtake the incumbent and then allow time for the organization to author a deal for the displaced player. Before writing my own #Free(insert prospect name here) post launching verbal darts at a General Manager pinned up on the dartboard nestled in my “Cheers” case (where much of the writing magic happens), that executive deserves ample time to negotiate the best deal possible before being subjected to this father-of-three’s G-Rated rantings.
For this reason, Mike Minor doesn’t truly fit the criteria.
In crowdsourcing fellow writers at Fangraphs, we were able to come up with the following list of players who they believed would qualify for “blocked” status based on my completely non-research based, but probably thought about entirely too much criteria;
David DeJesus (KC) / Incumbent: Carlos Beltran
Mat Gamel (MIL) / Incumbent: Prince Fielder
Ryan Howard (PHI) / Incumbent: Jim Thome
Chris Nelson (COL) / Incumbent: Ian Stewart? (Shameless Paul Swydan plug!)
Jorge Posada (NYY) / Incumbent: Joe Girardi
Richie Sexson (CLE) / Incumbent: Jim Thome
My first inclination was to break each down to provide perspective, but changed course after investigating Posada and Sexson and concluding their respective transitions were within what would be considered more than reasonable for any organization.
In recent days, the Mat Latos trade has left the Padres in an enviable position of having not one, but two first base prospects in Anthony Rizzo and Yonder Alonso – not to mention Kyle Blanks who produced 1.1 WAR in only 190 plate appearances on the 40-man roster. While trade rumors began popping up almost immediately after the deal was consummated, prospect chats were bombarded with questions about which of the Padres odd men out will need to fend off a season long case of “The Monday’s” twiddling his thumbs waiting for an injury.
On Twitter, Royals fans were also abuzz over rumors of Joakim Soria to the Blue Jays in a package including “blocked” prospects in catcher Travis D’Arnaud or center fielder Anthony Gose.
Nationals fans are wondering what to do with Anthony Rendon, who hasn’t even played a single game professionally, when he’s ready to supplant Ryan Zimmerman.
Rangers faithful are already counting the riches Elvis Andrus will bring once he’s dealt to open up a place for personal favorite Jurickson Profar and ticking Kevin Goldstein off in the process.
If one is viewing the idea of being “blocked” through the lens of, “a team will eventually play or move the piece”, then speculate away! However, if your nightmares include both “blocked” players splitting time through their respective primes before blooming into stars for other franchises, or one simply collecting dust in triple-A, then it’s time to reevaluate that viewpoint. With thirty big league organizations and each having both strengths and weaknesses, the cream is almost guaranteed to rise sooner, rather than later and force a team’s hand.
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Not for nothing, but Boggs wasn’t blocking Youkilis. The immortal Bill Mueller was the Red Sox 3B in 2003-04.
Boggs did present a semi-logjam that delayed Scott Cooper’s emergence as an entirely unsatisfactory heir to Boggs’ throne, but the perceived system depth emboldened Lou Gorman to deal Jeff Bagwell for Larry Andersen.
C’mon, wasn’t Mueller a batting champ for the Sawks? Besides, correct if I’m wrong but Youk came up as a 1B.
Not to mention that 9.5 wins over 3 years (4.6, 1.1, 3.8) isn’t shabby.
I wonder how Mueller and Trot Nixon types would be received by the Red Sox faithful today? Maybe it’s just my perception, but it seems the Yankees/Red Sox rivalry has become so titanic that each expects star power at every position. Being in constant contention makes it awfully difficult for a rookie to enter the fold and work through the growing pains common amongst young players.
You’re wrong. Youk was a 3B prospect, playing almost exclusively at the keystone corners in the minors (with a stint at first in high A) and played third for the mlb club in 2004. In 2005 for the Sox he played 24 games at third, 9 at first, and 2 at second. He was shifted over to first after the Sox acquired Lowell in the Beckett deal.
Boggs was blocked by Carney Lansford though
Truly blocked prospects: Edgar Martinez, Doc Cramer (would have had 3000 hits if Connie Mack wasn’t so obsessed with Bing Miller), Elston Howard, Gavvy Cravath, George Stone.
Kevin Youkilis was not blocked by Wade Boggs. Boggs last played for the Sox in 1992, back when Youk was 13.
He was major league ready at 11.
And before Bill Mueller, Shea Hillenbrand. In any case, I’m not sure if Mueller was ever really blocking Youkilis — inasmuch as I don’t think the Red Sox ever saw him as a permanent solution.
I simply posted the list writers came up with to point out very few real examples actually exist. I think that point was made which was the purpose of the piece. The fact incorrect examples were given by smart people actually makes the piece more timely.
No it doesn’t, it means you didn’t actually want to do any research so you asked a couple of people who also didn’t do any research.
Or David, maybe my Mac crashed 400 words into the piece, I found myself 1,000 miles away from home for the holidays and threw it out to other Fangraphs writers because my previous research hadn’t come up with anybody – Which is the point of the piece.
No, let’s go with your “lazy researcher” version instead. It’s much simpler that way.
And the dog ate my homework.
My point exactly David. You have a happy holiday now..
This David guy seems cool. “How dare you provide free content in a manner which dissatisfies me!”
Actually, I think Youk is a good example. He was ready for the 3B job in 2004, and actually missed a lot of ABs in the minors because he was a backup to Mueller on the big-league club. He went back to AAA in 05 and raked, but was blocked by Mueller. It was two years before he got the starting job — and it was at first, because the Sox acquired Lowell.
Whether Mueller was the long-term answer is moot. The Sox kept him at third until his contract was up, despite Youkilis being ready for the major-league job. Technically, under the Self-Admitted Random Rules of This Post defining a blocked player, Youk qualifies…
And that’s an excellent point about Boggs being blocked by Lansford. I’d guess that blocked prospects were much MUCH more common before free agency….
Edgar Martinez blocked for years by Jim Presley. Might be in HOF if not for that.
That was the first case that came to my mind, too. Though the blockage there was less in Jim Presley’s presence than in the reasoning ability of the M’s front office and field management.
Here’s the question with Edgar? Yes, he posted 900+ OPS numbers at the triple-A level over 1100 plate appearances, but did the lack of home runs (21) over that time and suspect defense leave him in “tweener” purgatory with advanced statistics not being used as heavily as today?
In reflecting on his numbers, he’s really one of the more extreme exceptions of aging curves and production I’ve ever seen. Pretty amazing that his breakout year came at 29 and career year at 32. Not something one sees often.
That’s a huge stretch you’re trying to make there. However many extra at bats Edgar may have gotten wouldn’t amount to a hill of beans difference in his Hall of Fame case. He might have gotten at most one more year’s worth of plate appearances, but he wouldn’t have been putting up the kind of numbers he did later in his career.
Edgar Martinez is my all-time favorite baseball player.
I’m not sure if it was classic blocking or just the Sox being particularly thick-headed at the time but Wade Boggs himself wasn’t promoted until he was 24. After a .311/.400/.270 season at age 20 at Double-A; he repeated and bumped those numbers to .325/.420/.377; then spent 2 full years at Triple-A. Apparently .306/.396/.364 at Pawtucket wasn’t enough to make the big club.
Although Carney Lansford won the AL batting title in 1981 as Boggs repeated Triple-A, why did the Red Sox trade for Lansford in the first place when Boggs was tearing up the minors? And why didn’t they hand him the job in 1980 over the injury-ravaged Butch Hobson and Glenn Hoffman who was a year younger than Boggs. The Sox found Boggs 381 PAs in 1982 at a variety of spots with Lansford as the starter at 3B. Boggs became the fulltime 3B in 1983 after the Sox traded Lansford and received Tony Armas in return.
Because OBP is only a recent consideration of GM’s. Some, I should say. Boggs had no power and Boston wanted him to display it before they were willing to promote him. He was also a poor 3rd baseman in the minors, which didn’t help matters because he was projecting his career as a 1st baseman – even worse for a player without power.
Branch Rickey was quite fond of OBP …
Mike Glavine (Tom’s Brother) was at one point third in the Indians org behind Thome and Richie Sexson. He ended up having a cup of coffee and recorded one hit in his last MLB game. The More You Know.
“Just ask Jim Thome who enters the 2012 season with 12 more home runs combined than the two power hitters he was previously dealt to free up room for.”
Thome wasn’t traded, Sexson was.
Did you actually do any research for this article?
Woops, I did miss that one and will make the change. However, are you really going let a concluding sentence with an inaccuracy which had nothing to do with the purpose of the piece overshadow it entirely?
Isn’t a conclusion the summation of the point of the entire article? You guys get paid yes? Why don’t you start acting (and performing) like professionals?
No way! You guys don’t get paid enough to fuss overly much about a minor inaccuracy.
Regardless of pay, acting like a professional and doing a good, thorough, and accurate job will never go out of style.
Really Joe? I honestly don’t even know where to begin with that, but anything that followed would likely cause more trouble than it’s worth so I’ll just take the high road. Happy holidays to you too.
I always enjoy a good ol’ response of “Happy Holidays to you too!” whenever you critique their work anytime near December. If you’re going to be that offended that people read your article near Christmas and point out inaccuracies, save the next piece for December 26 instead.
Garrett,
I’m all for a critique and made a correction to the piece based on what the first commenter pointed out. However, I think our definitions of “critique” are much different if Joe’s comments qualify.
I might be crazy, but I did not get the sense that “the point of the entire article” was whether Sexson or Thome that got traded.
Brian Giles by Albert Belle from 1994-1996
Good one with Giles. Three years of identical triple-A production and no substantial shot and a hitter who was 12-20% above the league average from day one.
Was Gamel really blocked by fielder? He was a 3b until last year.
Gamel is a tough case. He would probably not make the cut for me and was a guy I figured I’d be discussing in the comments area. Poor defense, position changes, injuries, and poor performance in his spotty big league at bats have left doubts in my mind as to whether he has been truly ready before this season. With Fielder gone and coming off a statistical spike in triple-A, it seems to me he’s positioned nicely where things simply didn’t fit before.
Gamel was a 3B prospect until last year when the organization discovered that they had no in-house replacement for Fielder. He was Blocked at 3B by Casey Mcgehee who was claimed off waivers from the Cubs cause he was blocked by Aramis Rameriez. Who now is the Brewer’s new 3B.
You spelled the Rangers prospect incorrectly. Its correctly spelled: “Jurickson Profar, the son of Judeska and Chesmond”
Jurickson was actually spelled correctly in the piece.
You missed the sarcasm.
You are right. I miss the tone of comments when I try to reply to readers on my IPhone. The trollers are also out in full force tonight too so that has something to do with it as well.
“People pointing out obvious factual errors” is an odd definition for trolls.
Dave,
The piece has been updated and I removed the last sentence. I’m not sure what else you want at this point.
Additionally, you apparently didn’t like my first response and decided to step it up to personal attacks.
For the record, I would consider that trolling, but was not thinking of you when I wrote the comment and you had only replied once.
In general, my scouting reports leave very little wiggle room for real conversation because often times I’ve seen a player multiple times and readers only have what they have read to go on. It’s not great for stimulating conversation.
I was hoping a piece which was more thinking out loud and working through an idea hoping readers would chime in with names and ideas would be a productive exercise and something different than my general norm.
Fortunately, the majority “got it” and have provided a number of strong examples. Others have not, but that’s okay too. I’ll just place you in with the not’s and push on.
Wilson Ramos by Joe Mauer.
I can’t really count Ramos since he had 700 PA or so of mid-600′s OPS production at the AAA level. I think his bat last season shocked many who viewed him as more of a defense first guy.
One interesting side note is that Norris vs. Ramos had become a weekly question on the prospects chat with Norris being the “blocked” player. I guess the Nationals answered the “catcher of the future” question this past week.
What are you talking about? Check your facts. Ramos was in BA top 100 prospects three years in a row, and he had exactly 295 PA in AAA at the age of 22 when the Twinkies traded him–not 700 as you claim (and even then he had an OPS of 850 for the rest of the year in AAA with the Nats after the trade.) He was the #2 prospect in the Twins, behind Hicks (according to BA) when the Twins traded him. That is a fairly strong definition of a legit prospect. 15 HRs with a 780 OPS and strong defense as a 23 year old rookie in the ML–you aren’t looking for a replacement, you are looking at a potential star. Ramos is at the bare minimum an everyday catcher in the ML. He arguably has the potential to be an all-star. He was not going to be a catcher in the Twins lineup because he was BLOCKED by an MVP.
In spite of your love for Norris, Ramos had better numbers at the same level and the same age. To claim that Ramos was blocking Norris, and that Mauer wasn’t blocking Ramos, is absurd.
Didn’t FG describe Ramos as blocked when he was a trade prospect? At the time, if you heard anything about him from the Twins perspective, Ramos and blocked were always in the same breath. I also recall Gardenhire saying he would call him up if the position weren’t already taken and that he wanted him catching a full schedule and not a backup schedule.
Anthony Gose is blocked? He batted .253 last season while striking out 26.2% of the time in AA. The only thing he’s blocked by is his inability to make consistent contact …
the perception is that he’s in AA, posted double-digit home runs, a ton of steals, and plays great outfield defense. The high K totals are obviously a sign he is still an unfinished product, but many do consider him blocked because Rasmus is the Blue Jays center fielder. As I said in the piece, blocked for me doesn’t really apply if a player is still developing and requires minor league time.
A better team is being blocked by Carl Crawford. Does that count?
Do you think Crawford rebounds? Fan projections have him at 4.2 WAR. If that’s the over/under, I’m assuming you would take the under.
Matt LaPorta blocked at 1B, LF, and RF by Prince Fielder, Ryan Braun, and Corey Hart in Milwaukee, ca. 2008-2009.
It seemed like that at the time, but he wound up being moved and hasn’t lived up to expectations. Was he actually blocked, or did the Brewers org. have an idea he would struggle like this?
if so, that was certainly an outlier belief. BA had him #23 overall and #1 on the brewers that year. other publications were similarily bullish.
that he hasn’t lived up to the players around him (#22: cargo) and (28: heyward) probably gives the brewers scouting dept too much credit and too little to the indians staff.
which, ps, would be an interesting article…it’s been 3 years since those 07 (CC) and 08 (lee) trades…
err, 08* and 09*
man those mid-90′s indians teams were stacked offensively.
Lou Gehrig was blocked by Wally Pipp for a couple of years and then Gehrig blocked every other 1b in the Yankee system for the next 14 years.
Were there any 1B of note who moved on and then became very good starters during the Gehrig era?
There are a variety of reasons why there were any number of players in the fairly distant past (prior to around 1965) who were blocked: fewer teams, lousy (or lousier) statistical analysis, pre-Information Age, pre-cable TV, pre-Internet, pre-free agency, pre-draft. There are surely some folks who could rattle off a long list of names from back then who really were blocked for a number of years.
An interesting article would be a list of guys whose Hall of Fame candidacy was fatally impacted by an unnecessarily long tenure in the minor leagues. Edgar Martinez was mentioned by someone in this thread although the problem there was a failure to appreciate the value of a high OBP and Edgar’s perceived inability to play in the field. [The Mariners had John Olerud, an excellent defensive 1B, during a large chunk of the Edgar years; otherwise, my guess is that Edgar would've been playing 1B rather than DH for the Mariners.] Chase Utley strikes me as a guy who would probably be on his way to the HOF had he been called up a couple of years earlier, but that those two missing years’ worth of counting stats is going to be fatal to his candidacy. I believe the problem for Utley was that Philly had given a fairly large contract to the mediocre David Bell and, had they not, they could’ve moved Placido Polanco over to 3B and promoted Utley much sooner. If my facts are wrong here, someone please feel free to correct me.
Chase Utley – Blocked by complete inefficiency and idiocy in philly.
eh, maybe. But Utley did play 94 games the year before becoming a regular and accumulated 1.6 WAR, which is good but not obviously better than Polanco at the time. Anyway the Phillies didn’t have much to gain by playing him and it worked out in the end.
I came to the same conclusion after looking at Polanco and Utley, but I understand where Joe is coming from.
Desmond Jennings blocked by Sam Fuld :)
Yes, the epitome of “blocked” and an example we’ll be talking about a decade from now with a chuckle.
Scott Hairston – drafted by the DBacks in the 3rd round in 2001, all he did from Day 1 in the minors was hit. From 2001-2006 he only had one season with an OPS under 940 but he also spent a fair amount of that time sitting on the DBacks bench watching Luis Gonzalez, who he was never going to replace. Steve Finley was in CF for most of that run as well (and Hairston was not really a CF anyway), and in right he as blocked 1st by Reggie Sanders and then Danny Bautista (for better or worse).
Once he ran out of options and was traded away from the situation that he could never conquer (competent to great players in front of him combined with a manager in Bob Brenly who was committed to veterans), he managed to put together a couple decent season but by then had acquired the stigma of a AAAA player and never really got a full-time chance in his prime.
Wasn’t Hairston a 2b with the D’Backs? I think they had Jay Bell at that point, who was “mysteriously” hitting 40 bombs. this is all from memory though.
He was in the minors but I don’t think anybody really thought he was a MLB caliber defender at 2B.
As for Bell:
- it was 38 Hr and that was in 1999
- it wasn’t “mysterious” unless you believe he went on the juice for only one whole season because his next best season was 20. It was a fluke.
- AZ’s 2B by 2002 was Junior Spivey who was an AS that season so Hairston was blocked there.
Hairston’s 1st real chance in the majors was 2004 and he spent it at 2B but again, I don’t think anyone thought he could play the position well enough to stick there.
In checking Hairston out after reading this, I did not remember his being ranked in the top-35 prospects overall back-to-back years by Baseball America. I actually wonder if it was a mistake as he didn’t really break out at the MILB level until 2005-2006.
Scott was miscast as a second baseman. From when I saw him in high school, where he was part of a team that produced 5 MLBers, to Triple A Tucson to the big leagues, I saw a player with suspect hitting mechanics but very raw hitting ability. He’s a more refined hitter now but still reverts back to an undisciplined hacker from time to time, specifically when he slumps. I still think a mediocre slider from a righty can give Scotty fits easily.
I never thought of him as being blocked by regulars like Finley. Spivey, Sanders or Bautista. Arizona tried to find a position for Scott (It went from Second to Center to Corner Outfield) and should share some of the credit for the career he’s carved out for himself. Viewing him in Triple A and now in the big leagues, I really think he’s become the player I thought he’d become. At best, a RH hitting platoon partner and, at worst, a right handed hitting off the bench.
How about the Giants’ crowded OF situation in the early 70′s? In 1971 they had: Willie Mays, Bobby Bonds, Ken Henderson, Dave Kingman, George Foster – all on the MLB roster and Gary Matthews and Garry Maddox in the minors. (THey also had Bernie Williams but not THAT Bernie Williams, obviously)
THey gave Foster away for nothing and Kingman was forced to play out of position part-time until they sold him for $150,000 cash.
Wow, that definitely was a pretty remarkable group. If I remember correctly, Mays was on his way out of SF at that time too. I remember Foster as a Reds product and Kingman as a member of the Athletics, although both eventually found their way into Mets orange and blue while I was growing up in NYC.
1971 was Mays’ last good year with 6.4 WAR at age 40 but it was an odd year for him as it was built largely on the massive number of walks he drew (led the league, that was his career high in BB% by a wide margin).
This is strictly opinion, with nothing to back it up, but after seeing several of his minor league starts and all of his big league starts, I am absolutely convinced that Mike Minor will never be an effective major league starter once the league gets used to him. He has mediocre velocity and one of the straightest fastballs I have ever seen; not a good combination.
Snowman,
I’ve scouted Minor and see some of the same things you do. My concern with his fastball is more of the command variety, but I have seen it play flat as well. For me, this limits his upside, but 90-92 MPH from the left side plays well as a mid-rotation guy. If the fastball isn’t effective enough to at least serve as a bridge to his better breaking pitches, then it will spell trouble, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.
Brandon Belt currently blocked by Brian Sabean.
Touche… I really hope that changes in 2012!
SS of the future Xander “Don’t tell Peter I’m probably a third baseman” Bogaerts is being blocked
…. by previous SS of the future, Jose “I hit like Enrique” Iglesias
…. who in turn is blocked by the original SS of the future Jed “if he can stay healthy….” Lowrie
… who is blocked by Marco Scutaro
LOL! This is a great example of the “blocked” perception as Lowrie was dealt, Scutaro is the SS right now, Iglesias needs AAA at bats, and Bogaerts is two full levels behind… at least. For now, the SS situation in that organization seems to be working out beautifully! I enjoy the sarcasm though… made my morning.
I always felt that the best example was Sandy Alomar Jr. being blocked by Benito Santiago in SD. I never felt it was a big deal to wait until the big league team needed you or try your glove at another position, because if Joe DiMaggio had to switch to RF to get playing time (granted, on the powerhouse Yankees), then no one has reason to gripe for having to play out of position or waiting their turn.
wasn’t it mantle who switched for dimaggio?
Ben Chapman was the incumbent CF for the Yankees when DiMaggio came to the team, and the next year Chapman played mostly CF until traded for Jake Powell, who played a lot of CF for the Yankees the rest of the season. DiMaggio played 65 games in LF, 55 in CF, and 19 in RF in 1936, then took over as the full-time CF’er in 1937. And, yes, DiMaggio should have moved to a corner to accommodate the young Mantle, but that’s how it goes.
I also think that Mantle would be a poor example of being blocked, since he did get 386 plate appearances as a 19 year old for the Yankees. From his speed and hitting ability, I’m guessing they would have played him at catcher if needed, just to get that bat into the lineup.
Alomar Jr./Santiago is an example I’ve heard before and it’s a good one. Alomar Jr. did spend two strong seasons in triple-A before finally being moved so he very well may be the example all others should be judged against.
Thank you guys for the Dimaggio exchange too. I appreciate the opportunity to learn from the impressive knowledge base of FG readers. Happy holidays!
Why was Chase Utley so old coming to the majors?
Was he blocked (Polanco?) Or was it not major league ready?
Utley might also be looking at the HoF as it looks harder due to missing time by injuries – I hope he comes back good this year, but it looks harder for him to hit enough counting stats for the HoF
This is why Utley not getting the MVP/GG love hurts him now as he will have difficulty hitting the ‘peak’ case
Utley did spend 2+ full seasons at AAA and posted strong numbers, but was his .813 OPS as a 23-year old good enough to overtake Polanco who was entering his prime and posted 31 HR combined the next two seasons while Utley repeated the level (to dominant results) and finally broke through as a rookie. He’s an interesting case for sure and I could honestly see it going either way.
I posted on this topic above. I believe that the real problem with Utley was that the team had given a fairly large contract to the mediocre David Bell and couldn’t bring themselves to admit that Bell was a sunk cost. Remove Bell and his contract from the equation and the solution was simple: move Placido Polanco over to 3B and promote Utley to be your every day 2B. As I said above, if my facts are wrong here, someone can feel free to correct me. I believe this is right, though.
What Robbie G says is the consensus explanation for that debacle on the Phillies blogs that I’ve read.
Danny Duffy by Bruce Chen?
I think we all thought Duffy was better prepared to make more of a contribution than he actually did. Hard to call him blocked when Chen was so much better than he was.
SF early 1960s, Willie McCovey blocked by Orlando Cepeda at 1B. Giants tried both players in the OF, settling mostly on playing McCovey out of position while both produced great offensive numbers–until Cepeda had an off season due to injury. The Giants traded him to StL for Ray Sadecki. He went on to be MVP, I think in his first full season as a Cardinal.
I’m not really sure what the point of this article was. You gave an absurdly narrow definition for the word “blocked” and then said nobody ever fits it.
Your definition used a 3-year time scale and didn’t count somebody as blocked if he was traded, even if he was traded because he was blocked by the normal definition of the word.
Since I follow the Giants closely, I will give two recent examples of players who were blocked, though ironically by bad players.
Buster Posey was blocked in 2010 by Benjie Molina until the latter was traded. First, Posey was left in Fresno, then Bochy used him almost exclusively at 1B. Sabean had to trade Molina to force Bochy to unblock him. The Giants lucked out and made the playoffs anyway, but only on the last day of the season. The blocking of Posey nearly cost them their Word Series win.
Brandon Belt was blocked last season by Aubrey Huff. Belt would likely have been about a 3 WAR player, while Huff was negative WAR. That’s not enough difference in wins to have put them in the playoffs, but the rest of the team might have played differently if they had been in contention in September. (Belt will likely be blocked again by inferior players next season.)
These, and many other examples I could point to, show that there is blocking and can be detrimental to the team as well as to the blocked player.
Baltar,
The point is that the general idea of a player being “blocked” is thrown around way too loosely in general. Belt’s 2011 is an example of that. At this point, the general line of thinking is that Belt was badly mishandled and “blocked” even though he K’d at a 27.3% clip and was slightly below average offensively when he did play. Belt’s transition to MLB included the growing pains of thousands of prospects before him. Did I want to see Belt receive more plate appearances to see if his numbers improved with playing time? Sure, but he certainly didn’t lock anything down when he did play.
As for Posey, one could argue he was ready to open the season as Giants catcher, but he came up, performed from day one, and helped the Giants win the World Series. Seems to me like that scenario played out pretty perfectly.
Conversations I have with contacts rarely, if ever include talk about a prospect being legitimately blocked. it’s a place where I’ve noticed prospect and baseball fans view it through more of a fantasy baseball lens.
The only time “blocked” is really mentioned is when it’s in the context of, “Why in the world has this guy been in Triple-A so long” – and that’s after considerable time.
As somebody who gets out and sees a bunch of minor league baseball, I’m fortunate enough to keep tabs on the development of prospects in a number of organizations and am often asked if a player is blocked.
Additionally, it’s often done in a doom and gloom fashion as if the organization is wasting resources or just being dumb in general. I threw out how I perceived the term in an attempt to give it some perspective.
Maybe it missed the mark in the delivery – it happens, but my “absurdly narrow” definition as you put it would sound much less absurd than if I spoke to somebody in player development for the Rangers and asked if Andrus should be traded now because he’s “blocking” Profar.
Good reply.
It seems to me that the truly blocked prospects may be those guys that never get called up, but instead sign minor league contract after minor league contract — you know, the Crash Davis types. Most seasons, due to injuries or lack of funds, some near 30 year old will finally get a chance to play after toiling in the minors for years. Despite being a feel good story, they seem to fade away fairly quickly, which defends to management their previous lack of faith in the player without acknowledging to the fans that the players could have been better if called up during their peak years. Rich Amaral of the Mariners comes to mind as the best example, with Amaral receiving Rookie of the Year votes at 29 years old.
You did attack the peeps who pointed out pretty significant factual errors with snark and sarcasm. Also the grammar and utter lack of even basic copy editing is annoying (fangraphs style). Then you made pretty lame ass obnoxious excuses.
The constant “its free content so dont point out the piss poor writing” argument is starting,to get to me. Go read posting and toasting the excellent knicks blog done almost totally by one guy also free content that is thoughtful, well written (gasp!), well edited (double gasp!). Im tired of the excuses, or worse the abuse heaped on those who dare to point out factual errors and embarrassingly sloppy work.
I have to say, I didn’t see Newman attack any commenters with “snark” and “sarcasm.” And while some of the commenters were correct in pointing out the mistakes, they were hardly civil when doing so. Civility matters, too, I’d argue.
And, I must add, even worse is the stockholmy cult of ass kissery echo chamber atmosphere that exists in the comments section.
Too many comments to look through, but I have a couple Phillies to add to the list.
Chase Utley was clearly ready for an MLB gig but spent about a season in the minors or platooning with Placido Polanco.
Ryan Howard was blocked by Jim Thome until the latter’s injuries began to mount.
If the Braves won half a game more, they’d still have finished a half game behind the Cardinals.
Cecil Fielder was blocked by Fred McGriff, who was later traded to “unblock” John Olerud, who later blocked Carlos Delgado. Fielder was tried at some other positions and only got a fulltime shot after a trip to Japan, and Delgado stopped catching and took up the OF briefly, before the Jays caught on and let him sock some dingers.
Pirates success as a team and organization has been blocked by the Nutting family for the better part of 2+ decades.
it’s rare we have good quality guys on the big league roster, let alone a capable replacement ready to go in AAA.
Elston Howard by Yogi Berra.
I have a problem with the term (BLOcked) if this were really so the club should have traded the player who was the blockee or the player himself,before reaching the majors . This has been done before players like Callison,Battey,Romano and others were on the 59 Chisox and traded with somewhat mixed results, why bad homework—-the trade the Reds made including Alonso was a good deal even if Votto skips later.
Lorenzo Cain was blocked in 2010 by Carlos Gomez and Jim Edmonds and was blocked in 2011 by Melky Cabrera and Jeff Francour.
Vic Power by the Yankees’ racism.
I nominate Roberto Petagine, who just never got a shot despite good on-base skills, power, and a solid glove. He could have been close to Carlos Pena.
Also, Matt Stairs. OPS of over .900 in AA at age 23 as (I think) a second baseman! Continued to hit well in the upper minors until finally earning ML plating time at age 28-29, where he was a BEAST.
Merry Christmas!!!
Holy fuck, you mean to tell us that good minor leaguers with potential don’t often get stuck in the minors but get promoted?! That’s ground breaking shit. What’s next? Guys with power tend to hit home runs? No shit, Sherlock
The only thing Prince Fielder blocked Mat Gamel from was the buffet line.
Super Shredder, who’s your favorite other-half of a baseball player?
How about Mike Napoli being “blocked” by Mike Scioscia. Seems like the same thing is going on with Hank Conger. Does anyone think Hank Conger can be a decent starting backstop in the MLB?