Way too early offseason

[D-train]

What happens to Cole Young? He finished the season on a 3-51 Bender which would make Kelenic blush. Between him and Williamson, not a good season for our prospects making their debuts.

I disagree on Williamson, not a great debut but not a huge disappointment either.

Did you see the post about Williamson's offensive issues i posted Darren? That actually he's strong enough

No I didn't see it. Can't believe they waited so long to change his swing. Don't they have hitting coaches in Everett and Ark???

[D-train]

What happens to Cole Young? He finished the season on a 3-51 Bender which would make Kelenic blush. Between him and Williamson, not a good season for our prospects making their debuts.

I disagree on Williamson, not a great debut but not a huge disappointment either.

Young actually had a higher OPS.

[Donn Beach]

I disagree on Williamson, not a great debut but not a huge disappointment either.

Did you see the post about Williamson's offensive issues i posted Darren? That actually he's strong enough

No I didn't see it. Can't believe they waited so long to change his swing. Don't they have hitting coaches in Everett and Ark???

well the issue laid out here isn't his swing or his strength, its his swing decisions. He is good at making contact, in a sense he makes too much contact. He swings out of the zone and makes contact, putting a lot of weak contact into play. He needs to concentrate on swinging in the zone where he can drive balls.

In any event, it turns out the extra contact Williamson is making is not good, and is actually making the situation worse. Because he puts so many of these balls in play, he’s getting a lot of weakly hit balls that end with outs rather than merely whiffing and ending up with a strike and living to fight another day. He’s getting an xBA of just .187 and an xSLG of a pathetic .212 on pitches outside the zone. To paraphrase Dr. Ian Malcom, Ben Williamson was so preoccupied with whether he could make contact, he didn’t stop to think if he should.

Williamson is digging that hole deeper by not swinging at enough strikes, pitches he can and has been crushing, swinging at just 64.8% of pitches in the heart of the plate, compared to an MLB average of 72.1%. However, Williamson makes more contact than the average player. So when you look at it a different way, Williamson is making contact with 57.4% of pitches in the heart of the plate, which is in line with the league’s 59.1%. Thus, it’s more of a missed opportunity than it is a weakness. That’s another way of saying, there’s a lot of room to grow if he swung at more hitter’s pitches, especially since as noted above, the contact he makes on these pitches tends to be good contact.

But for now, the problem with his profile is that he’s gobbling up trash while avoiding cookies like he’s a rat on the Atkins Diet. This is basically the quantification of your observation that Williamson has looked lost at the plate lately. But it’s also a profile that suggests that he has a lot to gain simply by getting a better sense of the zone.

It's not necessarily something that is easy to fix, players don't really show a lot of improvement over their careers



https://www.lookoutlanding.com/2025/5/1 ... year-maybe

[GL_Storm]

I made the point repeatedly that Williamson's swing was an undeveloped frontier. I'm not sure why, but it could be that the organization prefers not to mess with too much with player's swings unless the player initiates it. There's also this whole world of swing development that happens in the offseason and outside the organization. I read a book about it a few years ago.

[Seattle or Bust]

I made the point repeatedly that Williamson's swing was an undeveloped frontier. I'm not sure why, but it could be that the organization prefers not to mess with too much with player's swings unless the player initiates it. There's also this whole world of swing development that happens in the offseason and outside the organization. I read a book about it a few years ago.

Evan White would like a word.

I actually don't doubt that Williamson can become a passable hitter in the majors at some point. The question is for a team that is in its contention window, is he someone you can afford to wait to find success.

Probably not. I don't think the M's can really afford to play fringe prospects. They gotta be sold on em.

[GL_Storm]

I made the point repeatedly that Williamson's swing was an undeveloped frontier. I'm not sure why, but it could be that the organization prefers not to mess with too much with player's swings unless the player initiates it. There's also this whole world of swing development that happens in the offseason and outside the organization. I read a book about it a few years ago.

Evan White would like a word.

I actually don't doubt that Williamson can become a passable hitter in the majors at some point. The question is for a team that is in its contention window, is he someone you can afford to wait to find success.

Probably not. I don't think the M's can really afford to play fringe prospects. They gotta be sold on em.

Yeah, it could be that they learned their lesson from the Evan White experience. We'll never really know because there's basically zero reporting on these things.

I disagree with you on the other point. Every team is looking for positional value/arbitrage opportunities, and the Mariners in particular will always have to do that.

[HawkandMariner88]

Anybody know whatever happened to Santos?

[GL_Storm]

Anybody know whatever happened to Santos?

He's still in the org. They'll probably keep him on the 40 over the offseason given the upside.

[HawkandMariner88]

Anybody know whatever happened to Santos?

He's still in the org. They'll probably keep him on the 40 over the offseason given the upside.

Why is he not on the playoff roster.

[GL_Storm]

Anybody know whatever happened to Santos?

He's still in the org. They'll probably keep him on the 40 over the offseason given the upside.

Why is he not on the playoff roster.

His B-Ref profile still has him on the 60-day.