Kelenic back with the M’s

[D-train]

It would be awesome if he could rake these last two weeks against all these AAA pitchers we will be facing. Maybe then we could trick someone into giving us something for him on the trade market in the off season.

It'd be foolish to do that. What do you think he's been down in AAA DOING after all?!!! He hasn't been down in Tacoma cleaning the roads. He's been down there DEVELOPING. Changing his approach, altering his swing and stance, becoming more discerning. Everyone has noticed it. The M's have maintained yrs of control on JK from both 21 and 22 now meaning M's still have 6 yrs of control over the player, 1 more option on him, so he won't be an FA until 2029.

And he's a total 5-tool player. He has speed, arm and offers elite defense in the corners, adequate in CF.

I want him on this team, playing RF next season. In the lineup everyday. I'm saying that now and will stand by it all offseason as long as he remains healthy. He's my guy. Haniger can go unless he comes up big here in the final -- hopefully -- month

He looked fantastic yesterday. I hope he can keep it up. He would fill one of the two gaping COF holes next season if he can.

[Captain 97]

It would be awesome if he could rake these last two weeks against all these AAA pitchers we will be facing. Maybe then we could trick someone into giving us something for him on the trade market in the off season.

It'd be foolish to do that. What do you think he's been down in AAA DOING after all?!!! He hasn't been down in Tacoma cleaning the roads. He's been down there DEVELOPING. Changing his approach, altering his swing and stance, becoming more discerning. Everyone has noticed it. The M's have maintained yrs of control on JK from both 21 and 22 now meaning M's still have 6 yrs of control over the player, 1 more option on him, so he won't be an FA until 2029.

And he's a total 5-tool player. He has speed, arm and offers elite defense in the corners, adequate in CF.

I want him on this team, playing RF next season. In the lineup everyday. I'm saying that now and will stand by it all offseason as long as he remains healthy. He's my guy. Haniger can go unless he comes up big here in the final -- hopefully -- month

BS. His AAA stats are worse across the board compared to what they were last year. BA 24 points lower OBP 27 points lower, SLG 67 points lower OPS 94 points lower. Home Run percentage 2.1% lower. BB percentage 1.7% lower. K percentage 5.7% higher. He hasn't been developing at all.

The dude can't hit a big league breaking pitch and 2 months of "developing" in AAA against terrible pitching didn't change that.

[desbcoach]

It would be awesome if he could rake these last two weeks against all these AAA pitchers we will be facing. Maybe then we could trick someone into giving us something for him on the trade market in the off season.

It'd be foolish to do that. What do you think he's been down in AAA DOING after all?!!! He hasn't been down in Tacoma cleaning the roads. He's been down there DEVELOPING. Changing his approach, altering his swing and stance, becoming more discerning. Everyone has noticed it. The M's have maintained yrs of control on JK from both 21 and 22 now meaning M's still have 6 yrs of control over the player, 1 more option on him, so he won't be an FA until 2029.

And he's a total 5-tool player. He has speed, arm and offers elite defense in the corners, adequate in CF.

I want him on this team, playing RF next season. In the lineup everyday. I'm saying that now and will stand by it all offseason as long as he remains healthy. He's my guy. Haniger can go unless he comes up big here in the final -- hopefully -- month

BS. His AAA stats are worse across the board compared to what they were last year. BA 24 points lower OBP 27 points lower, SLG 67 points lower OPS 94 points lower. Home Run percentage 2.1% lower. BB percentage 1.7% lower. K percentage 5.7% higher. He hasn't been developing at all.

The dude can't hit a big league breaking pitch and 2 months of "developing" in AAA against terrible pitching didn't change that.

Just looking at basics stats he has been worse, however according to LL and their stats on swing and miss , and not swinging at breakining stuff he has advanced his selection at the plate. We will,see

[Juliooooo]

It would be awesome if he could rake these last two weeks against all these AAA pitchers we will be facing. Maybe then we could trick someone into giving us something for him on the trade market in the off season.

It'd be foolish to do that. What do you think he's been down in AAA DOING after all?!!! He hasn't been down in Tacoma cleaning the roads. He's been down there DEVELOPING. Changing his approach, altering his swing and stance, becoming more discerning. Everyone has noticed it. The M's have maintained yrs of control on JK from both 21 and 22 now meaning M's still have 6 yrs of control over the player, 1 more option on him, so he won't be an FA until 2029.

And he's a total 5-tool player. He has speed, arm and offers elite defense in the corners, adequate in CF.

I want him on this team, playing RF next season. In the lineup everyday. I'm saying that now and will stand by it all offseason as long as he remains healthy. He's my guy. Haniger can go unless he comes up big here in the final -- hopefully -- month

BS. His AAA stats are worse across the board compared to what they were last year. BA 24 points lower OBP 27 points lower, SLG 67 points lower OPS 94 points lower. Home Run percentage 2.1% lower. BB percentage 1.7% lower. K percentage 5.7% higher. He hasn't been developing at all.

The dude can't hit a big league breaking pitch and 2 months of "developing" in AAA against terrible pitching didn't change that.

I don't care about his overall stats, I care about his trajectory, and what translates to MLB. Not saying that he has figured it out, but I think his K rate over the last few weeks is very encouraging.

[D-train]

Now that I am rooting for him he finally stands a chance.

[D-train]

The trend on the K rate is pretty encouraging. Far right column. He hit .350 with a 1.062 OPS in Sept....

jkk.JPG (23.27 KiB) Viewed 319 times

[Donn Beach]

He was working on developing a new swing wasn't he? That's what he was there to produce

[Captain 97]

Here's what will happen. The M's are playing a bunch of teams with AAAA rosters for the rest of the season so he will hit just good enough to give people a ray of hope and Jerry will decide to give him another shot. He will make the team next spring and then proceed to go about 10 for 60 in April and be sent down to AAA with his trade value irreparably damaged. They will repeat that cycle a couple of more times until he runs out of options and then he will be DFA'd. Some other team will claim him try to resurrect him. He will have a couple of years where he hangs on in the big leagues as a 4th outfielder until finally he is out of baseball for good. Take it to the bank.

[GL_Storm]

I stand by what I wrote a month or so ago. He's significantly improved as a hitter. If you're pulling up his games on Statcast and looking at his AB's pitch by pitch, and looking at the trend since he got sent down, you have to conclude that he's a significantly different and better hitter than he was in May-June.

The argument that he's worse this year in AAA doesn't really hold water. A number of prospect watchers noted how poor AAA pitching was last year, presumably because of the pandemic. He was no doubt feasting on two-pitch starting pitchers with fastball velocity in the low-90's and below.

Here are some of the ways he's improved:

1) He's more selective, taking more pitches per AB
2) Fewer whiffs and called strikes
3) His k-rate is down, and his walk rate is up
4) He's covering more of the strikezone than he has in the past, especially on the outer edge of the plate and just off it
5) He's hitting sliders, cutters, and changeups much more reliably now

Problem areas:

1) I've noticed sliders up in the zone still give him problems
2) I'm not sure about this one, but he may be more vulnerable to changes in speed, not offspeed pitches specifically, but using offspeed away to slow him down and then giving him the high heat. That's a classic way to get any hitter out, but it may be more of an issue for him.
3) He's probably vulnerable to curveballs but I think that's mostly because nobody's throwing them in AAA, or not much anyway. Seriously, the pitch is like an endangered species. The same with split-fingers.

None of this means he'll be a great or even an average MLB hitter, but I'm rooting for him (duh, obviously). Maybe this is just me being dumb. But it doesn't compute for me that he's ultimately a worse hitter than Cal Raleigh. And I think what some on here don't think about too much is how terrific this era of pitching is. This time we're in now is the hardest it's ever been for a hitter to break in to the major leagues, and the Mariners in particular aren't exactly geniuses when it comes to coaching and developing hitters.

[D-train]

After reading the last two posts by Captain and Gabe I am thoroughly convinced this is the best Mariner forum of all time. I can not wait to see how this plays out. Thank you Gents.