Royals interested in Bruce?

[WrongVerb]

The only disappointment about Bruce is that he had a bad injury headed into the prime of his career that sucked the production from his game for a significant period of time. It's not like one day he decided to be bad or something.

[Rojo Rijo]

Can we not go there? The past 2 years he was a below average hitter (out of all batters). (Please don't anyone cue up the XBH counting stat.) That doesn't cut it for a RF, on top of the fact that more people than not question his defense.

Most of us loved his play up until 2014.

So, until he got hurt?

[marcshoe]

Here's a good recent thread on Bruce's defense. It includes a fairly thorough discussion of the impact Billy might have had on Bruce's UZR.

[Cannon]

His UZR is massively deflated right now anyway...unless of course you actually believe he's the worst OF of all time this year (he isn't, and even if you don't trust the eye test it only takes a quick watch of some really bad outfielders to see that). As Bruce gets more comfortable I'm sure that'll come down. He's not an awful fielder, and more than passable in RF or LF with his bat.

['69]

Has Bruce's defensive stats improved at least twice since the Nationals series?

[marcshoe]

In Richard Justice's list of ten players who could be traded, he calls Bruce a "solid defensive outfielder". Interesting.

[RedTeamGo!]

In Richard Justice's list of ten players who could be traded, he calls Bruce a "solid defensive outfielder". Interesting.

IIRC Richard Justice is an avg/HR/RBI guy. I highly doubt he looks at defensive stats. Most likely he knows Jay Bruce was a good defender when he was 22, so he will be a good defensive player for the rest of his life.

[marcshoe]

I thought it was interesting that he made the statement flat-out, with no seeming thought of being contradicted.

[Tom Servo]

I got 99 problems but Bruce's defense as it relates to trade value ain't one.

[marcshoe]

I got 99 problems but Bruce's defense as it relates to trade value ain't one.

Maybe he could win a gold glove at DH.

[RedTeamGo!]

IIRC Richard Justice is an avg/HR/RBI guy.

Ha! I said this before clicking on the link and sure enough Justice has the AVG/HR/RBI listed undernearth every offensive player on the list.

[Ghosts of 1990]

Well I'm really glad that now that we are a few years out, we want to trade Bruce who certainly looks like the better hitter than Joey Votto because Votto is tied into a bad contract; so we're just forced to give away Bruce for some terrible lot of tiered prospects who really aren't going to probably amount to anything if we're honest.

The scouts were right. Bruce is a better bat than Votto, right now in 2016. It hasn't always been that way but its the reality of now. Votto looks cooked and Bruce is a solid slugger that now healthy is again one of the top offensive players in the game. If you're going to tell me that because of WAR and defense that he's less valuable than Billy Hamilton and Kike Hernandez then I'm going to tell you how poor of a stat WAR is. Second time in a calendar week bruce's bat alone won the Reds the game; so theres two wins right there. Really silly stat at times.

All the stars we traded away and the reality is what did we really get back? Adam Duvall, okay I'll take that. Good player, good bat so far (will be crucified for bad defense in due time and poor walk rate). Nothing else we received is really going to amount to much of anything if we're honest with ourselves. Peraza is a total flea and always will be, even in our bandbox.

So yes lets move Bruce for Bubba Starling... brutal. Brutal organization, too for even having the thought of not keeping the guy now that he's clearly again one of the top offensive players in the game.

[Tom Servo]

Well I'm really glad that now that we are a few years out, we want to trade Bruce who certainly looks like the better hitter than Joey Votto because Votto is tied into a bad contract; so we're just forced to give away Bruce for some terrible lot of tiered prospects who really aren't going to probably amount to anything if we're honest.

The scouts were right. Bruce is a better bat than Votto, right now in 2016. It hasn't always been that way but its the reality of now. Votto looks cooked and Bruce is a solid slugger that now healthy is again one of the top offensive players in the game. If you're going to tell me that because of WAR and defense that he's less valuable than Billy Hamilton and Kike Hernandez then I'm going to tell you how poor of a stat WAR is. Second time in a calendar week bruce's bat alone won the Reds the game; so theres two wins right there. Really silly stat at times.

All the stars we traded away and the reality is what did we really get back? Adam Duvall, okay I'll take that. Good player, good bat so far (will be crucified for bad defense in due time and poor walk rate). Nothing else we received is really going to amount to much of anything if we're honest with ourselves. Peraza is a total flea and always will be, even in our bandbox.

So yes lets move Bruce for Bubba Starling... brutal. Brutal organization, too for even having the thought of not keeping the guy now that he's clearly again one of the top offensive players in the game.

[Ghosts of 1990]

There's the Redzone snark reply we all have come to know so well!

[kaldaniels]

Well I'm really glad that now that we are a few years out, we want to trade Bruce who certainly looks like the better hitter than Joey Votto because Votto is tied into a bad contract; so we're just forced to give away Bruce for some terrible lot of tiered prospects who really aren't going to probably amount to anything if we're honest.

The scouts were right. Bruce is a better bat than Votto, right now in 2016. It hasn't always been that way but its the reality of now. Votto looks cooked and Bruce is a solid slugger that now healthy is again one of the top offensive players in the game. If you're going to tell me that because of WAR and defense that he's less valuable than Billy Hamilton and Kike Hernandez then I'm going to tell you how poor of a stat WAR is. Second time in a calendar week bruce's bat alone won the Reds the game; so theres two wins right there. Really silly stat at times.

All the stars we traded away and the reality is what did we really get back? Adam Duvall, okay I'll take that. Good player, good bat so far (will be crucified for bad defense in due time and poor walk rate). Nothing else we received is really going to amount to much of anything if we're honest with ourselves. Peraza is a total flea and always will be, even in our bandbox.

So yes lets move Bruce for Bubba Starling... brutal. Brutal organization, too for even having the thought of not keeping the guy now that he's clearly again one of the top offensive players in the game.

How did we go from Ben Greive II to better than Joey Votto?

Your takes on Bruce have me totally befuddled and I kindly ask you to explain.