2K18: Tommy Pham

[cavebird]

A career minor-leaguer made good last year at the age of 29 in his first extended chance in the majors. .306/.411/.520, 23 HR, 73 RBI, 95 R, 25 SB. Advance metrics like the underlying ability, but obviously some of it was luck. Given that he will be 30, we can expect regression, except maybe in the counting stats since he only played 128 games last year and should be a full time starter this year. Don't know what to think of him---projections seem to be all over the place. Whay sayeth the pen?

[Hornsby]

I'm a believer, I drafted Pham in the current Mock draft in the 3rd round. The skills have always been there, but apparently he had a degenerative eye condition, Keratoconus, and now keeps a vigilant watch on his vision, sometimes changing contacts between innings.

I think that he's one of the few guys who can actually achieve 30/30, and have a great OPB as well. He's got the skills, he just needs the health.

Really good article here on what Pham has to do.

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/working-to-save-his-vision-pham-never-loses-sight-of/article_b68ad641-d05b-56cc-ba51-46972eb19597.html

[cavebird]

Wow, fascinating story, but also scary for the future.

[mjl]

for what little it's worth, I also have keratoconus (bad side effect from lasik), and when my contacts are working properly I have 20-15 vision... but sometimes my vision is just incurably blurry for a little while and there isn't a lot I can do about it.

[Judge Jude]

I picked him up cheap last year (thanks, Pham!), so a no-brainer for me

that said, I'd be confident to buy in a redraft league but not lose my head in a dynasty league, for the reasons cited

he has always been confident and seems to be well-liked in the clubhouse and says he wants it and he wants it bad

of course, ANY vision issues in spring training would be a red flag. monitor

[virgonomic]

for what little it's worth, I also have keratoconus (bad side effect from lasik), and when my contacts are working properly I have 20-15 vision... but sometimes my vision is just incurably blurry for a little while and there isn't a lot I can do about it.

Interesting insight, and words of warning. I have a mild prescription but there is a nonzero risk of laser surgery being 100% successful with no side effects.

I wish you the best of health going forward.

[Hornsby]

I've got to say, Tommy Pham is now my favorite player...a total red-ass, to use the old vernacular. Heres a bit about his last couple of seasons from SI, via deadspin...

Still, Pham hadn’t thought to quit. Then the season started. “We’re two weeks in, and I’m raking,” he says. “I’m hitting like .400. The big league team was 3–9, and all three outfielders were hitting .200. They tried [Matt] Adams out there, and he’s a great hitter, but he just couldn’t play the outfield. So I’m like, They’re getting the reports every day, they know I’m raking. What the f—-? When are they gonna call me up? And then we’re three weeks in. The guys are still struggling, Grichuk, Dex [Dexter Fowler], Piscotty. And I’m still balling! So finally I said, They’re not gonna f——-’ call me up, f—- it, and I zoned out in Triple A. Every day I was just like, F—- this. I’ve made it to the big leagues, f—- it.”

He stopped showing up for early work, daring his manager to bench him, daring St. Louis to cut him loose. Pham’s agents had learned that other MLB teams as well as Japanese clubs were interested. “I’m thinking, [the Cardinals] are not gonna trade me,” Pham says. “They won’t sell me to Japan. What the f—-? They clearly don’t believe in me. Let a mother——— leave! And they wouldn’t even do that.”

Pham was also pissed about his playing time in 2015, when he was once again in line behind Randal Grichuk and others:

When leftfielder Matt Holliday got hurt in 2015, Grichuk got that job, and when Peter Bourjos was benched, sliding Grichuk to center, Piscotty took over in left. Pham had to settle for 35 cobbled-together starts. “You can’t bitch about it, because if you bitch about it, you f—- up the team,” Pham says. “But I put up an .824 OPS and a 1.4 WAR in 150 at bats. Times that by four—if anybody did that their rookie year, baseball goes crazy over them. But when I did it, they say, Oh, he’s just the backup. In 2016, I had an .870 OPS before I stopped playing every day. An .870 OPS in the big leagues? That plays. But I never got the recognition. I put up better numbers than these other guys in the minor leagues and the major leagues. And I was a better athlete than these mother———-. I run faster than ’em, I’m stronger than ’em. But when a team puts some money in a player, they’re gonna talk ’em up.”

https://deadspin.com/tommy-pham-vents-about-being-jerked-around-by-the-cardi-1824291606?utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_twitter&utm_source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

For some extra entertainment, click on the recommended link titled: Tommy Pham has no patience for mouthy ballhawks.

[TS Garp]

I've got to say, Tommy Pham is now my favorite player...a total red-ass, to use the old vernacular. Heres a bit about his last couple of seasons from SI, via deadspin...

https://deadspin.com/tommy-pham-vents-about-being-jerked-around-by-the-cardi-1824291606?utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_twitter&utm_source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

For some extra entertainment, click on the recommended link titled: Tommy Pham has no patience for mouthy ballhawks.

Players with a chip on their shoulder can often work/train/play harder, but to a point. It can also cut the other way -- appreciate his honesty but there are red flags here.

[revo]

Players with a chip on their shoulder can often work/train/play harder, but to a point. It can also cut the other way -- appreciate his honesty but there are red flags here.

Big red flag — if things don’t go his way, he goes into Operation: Shutdown.

[Sharky]

Big red flag — if things don’t go his way, he goes into Operation: Shutdown.

I wonder how Derek Bell is doing these days....

[Sour Masher]

Big red flag — if things don’t go his way, he goes into Operation: Shutdown.

Yeah, that is the only real concern I have from that speech. The rest of it was a wonderfully refreshing contrast to the banal nothing speech from careful endorsement conscience athletes like Tm Brady.

[Hornsby]

Funniest injury that I've heard of in a long time...as long as it didn't happen to you!

According to the StL Dispatch, "Tommy Pham injured his head when he was in the batting cage getting ready for his third-inning at-bat on Wednesday. Using a "contraption" of his own design, Pham had one of the resistance bands he uses snap back on him and send the barrel of his bat into his forehead. "Blood started gushing down," Pham said. "I had to get that fixed." He went through the concussion protocol at the ballpark, and he will have to be re-evaluated Thursday morning before the series finale." - newsreporter3

[Judge Jude]

I have both Pham and Mac Williamson, who did a face plant the other day by tripping on the warmup mound in SF while chasing a foul ball. and my Eaton, Pence, and CarGo on the DL. my other OFs are getting nervous!

[Hornsby]

There WILL be a movie about Tommy Pham someday...the latest.

During Pham’s dissertation Wednesday on how he hurt himself, he matter-of-factly said he had been stabbed at one point in his life. Pham, explaining to the Post-Dispatch on Thursday, said it had happened at his mother’s house when he was growing up and that his stepfather had come at him with a knife in his hand. “I think we were fighting over my mom,” said Pham. Pointing to his chest, Pham said the knife “grazed me. It cut me. So ... that’s what happened.”

[Hammer]

While Tommy has only been slightly disappointing, its beginning to look like he and Fowler and Ozuna are going to lose PT. Bader is playing his way into a rotation and O'Neill is looming.

Nice problem to have for the Cards but another seemingly overcrowded situation for fantasy purposes.