Tyler Thornburg

[Fisk]

It’s a cheap contract for a guy who at his peak is nasty. It’s a cheap hope that he regains form

 

Easy to take a flier on Thornburg in hopes he regains his form. Not a guaranteed contract so can always cut him loose in the spring.

[Kimmi]

It’s a cheap contract for a guy who at his peak is nasty. It’s a cheap hope that he regains form

 

Easy to take a flier on Thornburg in hopes he regains his form. Not a guaranteed contract so can always cut him loose in the spring.

 

Exactly.

[Larry Cook]

Much like s bad case of herpies, he’s back again!

[Dojji]

Hard to deny that we'd rather have Travis Shaw playing 1B for us right now... but I'm cautiously optimistic on Thornburg.

[moonslav59]

Hard to deny that we'd rather have Travis Shaw playing 1B for us right now... but I'm cautiously optimistic on Thornburg.

 

How about Travis Shaw at 2B for us?

[notin]

How about Travis Shaw at 2B for us?

 

Why?

 

Milwaukee only played him there because they acquired Moustakas to play third and the Hernan Perez/Jonathan Schoop duo had their weaknesses and Milwaukee couldn’t or didn’t think they could tolerate them. Shaw at 2b was not a defensive success, but rather Jim Hendry-style experiment of jamming the best 9 hitters into the lineup and working out the positions later.

 

I’d take Brock Holt over him at 2b everyday. I’d even take Blake Swihart at 2b over him as well...

[notin]

Easy to take a flier on Thornburg in hopes he regains his form. Not a guaranteed contract so can always cut him loose in the spring.

 

The Sox probably acquire two relievers to replace the departed Kimbrel and Kelly. If that actually does happen, I’m going to guess that leaves Thornburg, Johnson and Workman battling foe two spots. Johnson probably has the upper hand because he is left-handed and has had success as a spot starter. As TO surgery is apparently not the easiest thing to recover from, Workman is the de facto insurance policy against Thornburg ever regaining form...

[kenmeister]

The Shaw-Thornburg trade is the only real miss I've seen in Dombrowski's tenure so far.

[Dojji]

How about Travis Shaw at 2B for us?

 

Travis Shaw was well below average at second base. Good hands, great even, but didn't have the range. Which is about what we expected considering his track record as a very sure-handed 3Bman.

 

If we had Travis Shaw though, Devers would probably be breaking in as a 1Bman. Shaw has been superb defensively at 3B by any reasonable metric. He's been a ~4 bWAR player over 2 years in Milwaukee, we really should not have let him go. It's water under the bridge now of course but hopefully also a lesson learned.

Edited December 4, 2018 by Dojji

[notin]

Travis Shaw was well below average at second base. Good hands, great even, but didn't have the range. Which is about what we expected considering his track record as a very sure-handed 3Bman.

 

If we had Travis Shaw though, Devers would probably be breaking in as a 1Bman. Shaw has been superb defensively at 3B by any reasonable metric. He's been a ~4 bWAR player over 2 years in Milwaukee, we really should not have let him go. It's water under the bridge now of course but hopefully also a lesson learned.

 

Gotta keep those sons of Major Leaguers. Toronto has built a premier system around them (Vlad Jr, Bo Bichette, Cavan Biggio, Dwight Smith Jr)...

[moonslav59]

Travis Shaw was well below average at second base. Good hands, great even, but didn't have the range. Which is about what we expected considering his track record as a very sure-handed 3Bman.

 

If we had Travis Shaw though, Devers would probably be breaking in as a 1Bman. Shaw has been superb defensively at 3B by any reasonable metric. He's been a ~4 bWAR player over 2 years in Milwaukee, we really should not have let him go. It's water under the bridge now of course but hopefully also a lesson learned.

 

I was kind of half-joking, although his bat would outweigh the differential between his defense and Nunez at 2B. Holt is not all that great on defense, either. A hobbled Pedey is an unknown on D.

 

Yes, I'd prefer Travis at 3B on D over Devers and Nunez.

[moonslav59]

The Shaw-Thornburg trade is the only real miss I've seen in Dombrowski's tenure so far.

 

The jury is still out on some deals...like Buttrey for Kinsler, but not really any of the major ones, except maybe Pom.

 

[Bellhorn04]

The Shaw-Thornburg trade is the only real miss I've seen in Dombrowski's tenure so far.

 

And when you're making a bunch of moves it's guaranteed there will be misses.

[notin]

And when you're making a bunch of moves it's guaranteed there will be misses.

 

The only GMs who never make bad moves are the GMs who make no moves...

[sk7326]

So you think Dombrowski is hoping to get lucky?

 

To a point. We know the team will enter the spring with a Thornburg and a few others of the same ilk - you expect one or two to hit, but you don't know who. For a bullpen it is a useful approach - performance fluctuations year to year are pretty large. It is very hard to expect and get more than 2-3 consecutive good seasons from any of them.