jacksonianmarch

Whitlock and big upside aren’t really concepts that go together. Whitlock is pitching depth and a guy who I thought would end up as a swing guy. If he hits, your upside isn’t huge, but he could be solid.

Yanks sign Barraclough. Guy used to throw smoke and dominate. He was injured and lost some velo. If the velo is back, he could be a find. If it is t, it’s a minors deal and he can go his merry way.

Schoop would be a great pump and dump option. His RH power in Fenway would make for a very high likelihood of strong value at the deadline

How the mighty have fallen. Arenado had a shoulder injury that limited his capability for 2020, but on the whole, he’s one of the best players in baseball. His contract wasn’t even tops for 3b’s in the game. And the Rockies paid to send him away and got quantity over quality of prospects. Not a single blue chipper even though the Rocks are chipping in $51 mil.

The tear down of the awful O's continues. They might win 40 games this year

It would have been better if it was a ligament. His issue was a deep injury to the meniscus. Losing the shock absorber in the knee leads to early arthritis. No true cure for that beyond replacing a joint, which they don't do at Pedroia's age for arthritis and would have ended his career. The only option at that point was microfracture surgery, which is a coin flip. It went tails for Pedey and his career came to a close. Great player, pain in the ass to root against, but a great player who did not give up until his efforts on the field threatened the quality of a long life he has after baseball. I wish him well

If you’re rebuilding and likely to have young pitchers, it’s imperative to have a veteran, defensive minded catcher who can manage young pitchers well. Pitching coaches are important, but in game, the catcher is the best pitching coach

If you’re on a team that isn’t winning this year, you can withstand his lack of durability

There’s precedent with Taillon both on ex Pitt pitchers and post TJS pitchers. His two major big league “injuries” were testicular cancer and TJS. It’s not like he was begging out a month at a time for a hamstring or something else altogether. Two years of control is huge. If he’s one of the 95% that recover well from this procedure and if he takes to the new pitching approach, he’s got the goods to be just as good as Cole Kluber is entirely different. Same level effectiveness, different method of action. He’s a movement and command pitcher who doesn’t blow you away but he’s missed time with a shoulder problem. That concerns me more and makes him a higher risk for sure

That’s probably on the table with Trout, Upton and Adell locked in. Or maybe it’s a deal for one of their established pitchers? Or it’s just kicking of tires

Yanks are gonna slow play Sevy. Timetable for return is “late summer”. They’re gonna use their depth to allow him to be totally back and built up. They’ll likely have him do a full 30 day rehab

In the AL West, maybe. Being in the same division as an in window Yankee team, an in window (if not diminished from a WS berth) Rays team and a loaded Jays team does you no favors.

There’s clearly risk, but at $1.75 mil, he’s worth it. Let’s put it this way, there’s a chance he performs as well or better than Ottavino for 20% the cost

It doesn’t make sense for the Sox to get Taillon with him hitting the market after 2022. If Taillon was controlled in 23, he’d do it

No word on terms, but the Yanks found Ottavino's replacement pretty rapidly. Similar to Ottavino, O'Day is dominant vs RH hitters and vulnerable to lefties.

Let's be honest, his velocity was affected. He went from being able to throw easy cheese to needing to ramp it up to reach the same velo and it cost him his command. Very strong chance he comes back with low velo. Either way, he is still effective, but he isnt a 6+ WAR starter without the heat

Sale had a shoulder injury that sapped his power prior to TJS

Do you need me to dig up the cliff thread again? Individual players, maybe not. But team performance? Especially on the sox end? Dead on

Honestly, I think Houck is your future closer. Hard, heavy sinker and a wipeout slider. Closer's make lots of money. Saving a year of service time for a team unlikely to make the playoffs is more important than burning one in a year you arent seeing October

And if some guys recoup value to the point where they can be moved, you do so. You no longer team build based on your money between cap and salary. You team build internally or via trade and supplement on the market. The more cap space you have, the more you can supplement or really splurge on a dire team need. But you don't splurge until your team is ready and it's the one missing piece

Disagree 100%. Bloom and TB were experts at managing service time. You demote Houck to AAA, let him burn his clock, bring him up midseason and get an extra year out of him

I have been dead on the past 5 years or so. Baseball is clearly important to me and I am very excited for the Yanks, but so much of my life has changed that I can get a little bit past the pinstriped glasses and be a realist to a degree (fans are always at least a tick away from reality). I predicted your cliff. I am predicting the rebuild. And I will say that if Henry gives Bloom enough time, the rebuild will lead to a sustained period of excellence. If Henry tries to force it, you'll be relegated to the middle, which is death for team building long term

Ottavino is a hard throwing pitcher with stupid movement on his pitches. He just seemed to come up small from the Springer homerun forward. Yes, last year he gave up 6ER in a 0IP performance and it skewed his stats. But you also cannot just remove that game, a game we were winning that he turned into a loss on his own. Most of the time a reliever gives up a run or two and he gets the blown save, yet it was more a collective effort. In that one game, Ottavino bombed the team's performance and cost us a game. Removing that true -1WAR game is revisionist. Do I think Ottavino is a 5ERA reliever in Boston? No I do not. Do I think he will do far better on a team that isn't going anywhere? Yes I do. Do I think he will do far better in Boston than he would have in NY? Yes I do. Ottavino moving to Boston will be a boon for the sox for sure. I doubt he justifies his contract, but getting a prospect (albeit a future reliever) and then having the chance to dump off Ottavino in July for a good prospect haul is the upside here and I think Bloom adds to his prospect cache in doing so. I see the benefit for the sox, clearly, but it is far further down the road. For the Yanks, the sox give them the flexibility to add one of their team leaders back in Gardner AND now have the cushion to make an addition in July. If that addition leads to a World Series, then this deal could be the impetus to #28, which I think would stick in your craws a bit more than the prospects of the potential future production of the kids you get back

I agree with everything in your post. Spot on

While I do think the entirety of the AL is down, the AL East is absolutely not. Yanks and Jays improved. TB took a step back, but were in the WS last year. You play 47% of your games in your division