jacksonianmarch

Cora and DD came out and confirmed that. Wright's knee isn't going to allow him to throw many back to backs or throw starter's innings. He is gonna be a multi inning reliever with a day off in between

Playing injured is no fun. It also shows you where who cannot go to quickly. When your back hurts, reaching is tough, so he is overcompensating for the outside pitch and is chasing outside the zone

Harmony, yes, the AL West is more competitive top to bottom, but only because it’s essentially one solid team, one terrible team and a bunch of mediocrity. The AL East has three clubs that are likely to finish above 90 wins. The AL West has three clubs poised (on projection) to have 80-87 wins, one team that should win 100 and another team that’s gonna lose 93. It’s a more competitive division, but that’s just because of mediocrity. All three of those teams in the middle have fatal flaws. The ALE has three clubs complete enough to win a title. I can’t say that about any other division

Agree entirely. Holders stuff is really good. He just decides not to trust it. He’s a nibbler. When you’re up 8, you don’t nibble. Don’t know if that was the culprit last night as I was sleeping after the Hicks HR, but that’s been his issue. I’d send him down and bring up Feyereisen.

Dalbec has more value right now just due to proximity and positional value. He just isn’t enough to return anything big

Parting with Casas now is like getting 2 quarters back when breaking a buck. You don't deal a guy who is playing well in A ball. If you really want to aggressively get value, you move him to AA and see if he can handle it.

their two most important, Cole and Verlander

Right now, the AL has only 5 teams more than 5 games out of a playoff spot. The NL only has 2. That's 7 teams that are gonna be sellers. Looking at those 7 teams.... The Orioles- Trey Mancini is their best chip, but he is injured and is the face of the rebuild. He is still on a prearb contract and has three more years of control. Teams getting him would have to spend a megaton of prospects to get him. Andrew Cashner is available, but he's the rare sinkerballer with a high HR rate. He's a guy you could throw as your #5 guy and probably be fine, but he's nothing more than that on a contender. He's also getting $8 mil this year, so he's somewhat pricey Other than that, the O's have spare parts that might be ok to get. Jonathan Villar, Reynato Nunez, etc are guys who could platoon or be second rate positional players. John Means is breaking out as a rookie, so they aren't gonna deal him if he becomes their ace. Dwight Smith has been a nice surprise, but he is also a rookie and isn't getting moved. The Royals- Their best trade chips are Merrifield and Kennedy. Merrifield signed a ridiculously cheap contract with KC and isn't being moved without a mega-return. Kennedy has become a peripheral's dream as a closer, albeit with a high ERA and equally high contract. KC will have to eat some money, but at the expense of prospects Alex Gordon has faded badly of late. Jorge Soler is finally hitting like they thought he would. In terms of the rotation, the Royals have a giant bag of below average garbage. Keller, Bailey, Peralta, and Junis are all 4.6-5.2ERA guys with WHIPs nearly identical at 1.4. Bailey at least has the K rate to predict improvement. The rest just stink. The Mariners- Fire sale had already begun. Haniger's season started meh, but he busted a nut (literally) and is now out til after the ASB. He isn't getting moved with this injury. Gonzalez started out the year as the best starter in Marpril. Since then he has been a pile of horseshit. Vogelbach has broken out to be the face of their lineup. Domingo Santana as well. Both are DH's, one just happens to play the OF. Narvaez might be the best trade chip that is under the radar. Power hitting catcher who plays well enough D to stick. He has three more years of control, though, and the M's may think there is more room to his growth Leake is really the only starter likely to be moved. His WHIP is under 1.3, yet his ERA is high due to his absolutely eye-popping HR rate (2 per 9) Elias has been good, but not dominant and with a WHIP near 1.3, he isn't gonna return a closers ransom. Blue Jays- Aaron Sanchez has been hurt (what's new) and has sucked. He has another year of control, so I am sure the Jays think they can squeeze more value when he is playing well Stroman is gonna get dealt. His value has never been higher. His return will be impressive Eric Sogard is having a magical season, and will be moved for something of value Justin Smoak will move once healthy. Galvis will also move for something as a utility guy with pop Ken Giles will be on the market with a 2020 arb year of control as well Detroit Tigers I doubt Turnbull and Boyd move. My guess is they pair those two with Fulmer next year and maybe Mize and try to grow a good rotation from within Greene would be a great trade chip as he has just dominated this year. The rest of their rotation and pen is a bag of s*** They don't have a single regular above a .780OPS. Their team is either too old and sucky, too expensive or too young to move. The only guy with any value is Castellanos, but not at his rate of pay Giants- The biggest trade target could be... the Panda? .885OPS in 153 ABs and he honestly could be on the move to a team needing corner infield or DH help. Bumgarner hasn't been good this year and his name will probably bring more back than his production, but as a rental it limits his return as well SF is the place where great players go to die. Brandon Belt, Buster Posey, Evan Longoria. Guys who have had amazing seasons or careers in the past, all suck this year in SF. Maybe someone plucks them out of a hitters hell and sees if they can play anymore Samardzija might be on the block, but SF would have to eat considerable cash to make it happen. The Giants do have three of the top relievers on the market in Smith, Watson and Dyson. Smith has been nails. Watson and Dyson have outperformed their peripherals, but are still having good years. All 3 get moved, IMO. Marlins They surprisingly built a pretty good rotation with Richards, Alcantara and Smith leading the way. Urena is out with an injury. He would have been their best trade chip except he stinks this year and is down with arm trouble. Their pen has been absolutely awful. Maybe someone goes out and gets Guerrero to watch the gun light up, but he can barely find the dish The only guy I see moving for anything of use is Neil Walker. He has quietly been their best hitter. That's essentially the list of guys available now. Pick the ones you want to get and put a proposal that makes sense out there. Should be fun

Cashman easily could have gone out and gotten Paxton and brought back the finishing squad from 2018 and stopped. We needed a starter, we got a really good one, awesome. But he used last offseason as a springboard, getting Ottavino and then Lemahieu, even when we didn't have a spot for him. DJ is our MVP at the halfway point and Ottavino is probably our relief MVP thus far. Getting the players we got allowed us to weather the storm of injuries that came. Spreading out the money allowed us to have incredible depth. Could we have let Gardy walk and spent bonkers money on Harper or Machado? Maybe. But having Ottavino, Gardner and Lemahieu is far more valuable than either of those players were. And yes, our pen is a psychological boost for starters and the hitters. Batter know they just need to chip away because the pen can hold deficits. The starters know they don't have to be perfect cause the pen will hold it and the lineup can get them back.

Shawaryn is a RH specialist long term. Houck has been better his last 4 starts, but his season line isn't one to be touted as anything special and I still think he's a reliever. Groome was an understandable pick, although has the sox known about the family issues, he would have been a hard pass where they were selecting.

This year’s current W-L doesn’t fall on DD. The state of the farm does. Also, if the financial status precludes deadline improvements, then that falls on him too. If the combination (lack of a farm and lack of flexibility) then its doubly on Dave

Ted Williams ended up being a terrible coach. So if you’re getting taught by the best one on one and can’t do it, I doubt an instructional video would help. Ted would have had to adjust in this age of shifting. I’m sure he would have, but he was dead pull all day long. Nowadays, hitting like Ted gets you a .220 average with good power. Guys now have adjusted to increase launch angle to go over the shift (and wall).

Cole is going away, and he’s a big part of their staff. Verlander is a 36 yr old power pitcher. He will eventually break down. Miley becomes a FA. Valdez is a nice pitcher. Whitley isn’t ready as he is dealing with an arm issue. McCullers may return well or not, who knows. Their rotation for 2020 is Verlander, Valdez, McCullers, and Peacock. 5th starter may be Whitley. That’s not a rotation that dominates. They need to add, and since they’re maxed out financially, they’ll need to do so via the trade market. Stroman makes sense. Deal for him, add him to a front line with Verlander and Cole for this year and move him to your #2 for next year after Verlander Springer moving on is huge. He was an MVP candidate before ripping his hammy. He’s a real good player and Tucker might be great, but not likely to be better than recent Springer.

I don’t care how good your pen is, if you overwork then, they will break

They’ve got the capital and they know the window for them is closing. With Cole and Springer on their way out and Whitley disappointing this year, they’re going to be in the market for a guy they can control beyond this year

DD's regime has raped and pillaged the farm system and then never replaced the lost players with anyone of consequence. Cherington had a major issue drafting and developing pitching. He at least got very good at drafting and developing positional talent. DD has struck out across the board at drafting and developing any talent. Hence why you are staring at a cliff. It is coming

Would you like to know the most important stat, IMO, about the sox pen? The Red Sox are 8th in MLB in relief innings. #2 is TB, so they don't count with their opener BS. The only other teams above the sox with winning records are the Rangers and the Brewers. Somehow, the sox have more relief innings than the Yankees and we have gone with an opener 1/5 games the past 3 weeks or so. I don't care how good your pen is, if you are relying on them as much as the sox are, you're gonna hit some rough patches. You need a 5th starter. If Eo comes back, then you can expand to a 6 man rotation and have one convert who falls out of the rotation. If he doesn't come back as a starter this yr, then you can throw him in the pen and strengthen there.

Sometimes the simplicity of road life can be helpful. I have heard of teams that are struggling banning family from traveling with the players. Less drama, more business.

Stroman is going to be too rich for your blood in terms of prospects. I would be worried, as a Yankee fan, that Stroman goes to the Astros. We do hit him pretty well, but adding Stroman to their squad would probably give them enough kick to push past us in the standings, and having home field vs the Astros would be absolutely imperative

Playoff positions do boil down, in essence, to what you do vs bad teams. Most good teams can play a bit over .500 vs good teams. Heck, last year you guys won only 55% of your games vs >.500 teams and that team won 108 games. It is how you do vs the dregs that determines how you do. And yes, the sox are in a division with 2 absolutely terrible teams. The Jays, though, have a lot of talent out there, it is just green. Those teams can sneak up on you. The O's have literally no talent and are essentially an expansion team while they develop their best talent at the minor league level. But the sox also have two teams on pace for over 90-100 wins in their division as well Look at the Guardians. Yes, they have the Twins in their division and they look really good this year. But instead of TB, they have a CWS team that wins 1/5 games almost like clockwork when Giolito pitches, then kinda suck the other 4/5. They're a sub .500 team. The Royals are heading towards being the Orioles. The Tigers are absolutely terrible as well. The Guardians do have the easiest path and are currently 2 games up on the sox in the L column. I am also not a believer in the Rays. Snell carried them last year and this year his yips are back. Chirinos is a really good starter as is Morton. Yarborough, meh. Beeks, meh. Their offense is top loaded with mostly crap talent at the end. They play good defense. And their lock down pen has been real shaky of late with Alvarado having a bad family issue prior to returning and looking bad and Castillo hitting the DL. They live off their pen. If they cannot rely on it, they will stumble. Also, they are in a division with the Yanks and sox and to this point, havent proven they can beat either. The wild card this year is wide open. All of the teams in the race have warts. It's going to be a battle of attrition

The Guardians also have the benefit of getting Kluber back within a month or so. Carrasco, who knows. Seems like every pitcher they bring up, though, is nails.

He was absolutely terrible today, no doubt. The only thing he did was allow us to recoup our pen guys by having it be so lopsided. Pen should be pretty fresh for tomorrow vs Toronto

It was pretty cool. Today has the feel of a “nice to have” game where we’ll give an effort but be entirely happy with a 3-1 series. I get the whole rest idea, but yesterday he sat Gleyber and Gary, yet both had hit HRs in three straight. Last night Stanton broke out with 4 RBI and he’s sitting today.

Starter is more of a need right now because Eo is such a wild card. You’re not gonna win a lot of games when this version of Johnson is throwing. He doesn’t have great stuff to begin with, but he is a disaster waiting to happen every start

So Beni and Casas is worth more than Frazier, Garcia and Estrada? On what planet? Beni is heading into arb next year, meaning he’s about to get paid. Casas is in A ball.