jacksonianmarch

Arbitration is all about historical values. Relievers with great peripherals yet no counting stats get whalloped in the committee. When Betances went before the arb panel and asked for $5 mil in his first season, the Yankees won the arb case by successfully noting that he wasn't a closer and didn't have the save totals

He doesn’t suck. He’s still throwing a bit slower than last year, but he’s adjusted. Way higher percentage of sliders this year. He’s still a horse

You’ve got your top two going against Houston’s 4 and 5. Sunday looks less than promising for you guys with ERod facing Verlander, but avoiding Cole and running Proce and Sale in the first two gives you the advantage in the series

Cmon now. They were gonna win regardless.

Frazier with his sixth bomb vs the O’s this year. Tanaka was solid. The offense has four on the board

He’s not a great tactician, but his team is responding well. He’s gotta he the MOY at the quarter pole. His lineups are different every day, but they’re responding

Why not? Might as well throw everyone else on there

This one sucks. Hopefully just a mild strain.

Devers has decided to be a hitter, not a slugger. The power will come, but this is the same approach Bogaerts took early on and it helped make him a better hitter.

My bad, London is later. This is a 4 game set in the Bronx

My hope is this will fix the issues with the baseball draft and minor league pay. These guys work every day for 7 months in the minors and get paid about $10K a year. Yes, they are playing baseball, but their schedules are so tight that they don't have time to work a second job and actually make a living. Some of these guys toil away and have families while they are going through it and they don't make anywhere near enough to be able to support their families. Stewart is getting a life changing amount of money, but also is going to get to be a FA 3 years earlier than projected. If this kid lights Japan on fire, then he could score himself a 9 figure contract as a 25 yr old, rather than being in pre-arb making $500K in the bigs at the same age. He is betting on himself, but also taking more money. This is going to be the next thing and I wouldn't be surprised if Japan becomes akin to our minor leagues. If MLB wants to fix this pathway, they should increase draft pools or go back to the way it was.

Sorry, was a typo. -0.9 WAR. A full -0.5 worse than Chris Davis

He’s the worst regular in baseball right now. -1.9 WAR

I have watched a fair amount of Sox games and I see a noticeable difference in JBJ in CF. Still getting good jumps, but he’s been a touch unsure of himself and he’s definitely lost a step

They saw how effective the Guardians were and want to replicate it. The problem most teams have is they don’t have two closers on the roster. My point, though, is the arb process. The arb process has continually and systematically devalued middle relievers.

John Henry took a different approach to the dinosaur George “buy everyone” practice. Theo revolutionized the game for big markets. Cashman finally was allowed to do the same and he’s built this team into a sustainable juggernaut. I think this Yankee team has a big window coming especially with the two seasons coming in where they were top notch but ran into two buzzsaws. The Sox and Astros are the only teams capable of stopping a fully loaded Yankee squad. The Sox look unprepared and the Astros look formidable. The Astros are in what I expect to be their final year of dominance with Cole coming off the books and Springer getting real expensive. They’ll be good, but losing a their second ace isn’t going to be good for them. This is the final year, IMO, of the Sox window and they’re playing worse than expectations. Winning the WS is all about how good your team is and how good the competition is. The AL is a wasteland and with two of the juggernauts set to fall off over the next two years, the Yanks May have an unimpeded path to the series

I just looked up his UZR/150 and the eyes don’t lie. He’s looked slower this year and he’s a very minus defender in CF this year

If the Sox keep the current alignment in the rotation, the Sox will throw Price-ERod-Porcello-5 spot in the 4 gamer in London. The Yanks would counter with Happ-German-Sabathia-Tanaka Paxton would be back by then, but if he takes over the open spot in the rotation he’ll pitch vs SD and probably won’t even make the trip to London

JBJ has looked like he lost a step out there this year. He’s also a very minus defender right now, -11.9 UZR/150. Leon came back and all of a sudden, Sale is mowing people down. Could be coincidence, but a pitchers comfort is important and if Leon unlocks your ace, then he’s worth his weight in gold

Crazy stretch before we face off in London. Yanks get two more vs the O’s, 3 vs the Royals and 3 home vs the struggling Padres. You guys get 2 more in Toronto, then 3 in Houston, then 3 vs Cleveland. Now Cleveland isn’t what they were, but those Astros are good. Sox down 6 in the L column. If the Yanks roll as they should vs these chumps, the Sox could be down 8 by the time we meet

If your team loads the bases with no outs and then strikes out 3 times in a row, your batters will get 9 LOB but the team LOB will be 3.

They are getting paid on the FA market, but the arb market has suppressed middle relievers forever and will continue to do so until someone breaks the mold there. Betances has a ridiculous final pre arb season and asked for pre arb closer money and was denied because of the lack of saves

Interesting path for the kid. He was a first rounder last year who didn’t sign because the Braves found something in his wrist. He was expected to be picked in the first round again, but opted for this route. He’s getting a $4mil signing bonus to go to Japan and he likely will make their major leagues far quicker than he would over here, hence he will be making a six figure salary at an earlier age whe he’d be otherwise toiling away in the minors making $2K a month. He can return to the majors at 25, which is maybe a year or two later than most top prospects make it to the majors. By then, he’ll be a FA and can command whatever the market dictates. He would be subject to arbitration rules, but he could ensure that his contracts don’t allow arbitration or service time constraints

Paxton to throw a sim game Friday. If all goes well, he will be added back to the rotation. Tanaka will start Thursday after leaving his start vs TB getting hit with a comebacker. Rotation next week will be German Paxton Tanaka CC Happ In the interim, I bet Chance Adams gets a spot start in Paxton’s spot Friday vs KC. From here, our depth seems to be David Hale (meh) and Chance Adams (meh if he throws 91-93). But the cavalry is coming. JMont has progressed well in his rehab and has had no setbacks. Early August returns is possible. Severino should be starting his throwing program shortly as well with a post ASG return. By August, we should have seven legit big league quality arms at our disposal

The Sox pen has been silently very good when it comes to holding leads and winning games. Their bridge and rotating closer role has not been a problem. Their bucket brigade when down have been abysmal. Brewer and Thornburg are essentially the Sox version of Ramiro Mendoza, ie human white flags. You don’t need Will Smith. The cost to acquire him will be astronomical and he doesn’t fit a big need. Also, if Eovaldi has any setbacks, he slots into your pen. The name is watch for the Sox is Bumgarner. He isn’t what he used to be, but he can be a solid middle of the rotation kind of guy and the Sox might be willing to move on from ERod for him, IMO