jacksonianmarch

It is all about signing the right players. Machado and Harper have been two entirely different players with similar WARs. Harper's offensive upside is way higher than Machado's. Machado's defense is far better and far more consistent than Harper's. Machado's defense makes him a pretty good bet to hang with Harper while Harper may have the best individual seasons of the two over the next 10 seasons.

Hembree has velocity and a good breaking ball. His issues are two fold. His FB is straight as an arrow and his location can go sideways. When he doesn’t locate the FB, even at 96, it’s meat

Happ is on a roll

He found his velocity last night. He’s been a K machine even at lower velocities, but he’s Chris Sale when he’s got 95 in the tank. We saw this with CC in 2012-2013. The velocity would fluctuate and he’d be a world beater when he had 95, and a bum when he has 91. Sale seems to have adjusted to the loss of velocity then got it back for a night. He’d be better prepared for his future if he pitched like he had no velocity and when he has it, he’ll be filthy

Mitch Moreland’s are a dime a dozen and aren’t worth much at all. Then you look at Moreland’s body of work and see that he’s almost always a dud in the second half and is doubt anyone would want to take on the money, let alone give up talent

Chavis is a big swinging guy who is gonna K a lot, hit a lot of homers and eventually have a reasonable average. I have been on record as saying his bat wont be an issue you worry about. His glove is terrible and I doubt he sticks at 2b very long. The sox have an issue on their hands in the long term. Devers and Chavis are 1b's masquerading around your lineup. My assumption is, long term, they slot into the middle of your lineup, but will do so as 1b and DH

Keuchel had an issue with location last year. He's a movement guy with a heavy sinker that gets tons of groundballs. He always has low HR rates and low walk rates, but his K rates are pretty bad. The problem is that he's 31, trying to get paid like he's 28 and coming off a CY. He's also had some injury issues the two years prior to 2018. He can hold out all he wants, but he's the lefty version of Rick Porcello without the durability trying to get paid like DeGrom

You could go that route for your pen, but most of the time it backfires.

Urshela was to blame for the deficit, so it’s only right he fixes his own mess. We got handled by Gonzales and while the rain delay got him out of there, our defense extended the M’s lead. The AB from Urshela was great. 0-2 tater, but he fouled off a bunch of pitches and had the power to go into monument park. Tanaka has nothing the first three innings but eventually found his split and had a good outing. All in all, this team keeps fighting. Andujar looks lost at the dish, though. Doesn’t look injury related, looks like a recognition issue. He’s gotta get right

What a f***ing comeback!

Stacking Smith and Velazquez cannot happen again for you guys. Bullpen killers cannot go back to back. If not for Weber, you'd be really strung out today

Tanaka has nothing again today. He cannot get the splitter working and when that happens, he’s meat

The dark horse in the Keuchel sweeps are the Yanks. If Severino isn’t able to ramp up and ends up needing surgery, I could see the yanks offering a 1 yr deal that would in effect be half the amount due to service and then having a player option attached with subsequent seasons to follow. This would allow him to get a longer term deal if he wants it, but as it’s a series of player options thereafter, the lux tax hit this year would be minimal

Means is a good pitcher.

No news yet. He’s missed time with the elbow the last two seasons. 2017, he missed half the season and couldn’t build up. 2018, he missed two weeks and was right back where he left off. Right now, who knows

In the Sox defense, I watched Means make Judge and Stanton look very foolish in multiple at bats during the first series of the season. He has a ridiculous changeup that plays well off his FB. I’m not surprised he’s doing as well as he is today

The sox will also need to re-arrange their rotation. You've got 3 vs the O's, then a day off followed by a 3 game set vs the M's, a day off, a 2 game set vs Colorado, a day off then 17 games in a row. Theoretically, you would like to stack your 3 guys to face the Yankees during the 4 game set in the Bronx to end the month, but it would probably be better to spread the guys out and put Velazquez and right now Josh Smith in between them so the pen doesn't get bombed every game

The Yanks have had the SP depth with guys who actually have big time major league stuff, yet were green. What I didn't know was that we actually had major league depth on the position player side as well. The sox had two big league options in Velazquez and Johnson, yet both of those guys have a ceiling of a long man/maybe 5th starter. Beyond them, the guys with big league stuff aren't ready for prime time yet in Hernandez, Houck, Scherff, etc. This is gonna be interesting. You came into the season with 5 major league starters and your 2 emergency guys. One emergency guy and 2 of those starters are down. Velazquez is in the rotation, yet is mostly acting as an opener giving you a max of 3 innings and essentially draining your pen. This is going to be interesting to see how you weather this if this becomes a long term deal. Eovaldi is looking at a mid June return at the earliest. Brian Johnson is going to throw a simulated game, but he will need some time to build up his stamina if he is to enter the rotation.

As JBJ ages, his glove will drop off. If he can’t hit, he will be useless

Frazier is being activated. Tarpley back down to the minors. Tauchmann will move to the 4th OFer role with Maybin putting up good ABs and Tauchmann essentially only being able to hit balls thrown down and in Hicks is expected to go on a rehab assignment today or tomorrow and should be back by the weekend. Stanton is expected to go on a rehab assignment on Saturday and may be back in 10 days or so Severino will pick up a ball again in 2 weeks. They are restarting his offseason throwing program, so he wont be back til the ASB at the earliest. Betances should be back next month. Paxton will miss a "maximum" of 3 weeks, but is expected to only need 2. His issue is inflammatory, but no structural deficits in the knee No updates on Bird or Judge

That’s an exaggeration if I ever heard one. He was average to below average. He clearly wasn’t the worst

Domingo German shuts down a good lineup and essentially has replaced Luis Severino as our ace of the staff. His stuff is wicked, but he’s learned how to command it. He has also gotten more comfortable setting guys up when needed but pitching to contact without runners on base. He’s cemented himself in our rotation going forward and may be why the Yankees have decided to restart Severino’s pre-season program May 20, something that’ll keep him out behind the ASB

Urshela is an awesome defender. That’s never been his issue. We needed to DH Sanchez yesterday due to day game after night game, but for now, when DH is open, I use Andujar there

Andujar returns and promptly makes two errors

Sanchez with two more bombs. Voit in the middle of everything. Gleyber with an RBI. Voit has to be in he discussion for MVP a month in. He’s been awesome