jacksonianmarch

The amazing thing to me is that Judge bashers probably thought the same thing about Stanton when he came up. You do know that Judge had more walks than Giancarlo by almost the same amount of strikeouts that he had more than Giancarlo? Judge walked 42 more times than Stanton and struck out 45 more times. But no, he will be Russell Branyan. LOL

Exactly. Judge had a positive UZR and was effectively an average RFer last year. Plus, fangraphs had him as a slightly above average baserunner. Dunn was a plodding defensive and baserunning nightmare.

Youre wrong on this one. Japanese professional baseball is a lot more consistent than a high school league or even a college league to some extent as college uses metal bats. Anyone who doesn't think there is a difference hasn't played baseball at a high level. Cuban baseball is also more consistent. Japanese baseball is akin to AAA. Guys who raked in AAA and flamed out in the bigs usually do well there. Cuban baseball is a little more difficult to discern since we aren't sending AAAA castoffs there, but most scouts consider it akin to AA. If you have the chance to sign a guy who is absolutely abusing AAA and hits all the measurables (high spin rate, high exit velo, high pitching velocity etc) and they have the production, you have a guy who has a very high likelihood of making a big league impact.

They absolutely can stay below the tax barrier for 2018 and that is all they want to do. With the contracts they have and the arb cases they expect, they are somewhere in the $145 mil range right now. Stanton at $25 mil AAV (the contract might be $29.5 mil AAV here on out, but the contract moves over and 13 yrs at $325 mil is $25 mil AAV) would still keep them well below the threshold. Ellsbury isn't moving to Florida unless we find a way to offload him to Seattle or SF (He's a NW guy and he has a no trade). I do think we can move Headley and his $14 mil to Miami. This only raises our AAV up $11 mil and leaves us with more room to address other issues either now or at the deadline. This would move either Andujar or Torres into our starting lineup at 3b or it opens the door for a one year deal with Frazier if he wishes.

This is playing into NYY’s plans for sure

Alright, Stanton won’t waive his NTC. He’ll only accept a deal to Chicago, LA, NYY or HOU. Chicago needs pitching and is running into its own salary cap issues. Houston will be trying to keep the band together, not looking to add almost $300 mil in salary. The Dodgers don’t have the payroll space. We are the only ones who can absorb his salary and still stay under the cap. We’d have to make it somewhat painful. I’d send them a single good prospect , some filler, and Headley to offset some cash from 2018 (Headley is a FA after 2018). That only adds $11 mil to the lux tax pot for 2018 which will let us reset. I’m all in on the Stanton train now. The Marlins need cap relief and we are the only ones capable of making it happen without hamstringing the Marlins financially

I’m wondering about Stanton. I’d love him and $25 mil AAV will be paltry compared to Harper. Color me intrigued if they can do it

I read all the projections on Neidert and they’re all back end rotation projections. Not sure why he hit top 100 with a terrible projection. Once he got smashed on promotion, I think his rankings tumbled. He’s not a great prospect at all. The SS is a no hit defensive whiz far down in the system. The reliever might have a future. Either way, not much to get a lightning fast guy who perennially hits .300 and steals 30 bases. When he plays full seasons, he’s a 3 WAR player and at his salary, he’s cheap

Russell Branyan? Wow

Logic escapes you child

He was hammering balls over 500 feet on the regular. It’s a garbage argument on your behalf. All the players were talking about his ridiculous power. It’s special, it isn’t changing. He’s going to be a perennial 40 HR guy. The question is whether he’ll maintain an average high enough to be a great player or will he end up an Adam Dunn type. I think he’ll be far better than the very good Adam Dunn

Did you watch the HR derby?

Ellsbury vs Judge? Really? Now you guys are reachijg big time.

He’s also a pitcher and a pitcher in Petco will do well

The Mariners basically took Gordon for free. The prospect package is middling to say the least

Green was absolutely dominant. I’d rather keep him where he is and almost piggy back him with Adams to start.

He could have been told the exact nature of the surgery and all that comes with it. Without the patient’s say so, he’s not legally allowed to speak about it

Also, without permission, he can’t talk about anything under HIPAA

I want my GM to be a good liar

Don’t forget Tanaka and his 12.7 WAR through 4 seasons

Exactly. Our pythag was ridiculous. The sox pythag and win total discrepancy had everything to do with Craig Kimbrel being untouchable and our closer situation having trouble for 3 months. For as good as our pen was, we led the AL in blown saves. With Chap healthy and a pen now completely loaded for bear, I anticipate more of our leads holding. The sox aren’t likely to get better in terms of run prevention even if Price is healthy (which isn’t a guarantee). So they must add to the run total. And I don’t think an overhaul is needed. The flow in your lineup was disjointed. The lack of power meant baserunners would reach but less runs scored. Your power guys from a year ago forgot how to hit the ball deep.... or did they? I think your lineup was handled for most of the year because teams weren’t afraid of any one hitter. Hence, allowing a base runner yet not giving in yielded less runs allowed in the end. That changes when you return a Papi level hitter to the lineup. Martinez gets the 3 hole, Betts hits in front of him and sees a ton of fastballs. Instantly Betts hits 30HR again and JD has the time of his life hitting things over the monster. Once those guys get going, the rest of the lineup will benefit

No, they didn’t. And if we had different personnel, we’d have used Hideki as strictly a DH. His WAR totals aren’t terribly impressive, but they were dragged down considerably by overwhelmingly minus defense and baserunning

Your team scored 73 less runs than NY and 93 runs less than your team scored in 2016. Your offense was 6th in the AL in scoring, which puts you squarely in the average category. You won with pitching. Your rotation has injury question marks entering the season. If your rotation and pen dont step forward again, you’ll lose your margin for error. Your offense is literally one player from being a top 3 offense in all of baseball.

So we now have some manuevering to do. After arb, some extra summer dealing cash and holdings for minimum guys, we’ve got around $35 mil to play with before getting concerned. We know Ohtani is out. We know our pitching currently has a hole at either #4 or #5 (however you classify Montgomery). If trades for pitching aren’t available, I re-sign CC for a season at $10 mil. That leaves about $25 mil to play with. Once the rotation is deemed set, I’d absolutely go all in on Santana. His bat, durability and versatility would be an absolute smash addition to our offense. I know Cashman wants to save his duckets for 2019, and that might be the prudent move with the class pending, but if we are to shore up this team, that’s the move to make

If you want your offense to take off, you need to add an offensive focal point. The B’s showed they either aren’t ready or aren’t capable of anchoring an elite lineup. Get a lineup anchor, fill the B’s around him, and boom you’ll take off. Betts is a dead red hitter. It’s easy to toss breaking balls to him when the guy on deck doesn’t scare you. It’s harder when a JD Martinez sits there