jacksonianmarch

This doesn’t make any sense. No pitcher goes for a pop up. As a pitcher, you don’t want the hitters to put the ball in play in the air. A pop up is a few tenths of an inch on the bat away from being a HR. Pitchers want early contact down for the ground ball or strikeouts later in the count. You don’t go after a hitter saying, “I’m going to elevate here and get a pop up”. If you’re elevating, it’s to put someone away

I could see him getting a Hamilton contract, 5yrs $125 mil. Maybe up to $135 mil with inflation. I don’t see more than that

JD is going to the highest bidder. The sox need him or Stanton.

It’s more than footwork, though. He’s a thick lower half guy who is going to grow out of the position anyway. By the time his footwork improves, his body will have matured into a slower form anyway. Listen, I think this kid has 30 HR power and the chance to hit for a high average. He’s the goods offensively and he’ll be at least above average offensively if he moved across the diamond. But if you think he’s going to be anything other than a minus defensively, I have a bridge to sell you.

This is clearly beyond baseball. RIP kid. I’d rather have rooted against you on the field for damn sure

The Yankees have the second most INTL FA money available to Otani at $3 mil. The Rangers have the most at $3.15 mil. The sox and Dodgers have under $1 mil to offer

Had the #2 rookie last year. Have the #1 rookie this year who will also be an MVP runner up AND have likely the #3 CY who was a rookie in 2015. Future so bright

Rosenthal was just released by the Cardinals. His agent is Boras, so he might stay away for a year while recovering from TJS, but I wonder if he could be had on a contract akin to John Lieber from years past. Guaranteed money for one year and a cheap team option for year #2. That would be great for us since KRob is likely to take his services elsewhere after 2018

Cessa, Acevedo, Adams, German, Mitchell, Cessa, Smith etc all are in the mix. We have a ton of depth in the "starting pitcher without experience" category

Jack Morris is right on the cusp. Baseball reference has him above the average HOFer in grey ink, but below in black ink. He's over by a lot in the Hall of Fame monitor but below in the standards. Also, his memorable moment throwing a 10 inning CG SO in game 7 of the world series

You’re funny. Moncada is, in all likelihood, going to be an all star 2b at some point in his career. But I never said you shouldn’t have dealt him. I am just saying that dealing him contributed to the cliff that is coming. Getting Sale was necessary to win now. Without Sale, you’re in the wild card playoff or maybe worse, out of the playoff picture.

Love the veiled shot at me, lol. Baseball is my love, talking baseball is my hobby. And yes, I’m active on another site too.

Teams willing to consistently outspend the cap don't have a cliff. I highly doubt John Henry is willing to fill his holes with money on a permanent basis. Once Betts, Bogaerts, Bradley, Sale, Kimbrel, Pomeranz et al get expensive, I think DD will have to get creative because you wont be able to keep them all. That is where having a deep farm can save you. But DD dealt away the farm and now there is a noticeable gap in talent at the top. This is why you have a cliff. Henry prioritized the fans over development. Dave would have been better off riding it out for 16-17 and then going for it all in 18-19 when the FA market is better and with another big draft in the rear view mirror. Instead, he's got a 93 win team that is entering 2018 as banged up as ever with nearly no money coming off the books and no big prospects ready to step in. He has to fix the roster with money, and he is doing so a year or so before he has to. When he spends this offseason, it seals the fate of the cliff because there wont be any money left to lock up the true core of this team. I also read one post here about how you can "rebuild with one big trade at the deadline". That is absolutely not true. Yes, the Yankees did really well at their 2016 deadline, but we graduated Sanchez, Bird, Severino, and Judge in that time and dealt for Frazier, Robertson, Kahnle, Gray and Garcia with guys who we either drafted/signed or dealt off other low level players for. We kept the big names obtained from the Miller, McCann, Chapman, and Beltran deals. We rebuilt with our own players and now we have a top farm with a mix of the guys we traded for and guys we drafted and developed and have a title contending team led by guys we drafted or signed. If you think the rebuild happened in one mid season, you are entirely incorrect

Shaw would be your 1b. Moncada would be starting at 2b with Pedroia down. Margot would make Bradley expendable for a trade. Kopech would probably make your rotation out of ST with ERod on the shelf and with the tenuous elbow of Price

Moncada rebounded after a dreadful debut and looks like he should progress into a top tier middle infielder. Kopech rebounded from a walk riddled first half to seemingly solve his command issues and absolutely dominate the second half. Travis Shaw went from platoon 3b to All Star caliber, 4.3WAR 3b. Dubon stole 38 bases and hit enough to be a solid regular up the middle reaching AAA in 2017 Logan Allen dominated A ball and is likely headed for AA next yr, putting him in proximity to the majors Javier Guerra has been absolutely terrible since moving to SD, it seems DD timed his trade correctly Carlos Asuaje hit well enough to stick around as a utility infielder or a poor mans starting 2b Josh Pennington had a short debut as a starter in A ball and was very good. Not sure why he started 10 games yet pitched only 32.1IP Basabe was awful in his first year with the White Sox org down in A ball Victor Diaz was incredibly bad in his first year with the White Sox org Jonathan Aro made a brief cameo in SEA after a successful 2017 with AAA Manuel Margot had a 2WAR season as a rookie. His defense propped up a high K rate rookie year, but he showed promise with a good power speed combo Of the guys traded away, one is an all star (Shaw). Two guys look like perennial all-star caliber players (Moncada and Kopech). Margot looks to be an above average regular OFer with all star potential. Dubon looks to get a taste of the bigs in 2018 and has the gusto to be a solid regular. Asuaje looks to be either a starter or utility guy at the big league level. Logan Allen might end up being a top end pitcher, but he is still a year or two away

IIRC, the Astros are the first 100 win team to win the WS in a very long time

Moustakas is another flawed case. He had negative marks in 2017 defensively. His entire offensive game is a minus aside from power, and he just happened to explode power wise in his walk year. Previous career high in HR of 22, he jumps to 38 last year. Buyer beware on him. The 4 FAs I’d be very reticent to chase are Hosmer, Cobb, Moustakas and Cozart

Cozart is gonna be a tough case. Defense carried him in 2016. He had a career year offensively in 2017, which turns out to be his FA year. A 5 WAR player will get paid handsomely in this market, but this guy is a prime bust candidate. His career BABIP is .280 yet he was .312 last year. He nearly doubled his career walk rate. He had a 50% jump in HR over his previous career season. He also hasn’t had a full season since 2014 as he is injury prone.

Not having a Pedroia replacement is stupid. Pedey’s surgery has a notoriously high fail rate, to the point where there’s good literature out there that the orthopods should stop offering it. I have said many times on here. You need to expect that Pedroia and ERod are out for the year. If they come back sooner than that and prove to be healthy, then bonus

Espinoza was a year younger and was doing well in long season. Groome got lit up in A ball had to be demoted, then came back and got lit up again. I wouldn't be surprised to see Groome off the top 100 radar. Espinosa was top 25

Let me re-state this. Groome has little if any value. Yes, he’s regarded because of his stuff. But there’s a reason for the ridiulculous anagram TINSTAAPP. Pitchers get hurt. Pitchers lose the zone. Pitchers have a ridiculously high flame out rate, especially those highly regarded but at the lower levels of the minors. Add in the character concerns and the injury concerns and Groome gets you next to nothing in a trade. If he stays healthy and blazes through the minors, then that’ll change. There’s a reason why Cashman has been pilfering young arms for big league 40 man roster castoffs. The hit rate is so low that the risk afforded is low enough to overpay. Cashman has had a ridiculous hit rate for now, but it’s bound to correct.

And your current DH was worse. Get Duda for a bat only. Move JD to 1b. Hanley becomes a platoon DH

Apples and orange, though. Stanton will be much older than those guys when they break the bank

If Stanton opts out, he leaves 7 years and $218 mil guaranteed on the table. That’s $31.1 mil per season for years 31-37. The deal is so backloaded that even with the AAV of $295 from here on out, it’s actually higher after the opt out. Also, the opt out is after another 3 seasons.

The opt out is less an issue IMO due to the major backloaded money. This isn’t Tanaka where the money was even.