jacksonianmarch

Kluber is a great pitcher, but coming off a layoff and minor injury. Price is a great pitcher, but blows ass in the playoffs. There is a good chance this ends up as a 12-9 type ballgame

The effectiveness might not be there, but he'll go to them. My expectation is Tito will only go to them with a lead and for a max of one inning

There is zero chance that Miller and Allen are spent for tonight. Zero. If Kluber goes 7 and hands the pen a lead, he's gonna go Miller and Allen.

Francona knew he was stealing this one when he pulled Bauer and stretched out his pen aces. Great managing there. He's got his ace lined up for games 2 and 5 and tomorrow just so happens to be Red Sox ace turned October pumpkin day. If Price proves the lamb again in October, you're f***ed. That's a huge win for Cleveland.

Trout is more valuable. He has a full 1.0+WAR lead on Mookie. His OBP is insane. Trout stole more bases than Mookie. And while Mookie was a plus defender, Trout was average at a tougher position. If we were going on sheer merit and not team performance, there is no doubt that Trout should win

He did it for a team that was expected to be in the basement and yet played the final weekend of the year with a chance to get into the playoffs. I don't see a downside here. Porcello has a great resume, but he is more a contact pitcher, and in years where the power pitchers are better in ERA, WHIP, etc, they should win. Porcello's only two claims over Verlander are wins (a team stat) and the fact the sox are in the playoffs (also a team stat)

Verlander looks to be the favorite, IMO. 2nd IP 1st (by a lot) K 1st WAR 1st WHIP 2nd ERA

It was a s***** option to offer the re-do in season during a playoff run.

Slav, I think the Yankees will be a .500 team if left alone. I just hope we don't make any rash decisions, like dealing our glut of young talent for a 33+ yr old big leaguer. I want to see some talent develop. I would actually like to see some older talent shipped away. Deal way McCann and Gardner. Move Ellsbury to LF. Give Mason Williams the keys to CF and see if he can run with it, etc. As it stands right now, here is the lineup 1. Ellsbury CF 2. Gardner LF 3. Sanchez C 4. Bird 1B 5. Castro 2B 6. Gregorius SS 7. Headley 3B 8. Judge RF 9. Austin/McCann DH That is a good lineup, especially if we see progression from Judge, Austin, and Bird. Our rotation for next yr.. 1. Tanaka 2. Sabathia 3. Pineda 4. Cessa/Mitchell/Green/Montgomery/Severino 5. Cessa/Mitchell/Green/Montgomery/Severino I love Tanaka. He was 3rd in the AL in ERA, started 31 games, threw nearly 200IP. Sabathia put up a 3.0WAR season. Pineda had a better season than ERA indicates. We have 5 real big league candidates for the 4 and 5 spots as well. If we can stabilize the back end with our current in house options, we could have a solid, playoff worthy rotation. Just like everywhere else, our pen needs some kids to step up. The building blocks for now are there with Clippard, Warren and Betances. One of a bevvy of hard throwing relievers who made either their debuts or their returns to the pen needs to step up. Or we could just open the checkbook and sign Chapman to a long term deal and not need to pay a draft pick premium. In the end, we need to see some growth. We have young power in the lineup, young power in the rotation and young power in the pen. We need to turn the potential into the now. If we do nothing, we are a .500 team, because it all won't blossom at the same time. If we add, we might improve on that. If we see ridiculous growth, then we could be a title contender. Our problem the past few yrs has been players past their primes who we were hoping a flicker of their prime would return. Starting next yr, it will be guys before their primes who we are hoping can develop and reach their prime before projection. This is way more fun

NS, Cashman isn't the issue. He has been pining for the rebuild for awhile now. He's been passed over in negotations for big free agents and has continually resisted the urge to spend more than he has to for acquiring talent. ARod, Soriano, Giambi, etc. Those deals were calls from agents to Levine and bypassed Cash. Cash won some serious autonomy in his last negotiations. He has rebuilt our farm system. He's kept first round picks. Hell, he turned a decrepit, old, boring lineup of 2006 all stars and engineered a rebuild that literally took 2 months. All this without one of the best rookie storylines of 2015 in Greg Bird. We have the potential for a VERY powerful lineup in 2017. Sanchez, Bird, Judge in the middle. We have Castro and Didi up the middle. Austin should have a role. Torreyes looks like a good utility guy. We have Frazier and Mason Williams sitting in the wings with Mateo and Torres in AA. The Justin Wilson deal looks like genius as Chad Green (if healthy) and Luis Cessa look to be strong candidates for starting spots. We actually have something to look forward to instead of waiting for the next shoe to drop. I am intrigued to see the direction of this offseason. I feel Cash has a directive from Stein to get under the cap and to rebuild over the next 2 seasons. Then after 2018, we will go absolutely insane.

Austin proved to be a nice find. The kid was a top prospect, hurt his wrist, fell off the radar and then re-emerged this yr in what was probably his last chance. He dominated AA and AAA then came up in August. Hit a first AB HR then sucked for the rest of August. He turned it on in Sept with a .286/.375/.571 line. He should be in our plans for next yr. He is versatile, has a good eye, and had power to all fields, especially to RF.

He's got a good chance to be a significant contributor in 17 and 18? You dealt a top 25 prospect to get him and you were unaware that he needed pain relievers for elbow pain at the time? Now he's on the shelf with forearm "tightness"? There's a good chance he doesn't wear a uniform at all in 17

CC had a damn good year. He's got a player option that will automatically vest as he didn't spend time on the DL for a shoulder issue. He'll return for one more year

That's all crazy talk Meh. Dealing Tanaka would crush our rotation. Btw Gary Sanchez has the highest WAR of any rookie this season. He surpassed Fulmer just now at 3.2

Is that Henry Owens celebrating?? Lol

Does that make you want to give back 04 and 07 due to the presence of cheaters?

Makes you hate Papi?

Wow, what a weird ending. Yankees win, Sox clinch.

Sad all around. This kid was the future on the mound, a Pedro like player who had the size to endure beyond what Pedro's frame allowed. RIP kid. I have to wonder about the circumstances of the crash. It wasn't his boat. But full speed into a jetty at 3am? Whomever was driving was either under the influence or being reckless. Sucks either way

Tampa is going to be a sexy pick for contention next year. Their injury woes this year were legendary. Cobb, Smyly, Snell, Odorizzi and Archer makes one hell of a top 5. They'll try to contend

Archer could lose 20 with an xFIP of 3.35. That's not his fault

Farrell didn't just earn his job back, he's earned an extension. Those who wanted Lovullo to take the reigns aren't gonna be happy. Farrell is a Francona clone. Let the players play and manage the egos. Well, it took 2 years to develop the players and now you have a team loaded with young, top notch proven major league stars. He's looking like a genius right now

Exactly. The home grown power there is enticing. I also like the idea of Frazier and Didi setting them up and Mateo and Torres batting behind them

Joba's shoulder got wrecked and Hughes had the mentality of a lamb. Sanchez is a bit different mentality wise. He's been known as a selfish player prior to last year. Those might be the types the media comes to despise, but those are also the types who typically do well statistically

He's down to 1 every 8 or so. Won't last, but good to see. He's had immense talent but his head was always in the way. He's grown up a lot and his production is showing it. This guy is a future perennial all star