Emp9

Sale has a better career K/9 (10.1>7.4), if you're into that sorta thing. Although despite that, he had a better era than Sale did last season.

Moon, you think we're getting Quintana!? LOL Come on, who voted for #6? fess up!

I agree that as catcher you take what you get. I like how his bat is developing though. For now we're stuck with sss from a player that by all rights was rushed, twice. Him being a good contact hitter is a good start in my book.

I tend to thnk Swihart's woes at catcher are overblown. I do hope we leave him at the Catcher position, but still.. if you're looking for elite defense at catcher, with the key word being 'Elite' we may be waiting a long time and that's nothing against him per se. I like all 3 of our catchers and hope they all prove themselves worthy. I'd keep two out of the three and trade one for a need or future need, then have the other two split time. I know, fat chance all three do well. But if Swihart is tearing it up in AAA w/ average to good defense, Vazquez is holding his own at the plate on the major league club, and Leon has another prolonged outburst of offense, I could see us trading Leon while his value is sky high. At least that's what I hope happens.

Depending on how well Smith comes back. Might ease him in in less dire situations with Thornburg still as the main setup guy. I expect for Kimbrel 9th, Smith 8th, Thornburg 7th in 2018 though.

Jonny Gomes has .855 OPS vs LHP? wow. I know he's not looking for a minor league deal, but I'd love to have him stashed away in AAA in case an injury happens. And who knows, maybe he could beat some sense into some underachieving prospect or two? LOL

Like when Pedey makes an early fielding mistake (it happens once a month), I really like his chances at the plate for the duration of the game to make up for it?

I keep forgetting about Young. He's nice to have. He started off a bit slow last year but when he warmed up he's was great.

Then again, I didn't think much of Marco Hernandez when we got him (as the player to named) at the time. I think I'll give it some time before I voice my opinion on him. Meantime, the salary dump could prove important.

On offense, I just hope we get the 2015 version of Mitch Moreland instead of the 2016 one. Along with the GG defense. That wouldn't be such a huge drop-off from what we had or... atleast it would definitely be tolerable. Regardless of what we get from our infield corners (I'm hoping we get average play from them), I'm counting on XB hitting for more power and consistency, JBJ hitting more consistent, along with a full season of Beni, hoping these guys can cushion the blow from not having Ortiz. Very curious on how we'll handle the DH spot. I, we, have been talking about a rotating DH for years now. Gives some players a little rest, lets them focus on their hitting for a game. If I was manager, I'd treat it like a reward system when applicable. Could build a lot of camaraderie. When HanRam isn't the DH of course, 'cause I'm sure he'll get the most time there.

That's why I'm not a huge fan of 3 moves in the same 24 hour period (Ben did this once too). Make a move or two, but fcs relax, breathe. It's a long winter.

so, he couldn't mentally distinguish between his sinker and his fastball?

I still consider Swihart a prospect, a good one, one that got rushed and was versatile enough as an athlete to fill in LF when we needed him to. Just saying, Price could always opt out for 2019 and Pom's a FA in '19 as well. My post was in jest but crazy things could happen.

I question how much of an opportunity he would have gotten anyhow. I liked everyone of our starters more to varying degrees. ANd payroll-wise it's almost like replacing Buch w/ Sale and saving $1.5M on top of it. I wish the best for Buch.

At the moment, yes Betts for Syndergaard would be a fair trade straight up. But I couldn't pull the trigger on that even if the Sale trade didn't happen.

I'd trade Swihart in a heartbeat... for Thor... ... in 2019:o

Naw, I think Pom is projected to cost us $4.7M this year. I cld be wrong though

I find it very valuable to get under LT limit this season.

lol

So the other shoes finally drops... however slowly. It was always going to be a salary dump and a low level prospect, or a better prospect (or a half-way decent RP) and not as much of a salary dump... to me anyway. I'm pretty sure I'm fine with this.

I was gonna say, I wouldn't worry about 2 RHH in a row, 3 is a bit much though, but Moon beat me to it. I think Beni is our best LHH ( followed by JBJ ), even without much of a sample size. His minor league numbers and the sss last season leads me to think he'll prove me right. Could we see someday Beni batting 3rd and Betts batting 4th? Maybe not in '17. Either way, I think we see Beni leadoff or bat 2nd this coming season. I'm still hoping XB develops a bit more power, if he doesn't I could even see XB leadoff. Good thing is we definitely have a bunch of leadoff candidates.

I'm an atheist but Jan, 20 2017 IS looking pretty scary. lol

That would be awesome... I think?

sorry, couldn't help myself I guess.

I never expected relief pitching to cost as much as it has in recent years. Was it just all bad timing? Back when our farm was full, I expected a trade for a cost-controlled TOTR SP ( like Sale, but maybe not Sale). I thought that was the first thing to focus on and then worry about our BP. And with every trade that came along, I kept hearing "it's only one trade" or "can't keep all your prospects", "DD's not destroying the farm" etc. Even though I thought pieces like Margot and Guerra were great resources to help net a us the bigger prize, a cost-controlled TOTR SP. I thought every chip mattered (and I still do) and that every chip thrown in on a deal that wasn't for a top SP was one less chip or optional chip we'd have when the time came to make the real splash. I'm just mentioning all this for clarity on the Sale trade and further depletion of the farm. If we traded for a top SP like Sale first, would our farm look any different today? Or, looking at how RP costs have risen even further, would out farm look worse?