moonslav59

No room at the inn for Hank Aaron and Willie Mays. Hell, I think Hack Wilson was just 5-6 and Mel Ott 5-9. Joe Morgan... Jose Altuve...

Maybe 6-1 and 225 Mead can kapow us into the top of the rankings.

No doubt that was the crushing flaw. Losing so many pitchers didn't help, but other teams lost a lot, too.

No, but it seems to happen to us a lot- maybe because our middle infield has been a circus carousel for many years. In 2025, Romy was 7th in PAs and Toro 10th. in 2024, DHam was 8th (Wong was 4th)

Or take back a contract in return, yes. Every $5M can make a difference. Plus, I'm not so sure no GM likes KC.

I thought Casas had a great eye, and while taking the third strike can be extremely frustrating, his OBP made it justifiable, to me. Who knows, if he can ever get it back. If he doesn't the high K rate will make it worse than a guy with the same numbers and half the Ks. 2022-2026 (500+ PAs) BB% 13.7 Casas 10.7 Devers & Refsnyder 9.4 Abreu 9.0 Bogey 8.7 JD 8.1 Turner OBP .377 Bogey .364 Ref .361 Raf .348 Casas Only 2 players had a higher SLG (,448) and more PAs (952) than Casas: Devers & Duran. (Abreu would, if he had 3 more PAs)

Last year, we were 7th in runs and 9th in SLG. (15th in HRs.) Many of us felt we could be top 10-12 in 2026, but the better pitching and defense would more than make up for the possible drop on offense. The drop was not really a given. We ended up seeing many of our batter tank in big ways- some by over 100-150. I won't speak to injuries, as the pitching saw most of those, but the drops were unforeseen and extreme. The only regular that improved his OPS was Rafaela, and it was by just 30 points. A balanced approach can work, and just because we tried to do just that, and it failed doesn't prove it can't work. That being said, I think we moved up the overall quality of "the balance" by adding Mead & AR, but I'm 100% with you and others that we need to add an elite bat- somewhere, somehow and some way. I suppose two significant upgrades might be enough, too. We saw Abreu's OPS fall 23 points. -67 Anthony -80 Romy -81 Duran -82 Story -90 Mayer -144 Narvaez Only Mayer was not a top 9 PA guy on the 2025 team. Who knows if we can count on bouncebacks, and even if we see many, maybe some others tank. I think Mead & ER get us half way there. We need Sato or Suzuki. (de la Cruz or Abrams would empty the farm, but if JH won't spend, I'd do it.)

That won't be me, despite me often saying we need pitching. My top priority would be someone like Sato or de la Cruz. Maybe Abrams. I'm willing to give up Arias, Valera, Delzine & Soto. I can be talked into Arias and Justin Gonzales or Primera.

17 players had 60+ XBHs and a few more would have with 600-650 PAs. Devers was 4th with 74. Abrams & Alonso 67. Bregman 63 & Suzuki 58. Abreu & Schwarber 66. BLowe 65 Neto & Bregman 63. Arenado & KMarte 56 Contreras had 51 in 535 PAs, so about 61 per 650. Rafaela had 51 in 576, so about 57 per 650. Gasper was near 60 per 650 (20 in 225)

Agreed. Do you have any hopes for Mead? I realize his 17 HRs and .851 OPS this year was just a half season in an unremarkable career, but he's 25. It's not like a 21 y/o Grissom batting .790 in his first quarter season of his career, but I understand Mead is no cinch at being an Silver Slugger either. I think AR can raise our Catching OPS bt 100 or maybe even 150 points, but he won't hit 35-100. I keep waiting for Abreu to "bust out," but I'm resigned to accepting him as he is a more than good enough. I'm one of the few that see upgrading Durbin as a good idea, I doubt Brez is even considering it. Rafaela is my favorite player, but his offense has likely peaked, and we could see a decline in 2027 from him. I know D means more to me than you, but I keep him around. I'd like to see us add Sato and doubt we outbid everyone for Suzuki. BLowe sucks vs LHPs and Arozena could be the next Yoshida. We don't have the trade capital to get a top quality bat, unless we part with Arias or Anthony plus others.

HRs per 650 PA in 2026 33 Mead 32 Contreras 29 Gasper 24 Rutschman 22 Abreu 21 Duran 20 Jones

Who is on the block? HRs 2025-2026 101 Schwarber (156 XBH) 87 Caminero (141 XBH) 85 Ohtani (159 XBH but 99 in 2024!) 83 Raleigh (122) 81 Alonso (127 XBH) (79 Sato with 160 XBHs- is more than any above.) 76 PCR 75 E Suarez 72 Devers & Goodman 71 Judge 70 Soto & Olson 67 Rice 66 B Lowe (FA) 61 Wood 60 Buxton & Adell 58 Suzuki (FA) 57 Machado, Torkelson & Kurtz 56 Harper & C Walker 54 J Rod, Langeliers & Busch 53 Arozena (FA,) Carroll & Neto 52 Lindor, Grisham, Abrams, de la Cruz & Montgomery 51 Adames & S Perez 50 KMarte, Tatis,Pages & Chisholm (FA)

Sato?

The flexibility allows us to not have be so positionally specific on who we add. Just what you want! (I like it, too.)

B-I-N-G-O. You can fit 3 in the 7-8-9 slots, and that's what Brez tried to do over the summer. BTW, Rafaela might be best in the 7 slot. AR replaced Narvaez and some from Wong. Mead was meant to turn the 2B slot from a sh_t show to a top 5-10 positional ranking- both on O and overall. The SS position killed us as our HR and RBI leader crapped himself. Hard to blame Brez for not adding a top SS, especially with Arias in the wings. The LF position was supposed to be top 5-10 and had depth (Anthony & Duran.) I can't blame Brez here, as many of us wanted him to trade the depth (Duran,) and we needed up needing it. Too bed Duran was horrible. Thinking of the DH slot batting 7-9 just seems plain wrong. With Yoshida getting $18M and being untradable, I can understand Brez leaving it as is, and thinking Anthony could DH, if needed. Looking at 2027, Arias may "fix" the SS position, but nobody is expecting him to give the offense a boost. One encouraging fact is that our 2026 SS OPS was just .660. Breaking even should be more than achievable. The 2026 DH slot hit .769, so I'm not sure the premise that DH should be 7-9, but with so many injuries, we often had poor to mediocre batters in the DH slot. It's hard to know who will DH in 2027, but Yoshida could be back and maybe Anthony or Mead could DH. At worst, a Gaper-Jones platoon is not bad. A Casas-Romy platoon may surprise. LF will depend on Anthony and maybe Duran. I can see Duran batting 7-9 but not Anthony.

When so many of our players were pre prime or prime going from 2025 to 2026, one would normally expect improvement, and with SLG, many players slug better in or near post prime. 2025>2026 SLG Improved: .414>.444 Rafaela .388>.399 Yoshida .344>.385 Sogard .238>.348 Wong Not many major gains, and 3 of these guys has very limited PAs. _____________________ SLG Declined: .483> .303 Romy .469> .446 Abreu .463> .396 Anthony .442> .361 Duran .433> .351 Story (.371 Monasterio) .419> .275 Narvaez (.419 Rutschman) .402> .312 Mayer (.400 Seagler) As you can see, some massive drops occurred among our "keepers." I'd venture to say the drop in this group is much more significant than the change-over slots... ______________________ Changes: .504 Devers> .516 Contreras .486 Refsnyder> .585 Jones .462 Bregman> .378 Durbin .420 N Lowe/.371 Toro>.466 Gasper .333 DHam>.311 IKF

I'm all for signing batters to longer deals, but I'm pretty sure we won't outbid everyone for the best ones, I don't have a mind set that is against the idea, but I try to be realistic about projections. I often suggest we sign the large and long ones. If Arias is as good on D as I hear, I'm okay if he never hits 20 dingers. I am for a serious upgrade for a big bat to compensate for Arias and a few other mid-power players up and down our projected line-up. I do think we have already upgraded our offense over the summer, but the Mead injury on day one pushed his plus contribution to 2027. I'm also hopeful AR and Anthony gan give us full seasons we did not see in 2026. I realize we will likely have injuries, again, but I think we are well-prepared for any major injury, except at Catcher. 1B: Contreras> Mead> Gasper/Romy/Sogard/Casas 2B: Mead> Story> Seigler/Sogard/Romy/Monasterio 3B: Durbin> Mead/Story> Sogard/Monasterio/Eaton LF: Anthony> Duran> Yoshida/White/Jones/KC CF: Rafaela> Duran/Anthony> White/Ward/KC RF: Abreu> Anthony> KC/Ward DH: Anthony/Mead/Story> Gasper/Romy, Casas/Jones

Dump and try to save $6-8M or back-up SS/2B/DH and maybe 3B.

I think Duran will be gone. JH is too tight with the money, and we have needs elsewhere.

Go Brew Crew!

One reason I am for offering Casa the arb is his options.

I even preferred Alonso to Bregman. I'm still glad we didn't bid higher for AB.

My bad- I meant Jones.

Like nobody will pay all of Story and Yoshida's deals. I'm talking partial paydowns.

We may not add a SP. We have 4 coming off the IL.