moonslav59

It's damn good, but not a cinch.

Yes, the guy with a 96 ERA+ since 2017. He got paid more than Paxton's $4M option. That's why I listed him as a comp.

If we want to beef up our team OBP, next season, here are some of the OBP leaders in OBP since 2021 (400+ PAs): 3. Judge .400 9. Nimmo .380 12. Bogey .374 16. Reynolds .369 (Trade?) 19. Winker .367 (Trade?) 21. Correa .366 22. S Marte .365 (Trade?) 23. Brantley .365 25. J Abreu .365 26. Ohtani .364 34. Yelich .358 (Trade- hefty contract) 35. T Turner .358 40. Vogelbach .356 41. JD Davis .356 46. B Belt .355 47. J Bell .355 53. Cooper .352 58. Beni .348 63. Carpenter .346 65. JD Martinez .345 68. Conforto .344 71. Contreras .344 78. Segura .343 (Trade?)

Yes, I should have said last 3 years. Plus, I counted back 6 years on Paxton, starting from 2021. My bad.

I went back and added him: 591 Archer 93 ERA+ Same innings- but 20 less on ERA+.

Paxton's last 2 years have been a mess, but in his previous 4 seasons, he never pitched less than 120 innings and had an ERA+ of 116. Teams often sign players on hopes of recovery to form. They swung and missed twice on Paxton. It's easy to chose the sample size of 2 seasons to make a strongpoint against his worth being $4M/1, but one could go back 3, 4, 5 or 6 years and find supporting evidence he's worth the risk/gamble. Some similar or higher contract pitchers... 6 years IP 808 M perez 100 ERA+ 799 Bundy 90 ERA+ 699 Kluber 129 ERA+(281 IP last 4 years) 643 Boyd 96 ERA+ 591 Archer 93 ERA+ 590 Paxton 113 ERA+ (172 last 4 yrs) 425 Pineda 105 373 Smyly 95 343 Richards 99

One poster seems ready to prefer he bites into a Cyanide pill.

I get that, and if JH ever thinks we are close to another ring, he may bite that bullet.

I would not be thrilled having Paxton back, but at $4M/1, I think it's a decent low-risk gamble. Martin Perez was a good gamble. Archer & Hill, too. Were they "good money after bad?" BTW, I'd be just as happy, if paxton declines the deal and moves on.

Add Paxton at $10M/1 to that list. Richards $9M Kluber $8M

Pitching is certainly a strength and should be, next year, too. Here are the OPS Against number by Yankee pitchers, listed in order of most PAs Against: .650 Cole 793 PAs against .713 Taillon 728 .554 Cortes 615 .670 Montgomery 469 (Traded away) .616 Severino 405 .714 German 298 .547 Holmes 260 .721 Luetge 251 .648 Schmidt 236 .534 Peralta 223 .599 Loasisiga 203 .548 King 199 .838 Montas 185 .525 Marinaccio 181 .654 Chapman 160 .741 Castro 131 .656 Abreu 108 .607 Trivino 93 For reference, here are the Sox numbers: .753 Pivetta 773 .747 Hill 526 .693 Wacha 515 .754 Eovaldi 460 .794 Crawford 334 .852 Wink 316 .639 Whitlock 311 .804 Bello 268 .793 Brasier 263 .577 Schreiber 257 .743 Davis 254 .608 Houck 247 .664 Sawamura 221 .664 Strahm 193 .676 Barnes 176 .763 Danish 173 .744 Diekman 171 (Traded away) .845 Ort 134 .831 Robles 111

He does look pretty promising as a "late bloomer," but 2022 could easily just be an outlier season. Same with Holmes in the pen, who started to show signs of flukiness, late in the season. They both had a decent 2021 to add to their records, but is that enough to anoint them sure best for 2023? I'm not so sure about Sevy being back to ace status, either. Taillon might outpitch him in '23, assuming good health.

I'd be surprised, but I'd also feel like he'd be a promising player for only $4M. We paid $10M for Richards, 2 years ago and $6M for Paxton, last year (with the $4M option counting on the 2022 tax line.) I'm not confident he'll produce for us, but I think it's a good gamble at that low cost. We signed Diekman to $8M/2. This looks better, to me.

...and he will likely get more than $4M/1.

I get it. I don't get why you think we are miserable, but I've come to accept your errant positions are just part of what this site is full of.

We gave him $10M after a similar previous record. I think he'd get more than $4M/1 on the FA market, assuming he is healthy, now.

Miserable? You must be talking to the scarecrows you constructed.

While true, we had a golden opportunity to get under at the deadline and chose not to. That is on Bloom and upper management. I understand the pressure to appear to be staying competitive for the fans and consumers, but they just made that more difficult for 2023 and 2014 by not getting under the line. The hear and now won over the future at the deadline, while it seemed obvious, to me anyway, this was not "the year."

What I find interesting is the biggest complaint many of us have on Bloom is going over the line in in 2022 while not even coming close to being competitive, not to mention highly competitive, but those who complain the most about Bloom do not bring this part up very much. Perhaps that is linked to their idea that he should be spending more, despite it not really being an option for him.. If the budget is a concern, going over should only occur when the team is highly competitive. I understand, management might have felt we could have been highly competitive, after we signed Story, but once it became clear we were not, Bloom & Co. should have traded away enough salary to get under.

Or, just pick a single season, when you feel your hopes are highest.

Well said, you damn Bloom apologist!

He is 1 for 3 with 2 rbi. Judge has never played in a WS.

Even without the penalties, the system has changed to hamper richer teams from drafting and signing lower picks to big contracts or signing as many of the best IFAs as possible. This was a major reason I felt the upcoming "cliff" was all but certain. Many said, in a cavalier manner, "all we have to do is rebuild the farm, and we'll be fine," like it was easy and could be done overnight. The other aspect on rebuilding a farm, is that even if you do rebuild it overnight, it still takes a few years for the prospects to mature and start contributing to the big club in meaningful ways, especially when you primarily draft HS players in the upper rounds. One of the main reasons I give Bloom a pass on the 2022 ML club results, is that I think he has exceeded my expectations on rebuilding the farm more quickly, deeply and strongly than I imagined anyone could. Of course, the high draft pick after the disastrous 2020 season helped, and many of DD's prospects have risen by more than I expected, but he also did not trade them away. His prospects added via trade have not really panned out, yet, but we may get something from Wink, German, Seabold, Wong, RHern, Downs and others still in the lower ranks of the farm (Binelas, hamilton, de la Rosa, Wallace and more.) I've said this before, but I think it needs repeating: since the Devers call-up in 2017, the only significant prospects called up or traded have been Houck, Dalbec and Duran. Since the the start of 2022, here is a list of prospects called up or expected to be called up at some point in 2023. Not all have or will succeed, but the sheer number and promise of some is very encouraging, to me... Some ML Experience: Bello Casas Crawford Winckowski, Seabold, Wong, Kelly, German, Ort, Downs No ML Experience, so far: Rafaela Mata Walter E Valdez Murphy RHern Politi Granberg TWard ('24?) W Abreu ('24?) That's over 15 players with maybe 5 or 6 looking very promising and another 5 or 6 looking like they may fill some lesser roles adequately.

Did he make it, because of the rule on one player from every team makes the roster? I think that was the year 4 Royals started the game.

Love it!