moonslav59

So, leaving players returning from injury or down seasons out of the discussion, which AL teams improved over this off season, so far? Toronto & Boston is my answer.

He also "dumped" Beckett just in time. Some liked/loved the Peavy & Dempster deals. Badenhop was a nice cheap get. Porcello worked out well. ERod was a steal.

For PIT, even $2.5M is too much salary. IMO, Ben got hosed, but I've been wrong often.

If we got one guy, like Odorizzi, I think CF is the clear 2nd priority (or 2B, if we put EHern in CF). If we sign Porcello, I might think another SP is more important than CF. I do not think 1B is a top 5 need, but talk of Moreland returning seems real.

I think the return was worse than 4 Michael Chavises. I stand ready to apologize, if one of these 4 amounts to anything more than squat.

If we add Moreland, what else is next? Will we go over the lux tax line or wait to the deadline to decide to buy or sell? Our biggest remaining needs are... 1. CF (or 2B, if we play Hernandez in CF) 2. RP 3. SP 4. OF depth

It looks that way, but I don't know what the other offers were, or if he had a gun to his head about cutting salary, but yes, he got robbed. I also view this as other GMs, including Bloom, missing a grand opportunity. Taillon has questions, but this is not a 1 year and done guy. He has 2 years left and is ace material, if healthy.

Totonto: Plus Springer OF Semien SS Yates Closer Chatwood RP Minus T Shaw C Anderson NYY Plus Kluber Taillon Minus Tanaka Paxton Happ Ottavino TBR Plus Wacha F Mejia Minus Snell Morton Lowe Alvarado Boston Plus G Richards Ottavino E Hernandez Renfroe Andriese Whitlock Minus JBJ Baltimore Plus Mac Sceroler Tyler Wells A Goudeau C Shaw Minus Let me know who I left out.

When are the Jays going to realize they need starting pitchers?

Dominoes falling quickly... Semien to Jays $18M/1 (No wonder we didn't sign him) Simmons to Twins for $10.5M/1 (I think he's worth more.) Ramos to Tigers for $2M/1 La Stella to sign with Giants, soon.

cots has 2023, too.

Nope. The last batter he faced, Danny Jansen, cranked a grand slam. The next guy, Luis Cessa, got the next two guys out.

...for having fans like him.

Luxury Tax Coming Off the Books After 2021 $13.75 Pedey $10.00 Richards (option for 22) $8.9M Ottavino $8.3M ERod $5.0M Perez (option for 22) $4.6M Vaz (option for 22) $4.5M Barnes After 2022: $22M JD $20M Bogey, if he opts out $17M Eovaldi $7M E Hernandez $7M Beni (Est last arb) $4M Renfroe (Est last arb)

You keep saying your Sox fan days are over. Please go away, quietly.

Tanaka + Paxton+ Happ> Kluber + Taillon Kluber + Taillon > Tanaka, Paxton + Happ? Who knows? Yes, others are coming back from injury, but that's our story, too. They still have Sanchez at catcher. Voit & Ursela could have a letdown. Nom improvement at middle IF, DH or OF. They may bring Gardner back, but even that is just a sideways move. Of course, they could end up better than 2020, but I think we could just as easily improve by as many or more wins as the Yanks from 2020.

Odorizzi is the guy I wanted all along, especially because of his wanting only 3 years. I'd have rather signed him than Ottavino, as we could have pushed a starter to the pen, but there's not going back, there. It's not like Odorizzi is going to put us way over the line, anyway, and if Henry wants to go over by less, then we can trade Beni and/or a few players at the deadline.

This is very likely to happen, IMO. There are a few CF'ers out there via trade, but Pillar won't cost us any players from an already shallow roster.

Yes, calling it just a steal was silly: it was grand larceny.

Close to zero risk. They gave up next to nothing, and I doubt there was someone better available for what they gave up. Yes, they have many question marks, but they have 8 choices for their last 4 rotation slots. Taillon is just one.

You said it better than I did. I'm also not so sure we can read too much into Sale's recent numbers as he was returning from some down time, yet not all his 2019 numbers were bad. His 13.3 K rate was his second highest of his career- second only to 2018. His 2.3 BB/9 was his worst since 2012, but very close to his career 2.1 mark. His K/BB ratio was 5.89, which is better than his career 5.37 mark and 4th best of his career. His 3.39 FIP seems concerning, but even that was not his worst season and was not all that much higher than his career 2.90 mark. WHIP? 1.086, which is very close to his career 1.035 WHIP. His OPS against was .532, and we're supposed to think this signals a complete breakdown of his ability to "ramp it up?" Plus, he was actually getting better towards the end of 2018 (.466 last 7 games) He had a .695 OPS against in 2019, but finished the season with 25 Ks in his last 14.2 IP (2BB + 7 H). I realize, he could be toast. We've been hearing his violent arm action would lead to severe injury for years and years. Maybe his time is up, but the guy has already shown he could and did comeback from the first injury, and coming back from TJS is now pretty commonplace.

The velo charts just do not support your claim. His velo did dip from his previous 1-3 years but was the same as his earlier years when he was still Cy Young material. His K rate has been his highest the last 3 years. How was he K'ing people without "ramping it up?" (And, if he was K'ing people without ramping it up, maybe it proves he doesn't need top velo to be great.) Let's be honest, yes. These graphs don't lie: https://www.fangraphs.com/players/chris-sale/10603/graphs?pitchgraphs=true&statArr=&legend=1&split=base&time=daily&start=2012&end=2019&rtype=mult&gt1=15&dStatArray=FA&ymin=&ymax=

Me, too. Also, Chavis hits RHPs better than LHPs, so he would not make a good platoon in LF with Beni, if he's on the 26 man roster. I would not like to see a Renfore/ Chavis platoon in LF with Beni in CF or RF.

Why such a salary difference?

I think spending large for 3 straight years should be discouraged. Maybe the multiplying factor should be adjusted by how much you actually go over in year 1 and 2. Going over by $1M year 1 should not trigger the same tax rate year 3 as going over by $25M.