moonslav59

Just returned from a laproscopic double hernia operation. All went well. A little sore, but all in all, I'm okay.

The good thing about Pearce is he can hit righties well enough,if Moreland gets hurt again.

Keep on hoping... I love our chances this year with or without a major pen upgrade.

I'll take a ring and 3 last place finishes in a 4 year stretch over your 4 year low point with one playoff appearance every day of the week.

We'll have the mid season to make adjustments, if needed.

Going with Brasier or Barnes would not be "devastating," when you look how stacked the rest of the team is. Besides, we will add another RP'er by opening day. It doesn't have to a be a great one.

It's not simple, for sure, but how many teams are currently looking to spend big on a closer or solid set up guy that may become a closer? How many pitchers fit that bill? I think there are more really good relief pitchers than big spending teams.

If we weren't so loaded with infield dept, some untradable, some injury riddled, some defensively or offensively challenged, I'd have liked to have seen us take a chance on Tulo. Min wage with some nice upside: what's not to like?

DD might wait out the closer market and swoop in near the end to get one for a 1 year deal or a great bargain.

The reset will be for one year, then we can revert back to $39M over the limit, if needed.

I haven't mentioned it, but I've thought about it. If he says no to something like my suggested offer, then we did what we could, and we move on. Maybe we keep Sale & JBJ.

Not as many, and that's why I believe a cliff happens, but that does not mean we can't build a team around Betts and his $32M luxury tax hit once we reset and are able to go $39M over the limit again. We will get a nice draft pick and international bonus money the year we crash while resetting. We'll still have JD and/or JBJ, Betts, Beni, Devers, Price, ERod, Vaz, Brasier, Barnes and can maybe count on 2-3 prospects to do okay in some key roles. There will be a lot of money to spend, if we say good bye to Bogey, Porcello, Sale and maybe JBJ or JD. I'm hoping we can keep the cliff to one year with maybe the second year being just a wild card hopeful. Through it all, I want Betts on my team and probably all the way to retirement. This might not be my best position of all time, and I can certainly understand the opposing arguments, but my gut says keep this guy. (BTW, if you know me, you know my gut rules all else.)

I guess in light of other GM's "terrible mistakes," the Thornburg trade was pretty light. The gutting of the farm could be viewed as a terrible mistake by some, but with the recent wing, not by me.

Yes, we have Johnson, but I'd prefer to upgrade there than at catcher. Plus, upgrading the catcher position would be much more costly than getting a better SP'er than Johnson. BTW, I'm not advocating upgrading anywhere, right now, than the pen. I wasn't really hinting at a personal relationship between catcher and pitcher, but more about the feeling of comfort a pitcher has with some catcher over others. I'm sure there are other catchers out there that could quickly build that comfort level up to par with Leon & Vaz, but to find one that can also hit would be very costly, and to me, that upgrade is not as high a priority as upgrading the pen. I slotted 2B ahead of catcher, but I'm not for upgrading there either, at least until we know more about the health of Pedey & Nunez.

I don't think the 6th starter is a big need, but it is more of a need than catcher, IMO.

Good summary of the state of GM debates. To me, all did well. All made terrible mistakes. All have a ring. All left the others with some good and bad for the next guy with DD's weak farm being the projected downside of his legacy.

...like LAD.

I think many don't value pitch calling and tight relationships between catchers and pitchers enough. If they did, they would not have thought our catcher position is our weakest area this winter. I'd rank our highest need areas like this: 1. Closer 2. Set-up man 3. 2B 4. 6th starter 5. Catcher offense and 3B defense

True, but my point was that people say we can't win by paying someone $35M. We just paid Pablo, HRam, Pedey and Price $86M last year and only saw one of them play for us. And, we won it all. I realize it won't be easy, but if we reset after 2019 by losing Porcello, Bogey and maybe Sale, we can spend heavily in 2020 and build a pretty good team, and maybe by 2021 or 2022, we can be back on top. We will need to drat well, when we get those higher picks. We need to strike gold with some international signings, like we did a while back. We can't make many more mistakes like Pablo, HRam or Castillo, but when you have to fill in so many roster spots with free agents, you are bound to make at least one or two. 2020 with an extended Betts and no Bogey, Porcello and Sale (keeping JD): Price Eovaldi ERod Wright Johnson/Velazquez/DHernandez/Shawaryn Feltman Brasier Barnes Lakins Poyner (SP'er) 1. Betts 2. Beni 3. Devers 4. JDM 5. Bradley 6. Chavis/Dalbec 7. Pedey/Lin 8. Lin/Chatham/Hernandez 9. Vaz/Swihart If we can go $39M over in 2021 after resetting after 2019, we can upgrade several of the weak positions.

It won't bother me at all, if the Yanks get Machado. He'll help in the short term but will limit them down the road. We're still better than them with MM and us without CK.

My sentiments, exactly.

I think the $5M savings tips the balance.

Tulo to sign with the Yanks for the minimum.

Pedey, Chavis and Johnson for Tulo & Gray.

Tulo signs with Yanks for min salary.