moonslav59

About a third of the top 60 MLB catchers by PAs have an OPS under .550. I'm thinking some team might take a flyer on Swihart. I'm not expecting much value in return, but if we add Hembree, we might be able to get something usable.

Devers is just 21. He has a career .750 OPS with 20 Hrs in just under 525 PAs (485 ABs). Cut the kid some slack. He has done SOMETHING, just not lately. Remember, he was at .814 on May 4th of this year, so it's only been about a 5 or 6 week slump. It make take more time for him to adjust than we hope, but I'm confident he will. He seems to be making strides on his defense, which was what I have been most worried about.

As I recall, Devers did struggle for a few weeks here and there on the farm, and he did have a long stretch to start the 2016 in Salem. he was at .635 after 63 games. He was at .686 after 72 games.

If we stay $39M over the limit year after year, we can probably stay a winning team, even after the window slams shut, but remaining highly competitive is going to be tough by 2020 or 2021.

I think our bottom 3 in the line-up will improve as the year goes on- giving Betts more RBI opportunities. If Pedey can come back strong, that would push one of our current bottom 3 to the bench.

Devers does not match up well with Moreland at 1B, but Devers at DH could happen for a few months anyways. He'd still get to play some 3B. I doubt Devers gets sent to AAA, if we trade for Beltre. We'd just trade or DFA Swihart. If JBJ has a hot streak, we could see him and Swihart traded to make room for Beltre and keep devers in the line-up, primarily as a DH. Our OF defense would be weakened, but our 3B defense would be strengthened.

So true. One good thing I liked about this "window" idea was that it should be 4-5 years in length. Several GMs have done similar things for a 1-2 year window.

My guess is whoever gets the home field advantage will be viewed as the "favorite."

Yes, "love" was a poor choice of words after the off season issues with Wright. Yes, Vaz is doing a great job with Wright. It's not an easy task. Had Wakefield been given capable catchers his whole career, his numbers would have looked much better.

How much value would adding Hembree to a Swihart package be? Both are out of options and would give us much more flexibility with farm to majors roster moves (not like we have great farm players being held back).

I doubt we make any move that puts us over the maximum penalty limit ($2-3 M to go), but then again, the penalty is not really all that horrible as a 1 year thing. Here are the best hitters vs LHPs since 2017 (100+ PAs) that may be available: 1.024 Adrian Beltre 1.004 Jose Abreu .981 Avisail Garcia .973 Nick Castellanos .970 Josh Donaldson .934 Brian Dozier .927 Whit Merrifield .900 James McCann .889 Jonathon Schoop .871 Jorge Soler .863 Joey Votto I doubt we have the pieces to get any of the above players, but maybe one from below is doable: .914 Justin Smoak .899 Adam Duvall .887 Kendrys Morales .868 Ehire Adrianza .810 Todd Frazier .756 Jed Lowrie is not what we need.

Tough loss for Wright, but I'm glad to see he's finally getting some lovin' from knuckle ball naysayers.

Who isn't, these days?

Well, the way the Yanks and Astros are playing right now, it sure looks that way, but the season is long. Things change.

I agree, but 3 years in a row would certainly feel like failure, especially in light of how much of the future we traded away to win it all in this 4 year window. This is year 3, and time is ticking.

I heard there's a guy named Hanley available for the league minimum. Just kidding!

Maybe Pom could be a huge plus to the pen. Maybe it's just a dream-- like Smith was. There's also the Thornburg dream. I have no idea on what's up with Pedey.

MLBTR reports... Pomeranz Yet To Resume Throwing By Steve Adams | June 13, 2018 at 11:19pm CDT Drew Pomeranz has been on the shelf for nearly two weeks, but the Red Sox lefty doesn’t sound especially close to returning. WEEI’s Rob Bradford tweets that Pomeranz says the pain in his arm has mostly dissipated, but he has limited mobility in his neck, which is still preventing him from even throwing. Pomeranz, 29, originally hit the DL due to tendinitis in his left biceps, though it would appear that he’s experiencing additional discomfort at this point. Knuckleballer Steven Wright has stepped into Pomeranz’s spot in the rotation and tossed 13 2/3 shutout innings in two starts.

It went down tonight.

You're probably right, but if we shed Leon and Hembree, we can problem afford both.

We face another lefty today. Let's hope the result is different. Go Wright! GO!!!!!!

The threshold goes up $9M next season. Minus Sale's $1M raise, that adds $8M. Assuming we may spend $39M over the luxury limit again next year, our actual "limit" might be $245M. Starting at $150M, counting Sale's contract, player benefits and other 40 man roster players, we then look at arbs and FA signings. I'm not sure how much of a raise JBJ will get, and I guess that depends on how well he does going forward. Arb Costs ~$17M Betts (2nd or 3 arb years) ~$15M Bogey (3 of 3) ~$7M JBJ (3 of 4) ~$7M ERod (2 of 4) ~$3M Holt (3 of 3) ~$3M Thornburg (3 of 3) ~$2.5M Wright (2 of 3) ~$2.5M Leon (3 of 3) optional ~$1M C Smith (2 of 3) ~$1M Barnes (1 of 3) ~$750K Hembrfee (1 of 3) optional ~$750K Swihart (1 of 4) optional Total: ~$62M in arb raises Total: $212M with no HRam, Pomeranz, Kimbrel & Kelly. If we go to $244M ($1M under the max penalty line), we'llhave about $32M to spend. I think that gets us Kimbrel and Kelly or replacements in kind. If we shed Leon and keep Swihartand trade Hembree, we can add about $3M there. We'll have to hope Wright, Velazquez, Haley, Johnson and Beeks can replace Pomeranz AND provide the starter depth we need. That will be tight. We don't have much hope in getting help from the farm, but maybe Pedey can get back to respectability, and we get a bump from 1 or 2 of these guys: Smith, Thornburg, Scott, Maddox, Poyner, Walden, Travis and Lin. Basically, we may be able to have the same roster as this year, minus Pomeranz.

That "last place team" in 2016 had a solid core of young players and was much better on paper than their record indicated. They were never projected to finish in last place in 2014 or 2015. You don't have to be projected as winning the ALE or AL Championship to be considered a solid contender for at least making the World Series. I still think our "window" started in 2016. We almost had the best AL record playing in a tougher division than CLE & TEX. Yes, we lost in the first round, but we made it to the dance and had a good shot at winning it all.

Holt has started 14 of our last 18 games. We're 12-6 in those games.) Nunez has started 15 of the last 18- 4 as a DH.

All of DD's moves (except JD) were geared towards 2016-2019 and maybe 2020. That's a 4-5 year "window" not 2, but your point is still valid.