moonslav59

For all we know Boras can accurately tell other teams that Martinez has an offer of X years and X dollars from other club. He could deceptively tell teams falsehoods or exaggerations.

The Cubs might lose Arrieta, but they're apparently going after Darvish after already signing Chatwood, Smyly, Morrow and Cishek. Some GMs are striking early.

I'm a stat hound but have always liked Marco, despite his non flattering numbers. I'd like to see him get a decent chance to prove himself, before we spend wildly on a super utility player. To a lesser extent, I'd like to see how Swihart does. Holt and Marrero are disposable, once we see how Pedey is progressing as Lin has more options,

Not one in a wheel chair.

The Kemp money is spread over 2 years, while the AGon, Kazmir and McCarthey money is all 2018. This puts the Dodgers below $197M. They've been over the limit 5 straight years. AGon is toast. Sad.

I'm very concerned about Pedey. I have worries Marco cannot be better than replacement level. I do, however, feel like we should wait on finding a top quality 2Bman until we know more-- maybe mid season. Maybe we need to keep some money available for this contingency.

I'm sure he likes it better than 1B. Besides, Bogey >> Devers at 3B on D.

I've said all along, if he hits, he can get 650 PAs. It still makes sense (assuming we sign JD) to have Duda- just in case HRam or JD gets hurt or an OF'er. $6M is Chris Young money. JD has never hat maximum PAs. HRam is fragile and declining. Beni may need to be platooned vs LHPs. There's room to give Duda 350+ PAs without messing with a healthy and productive HRam.

Why before Hoze and Morrison?

Look at his numbers vs RHPs. These are not typical 1B or DH numbers. I'm not taking about spending $20M a year on a back-up. Duda is projected to make $6M x 1. Forget the vesting option: we need power, and Duda has some of the best ISO numbers in MLB. He's cheap. We need power. We need low cost players. Win-win. If HRam doesn't make the vesting option, that's just gravy. If he does, it's because he hit well enough (win-win) or Duda/JD got hurt.

His stock fell when he named just 4 teams, and 3 had little interest. Had Jeter told Stanton, "Look, we already cut $30M, I'm keeping you here, GS would have folded and expanded the list. He'd probably be in SF right now or within a month. .

I can see why Jeter is now dumping everyone: they suck. However, with Stanton's long term contract, they could have cut $30M elsewhere. They already have, actually. Keeping Stanton could have done 3 things: 1) Keep some semblance of entertainment value for the team, at least until they trade him later. 2) If the team rebuilds and can contend in 2,3 or 4 years, Stanton is still there. 3) Stanton's trade value might be higher in July, and he might have expanded the teams he'd play for to just about anyone contending. (I get the fact that he could have lost value due to injury or only having 15 HRs at the deadline, but I'd play the odds.) Just because he hit 59 HRs this year, doesn't mean his trade value was highest and a rush trade had to be made. There was no rush. The $30M had already been slashed with other trades.

Sadly, I agree.

I agree. He gets 650+ PAs, if he's healthy and hitting, but what are the odds of both happening? Not good. Why not make a contingency plan for something likely to happen? These numbers should make everyone think we need support for HRam: 33 first basemen have had 900+ PAs vs RHPs since 2015, and here is where HRam and others rank in OPS: 7. Hosmer .879 11. Abreu .862 13. Santana .840 14. Duda .834 17. Reynolds .817 19. Morrison .810 23. Alonso .785 25. Moreland .782 27. HRam .767 One can argue we should platoon HRam or at least sit him vs tough righties, without the vesting option as an excuse. More telling are the ISO numbers: 4. Duda .255 13. Morrison .235 14. Santana .234 19. Moreland .210 24. Reynolds .199 28. Hosmer .187 29. HRam .179 32. Alonso .156

I agree, and I think signing a guy like Duda (with JD) makes more sense than just for the reasons you mentioned. 1) JD will play in the OF every time we need to rest someone. That could be 15-20 games right there. 2) I know I will catch some grief for saying this, and I'm not advocating a platoon, but Beni needs to prove he can hit LHP'ers pretty quickly in 2018, or we may want to sit him versus the best of them. (Beni's career splits .838 vs .583) This could add 20-25 more games to JD in the OF. 3) Someone gets hurt out of HRam, JBJ, Beni or Betts and Duda plays FT or at least vs all RHPs. If we give JD 30-35 games in LF, that leaves 162 at 1B and maybe 35 at DH for HRam & Duda to split. Maybe that's 200 games or almost 900 PAs: 480 for HRam (no vest, including starting vs just about all LHPs) 400 for Duda (vs just about all RHPs)

I'm okay with Bogey at SS, and I don't need stats to support my position that he is, at best, a below average defender. Now that Cozart is gone, I see no option that looks good enough out there to warrant switching two player's positions (XB>SS & RD>1B/DH). With our infield defense looking suspect, especially with Pedey our and devers learning on the fly, I'd hate to weaken our OF defense and CF to boot, but I realize our middle-order offense needs a big boost- mostly powerwise. I'm not buying into the idea that we need to pay JD more to get him to agree to play DH. I'd offer him the max we think he's worth (maybe $155M/5) and tell Bore-A$$ take it or leave it. We might even have to give him a drop dead date, so we don't lose out on other options by waiting and waiting. If we sign JD and Morrison, and then trade JBJ (and others like Holt, Marrero, Swihart or Travis/Ockimey plus maybe a low prospect or two) for a quality SP'er, I'd say we improved enough to be a top contender. I'd rather sign JD to DH, keep JBJ and then just sign a quality SP'er. Maybe add a cheap, 1 year guy like Duda to support HRam at 1B and offer a back-up DH when JD plays the OF.

I'd hate to lose 3 years of JBJ in a 3-way for 2 years of Abreu at more money, but this line-up looks killer: 1) Betts 2) Beni 3) Abreu 4) JD 5) Devers 6) HRam 7) Bogey 8) Pedey 9 Vaz

Hasn't he already proven he struggles at SS and is actually getting worse? Cozart would have been a huge upgrade at SS defense, which has much greater value than 3B. Plus, Bogey looked fine at 3B in 2013, but not so good in 2014. Either Bogey is better than Devers at 3B on defense. That's a second defensive plus to our D. Devers at 1B would be a downgrade, at least until he adjusts. He could also DH with HRam at 1B, if he sucks there.

If we lose out on JD, Hosmer and Abreu, I don't see many other good choices than Moose. I guess Morrison could repeat 2017, but I'd go for Moose and improve our D and power.

Yes, and maybe add Travis or Ockimey, if needed.

Plus, he's about even in power.

I've never been against Morrison. I like Santana better. The context of my wanting JD Martinez and Duda was assuming JD would DH, and Duda would... 1) squeeze HRam out of his vesting option 2) allow Duda to DH when JD plays the OF in NL parks and when an OF'er needs rest or is hurt 3) offers insurance against an injury to HRam or JD 4) is much cheaper than Morrison, Santana and Hosmer 5) will get much less years of commitment 6) has more power than Santana, Hosmer and maybe Morrison. What's changed? JD wants to play the OF, so I'm assuming, if we get JD, we trade JBJ for a pitcher and then need a DH/1B type hitter at minimal cost and minimal years. That's why I have Duda in my top 2 choices. It's close, to me, when you factor money, years and risk-reward factors between Duda & Morrison- assuming JD plays LF most of the time and DHs sparingly. I put both of those choices way above any plan with Hosmer in it.

Was it too absurd to picture this? 3B Bogey SS Cozart 2B Pedey 1B Devers/HRam DH HRam/Devers

Don't bid against yourself, DD. Set a more than fair number and walk away.

Still plenty out there... MLBTR top free agents.... 1. Darvish- available 2. JD Martinez- available 3. Eric Hosmer- available 4. Arrieta- available 5. Tanaka- (Did not opt out with Yankees.) 6. Moustakas- available 7. L. Cain- available 8. Wade Davis- available 9. Lance Lynn- available 10. Greg Holland- available 11. Alex Cobb- available 12. C. Santana- Phillies ($60M/3) 13. Z Cozart- LAA ($38M/3) 14. J Bruce- available 15. L Morrison- available (Justin Upton $106M/5)