moonslav59

Imagine signing Duda and Nunez, and Pedey needs to DH. How about this IF defense? Duda, Nunez, Devers, Bogey Yuck!

It's the same thing. We win the division when Sale goes 2-0 over our last 15 games instead of 2-1 or 1-2.

Nobody will ever know if extra rest would have helped. We're not really even sure his late season struggles are fatigue-related, but common sense points to it being a strong possibility. I don't know about you, but somewhere I read that when a person is fatigued, rest is a good thing. Then, to top it off, not only do they NOT REST HIM, they let him go 8 innings, so he can chase some K record or goal. It's insanity. That's the only thing "obvious" about JF's use of Sale over the past couple weeks or longer.

Maybe he could be a year round ace with a little pro-activity.

Panic City We lose two, and the world is ending.

We probably will need more than one good hitter, especially if it's Duda, Morrison, Hosmer or Santana. maybe, if we could get Duda to platoon with HRam and JD Martinez to DH, that should be enough. I'm also expecting at least 1-2 of our younger players to do better- maybe even better than 2016. Our pitching all returns, and our pen should be even better and deeper. More likely, we sign Duda to one year, Nunez to 2-3 years and pray we get a big bat the following winter.

At the very least- YES! 300 Ks was given as an excuse. Unforgivable! JF is a complete idiot.

Obvious? To me, it's obvious he did. They could have given him 2 extra days then 2 extra days again and had him set up with 2 extra days for game 1 of the playoffs. He's now looked bad in 6 of his last 12 starts. That's not the sale from earlier in the year. He has a long history of falling off in September. Nothing is for certain, but it appears he may get fatigued by the end of long seasons. Getting one extra start may not always be the best strategy, if your burn your ace in the process. There's good chance he might have gone 2-0 instead of 2-1 by getting that extra start, which by the way would keep him from starting game 1 of the playoffs Oct 5th. Nothing is obvious- my plan or JF's.

Shoulda rested him. And, that ain't Monday morning...

I'm not a Duda fan, but I also do not want us to sign mid-powered Hosmer to multiple years to play the one position we have open to fill the power hole we have at clean-up. I don't see any great clean-up hitting 1Bman on the free agent market, so maybe a 1 year "bridge" will be the best choice. Trading for a great hitter will only create another hole or increase the deletion of the farm. I'm not for large and long contracts- like Stanton and Votto, but I'm also seeing our window shortening up, and signing a "bridge" 1Bman, in a sense, wastes a year of the window. Maybe JD Martinez can learn to play 1B. A long shot might be to sign Moustakas or wait for Machado and move Devers to 1B. Or, we could trade for Donaldson or Beltre and move Rafael. Past performance in no indicator of what is too come, but in some ways Duda's recent numbers look better and/or more consistent than Morrison, Moreland and Alonso, and his offensive numbers are not far from Hosmer or Sanatana's. Here's a look at some numbers: Offense since 2014 (1500+ PAs): ISO 1) .268 EE 2) .249 C Carter 3) .243 Duda 8) .226 Votto 9) .223 Abreu 14) .206 Belt 16) .201 Santana 18) .196 Morrison 21) .190 Reynolds 22) .188 HRam 25) .183 Moreland 29) .160 Hosmer 30) .150 Alonso OPS 1) Votto .979 7) Abreu .882 8) Belt .833 10) Duda .821 12) Santana .810 13) Hosmer .799 15) HRam .791 21) Reynolds .766 24) Morrison .761 30) Alonso .745 2016-2017 (550+ PAs) OPS Player ISO 1.004 Votto .239 .861 Abreu .209 .850 B belt .211 .848 Santana .222 .824 Reynolds .197 .822 Hosmer .171 .811 Morrison .232 .808 HRam .203 .798 Duda .258 (Best ISO in the group) .763 Alonso .168 .737 Moreland .188 2017 ONLY (450+ PAs) ISO Player OPS .323 Gallo .864 .286 Duda .829 .272 Morrison .867 .254 Votto 1.024 .244 Abreu .904 .228 B Bely .823 .226 Alonso .849 .219 Reynolds .838 .204 Santana .830 .186 Moreland .752 .177 Hosmer .885 1B Defense since 2014 (19 guys with 3000 innings) UZR/150 1) Belt 2) Moreland 5) Santana 12) Reynolds 14) Alonso 15) Votto 0.1 16) Duda -0.9 17) Morrison 18) Hosmer 19) Abreu According to just the numbers, Duda might be the best cost effective 1 year contract 1Bman available this winter. (I'm not saying I want him. Despite what many think about me, I'm not all about the numbers.)

You mean Holt really isn't any good? I guess a blind squirrel....

I like Votto a lot, too. He seems to be aging well, but I am concerned about a sudden decline and the length of his deal. Cincy is usually very stingy with trade talks. I can't believe they didn't trade Cozart, who is a FA this year. The missed a chance to get something very nice for him. I'd have to see their demands, but that contract is a big motivator. His price has gone from $14M to $20M to $22M and now is going to be set at $25M until 2023 with a $7M buyout for 2024. Now, would be a good time for them to trade him. It would be great, if they paid some of the contract, but it should cost less in players, if we take the whole deal. (His luxury cost is about what we pay HRam-- $22.5M) Would they take: 1 from Travis, Chavis or Ockimey 1 from Beeks, Shawaryn or Scherff 1 from Brannen, Chatham or Dalbec or would we have to include Groome, Mata, Houck or Flores? We could throw them Holt, Hembree (out of options), Marrero or Lin, if they are interested.

Abreu? Stanton at 1B????? Donaldson or Beltre (Devers to 1B)?

Does he suck more than Moreland, Alonso, Morrison...? Inquiring minds want to know!

They've dumped just about everyone.

I'm hopeful with Devers' D, but we'll see. If we have to use Nunez at 2B next year, our D gets even worse.

He does not have much more HR power than Moreland and his glove is over-rated. He will be costly and want several years. I'm not for putting a lot of money and years into a power position like 1B, on a team sorely lacking power, with someone like Hosmer. I'd rather go one year again with the best we can get for that length (Morrison? Duda? Alonso?) and then sign DH to squeeze HRam out of his vesting option..

Yes, and as well as many have done, particularly in the pen, only Sale and Kimbrel instill high confidence, but I guess one could say guys like Peacock, Morton, Bauer, Tomlin, Montgomery and even CC Sab have question marks next to their names, too.

I think our biggest need next year is a top clean-up hitter. The best FA I see for that role might be JD Martinez, who would essentially be a DH only. I share your concerns about that, but I don't think any 1B FAs fill the clean-up hitter role adequately. I think our bench will be fine next year, even if we non tender Holt: Leon (Holt) Travis Hernandez Lin Marrero Swihart If sign Nunez, it will be near top notch.

Top AL Contenders' Top Starters by ERA- (120+ IP) CLE 51 Kluber 76 Carrasco 96 Bauer 111 Tomlin BOS 61 Sale 75 Pom 86 ERod 100 Porcello HOU 70 Kuechel 70 Peacock 76 Verlander 86 Morton NYY 68 Severino 76 Gray 87 CC Sab 93 Montgomery 102 Garcia

It wasn't meant as a slight at all, except maybe towards Price & Porcello.

I think you misread my post. I said he would be MLB's best 4/5 starter, so that implies there is no "list" of better. My point was, he's pitched like a number 2 all season (and the first half of 2016), but with the low IP totals, he'd have been great as our 4th starter had Porcello and Price pitched like 2016 or before.

Plus, haven't we all done dumb things at some point in our lives (not that what Sale did was dumb), and yet we all know what fine and upstanding people we are!

Baseball Reference has them at 96-60. I was close . (I meant to say 97-98 wins.)

Let's hope this good news proves true.