moonslav59

Harms has it in for Mayer and always like their prospects more than ours. His point about Robles being better than Abreu makes sense, but they can make room for Abreu's bat vs RHPs by DH'ing him or Robles/Arozarena vs righties.

We know you think every SEA starter is better than our starters. Sox fans probably overvalue SEA pitchers due to park factors inflating their stats. When looking at a trade that involves Castillo and Yoshida, I think the expected further decline of Castillo should be considered. I also think figuring the money saved by SEA would be used to upgrade another area of need should be considered. I know you do not value Mayer & Meidroth as highly as Sox fans or BTV, but having him on your roster would improve it and possibly allow you to trade an IF prospect or player to make room for them. (Neither need to be on the 40, which is a benefit, although not for 2025, if the plan is to play one or both.)

Castillo is a negative on BTV, but we all think that is wrong. I guess we could change the $15M to $24 or $27M to help even it out, but BTV frowns on that, too. Maybe SEA could add another piece in the return, even if just a prospect. How about Mayer, Meidroth & Yoshida for Castillo and Andres Munoz?

So? Nobody would care about PR, with Soto added to the roster. Bauer would be forgotten in a day, unless he ends up getting to the bigs. You mentioned the Dermody situation, before. Are you so sure he'd have been DFA'd had he pitched very well that one game?

Would SEA do Mayer & Yoshida for Castillo and $15M? Would BOS?

Nobody wants to give Bauer a big contract. Most likely it would be $1M or even a minor league deal with an opt out, if not on the ML roster by a certain date. Nobody is thinking that adding him fills an immediate slot in the rotation. He would be signed as possible rotation depth by summer, at the earliest. Nobody is saying that signing him is a good PR move, but if done in the shadow of a Soto addition, I doubt it would matter.

Last year, their RF'er, Haniger, batted .620 and their DH, Garver, batted .627. Their overall numbers at those two positions were better (.716 & .673,) but adding a bat like Abreu to RF, while improving their RF defense would be a major boost. Yoshida is better than Haniger and Garver, their two primary DH's in 2024. I'm not sure, if Meidroth wins the 3B job, but the Mariners had a .643 OPS at 3B in 2024. I'm super high on Jh Garcia, but he's a year or two away. The money part could be adjusted by us adding some cash going to the M's, but they do save some by swapping Castillo's deal for Yoshida's. $22.75M x 3 vs $18M x 3. While $17M does not seem like much, it might be enough to sign a RP'er for $9M x 2. If we add $5-10M in the deal, they could sign someone like Holmes and break even.

I'm a huge Jh Garcia fan, but I think I'd trade Abreu, Jh Garcia & Meidroth for Luis Castillo + 1/3 his contract (about $8M x 3 years.) It would lower Castillo's tax number to $13.6M. I wonder what the trade would be like with no money involved- maybe drop García or Meidroth? (I gotta say it: take away the money and add Yoshida and Garver- done deal.)

Some big upsets, today. It looks like ALA may sneak in, afterall. My top 15 teams: 1. ORE 12-0 (plays Penn St) 2. Texas 11-1 (plays Georgia) 3. Penn St. (Plays Ohio St) 4. Notre Dame 11-1 5. Ohio St 10-2 6. Georgia 10-2 (plays Texas) 7. Indianna 11-1 8. Tennessee 10-2 9. SMU 11-1 (plays Clemson) 10 Boise St. 11-1 (plays UNLV) 11. Alabama 9-3 12. So. Carolina 9-3 13. Ole Miss 9-3 14. Miami 10-2 15. AZ St. 9-3 (plays COL for Big 12 Championship and top 4 berth) Clemson 9-3, IA St 10-2, UNLV 10-2, COL 9-3 (plays AZ St for Conf champ) The college FB Playoffs seed the big 4 conference winners 1-4, so AZ St or COL will get a vert fortunate placement, while better teams have to win a game to advance. The Oregon-Penn St winner should be #1. The loser maybe be the 5-7 seed. The Texas-Georgia winner should be #2. The loser might be #5-7, if Texas or 9-12, if GA. The SMU-Clemson winner will be top 4 seeded. If Clemson loses, they should be out of the top 12. If SMU loses they may slide in at #12. Probably not. The AZ St-COL winner is the 4 seed, while the loser is out. #5 should be ND or the loser of ORE-Penn St. #7 should be the loser of GA-TX or Indiana/Tennessee/Ohio St. (#8-10) Boise St and SMU could move up to #9 or 10, assuming they win, but maybe not. If one loses, AL likely makes it to #12. So. Carolina and Ole Miss could make a case over AL.

I was going to get greedy and add a trade for Crochet, but I'm already beyond the "realistic."

Sign: Soto, Fried, Scott and Higgy. Trade: Abreu, Cespedes, Fitts and Yoshida for Arenado & Helsley. Rotation: Fried, Houck, Bello, Crawford, Giolito (AAA: Criswell, Priester, Fitts, Dobbins) Pen: Scott, Helsley, Slaten, Whitlock, Hendriks, Winckowski, Guerrero, Wilson (AAA: Bernardino, Fulmer, Penrod, Kelly, Weissert, Campbell, Booser, Mata) 1. Duran CF 2. Soto LF 3. Casas DH (1B) 4. Devers 1B (DH) 5. Story SS 6. Anthony RF 7. Campbell 2B 8. Arenado 3B 9. Higgy-Wong C Bench: Rafaela, DHam, Refsnyder, Wong/Higgy (AAA: Teel, Gasper, Grissom, Romy, Mayer, Meidroth, Valdez, Sogard, Zavala)

Go 15 years and keep the AAV as low as possible. I know the league has issues with teams going too long to lower the AAV, but 15 years would go to age 41. We could also pull a Dodger and defer some money to bring the AAV down.

Trey Ball & Jay Groome. Nuff said.

Of course. If he was the second or third pitcher added, probably a no as well.

Agreed. Soto, Fried, Scott and a defensive catcher, and we should be a top 4-6 contender. We could also make a trade for another pitcher, and be a top 3-4 contender.

They can do both. Sign Fried and Bauer as insurance and depth.

Bauer was pretty Meh to age 26. 99 ERA+ over his first 730 IP and 123 GS. (4.36 ERA/4.15 FIP) He had a great age 27 season (2.21 ERA/2.44 FIP) and for the short 2020 season (1.73 ERA in 11 GS). His 2.59 ERA in 17 GS at age 30 was his last season in MLB (2021) 2018-2021 (89 GS and 569 IP) 3.07 ERA (147 ERA+) 3.51 FIP and 1.09 WHIP 11K: 3BB Pretty damn good.

I've told myself not to get my expectations up, after repeated disappointments, but I feel the same as you on this. I'm also thinking, if we get Soto, we will also add another key player or two (like Fried, Scott and a catcher.)

I do not see him as an option, whereby you pencil him into the rotation, day one. He'd be a Criswell-type signing with higher upside.

100% It's also much easier to value pitchers that have been in the minors and majors for a few years vs HS and college. Sure, trades for pitchers can blow up, too, but not as often as high draft pick pitchers do. It is a winning strategy. We have resisted trading high bat prospects for pitching, since the Sale trade, but we might be due for one, this winter. We may also end up trading Abreu for a pitchers, only because we have prospect Anthony loudly knocking on the MLB door. The best argument is a look at our draft history or top 50 pitching picks: Abe Alvarez '03- 49th pick Craig Hansen '05-26th, Clay Buchholz '05- 42nd, Michael Bowden '05- 47th After 2005, it's been horrific.... Daniel Bard '06-28th, Kris Johnson 40th, Caleb Clay 44th Casey Kelly '08-30th, Bryan Price 45th Anthony Ranaudo '10 39th Matt Barnes '11- 19th, Henry Owens 36th Brian Johnson '12-31st, Pat Light 37th Trey Ball 7th, T Stankiewicz 43 Michael Kopech 33rd Jay Groome 12th Tanner Houck 24th Payton Tolle '24 -50th

If we sign Soto, we may need to try and find some cheaper pitching options.

The Georgia- Georgia Tech game, last night, was one for the ages. That GT team looked like a top 10 team. Had Georgia lost, it would have really given so many other teams a shot at the top 12- one being Alabama. Some big games, today: Ohio St is tied with Michigan at half. Win or loss, OSU is in. #8 Tenn is tied with Vandy at half. Win and in. Loss and maybe in. #12 Clemson is tied with #15 So Carolina in the 3rd Q: a Clemson win and their in. A So Car win might put them in over #13 Alabama. Later.... #1 Oregon v Washington (Ore is in, even if they lose here and the conf game.) #4 Penn St v MD (Penn St is in, even with a loss) #5 ND at USC (ND should be in, even if they lose.) #6 MIA at Syracuse (Upset special?) #9 SMU v CA (Need to win to be in) #10 Indiana v Purdue (IN needs a win.) #13 Alabama v Auburn (may be shut out of the playoffs.) #16 AZ St at AZ (may sneak in with 2-3 upsets)

I'm not a big fan of Arenado, but if we can, somehow, pull off a Yoshida plus ____ for Arenado and Helsley, I'd be thrilled. The money would be more for us, but see below. We'd add a RHB for a LHB. We'd greatly improve our defense. I'm not sure what else we'd have to add to make this happen, but I'd be willing to overpay. Helsley only has one year left (about $7M last arb.) Arenado makes $37M, $27M and $15M with an AAV of $30.6M, but COL is paying $5M for 2025 and 2016, so the Arenado part would come to $64M/3 vs $55M/3 for Yoshida. The savings on Helsley vs a top 4 FA RP'er would make up a big chunk of that. Add a defensive catcher and we could go from a bottom 5 defense to a top 10 defense, assuming Story is healthy. C: Add (Wong) 1B: Devers & Casas (improved but not good) 2B: Campbell and DHam (a plus defense at 2B) SS: Story (plus, plus) 3B: Arenado (Devers) Plus LF: Duran (Ref) Plus CF: Rafaela (Duran/Anthony) Plus RF: Abreu (Anthony) Plus DH: Casas/Devers/Ref Only 1B would be a below average defense. (Maybe Devers could be average after a couple months. His biggest negative is his inaccurate arm.)

Valdez? Wow.

I'd give him a shot, but I can understand not wanting distractions.