moonslav59

I seem to remember being pretty much alone in thinking we should have offered Mookie $420/14. I;m not saying this to brag, but more out of the sense that I felt Mookie needed to be blown away to accept an offer before free agency. The offer he took from LAD may or may not have been influenced by COVID, and I don't want to rehash old debates, but I think JH felt something hug was needed to sign Betts, and he just refused to buckle. We don't even know if some counter offer was even discussed. We may never know. On the return package, Betts was due for a hefty last arb year contract, and that alone likely excluded 15-20 teams from even making a phone call about a trade. It might have only been 4-8 teams that could have made an offer, if they wanted to. There was some talk that only two serious inquiries and offers or frameworks of offers were made. One by LAD and one by SDP. The one by SD looked to be no better. Once the decision was made to trade him for whatever best offer we got, that backed Bloom into an unwinnable corner, and as we all saw, he and the team lost, bigtime. The inclusion of Price was probably what narrowed the teams to two, and the offers to substandards. The Soto trade did not involve a David Price tag on.

It was horrific, indeed. What made it even worse was that the centerpiece of the return, Jeter Downs, sucked. Dugo was okay, and the Fitts return on the Dugo trade may prove to be very helpful, but has to fall way short of what one would expect for a full year of Betts. Wong was looking like a nice part of the return, but his defense is so questionable, now, I don't see him as a major plus from that trade. Yes, NY Jets level bad.

Your point about the cost of Burnes and Fried being less than half of Soto, is the clincher. We could sign both and spend less than what Soto costs. While notin is right about the 3-4 years of value for both, together they total 7-8 years, which is about what Soto would give us. Signing Burnes and Fried would then allow us to trade Crawford, Abreu and DHam for a big RHB that can play LF, C, 1B, 2B or even a DH. It's easier to trade for a big bat than a top SP'er.

It's hard to know who is injury prone or not. The one good thing about Gio was supposed to be his durability and dependability. POOOOF! I think Fried is more on eth safe side than injury expectation side, and that seems about the best you can do. Well, a young pitcher might be safer, but that would involve a trade. I'm not sure there is a younger FA pitcher out there, as good and proven as Fried .

I'm all for signing a young Japanese pitcher, but I do not want it toe be the centerpiece of building up the 2025 rotation. If Pivetta accepts the QO, like I think he will, or agrees to an extension, that just keeps us treading water. While it's nice to not go backwards, we need to take a massive step forward with out rotation, and more importantly, our pen. Minimum: 1 major rotation addition and two major pen additions, ideally a closer and a lefty. I'd love to see Fried & Sasaki. Also, Tanner Scott (a LH closer) and one from Estevez, Hoffman or Holmes. Is Sewald coming off an injury? If not, I'd like him, too.

Well, even Bell mentioned $2M. I think, if he's healthy, we can find someone to take him at about a $4-7M a year cost to them. (Whatever they pay, we save.

Well, he's much more of an unknown and risk. I think it's time we add someone who is proven and not coming off an injury.

That post was only about FA signings under a specific budget.

Big win for the Domers, and they look like a different team than earlier this season. It's hard to et my hopes up, but this year seems to have no clearly great team, so who knows. Here is my current rankings: 1. Oregon 10-0 (Not convinced they are real good.) 2. Ohio St 8-1 (Beatable) 3. Texas 8-1 (Also beatable) 4. Tennessee 8-1 (Has to play at GA, soon) 5. Penn St 8-1 (should go 11-1) 6. Indiana 10-0 (should be #4, but I think they lose, soon) Never had 10 wins. 7. BYU 9-0 (almost put behind ND) 8. ND (need to keep winning to get home field slot, One more loss and likely out.) 9. AL 7-2 (always dangerous) 10. Ole Miss (biggest win in team history, yesterday) 11. GA 7-2 (almost put #13) T12. Boise St and Miami (don't think either deserves a shot) T14. Army and SMU (doubt Army wins out) 15. Texas A&M There are other teams with a chance, but they all seem so bunched up: CLEM, LSU, COL, Louisvill, K St, WSH St, So, Carolina, MO

I think a healthy mix of RH's and LH's RP'ers is more essential, but even then, as long as your righties can get leties out, even that is not always a factor.

Using the projected contracts from "The Athletic..." Sign: At $55M Budget: Max Fried $29M x 6 Tanner Scott $15M x 4 Carlos Estevez $11M x 3 At $65M budget: Jeff Hoffman $9M x 3 or $10M x 2 Danny Jansen At $75M: 7.5M x 2 (MLBTR) Kyle Higashioka or Clay Holmes $9.25M x 2

The more I look at Fried, the more I like him. Since 2020, he is second in ERA-. 11th fWAR & 16th in xFIP- Get the deal done!

It may be more about the timing. While trading Yoshida, this winter does open up a roster slot, waiting until he shows he's healthy might get a b better return in trade. I don't see a major roster crunch, unless we try to add 5-6 players. We can always wait until opening day, put someone on the 60 day IL, and then add a top 4 prospect to the 40 and 26.

I'd rather get Fried than Snell. He's slightly younger, too. Burnes is probably the top FA pitcher prize.

Maybe Hoffman can do that.

,It's nearing the end of the College football regular season. The first Bowl rankings came out, and here are the current top teams, before today: 1. Oregon (v MD, at WI, v WA) Kinda easy ending and winning big, tonight 2. Ohio St (PUR, at NW, v IN, v MI) Tough ending & crushed today 3. Georgia (at Ole Miss, v Tenn, UMass, GA Tech) Upset at Ole Miss, today 4. Miami (at GA Tech, WF, at SYR) A joke of a season schedule LOST TO GA Tech 5. Texas (FL, at Ark, , KY, at TEX A&M) Not easy, but won today, big. 6. Penn St (WA, at PUR, at MN, MD) Kinda easy & winning tonight 7. Tenn (MS St, at GA, UTEP, Vandy) & winning tonight 8. Indiana (MI, at Ohio St, PUR) big game the 23rd & big win, today. 9. BYU (at UT, KA, at AZ St, HOU) kinda easy 10. Notre Dame (FL St, VA, Army, at USC) & winning bid, tonight 11. Alabama & up on LSU, tonight 12. Boise St. 13. SMU 14. Texas St. 15. LSU 16. Ole Miss 17. IA St. 18. Pitt 19, K St, 20. COL, 21 WSH St, 22. Louisville, 23. Clemson, 24. MO, 25. Army

How about the Strahm example?

Agreed, and I see Teoscar in the same light, except with a loaded OF not a loaded 1B slot.

Crochet is not a "young and cheap" trade target I would seek by trading Anthony, after a Soto signing. Crochet is not high on my list of additions. I've suggested a few trades for him- like Abreu, DHam & Dobbins, but a Soto trade and OF trade would not be for Crochet.

Then, I guess I don't know your definition of "can't." (Like you don't know mine for "half of a half percent." LOL)

I think the Soto signing is about as close to impossible as anything, but I think the idea of signing him would almost certainly involve a part 2 plan of trading a top OF'er or two for a young and cheap pitcher.

It was, to me. Especially when I found out it was $217M/7.

If the definition of "possible" means a half of a half of a percent, then I guess that would be a yes. I'm thinking no. I'm not one who thinks JH will never spend large and long, again. The Devers extension started, this year. My position is that I refuse to give myself any high expectations or buy into any more shams. When I see it, I'll believe it. As for now, I'm "expecting" a budget similar to 2024's, and if I was forced to bet, I'd bet it goes down vs going up. However, we lose so much salary, this year, and only have three first year arbs, this winter, that the budget will allow for one max signing and still not go up. This is where I see the glimmer of a chance at one big deal, with very little supporting additions. If we have $50M AAV to spend, I'd rather it be spent on 2-3 players, like $25M on SP, $15M on Scott and $10M on another RP'er or a Catcher, but it it is possible we put all our eggs in one basket. I'll be more shocked by us signing Soto than the Manny & Price signings combined, and both of those caught me by total suprises. I'm not sure how I can explain my position any clearer than this.

IMO, signing a pitcher who will make more than Manaea might be at 4-5%, assuming we do little else with it.

I've never lost hope, but hope and expect are two totally different categories, to me. I have been blind-sided, before, like the Manny signing and the Price deal.