moonslav59

I have always felt that anyone talking about themselves in the third person was pretentious and cocky, but with Ricky, it fit.

They spent $12.5M on Goldschmidt, instead of $20M per on Walker. That's the sign of a management team not afraid to spend big... NOT!

Flurries with no accumulation is the perfect metaphor that is sure to become an extended one.

I'm not so sure. We basically will pay Sandoval $18M for 1 year, is $24M for Castillo really that much more? Yes, the years matter, and now that Sandoval is on the books, getting Castillo is a longshot. Also, let's say we trade Rafaela for Castillo, his AAV is $6M a tear for 7 more years vs Castillo's $2M x 3 (21.6M x 3 tax line) This would cost JH about $18M a year (close to Sandoval's actual pay for one year) for 3 years, then save him $6M for the next 4 years ($24M total.) The total money cost would be $72M for Castillo vs $49M for Castillo, or a cost of $23M total (3 yrs of Castillo.) I'm not advocating this trade, but just presenting a way that might make financial sense to miser (no, the "t" is not missing from "mister.") Henry.

Cam Booser to CWS for a minor league pitcher. This must be to make room for Sandoval, who needs to be on the 40 man until opening day, when he will be placed on the 60 Day IL.

Plus, you can't just add a Houck or Bello without drafting them 5-8 years ago and waiting for them to mature. We need an arm, now.

One of a kind.

This Narvaez kid is supposed to be the real deal on D, including handling the staff. His issue is high Ks and offense, but he does have 20 HR power and a .350 OBP on the farm, so maybe we found a hidden gem. I'd feel better added a good all around catcher. I still think pitching is a greater need. We could use a big RHB, so a trade for Sean Murphy would help solve 2 issues.

I'm expecting neither. If I had to guess, I'd say we might sign Estevez (RP) and trade for a decent catcher, and call it a day. Maybe, tops, we sign Flaherty (no comp pick lost) and add a catcher, somehow.

The Yanks have really gone for older aged 1Bmen, of late. Goldschmidt 37-38 Rizzo 31-35 LeMahieu has played some 1B at ages 34-36.

He is my age.

R.I.P. Ricky Henderson

Yanks sign Goldschmidt to $12.5M/1. I doubt he does real well for them, as he turns 38, next September. He helps them from the right side, but has shown some serious decline on O, except for his career high season at age 34 in 2022: OPS+ 150 from 2013-2018 (ages 25-30) 115 at age 31 145 at 32 141 at 33 177 at 34 (Outlier?) 120 at 35 98 at 36, this season

You don't have to talk me into improving the defense, especially 3B, where I have been suggesting Devers to 1B for years. We can do that without trading Crawford. I'm not against trading Crawford for anything that helps the team. Since we need pitching, I'm hesitant to trade anyone who is better than our 13th best pitcher, unless the gain is better than that loss. Weren't you the one who argues with me about not moving Crawford to the pen, of was that MVP? (Back when the talk was about who should go to the pen: Whitlock, Houck, Pivetta or Crawford.) I'd really like a real 3Bman, and I'm still thinking Arenado might work, if the money doesn't keep us from adding a pitcher we still need (SP or RP.) Paredes would have been nice. I'm not thrilled about paying $200M/7 for a .795 3Bman, but Bregman's D is a big plus and he hits lefties well. That solves 2 problems with one signing and may help fix teh 1B defense issue, if devers works out better than Casas on 1B D. I also think rotating Devers and Casas at 1B and DH would allow both to play 160 games not 150-155 by resting at DH. Okay, so if the plan is to sign Bregman and trade Crawford and maybe Rafaela or Abreu for a better pitcher, fine. I'd rather sign Burnes, Scott or Hoffman, or maybe Flaherty & Estevez and move Crawford to the pen, but trading him for a defensive 3Bman or catcher could work, too. We could add Abreu or DHam to make teh return even sweeter, but that puts pressure on Anthony, Campbell or Mayer to come through, quickly. I like that risk.

That makes a lot of sense, but signing Fried or Burnes would be replacing Crawford- not Houck or Bello, and the projected WAR for them vs Crawford is what comp matters the most. Is that worth the money? Maybe - maybe not. To me, it's really about Burnes or Fried vs whoever we do add: Flaherty, Pivetta, Manaea, Buehler or gasp... just Sandoval. (Then, count the added value of Crawford in the pen.)

Innings of mediocrity is a plus, but at some point, we need more plus innings from somewhere. I'd say he is better than most teams' 5th starter, so in that sense, he's not a net minus, but when you compare our top 4 SP'ers to the top 6-8 teams in MLB, we are not near the top 3-4.. With a pen and defense like ours, we can't go late into games up 3-2, 4-3 or 5 or 6-4.

ND actually looks like a contender, but being matched up with Georgia, next round is a real bummer. We are a top 4 team, being forced to play the 2nd best team in the country in the round of 8 is just plain messed up. ND is 0-3 vs GA over the years. Today's games: Penn St is up 21-0 on SMU in the 3rd, Clemson is at Texas, this afternoon and Tenn is at Ohio St., tonight (nice Big 10 vs SEC match-up.)

In theory, we'll be adding Giolito, too. Also, Criswell is an option from day one, and I don't think we viewed him that way, last winter. (Fitts, Priester and Dobbins, too.) That being said, I still think the best FA out there, that can help us, is Burnes, with Crawford moving to the pen. Maybe adding Cutter to the pen would make the pen a little better than 2024's. That would leave a RHB and corner IF & C defense as the next priorities.

It would depend on what we give up and how the money net works out.

Chapman wasn't a bad move, since we needed a LH'd RP, but if he's being viewed as the closer or co-closer with Hendriks, something is clearly "not right:" I agree. Even signing a solid TOTR pitcher and moving Crawford to the pen does not improve the pen from 2024. It's not really any worse, but it's not better. No Jansen or Martin. Add Chapman, Hendriks, Wilson and the return of Whitlock from the IL and rotation. It was arguably our biggest winter need area.

I've never been as high on Crawford as some, as a SP'er. I'd like to see us add a solid SP'er and make Crawford our long guy/spot starter and keep Wink & Whitlock for the 1-2 IP guys for the 6-8th innings.

He could have been a signing that balanced our line-up, had we gone ahead and traded Casas for pitching or made Casas the FT DH, and dumped Yoshida. $60M/3, these days, seems like a steal.

Yes, they "jumped on Story" as it seemed nobody else wanted him. The "jump" ws more on the price than the "quickness." Yes, they "jumped on Yoshida," because they likes him since he was in diapers. It appeared nobody else came close to thinking he was worth over $100M in total costs. To me, we continuously make outrageously low bids on the top FAs we "are in on." Only the reported $700M Soto offers breaks from that trend, IMO. But, when it comes to flawed candidates, we seem to jump to the top and "overpay:" Diekman, Story, Yoshida, Paxton, Hendriks, and now Chapman and Sandoval. Some thought Wacha was an overpay stab in the dark, but I think other teams liked him nearly as much. Maybe my disgust with team management is clouding my judgment: it wouldn't be the first time. I can readily admit to thisi, but this seems to have a grain of truth to it, at least. We simple go gah-gah over the wrong guys.

If we are willing to call up a pitcher for a spot start, instead of going with a pen game, we should be able to avoid them. One hurdle is already passed: 4 are one the 40 man roster, already (Craiswell, Priester, Fitts and Dobbins.) We should try to avoid using Whitlock or Wink as "openers." If we add another starter, which I am doubting more and more, as time goes by, then Crawford in the pen could be used as a spot starter or 3-5 inning relief guy. Adding 1 solid SP and 1 solid RP'er would give us "plus" depth on paper. In 2024, we used 13 pitchers to start/open a game- maybe 6 or 7 were "openers." Shockingly, we used 34 different pitchers during the season. Two were nonpitchers, who pitched 4 times (4IP 0 ER,) so 32 identified as pitchers. (Some say they were born pitchers, but I think the public school system got them to trans to pitching.) 26 pitchers had 5+ IP and 23 had 10+ IP. Here is who we lost or who may not pitch for the big team in 2025: (IP rank) 4. Pivetta 146 (103 ERA+) 10. Jansen 55 (130) 11. Anderson 52 (89) 13. Martin 44 (124) 15. Keller 25 (74) 18. Horn 18 (67) 19. Garcia 15 (53) 20. Sims 14 (68) 21. Joely 14 (74) 22. Paxton 11 (108) 28. Uwasawa 4 (206) 29. Hill 4 (95) Note: we tend to focus on the losses of Pivetta, Jansen and Martin, which is truly a significant 245 IP lost, but the rest on this list total over 152 IP. That's pretty significant, too.

We do have a record of "jumping" on players we like and overpaying. Yoshida and Story come to mind. Chapman was not even listed on MLBTR's top 50 FA list, which bottoms out at $8M/1, and we signed him at over $10M/1. Maybe someone else was involved, but I haven't heard of anyone interested in him. We can't assume we won a serious bidding war.