moonslav59

$14M for two good pitchers on short term deals? I know JH is a miser, now, but this is cheaper than Gio.

Here is a stab in the dark: Abreu, DHam & Yoshida ($54M/3) +$3.5M cash x 3 years for Erick Fedde ($7.5M/1) and Sonny Gray ($50M/2) Cash: $43.5M to STL and $57.5M to BOS STL saves $14M

fangraphs has him plus on range.

I guess it's better to just repeatedly say the FO sucks and won't do anything to fix our problems than offer suggestions and ideas. Nobody is making suggestions thinking Brez & JH is reading them and may take our advice. We all have different ideas on how we can try to improve the team. I enjoy hearing other ideas, even if some just make me laugh.

Maybe offer him a QO, and if he takes it maybe we trade him. If he says no, we get a comp pick, if he signs.

Good order and comments

Soxprospects has him listed as Rule 5. He will certainly be added to the 40 before that.

Draft Odds: Rockies (61-101): 22.45% Marlins (62-100): 22.45% Angels (63-99): 17.96% Nationals (71-91): 10.2% Blue Jays (74-88): 7.48% Pirates (76-86): 5.31% Reds (77-85): 3.67% Rangers (78-84): 2.45% Giants (80-82): 1.9% White Sox (41-121): Ineligible A’s (69-93): Ineligible Rays (80-82): 1.5% Red Sox (81-81): 1.22%

Tito signs 3 year deal with Cincy to be their manager.

If that is near accurate, one could argue he's worth a QO. (Not me.) One season, where he still missed games, multiple times should not bring his stock up this much, IMO.

I coulda said 1%, while my suggestions are 0.001%.

At least you offer suggestions, even if the odds of coming true are close to zero.

While we need a RH's power bat, I think we'll pass on O'Neill. We have 5-6 OF'ers and a limited budget with pitching as our highest priority.

The New Miracle Mets!

Good point, and DHam/Romy are not part of any high-skilled bottleneck. It's basically 3 guys with 2 having major injury concerns. Grissom offers some hope at 2B, and if DHam can take another step up, he's be fine at 2B. SS: Mayer & Story 2B: Story & Campbell We can roll the dice by trading Mayer or Campbell and still have 2. I'd choose to trade Mayer, since Campbell is less of an injury risk, but I'm not sure how well Campbell can play SS, if Story gets hurt again. Choosing Campbell would allow Mayer to play SS (assuming both aren't hurt at the same time) and then use Grissom-Dham at 2B, which might not be all that bad. Our middle IF has been such a mess, the last 2 years, it's pushing it to say we have a bottleneck of talent, when 2 are unproven prospects.

He just has to beat the low bar set by Casas at 1B. I happen to think Devers is better with the glove than the arm, which is not to say he's great with the glove and range. Fangraphs has these career numbers: +3.3 Range -23.0 Error -3.8 UZR/150, which is bad, but not as bad as -62 DRS and -29 OAA in 8269 innings. Comparing 1B to 3B is apples to oranges, but here are the Casas numbers in a much smaller sample size: +0.2 Range -0.1 Error +0.2 UZR/150, so maybe he is better at 1B. -8 DRS in 1747 innings -11 OAA Since Casas has plalyed about 1/5th of the innings as Devers, let's multiply his DRS and OAA by 5; -40 DRS and -55 OAA, which is close to the Devers numbers, but again apples to oranges.

JH is the main reason I am focusing on trades to improve pitching, at this point in the offseason. That and the bottleneck of talent we have at middle IF and OF.

All correct, and I did not mean to imply they will do as I suggest in this one scenario. They may see the Devers moves to 1B as being years away, but I can't help but think they know his 3B defense is a major liability, as is Casas at 1B. Those two positions are not as important on defense as middle infield and CF/RF and catcher, but if improving the defense is a goal, to me only catcher and corner infield look to be on the agenda. Middle infield may fix itself with a healthy season from Story, alone, but adding Mayer and Campbell to the mix could help as well. An OF of Duran, Rafaela and Abreu with Anthony joining soon is already one of the best defensive OFs in all of MLB, if not THE best. With Teel in the system, maybe a temporary fix at catcher might be the only external move we make to improve our defense. Shifting players around offers a non-external option, and opens up questions that cannot be answered, until we see it happen. Devers may be no better than Casas at 1B, but the plan was to move Casas to DH, anyway, so if Devers looks worse, we simply move him to DH and keep the same exact rotten D at 1B as we already have. No change in D at 1B, but the suggestion assumes whoever we put at 3B (Campbell, Mayer, Meidroth of even Romy/Sogar) would almost surely be better on D than Devers. I simply cannot imagine anyone being worse. Hey, how about Yoshida plus others to STL for Arenado? He is at a $30.5 AAV x 2, but makes $32M x 2. That's $64M for the $54M owed Yoshida. Add Abreu and maybe a little cash, and maybe STL agrees. This would not free up the 3B slot for our bottlenecked middle infield, but our defense would be greatly improved, no matter who plays 1B.

Absolutely nobody thinks Yoshida is even in moderate or mild demand, but there is a chance a GM would take him at $2-5M a year, or at no cost, if the return cancels out all of Yoshida's cost. We could also add cash or take back a more expensive player to create a situation where we are paying the other team to take Yoshida, but we get back a pitcher that can help us. Let's just take the Gausman for Yoshida, Abreu and some cash trade, and even if you think TOR would say no, just think of the idea of such a trade. Instead of trading Yoshida and $15M a year to another team for some long shot single A pitcher, just to add $3M a year to our winter spending budget, this was we pay $3M a year, lose Abreu and get a guy like Gausman in return. TOR saves money and gets 5 years on Abreu, plus whatever Yoshida gives them.It's just a theory, and will likely never happen, but the offseason has begun, and suggestions are all we got.

I did not mention Duran in my 4 trade choices, but certainly he'd bring back a major pitcher- even a better one than Casas would, and maybe the others, too. I don't view Duran like I did Ellsbury, when we let him walk, and I actually think he might even get better (more HRs.) When I look at any of our blue chip trade candidates, one-by-one, I want to keep them all. I also realize we run a great risk that the one we choose to trade might end up being better than all the ones we keep, and we'll regret the trade, alter on, but to me, the biggest risk is on who we choose to trade for. Pitchers get injured, so easily, that will always be a risk, but the way I see it, the bigger risk is not trading for a solid pitcher. Nobody knows anything for sure in baseball, but I feel very confident that we cannot win without at least 2 major additions to our 13 man staff. It might really be 3. I don't see Jh forking over the money needed for the 2-3 pitchers I envision, and the FA market seems to more risky, since the pitchers are older and maybe on the cusp of decline or injury. What makes the choice to trade a blue-chipper a no-brainer, to me, is the point you brought up at the end. No way do I want to part with Duran. (He's probably on the top of my keeper list.) But, the "step down" from Duran to Anthony, who would take his place, is way less than the amount of the step up from Fitts to the ace we get. It also make Fitts the 6th starter, not the 5th and improves our depth or pen. I've repeated my bottleneck points, too often, already, but we just plain can't play everybody, at once. The key is picking the right one(s) to trade, and getting the right one(s) in return.

One way of "making room" for all our top prospects is to avoid bottlenecks by having someone change a position. Changing positions is not "radical." It happens all the way through the minors and into the bigs. It happens at age 17 and 18, in the middle of prime, or at the end of a player's career. Right now, we have 3 major middle infielders (Story, Mayer and Campbell) plus Grissom and maybe DHam, if he can take another step up. Campbell can play OF, but probably not SS, longterm. I'm not sure any can play 3B real well, but the defensive bar is set pretty low by Devers. Let's say we make room for Campbell in the OF. Now, we've added another player to an even bigger bottle neck, as we already have Duran, Rafaela, Abreu, Anthony plus more DH types like Refsnyder & Yoshida. We can talk about trading guys like Abreu and Yoshida, without needing much in return, or how maybe its not worth it, and we should just keep Yoshida. Maybe we trade Rafaela or 2 or 3 from Rafaela, Abreu and Yoshida, so all the kids can play, but we'd kinda have to trade all 3 or some current starter at SS, 2B or OF to get everyone a FT job. I guess we could trade Yoshida and Rafaela and go with LF Duran, CF Campbell, RF Anthony, SS Mayer and 2B Story. (Keep Devers at 3B and Casas at 1B and go with Refsnyder and Abreu at DH, but even handing Yoshida away with 75% of his deal paid off might be hard to do. There simply is not room for everyone. We can hold a top prospect or two back, and gain more control time, but how much longer are we going to keep punting? (Believe me, I know they could easily choose another year or even two.) I'm not sure what the best idea is, and maybe nobody knows, unless they can see into the future, but to me, it's time to put all heads together and make the toughest choice we've made in a long time, and let's hope it's not like trading Betts. I think it is going to come down to choosing to trade one of the these big 4: Anthony, Mayer, Campbell or Casas. I'd prefer we keep Anthony and Campbell, but they might bring back a way better return. I think Abreu is all but gone- maybe DHam, too. They both bat lefty and are right smack in the middle of bottlenecks. Trading them is not going to get anything great in return, and 2 bottlenecks will still remain. It's time to make a big trade. Who we choose to trade might be the biggest mistake we've made, other than trading Betts, since the Babe Ruth fiasco. Who we get in return is equally important, if not more so. Make up your minds and pull the trigger. Call it "radical" or whatever, but keeping everyone while we have such a glaring need on our staff is radically dumb.

I can see how, before the Super Bowls began, the AFL might not be viewed as legit "championships," but I can't see how that can be applied to Green Bay and any other NFL team. Sure, the league was smaller, and the playoff runs were shorter, but that is true for MLB and other major sports. In an unrelated note, people down here, near Houston, are saying the Astros "dynasty" is over. Can't help but laugh.

Career: 66 Throwing Errors (a truly horrific number for 950 games) Yes, 75 Fielding Errors is pretty bad, too, but I still think he's a better gloveman than Casas. Not sure these numbers prove anything., except that Devers should not play 1B 6000+ 3B innings Throwing Es 66 Devers (8270) 48 Chapman (8850) 46 Bregman (8230) 37 Machado (7200) 33 Arenado (9200) 32 Suarez (9090) 28 J Ramirez (8000) Fielding Es 75 Devers 56 Ramirez 54 Suarez 42 Arenado 36 Chapman 29 Machado 27 Bregman We have two of the very worst defensive corner infielders in MLB. 2022-2024 OAA 1B -11 in 1747 innings Casas (-8 DRS) -12 in 1998 Y Gurriel (-1 DRS) -18 in 2480 A Vaughn (-7 DRS) -16 in 2342 J Bell (-15 DRS) -26 in 3210 Guerrero (-4 DRS) OAA 3B -19 in 1661 Burger (-17 DRS) -12 in 1589 Escobar (-15 DRS) -17 in 3617 Devers (-24 DRS) -11 in 2109 Urias (+11 DRS) -10 in 2367 Muncy (+9 DRS) Yes, let's just wait a year or two...maybe 3, when Yoshida's time is up. NOT!

I'm not sure my Packers from the pre Super Bowl era were any worse than the 1967 and 1968 teams. NFL Championships: 13 Green Bay (4 Super Bowls) 9 Chicago (1 SB) 8 NY Giants (4 SBs) 6 KC (4 SBs), NE (6 SBs), Pitt (6 SBs)

It is likely Yoshida will not be traded, this winter, especially with surgery a strong possibility. Even if he comes back and hits .850, it might be hard to move him, at even half price. I get it. I was trying to find a team that might want to unload a high-priced pitcher, but more likely than not, if would not be for a high-priced DH with 3 years left. If we were able to save the other team enough money, maybe they'd bite. The other option is to search for a GM that likes Yoshida at a certain price and just pay the difference- expecting nothing in return but maybe some extra winter budget space. Moving Casas to DH and Devers to 1B cannot happen, unless Yoshida is gone or out for a year. The more likely scenario is just hoping Yoshida does well, going forward and trading Casas. I guess, if you look at our biggest trading chips, Anthony, Campbell, Mayer and Teel might all be worth keeping over Casas. If we are going to trade a blue chipper, one could argue Casas is the odd man out. This would involve having faith in Devers at 1B and someone from Mayer, Campbell and Meidroth playing better D at 3B and hitting near what Casas gave us.