Did your phone blow up with friends jumping for joy over the return of James Paxton? Im like , that wasnt a purchase he was given to us, for heavens sake.
It was really dopey, but dont blame the Globe, it was mega dopey because of the caption which was a direct quote
"Hold on , I need a moment"
How about this? If you cant lie, dont try
This is exactly why I complain about the lack of competitiveness and urgency league wide (minus 5-8) teams.
If you arent going t ospend on free agents, at least get creative and pound the pavement for trades or have some kind of plan (like Seattle). I just dont like the complacency and how it feels like we hear about "desire to cut payroll" as the primary plan for 2/3 the teams every offseason.
Baseball needs like an owners beef.
It is, going in disadvantaged when you didnt have to be is tiresome. E.G. Yoshida at DH/batting clean-up in a huge game.
(not to pick on him, Ive got plenty of otehr examples)
I still think theres a spot for him, especially if we have cotrol and options (not sure). Of course need a third ss capable player on the 40 man (at least)
My concern is Mayer plays 3b because he's 6'3 and has plenty of arm for it, and it just all feels stretched a little thin to me.
But Im not in love with some of these names being thrown around for infield depth.
also if we are getting schwarber and hoskins i can live without suarez...What if we cut matz and suarez and reallocte that towards gio, might even be under the line.
That team is really good. My only change would be to add 20m on top, turn that 45 into 65 and bring back gio
Roman
Schwarber
Suarez
Hoskins
Abreu
Story
Nav
Mayer
Cedanne
Crochet, greene, gio, bello, early
well bellinger is a center fielder, so i get that. Even though Id prefer schwarber for our team obvs.
Im wondering if its me who doesnt have a grasp on the market. I just know what kind of economical environment weve been in since covid (hyper inflation) so its weird to me to see these AAVs in line with what I thought they would have been 7 years ago
The ticket prices to fenway have prob doubled in the last 10 years but player salaries are mostly flat. Welcome to America , I guess.
I dont think we could get greene for any price. Im just playing fantasy baseball.
If Im cincy and you offer me roman anthony for greene , im blocking your number
Im still putting him below Schwarber. Id prob go
Schwarber
Tucker
(gap)
Alonso
(gap)
Bregman
(gap)
Bellinger
Suarez
Naylor
Ozuna
Realmuto
Polanco
Arraez
Gurriel
Hoskins
Torres
Tyler ONiel
I would love to get lodolo and marte or greene and marte or even mcclain or even all 4 lol
Mayer, password, bello, duran, sandlin, clarke, tolle in a 3 teamer for greene, lodolo, marte, mcclain.
Marte is the best hitting second baseman in the league, and hes more than adequate defensively. Hes a stud.
But if I can get him or Greene, im getting greene. I think hes a top 5 pitcher in the world in 2026. This was his first year throwing a splitter and hes still refining it. And look at Guasman and Ohtani. A good splitter is so unhittable right now, and while his splitter is his third pitch, I think that it continues to get better.
Greene throws 99 and can locate to any of 4 quadrants with his heater. The batting average against on his 4-seam and slider are under .200. He backdoors the slider to lefties. He recently ditched his curve for the split.
Dont forget cincy ballpark makes arizona look like oakland!
I do hear you though. Its hard to see a trade where Marte goes elsewhere when we could so use him. But McClain is a good buy low guy. He was an absolute boss in college and he really struggled last year.
My strategy is usually try to work counts against lefties, cuz i cant hit them nearly as well, even with a righty batter so i want them outta there. Also against elite pitchers. But I still try to never take a meatball. My buddy will. So if we are playing somebody online and trading off innings, he'll literally sip his beer on a 3-0 count. Puts the xbox controller down!
Im never ever ever committed to not swinging. But when Im trying to work a count im keyholing, so its gotta be a meatball ear;y in the count, but im still pulling the trigger if its juicy to me.
Similarly, Im okay wth sox players keyholing early in the count, but I freaking hate deciding you arent going to swing pitch 1. Its very often the most hittable pitch of the at-bat.
Its one of the ways the games have changed. You really arent looking to chase pitchers generally any more because the studies have shown that OPS agianst skyrocket third time through the lineup. So its almost a trap to get quick outs because if you are working counts you are never going to see that pitcher a third time.
Against an elite pitcher, it might be different.
You use to get yelled at for getting out on the first pitch. Now its more accepted, and if you wanna get an earful, let a fastball go by.
Everyone is first pitch fastball hunting these days, except for very bottom of the order guys (not ours) trying to work counts because what else are they going to do.
But league wide, swinging on the first pitch is way up. Its literally more than doubled since the early 2000s "draw a walk" bill james/youk era
Sweepers/sliders/sinkers/splitters are just too nasty if you are behind in the count. It will continue to evolve because pitchers are obviously gonna start throwing less fastballs on pitch 1 becaue nobody is giving them a get me over strike 1. I like throwing a 2 seamer pitch 1 that runs away from righties. Also sets up my specialty, the back door slider.