drewski6

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.

I walked that back and will concede I got carried away. But I think over the next 2 years Schwarbers OPS beats devers and alonsos

Fair

I dont hate it for us. Greene is really reallly reallly reallly good and mcclain was really really good in college and that shine has faded but not all the way faded

okay, but you are focusing on his balancing trade not his main trade, which is now adjusted to reflect your observation thta az needs more than just bello for marte

Got boo'd at hte bruins game at fenway

maybe i should have stopped at better than alonso, i might have gotten carried away better than soto

touche but dont care. This is like nfl silly or nhl silly when you jsut go super long to make the aav look better. Vlads contract goes out 15 years the real aav is the 500m/10, becaues you cant project him doing much years 11 on. Theres value in drwing it out sure. But you have to go super high aav to get schwarber for 2 years cuz hes a btter hitter (and player overall) than soto.

Thats not what a mutual option is. Hes already a free agent.

We seem to be more shy about years than aav, but understood theres an obvious aav gap between vladdy jr vs alonso + bregman

Bregman 175/5, schwarber 100m/2 275m total. vlad just got 500m commitment, its unfair to ask for 275?

Touche

Yes, thank you for seeing me. I feel seen I am the guy screaming that is freaking dumb to call devers a bad contract when hes just a DH when soto, alonso, casas are no better defensively, its just that their managers play them in the field. I think the market is wrong in the fact that it punishes DHs too much. To me there isnt much difference between a lousy defender who takes the field and a DH. Most DHs could get by at a position if needed. Even Yordan Alvarez. So I think that there will be more than a little gap between alonso's contract and schwarbers despite the fact that schwarber is an elite hitter and alonso is a very good but not elite hitter. I like to try to take advantage of what i perceive to be market inefficiencies. TY for understand me that I think the market is too tough on DHs. Schwarber 1, alonso 2, bregman 3, suarez 4...Option 5 is well, shoot guess we gotta try to build an elite pitching staff cuz we whiffed on all the available difference making bats

i wouldnt go 200/4, what am i crazy?

id give schwarber 100m/2 or 135m/3 or 160/4, his choice

And I think that because pete alonse has 1b next to his name and schwarber has DH that this will dampen schwarbers market. Id offer scwharber 100m/2 even becasue hes a significantly better hitter than alonso, devers, bregman. So sure as heck id offer him 100m/3 or even (gasp) 130/4. Unless its 100m/1, i give schwarber 100m+

9 figures is the new 8 figures, current free-agents, prob about 10 are worthy of 9 figure deals. Thats not because this is some rockin class, its because 100m doesnt go as far as it use to. Its not a watermark for elite talent. 500m is. I dont think that you are under some delusion that what your suggestions will get picked up. I think you are smart, a good baseball mind, and you like puzzles. So when we need a middle of the order bat, and theres a few sitting there - you may think yeah, we could go the simple route....OR.....If we do x,y,z and this player should play up here because, and heres what i see that many are overlooking My first year in the business world, they told me that my intelligence got in my way. And they were right, because as an accountant (then, not anymore) I would always overcomplicate because my mind was so focused on seeing things that others couldnt (and i did, often)....but when something was easy, i sometimes overcomplicated it. The things i accuse you of doing, i do myself. Because we're both smart, sometimes the easy answer is just too easy for us. WHen i play mlb the show on xbox in franchise mode, i go way out of my way to make it harder for myself. Setting rules like im not allowed to ever trade a guy i signed in free agency (becuase it would make the roster building too easy). Im not allowed to play more than 20 games myself in a season (because ill win with any roster if i play against the cpu and i wanna test my team building). Im not allowed to sign more than 1 expensive free agent every few years. So I force myself to get creative because i know i can. And I know you can. But push comes to shove, i want schwarber and really nobody else hitting 2nd or 3rd next year. Becasue hes better. Hes a better hitter than sean murphy, devers, alonso

Wong can pinch run too. Hes not as fast but there is a lot of feel and smahts that go into stealing bags and some dudes who are fast cant do it and some dudes who even after giving up significant speed vs typical base stealers are still elite at it Eaton has proven to me that he doesnt have the "feel" but he did get hot at the end. They are both fine bench players. ANd so is Hamilton. These guys are fine as your bench as long as you have someone in the minors who can come in if there is a significant injury because I dont mind hamilton/wong/dham in a bench role, but I dont see them as fill-ins if there is a significant injury This is why Im in no rush to promote prospects, even if they are ready or close to ready, because they make for amazing depth that you can park in minor leagues and with all the attrition we see every year in mlb , i think there is a lot of value in this.

Why do you get so focused on specific players?

I dont want sean murphy

And Im talking about Schwarber

The only ways I can see them not having wong next year is if either for some reason they expect major regression from nav and he becomes the #2 Or if they get a big bat do DH/C (and no im not talking about sean freaking murphy) and they think that dude can be fine enough as backup c. A couple dudes last year caught for the first time in years because playing your best 9 bats is in right now.

Its 2026 (practically) the best players are signed to 500m+ contracts. We have a glaring hole in the middle of our lineup. If you are balking at plugging that with a $1xx,xxx,xxx contract than you are probably just either too high on the players we have, or you just enjoy solving baseball puzzles with "what you have". I dont sign expensive free agents in my video game because its too easy. Even with the lux tax on. But in real life, we dont need to disadvantage ourselves for funsies.

And if schwarber and alonso cross the 200m threshhold, then i pivot to breg and if he can be had for a 9 digit number beginning with a 1 and the aforementioned 2 are off hte board, sure.