drewski6

Im with Notin, we moved out from password. A couple injuries and we could find ourselves wishing we had a Yoshida. Im not sure how it will all shake out. Who will get hurt, how many players will get hurt , if other depth options will prove that they are ready....I have seen some good springs out of position players, enough to be encouraged. Even guys like KC are having good at-bats. But still we dont know what the twists and turns of the season will be and I dont need the roster to be clear with defined roles on March 3rd. Because there will be twists / turns , guys will get hurt, guys will get moved around, guys will fade, guys will come from nowhere. Im not in a rush to shed options and depth just because the roster will look more clean with everybody having a set role. To me, theres very little value in that because even if after we trade Yoshida and its like okay, now the roster looks clean/neat Duran is a DH everyone has a set role....Then injuries , slumps, and breakouts will punch your perfect / neat roster in the mouth. I say, stay versatile. Positions are suggestions.

There was plenty of reason to think he didnt have skills. He wasnt fast, big, strong, or athletic. He could hit singles and throw. LAD sold out for a reason. I understand that you can piece together partial seasons to make him look serviceable, and that was the problem. They should have cut bait after 2022 but they were able to convince themselves that he was fine value/good enough and he was never big, strong, fast, athletic. This is the stuff I fear. The rolling the mediocre players over every year because complacency. And Casas is in the same boat.

The deal stunk and the return stunk. Thinking Verdublow is/was a dude is too much looking at one or two years of WAR dividing it by salary and thinking great value. But the truth is, you roll forward enough players like that, year over year and you are a C+/B- team. Verdugo was the worst of all worlds, bad enough to hurt you, but just good enough to justify rolling over a 1 tool player at min wage. He wasnt strong or fast. He didnt have a great work ethic, and he wasnt really a clubhouse guy either. In fact, he was a slow singles hitting loner who gave you just enough D to justify carrying him for min wage. This is obvious proof that WAR/$ is not the way, and this trade set the franchise back 10 years. And it was obvious a mile away.

I watched yesterdays :) KC got absolutely robbed on a beauty diving play by some Orioles super fast RF'er

If this was in a game that counted, that might be in the top 50 all time hardest hit balls. Now granted , Franchy Cordero has few in top 50, so its no guarantee that hard hitters are going to be awesome ballplayers - but not a terrible sign.

My name is Franklin Arias, and Im a certified G and a bona fide stud and you cant teach that. This right here is Justin Gonzales, hes 7 feet tall and you cant teach that. Bada boom, realest guys in the room.

A contradiction dog is a veggie dog with real beef chili on it.

Well, I dont know about Gray, but the Betts trade had me quite blue for a while.

Nailed this one , Alex

Catchers dont roll blunts because they dont wanna Puff, puff, pass(ed ball)

The tax really only matters for the penalty, which isnt as bad as people think. I say, adjust cash for the penalty and use that. E.G. Lets say our cash payroll for this year is 280m, but due to lux tax penatlies , we end up paying 310. 310/280 = 110.7%. So take Romans cash and apply a 110.7 (the extra 10.7 for the penalties) and it becomes 7.75M. Going 100% by the tax hit isnt a different way of looking at it, its flat wrong. The tax hit only matters for the tax, so just apply a premium to the cash paid to account for the penalty The cost of Roman this year is 7.75 using my example.

I would agree with fine print added that reserves my right to get overly excited about moon shots off opposing A/A+ pitchers though. Who did Contreras hit that blast against and which way does is jet blue facing? If LF is west from home plate (as in the ball is traveling west) it may have cleared the Gulf.

Wyatt Olds sounds like a great name for a red dead redemption character, Patrick Halligan sounds liike an oil tycoon, P.J. Lavbriola sounds like a frat bro turned OBGYN (avoid, ladies), Vinny Nittoli sounds like a fat italian baker (sign me up), Seth Martinez feels like a pitcher Ive heard before thinks hes the biggest name of the bunch. Sweet can work at Nittoli's bakery.

Some big names here haha

Stolen bases are exciting and thats part of it.

"Clearly, youre not a golfer" - Lebowski

I think its coming back, and I would like to see it come back more. Everything in cycles, you can be so old-school that you wind up new-school because things come around again. Things like moving runners over , stealing, sacrificing....they went a bit out of style back in the early 2000s because it was such a hitter's era. So the last thing you wanted to do was bail them out because teams had so many hitters. So you'd run less because whats the point, the dude behind you is going to smoke a double and probably the dude behind him too. OBP was king because just get on base, "keep the line moving". So things like trade an out to advance the base-runner, sacrficing, stealing.....the juice wasnt worth the squeeze. But things change, then change again, and then change some more. And now in this era, you can now longer count on those guys behind you. So getting on base at any cost is out. Doing everything you can to avoid making an out (e.g. selling out for contact, not stealing, not sacrificing)...That kind of stuff which was new school for early 2000s is kind of old school today. Because then , in an offense era it was , we're gonna score - dont force it and dont give up free outs, just trust the guys coming up. But now its more about capitalizing on opportunities because there are a lot more 3-2 games these days, so if you hit a leadoff double, and you bunt him over, then sac-fly him home.....Or draw a walk, steal 2nd, get into scoring position so any hit brings you home.....This kind of stuff, risking outs or sacrificing outs for a run here and there suddenly becomes worth it again.....Its a downstream effect from the game reverting from hitting dominated to pitching dominated over the last few years. So what was new in the moneyball era is old now and things that were considered dated philosophies in the moneyball era are back in style. Like run manufacturing aka small ball.

In order to win low scoring games you need great starters because it cant be over before it begins. And you need like 4 of them, maybe even 5 because if you are going with the pitching and D model at the expense of offense you cant have 2/5 games be auto-Ls. But we also need a great bullpen because cant blow games. So need to focus resources there. Oh but we also need a great D, because the pitching wont matter if dudes are giving extra outs all day. So we need to focus and improve all 3. Or you could just build a team through the O. Its like trying to win a super bowl without a great QB. You need one of the best defenses of all time. You need great pass rushers, you need elite secondary, you need amazing linebackers. You also need great special teams, and a great RB. You need phenomenal coaching. Or you can just get a QB. The path of least resistance to building a winning ballclub is through the bats. They are more important than anything else individually but maybe not collectively. By that I mean hitting > starting pitching, hitting > relief pitching, hitting > defense....But hitting < starting pitching + relief pitching + defense.....But hitting + small ball stuff = starting pitching + relief pitching + defense I do like the fact that we will have elite pitching. I think we are the fourth best team in baseball. But I go crazy when I read that the only we didnt make that we should have was we shoulda traded Duran. Last year, we gave away our extra base hits champ (devers). People wanna do that again this year? Are we just going to keep taking from the O until theres nothing to take? Joe Brady said that he thinks Duran is the #2 CF in baseball and the most electrifying player in baseball but would trade him (right now) for a #2 starter because that would push Oviedo out of the rotation and into the pen and thats a trade worth making. I undertand that rooting for hitting and power is noob stuff. Ive seen the "chicks dig the longball" commercial too. And saying "I know offense is fun" is patronizing but we'll let that go. Im just saying enough is enough with the pulling and taking and deprioritizing of the offense. Enough is enough with the Duran is extra talk. He just crushed a moon shot off a lefty. Hes probably , at this point in time, the most important to our teams success. If not #1 , hes top 3 behind Crochet and Anthony.

And im including bunting and small - balling to be part of offense. If you want to parse out small-ball stuff then you have HItting + small ball stuff (bunting, stealing, sacrificing) = pitching + defense

Think of it this way A good rotation will leave less innings for a bad bullpen. A good bullpen can keep you in games if the starters bomb. Good starters and good relievers can make things easy for a defense (if the 27 outs are pop-ups, weak grounders, lazy flies, k's). A good defense can save the bacon for a starting pitcher or a reliever. But if you cant offense, you arent going to score.

What happened to the 6'7, 270 lb beast?

Wait , so now starting pitching, relief pitching, defense, and offense are all of equal importance? We went from pitching , defense, offense (implied 33% of the game is offense) to separating out RP from SP and now offense is 1 of 4, down to 25% in importance? Should I shut my mouth before it becomes 10% importance? Less? Regarding what I have bolded - exactly. Offense is always 50%. It cant be cut into. Unlike RP whose importance to the team may go down if the starters go deep, or a great defense which would effect the game less if the pitcher is doing his thing and getting k's and lazy flies and soft grounders (plays that you dont need a great D to handle) or even the starting pitching can matter less if they are giving up hard hit balls but D is making good plays behind them or if the bullpen is strong. These can all cut into each other.

I agree that defense should not be ignored. Im saying not every positional change is to improve the defense. Sometimes its to fit in another quality bat.

All D , no O players are cheap. So many things in baseball have changed, except that. Its for a reason. Yes, there is a point, where your D is so bad that it prevents you from doing anythig. Same with pitching and same with offense. All 3 can sink you. But run creation matters just as much as run prevention, an 8-7 victory counts just as much as 1-0, and run prevention is split between pitching and defense. They rob from each other in terms of importance. A great pitcher gets a lot of strikeouts, or gets weak pop ups or weak grounders or lazy flies (uses strong D less). A great D gets pitchers out of jams (takes pressure off pitching). Great pitching diminishes the return of great D and vise-versa.

Best move: not trading Duran Worst move: Agree with Alex Mayes (not adding a power bat)